Macron under mass pressure on pension reforms

By Theo Russell

On 6th February in Paris I joined a national day of protest, the latest stage in the two-month long battle between president Macron and the unions over pension reforms. That week a parliamentary committee began considering the draft law, which faces 22,000 amendments.

At Place de la République and Place de la Nation the atmosphere was infectious, with singing, groups of musicians, vans playing everything from old workers’ songs to high-energy French rap, and drummers keeping a tradition dating back to the 1789 revolution.

Travelling on ahead of the march, close to Place de la Nation, I was passed by 60–70 motorbikes, each carrying two cops, many not in uniform – not the kind you’d stop to ask for directions.

There was a huge police presence at Nation and I was redirected by cops at one of the blocked off entrances to the square.

A comrade from the Pole de Renaissance Communiste explained that these motorbike police were from a new crack unit.

He said the Envoye Special current affairs broadcast the evening before the protest on the France 2 channel revealed that in recent weeks a task force of motorcycle policemen had been created.

"There are two policemen on each bike: a driver and a cop with weapons, telescopic truncheon and stun grenades.

"They usually get to a manif (protest) with 20 bikes and 40 cops, and then seriously injure as many people as they can. Then they quickly escape to do the same dirty job somewhere else.

"They are called the BRAVE M (Brigade de Répression a la Violence – Motocycliste).

"In France, cops must wear a number, so one is supposed to be able to complain if necessary. But the ones from ‘BRAVE M’ have no numbers and wear masks to cover their faces. Slowly and slowly, fascism is growing in France…­­"

The media on both sides of the English Channel are vying with each other to declare the unions are about to give up the fight, with photos in Friday's Paris newspapers showing low-level shots of handfuls of protesters.

But the infectious energy and enthusiasm of the Paris march – just one of many across France – suggests the battle is far from over and that the unions enjoy the support of a sizeable majority of French people in the fight to protect pension rights.

Workers from local councils, health, refuse, transport and others were joined by large numbers of enthusiastic students and young people, whilst dozens of union banners joined home-made ones and, of course, red flags.

The previous week saw doctors and lawyers joining the strike, and a pitched battle between firefighters, wearing their uniforms and helmets, and the police close to Place de la République.

Since the start of the Gilet Jaunes protests in December 2018, according to the Ministry of the Interior some 3,100 people have been injured – 1,900 civilians and 1,200 police.

An internet search suggests that 82 people have been seriously injured – 17 have lost an eye, and four a hand or finger. Amnesty International has condemned “the massive use of tear gas, the use of trap techniques, and the use of GLI-F4 explosive grenades, de-encirclement grenades and LBD40 rubber bullet launchers”.

The LBD40 ‘flash balls’ weighing 95 grams are believed to have caused many serious injuries. Last month a volunteer firefighter in Bordeaux was hit on the temple at a Yellow Vest protest and is still in a coma, and the rubber bullets caused two deaths before 2019.

Not only peaceful protestors but also innocent bystanders, journalists and human rights observers have been victims of the extremely dangerous police tactics.

The protests are supported by four of the France’s largest unions – the CGT, Force Ouvrière, FSU and Solidaires – but two more moderate unions, the CFDT and Unsa, dropped out last month after Macron made miniscule changes to the so-called ‘pivot age’ the proposed reforms would take effect.

Self-employed private sector workers including lawyers, airline pilots, doctors and other health professionals have also backed the pension protests with mass protests since September 2019. Many lawyers have been on strike for three weeks, forcing courts and tribunals to postpone hearings.

The involvement of self-employed workers means the government is facing a two-pronged assault against the pension reforms.

Lawyer Jean-Philippe Labes said: “This is a profession that is getting poorer,” and another lawyer from Paris, François Suberbere, said: “Our pensions are threatened. We are being told we have to pay more charges for fewer pension rights. This means many smaller firms that are vital to the legal system will not survive.”

Last Tuesday more than 300 senior hospital doctors partially ‘resigned’ from their jobs across France to denounce the state of the hospital sector and put pressure on the government to respond.

