French workers and students take to the streets

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One million workers and students took to the streets of Paris and cities across France on March 31 to pro­ test draconian Labor Code changes proposed by the austerity-minded governing French Socialist Party of Francois Holland. The changes are set to be considered by the French parliament in late April.

The March 31 nationwide mobi­ lization, the largest since the great strike waves of May-June 1968, was supported by France’s major tradeunion federation, the General Con­ federation of Labor (CGT). According to activist participants of the French New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA), an estimated one-third of the partici­ pants were youth mobilized by na­ tional student organizations. Strikers included workers from a number of public-employee unions, including teachers and train drivers.

The government’s proposal allows companies to orga­ nize alternative “flexible” work schedules. These include a workweek of up to 48 hours, as opposed to the maxi­ mum legal workweek today of 35 hours. In “exceptional circumstances,” employees could be compelled under the proposed new law to work up to 60 hours a week, including mandatory 12-hour shifts. Other proposed changes are akin to part-time and casual labor schemes implemented in the United States Zoe Farre, 23, told Associated Press reporters during the Paris march and rally that she had serious doubts about the government’s new job “flexibility” intentions. “It’s going to be like the U.K., where you’re on a zerohour contract, or like the U.S., where they make you hold a sign in the street and call it a job,” she said.

Three weeks earlier, on March 9, with barely a week’s preparation, 500,000 French workers and students mo­ bilized against the same proposed legislation.

Leaders and activists of the French NPA have scored the proposed Labor Code changes as “annihilating 100 Socialist Action: Where we stand is driving down living standards and threatens all life on this planet.

Our ultimate goal is a truly democratic, environmentally sustainable, and egalitarian us in the struggle to make the world a better place!

We are active partisans of the working class and believe in the need for independent on the trade unions.

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designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor.

Name Address City State Phone E-mail years of past gains for the French working class.” Addi­ tional protests are slated for April 26 and April 28. Some dissident currents inside the CGT have called for a gen­ eral strike of unlimited duration to force the government to abandon its proposed anti-labor regulations, and idea that is gaining traction among rank-and-file workers.

Immediately following the March 31 national mobi­ lization, hundreds of thousands of students, workers pensioners, artists, and others mobilized every evening in a new movement called Nuit debout, which loosely means “rise up at night.” From Paris to Toulouse, Lyon, and Nantes—and to cities in Belgium, including Brus­ sels—the protesters have taken up long-held grievanc­ es over government corruption and massive austerity measures. The sit-ins and teach-ins, daily increasing in size and scope, have obviously given pause to police and government officials, who have to date refrained from attempts to physically remove protesters.

The Place de la République in Paris saw speakers de­ nouncing everything from the tax-evasion schemes of the rich revealed by the “Panama Papers,” housing in­ equality, and France’s racist refugee policies to the gov­ effectiveness of mass action.

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One Paris protester summed up the political tenor of the protests, which appear to have been sparked by a core group of left-wing youth, as fol­ lows: “There’s something here that I’ve never seen before in France—all these people converge here each night of their own accord to talk and debate ideas on any topic they like. No one has told them to, no unions are push­ ing them on – they’re coming of their own accord.”

The British-based Guardian news­ pap­er quoted Matthiew, 35, who was retraining to be a teacher after 10 years in the private sector as follows: “The labor law was the final straw.

But it’s much bigger than that. This government, which is supposed to be socialist, has come up with a raft of things I don’t agree with, while failing to deal with the real problems like unemployment, climate change and a society heading for disaster.”

As we go to press, tens of thousands have taken to the streets of London demanding the resignation of British Prime Minister David Cameron. London’s Daily Mail re­ ported: “The embattled Prime Minister was accused of ‘hypocrisy’ after he finally admitted profiting from more than £30,000 in an offshore tax haven. After days of pressure, Mr. Cameron acknowledged he had benefited from a controversial fund set up by his late father Ian.

Clearly, the pent-up anger of French and British work­ ers and youth against the generalized assaults on their standard of living and quality of life has found expres­ sion and new forms of organization. The gap between this deeply felt outage and mass protests that focus on the inherent horrors perpetrated by a world capitalism system in deep crisis is narrowing. The French and Brit­ ish mass democratic assemblies are a first and impor­ tant step to planning united, massive, and enduring pro­ tests capable of inspiring working-class victories. n For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O.

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