FRANCE: THE YOUTH UPRISING - YouTube A WIN Discussion July 2023. Once again, France is in the grip of mass protests. A severely weakened president, lacking a majority in his own National Assembly, is this time facing a nationwide youth uprising. In the wake of yet another outright racist police murder, an entire generation of youth in the ghettoes has been fighting back for days, in a wave of … [Read more...]
FRANCE: A DESPATCH FROM THE FRONT
A WIN DISCUSSION. April 2023. FRANCE:A DESPATCH FROM THE FRONT - YouTube The mass uprising against President Macron’s new pension law has been an inspiration to workers across Europe and the world. It was only after three months of strikes, demonstrations and bitter social conflict, and only by resorting to the bonapartist constitutional devices of the Fifth Republic, that Macron was able … [Read more...]
FRANCE: RESISTING MACRON’S PENSIONS ATTACK
(55) FRANCE: RESISTING MACRON’S PENSIONS ATTACK - YouTube A WIN Discussion, March 2023. President Macron and the French employers are trying to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, and extend the number of years of contributions. This is a serious attack on the standard of living of future retirees. It is also an attack on the right to live in retirement without having first been … [Read more...]
FRENCH WORKERS FIGHT BACK
A Workers’ International Network meeting - October 2022 (1) FRENCH WORKERS FIGHT BACK - A Workers' International Meeting - October 2022 - YouTube Just months after the narrow victory at presidential and parliamentary elections of Macron and his newly renamed Renaissance party, the French working class is back on the march. It has staged a rolling wave of strikes and demonstrations in … [Read more...]
FRANCE: AFTER THE ELECTIONS
(1) FRANCE: AFTER THE ELECTIONS - YouTube A Workers' International Network Meeting July 2022 The French parliamentary elections represent a further blow to the authority of Macron, re-elected president two months ago by a reduced margin against the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. In the first round of voting, the left alliance NUPES came close to beating Macron's Ensemble, and in the … [Read more...]
PERSPECTIVES FOR FRANCE
A Workers’ International Network meeting 8th May 2022 (4) PERSPECTIVES FOR FRANCE A Workers’ International Network meeting 8th May 2022 - YouTube SPEAKERS - Olivier Delbeke a CGT trade unionist and member of the editorial board of Arguments Pour la Lutte Sociale (aplutsoc.org) - and - Sylvan Savier previously an international representative of Melenchon’s former Parti de Gauche, an … [Read more...]
France: The Deepening Crisis
Since 2016 (the year of the massive movement against the employment laws of Francois Holland’s minister of employment, El Khomry), there has been no let-up in the struggle. There has been furious resistance by the workers against attempts by the Holland and Macron governments to push ahead with neo-liberal reforms, destroying living standards and employment rights.After a lull at the start of … [Read more...]
France: Towards a General Strike
OLIVIER DELBEKE reports from Paris, 12th January 2020 The Macron government is mandated by big business to make up for the many years lost in doing to the workers of France what Mrs Thatcher and Herr Schroder inflicted on employees and pensioners in their countries during the 1980s and 1990s. in November 2018, barely 18 months after his election, Macron found himself facing a social … [Read more...]
Look what’s happening in France
In France right now the executive power is terrified. They threw themselves into a campaign to quickly catch up with everything Thatcher’s Britain and Schroder’s Germany had done: to smash pension rights, employment rights, the right to study – it was like a train crashing headlong into a rock. They came up against a pillar of resistance, a counter attack by the masses which has come to be … [Read more...]
France in Crisis
By Vincent Presumey in Paris Where is France going? Without a doubt, towards serious social and political confrontations. This is not a question of either optimism or pessimism: just realism. The outcome of these confrontations will depend on the level of political organisation of the exploited and oppressed. Two years ago, the election of Emmanuel Macron as president was hailed as a … [Read more...]