Whilst unions have taken industrial action and protested against the pension changes because they will lose existing rights and privileges, independent workers object to their autonomous pension schemes, which are in credit, being merged with other schemes that are in debt and a rise in their pension contributions.

Meanwhile, strikes at incineration centres are causing rubbish to pile up in the streets of Paris.

The Louvre, the Paris Opera and even ballet dancers have previously joined the strike, and the Paris Opera orchestra has given free performances to protestors.

Sauce for the goose…

Few of us would have any sympathy for the gang who’ve been hanging around Westminster posing as French ‘Yellow Vests’ to hurl abuse at Remainer MPs and anyone else believed to support a second referendum who crosses their path outside the Houses of Parliament. Their mouthy spokesman is an admirer of Donald Trump and a vocal supporter of the Free Tommy Robinson campaign, whilst the rest look like the usual dregs seen on racist marches or outside the pub at ‘football lads’ rallies.

But we have none at all for Anna Soubry and the other bleeding hearts in parliament who are calling for police action to clear Parliament Square of those who have been routinely calling MPs who support the European Union (EU) “Nazis” and “traitors” over the past few weeks.

John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has now called on the Commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Cressida Dick, to address “as a matter of urgency, a number of incidents of aggressive, threatening and intimidating behaviour towards MPs and journalists” around College Green, a grassy area opposite parliament used by broadcasters.

“There seems to be a pattern here of a regular coterie of burly white men who are effectively targeting and denouncing members whom they recognise and dislike – most notably female and those from ethnic minority backgrounds,” Bercow wrote.

"It's a type of fascism. Let's be quite clear about that, it's a type of fascism. Women and ethnic minority citizens, in particular, are being targeted. I don't say that they're the only people on the receiving end of this completely unacceptable behaviour but they have been and are being deliberately and disproportionately targeted. That is not acceptable and we have to ensure that something is done about it," Bercow later told MPs.

His call has been endorsed by at least 115 MPs, including Blairites who regularly dismiss Leavers as “racists” and “fascists” and those who said nothing when George Galloway, then a Respect MP, was beaten up by a Zionist thug in 2014.

These are the worthless politicians who are endlessly plotting to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour’s leader. These are the people who call Corbyn’s supporters “Nazis” because they support the legitimate demands of the Palestinian Arabs. These are the people who support the austerity regime that has plunged millions of working people into poverty and despair. They claim to “work for us” but they only work for themselves. In the old days they would claim to be one of the people. Nowadays they seem to think that they are a different breed who, like Roman patricians, are above reproach.

Heckling and general abuse was once a regular feature of British politics when those who sought our votes had to actually tread the streets to woo the electorate. Although the hustings have largely gone, personal abuse, lies and smears remain the stock in trade of all bourgeois politicians who cannot justify their self-serving politics by any other means. They don’t mind doling it out but they soon bleat when it’s turned against them.

Round one to the Yellow Vests

The French government’s decision to call a moratorium on the draconian energy tax rises that provoked massive protests which went far beyond the capital has bought the Macron government some time for reflection over the Christmas break.

 Emmanuel Macron has failed to pass off his tax rises as part of a ‘green’ agenda. But the hated president is clearly hoping that the Yellow Vests, a largely leaderless movement that took the protests to the streets last month, will fade away over the festive season to allow him to resume his anti-working class offensive next year.

Macron is a charlatan who posed as a social-democrat when he became the youngest president of the republic at the age of 39 last year. Once dubbed the “French Tony Blair”, he soon showed his true colours as a willing tool of the bourgeoisie by attacking union rights and stepping up the austerity regime.

The left, weakened by the duplicity of venal social-democratic leaders and the terminal decline of the revisionist communist party, was incapable of mounting an organised resistance to the Macron regime. But the energy price hikes provoked the masses, whose traditional street protests go back to the times of the French revolution.

Last weekend’s police brutality, which turned central Paris into a battle-ground, led to communist, union and left social-democratic calls for a “united front” to bring down the Macron government.

That clearly forced the government’s hand. What happens next depends on whether the left forces can indeed unite on a common platform to stop Macron in his tracks and end the austerity regime.