France. Class response to attacks against the proletariat

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The government’s economic plan of more than 43 billion euros, announced this summer by François Bayrou (Prime Minister of France until September 2025) with the aim of reducing the national debt, represents a series of anti-proletarian attacks: from a new “reform” of unemployment benefits to cuts in pensions and social allowances, attacks on the health system, reductions in public sector jobs, and even the elimination of two days of vacation in order to “make the country work” (!), etc. All these measures are nothing but a “prelude” to “fundamental reforms” (which will entail even harsher attacks).

At the same time, there is not even any consideration of questioning the increase in military spending, subsidies to businesses, or the abolition of taxes on great fortunes! This plan corresponds to the wishes of the employers’ associations, which see it as a “first stage”. Medef (the French employers’ lobby) presented, on August 29, proposals of impact measures to “unlock the economy” – through cuts in the social sphere (reducing pensions, etc.), further lowering the taxes paid by companies, eliminating more than a million public-sector jobs, and so on. In a difficult economic situation, marked by the sharpening of international competition – of which the rise in tariffs is a consequence – French capitalists, just like their counterparts in other countries, are inevitably driven to intensify their attacks against the proletarians: in fact, it is from their exploitation that they draw their profits. The social benefits once granted to maintain social peace are today regarded as intolerable obstacles that must disappear as quickly as possible: the social war against the proletarians is the perspective promised by the bourgeoisie – just like the war waged on the battlefields!

Since the announcement of Bayrou’s plan, the trade union leaderships have sought to dissipate discontent and prevent any real struggle. To achieve the “immediate abandonment” of the plan’s objectives, the “Intersyndicale” (a “cartel” made up of the largest trade union federations) launched… a petition! Then, when the initiative “let’s block everything on September 10” found growing resonance, it pulled out the traditional “day of action” for September 18 in order to nip the mobilization in the bud. This method has already proven effective when anger is particularly strong: fragmenting struggles, isolating the most combative sectors, occasionally declaring days of action under the pretense of “building a lasting process” (sic) (statement of the CGT trade union confederation, 27/8) – thus relying on the inevitable exhaustion of the workers. In this way, the “Intersyndicale” has sabotaged all the major struggles of recent years, beginning with the one over pensions. Meanwhile, the left-wing parties, led by LFI (France Unbowed), eventually publicly rallied to the initiative – with greater or lesser hesitation and caution, torn between the fear of appearing “irresponsible” and the fear of clashing with their own electorate. LFI’s declaration in favor of a general strike should not deceive us; the activists of LFI, like the others, seek to channel the mobilization towards a purely electoral and institutional goal: to overthrow the government by means of a no-confidence vote and to secure new elections, with the prospect of returning a left-wing government to power.

Proletarians must not trust these swindlers: experience has shown that left-wing governments have always been servile servants of capitalism!

Proletarians are not destined forever to endure the attacks of capitalists and the bourgeois state without reacting: they possess a potentially enormous force, because it is their labour that keeps the capitalist system alive. But for this force to be transformed into a real struggle, it is essential to break all the bonds with the servants of capitalism who paralyse them and deceive them with promises of “another economic plan,” “another policy,” “another distribution of wealth,” “another government” — that is, with those who leave capitalism essentially untouched and are satisfied with carrying out more or less significant reforms. Capitalism cannot be reformed: either we fight it, or we submit to it!

The proletarians have nothing to defend in the national economy, whose problems are not their own. They must not today make sacrifices for the sake of reducing the debt or increasing the competitiveness of enterprises, and still less tomorrow shed their blood to defend the nation. They must defend exclusively their class interests against the bourgeoisie and capitalism, without allowing themselves to be stopped by democratic, pacifist, and nationalist illusions about the existence of a “higher interest” supposedly common to all classes of the “people.” Organizations like the “Intersyndicale,” or parties that spread these illusions, cannot be trusted: these organizations sabotage every struggle that breaks away from the policy of class collaboration and threatens the good health of the economy. The proletarians can rely only on their own strength, their determination, their combativeness, their capacity to organize themselves and to fight with class methods and means: strikes of the widest possible scope, unity in struggle of all proletarians – men and women, young and old, French and immigrant, employed and unemployed – for goals that are not limited merely to abolishing planned measures or parliamentary manoeuvres, but that strike at the capitalist system itself.

• For the reconstitution of class trade-union organizations and the class party!

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