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.

Thoughts on Internationalism

ELSEWHERE in the paper there is a report of a recent meeting at the House of Commons on the situation in Kashmir. This concludes with the words “there is no ongoing campaign of solidarity in Britain with the people of Kashmir”.

That statement is not only true in the specific Kashmir case but the gives us cause to reflect on the state of international solidarity work in Britain, which could, quite frankly, be better.

International solidarity basically take two forms. One is supporting progressive governments against imperialist aggression, as is the role of organisations such as the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the Korea Friendship Association. In other cases it is to support oppressed peoples from foreign occupiers, such as the work carried out by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign or the NCP’s support of left forces in Ukraine.

On occasion the distinction can be blurred, as with the present situation in Bolivia, or in the past when supporting the Nicaraguan government became problematic in the eyes of many when strict abortion laws were imposed. The reverse process took place when opponents of Apartheid in South Africa became keen supporters of the ANC government, sometimes on occasion becoming cheerleaders at a time when a few friendly, but not preachy, critical remarks would have been more helpful.

Needless to say, imperialist powers are quick to discover any real or alleged ill-treatment of minority groups that can be exploited for their own ends. Amnesty International and the Minority Rights Group, in particular, are past masters at this dirty game.

Liberation, the former Movement for Colonial Freedom, if not formally defunct is near enough so to make no difference, so there is clearly a ‘gap in the market’, particularly for when urgent situations flare up across the globe. Perhaps a Latin America Solidarity Campaign would be more useful than separate organisations for Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, to say nothing of Chile, Peru and Argentina.

Sometimes great care needs to be taken with just who precisely is worthy of support even where evidence of clear cut need for action. This Editorial comes from the pen of someone who recalls two exiled warring Tamil factions loudly insisting that they were the sole legitimate representative of all Tamils in Britain and at home whilst claiming that the rival group were simply gangsters. On another occasion a Turkish trade union group received support from well-meaning internationalists before it slowly dawned on them that the trade union was associated with the Turkish fascist party. Sometimes ascertaining the differences between the Judean Popular Front and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Judea is no joke. There is a fine balance between being too fastidious and backing the completely wrong horse.

The British labour movement and working class has a distinctly mixed record. Sometimes this can be understandable, as when impoverished workers in the early 19th century did not take too kindly to being told that slavery was evil by pious evangelicals who made their disdain for the aims of factory workers clear. The high spot was perhaps British working-class support for the republicans in the Spanish Civil War — but even that can be romanticised because many workers, including those who had first-hand experience of imperialist oppression, followed the lead of the pulpit and willingly gave their pennies to support the fascists.

International work can of course be controversial, not all causes are as instantly cuddly within the labour movement as that of Cuba, which is an agreeable sunny climate ideal for producing Havana Club rum.

Wikileaks once exposed a conversation held in 2006 when a senior figure at the TUC assured a representative of the US Embassy that the forthcoming TUC Congress would likely support a resolution opposing US sanctions on Cuba, but that there was absolutely nothing to worry about because this was a traditional “warhorse issue” that kept activists harmlessly occupied. If many more were involved worthy motions would have more effect, and the bureaucrats at the TUC and Donald Trump would have more to worry about.

The patient work of getting motions passed at trade union branches and then on to annual conferences and finally the Trades Union Congress, or gathering signatures outside a supermarket on a wet Saturday morning, is not glamorous, but it needs to be done more urgently than ever.

Delayed Victory for the Working Class

Today, the 31^st January 2020, marks the belated implementation (however flawed) of the decision made by the British people, and in particular the working class, on the 23^rd June 2016 to leave European Union (EU). A Brexit conducted by a Tory Government is not exactly what the working class voted for. It is essentially the same one supported by former Prime Minister Theresa May with a few bits of window dressing.

The main thing however, is that at long last we are leaving the corrupt neoliberal institution that is the EU, despite the fact that the British ruling class has done everything in its power to defeat the will of the people.

The fact that a few City mavericks such as Jacob Rees-Mogg and former city trader Nigel Farage have been the leading lights in the Leave campaign does nothing to alter the irrefutable fact that British capitalism overwhelmingly supports remaining tied to the EU. We need not shed too many tears for those who might have to wait a bit longer in the passport queue when they travel between Belgravia and their Tuscany villas. Nor need we fear chlorinated chicken, we do not need to buy it if we don’t want to, in any case it is healthier than the germ-ridden organic chicken that comes in at five times the price.

The claims that the fortunes of Britain’s youth have been ruined by Brexit depriving them of job opportunities is utter nonsense, at least they won’t have to worry about being conscripted into the European army, which is a priority of former German defence minister and now EU President Ursula von der Leyen.

Contrary to the fables from the likes of the Guardian and the TUC, the EU did not bring any rights whatsoever to the British working class. Those rights that we do have, have come from the struggle of the working class over the centuries through its trade unions, political parties and other mass organisations.

Internationalism does not mean kowtowing to the ruling classes of France and Germany. Proletarian internationalism means supporting the Yellow Vests against the French capitalist class. Engineers in socialist Poland used to work as engineers in Poland, now they have to become seasonal fruit pickers in Britain to survive. If anyone really cares about Polish workers they should support their struggles.

The nationalist parties in the British Isles – the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin – need to realise that their sometimes recent faith in the EU has been greatly misplaced. Members of these parties who claim to be progressive need to open their eyes and see what damage the EU has had on smaller countries, which makes the Tory austerity they decry seem like they have the impertinence defy the rules of the bankers who are the real masters of the EU. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a pithy Arabic proverb but it is not always a good guide to policy.

If anyone thinks that Boris Johnson is bad they ought to have a look at prime ministers Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland and Viktor Orbán of Hungary to see what real right-wingers look like. In the early days of the Thatcher years Britain’s trade unions were all too quick to swallow the lies about “Social Europe” and abandon their opposition to what was then the Common Market. That belief was wrong then but the workers have their eyes open, even if trade union bureaucrats still believe that Christmas presents some from Santa Claus.

New Worker readers will not be waving any Union Jack flags but we can be proud of the fact that in opposing the EU the NCP has acted in the interests of the working classes of Britain and abroad. Great struggles lie ahead that will not be easy but at least one of the fetters holding back the working class has been broken.

We can all rejoice in the discomfort in the ranks in the ruling class about Brexit actually taking place. It is up to us to take full advantage of the opportunities it offers.