Unions Shut Down France: Millions March For Economic Justice

Unions shut down France: Millions march for economic justice

By G. Dunkel
Published Feb 5, 2009 8:10 PM

More than 2.5 million people marched in more than 195 large and small cities in France on Jan. 29 demanding the government protect workers and not make the people pay the cost of a bailout of the financial establishment. The demonstrations were in response to a call from all of France’s major labor unions.

The turnout was called “historic” in many cities—such as Perpignan, capital of the Catalan area in southeast France, where 20,000 marched. The march in Paris drew 300,000. The same number marched in Marseilles, a city with one-third the population of Paris, of whom 40 percent are first- or second-generation immigrants.

Some mass protests against government measures concerning students and youth drew bigger numbers during the past few years, but this was the largest protest in 20 years to be so broadly based in France’s working class.

The first point in the unions’ Jan. 5 joint call, which was the political basis of the protest, called for priority to be given to employment. The second point called for maintaining wages and reducing inequality. The unions called for orienting a government bailout toward employment and maintaining wage earners’ living standards.

Bernard Thibault, head of the Confédération Générale du Travail labor federation, in a video clip on its website (www.cgt.fr), described these protests as very diverse, in that they drew on current wage-earners, the unemployed—who have councils in the CGT—retirees, youth and students.

According to a report in the French newspaper Le Monde, two major public opinion polls in France reported that 70 to 75 percent of the population supported the protests on Jan. 29, even though they were focused on challenging the government and big business to change their policies. Generally in France, broad social movements spring up to oppose a concrete action the government has taken or is planning to take.

Many commentaries in the French-language press said the success of Jan. 29 reflected growing anger over how the government is favoring the banks and big business in its bailout plans.

The website for Jan. 29 includes a call for all the unions and committees that organized the protests to begin considering a general strike that would last longer than one day. (www.29janvier2009.fr)

While French workers have a constitutional right to strike, recent conservative governments have tried to limit that by imposing so-called “minimum service levels” in public agencies like mass transit, air traffic control, the post office, railroads and education. They want to prevent French workers from legally conducting an effective general strike.

About 75 percent of French workers have a legally enforceable right to their jobs.

Won through a high level of class struggle over decades, the substantial legal rights French workers have and their ability to enforce these rights legally without union membership have led many workers to avoid actually joining a union. Thus the level of unionization in France and the number of workers with a union contract is far fewer than, for example, in Britain or Italy, and even lower than in the United States.

But the class consciousness of French workers and their willingness to join in struggles led by unions—even without being members—means French unions have significant political authority. Even with fewer than 2 million members, the unions can be the nucleus of a far broader struggle.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had bombastically claimed last summer: “A new day has arisen in France. Henceforth when there is a strike, nobody will notice.”

He and his government maneuvered to undercut Jan. 29, but, breaking his usual habit, he did keep his mouth shut this time regarding the alleged weakness of organized labor.

Workers in France, like those earlier in Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria, have protested their government bailing out banks while ignoring people’s needs. Since the economic and political crisis shows no signs of abating and the Jan. 29 strike showed the workers are organized and angry, more and larger struggles in France are likely.
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