French Worker's strike

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/nov2007/fran-n29.shtml

The betrayal of the French rail workers strike and the role of the LCR

The first trial of strength between president Nicolas Sarkozy and the French working class has ended by the end of November. After a ten-day walkout, the strikers returned to work under conditions in which the government refused to withdraw its reform of their pensions, the so-called régimes spéciaux. The trade unions are negotiating over the price of their surrender.

The French and international business press have struck a triumphant note. Le Figaro declared that the reform of the régimes spéciaux, the “mother of all reforms”, has convinced public opinion, “that everything must change in this country”. Next on the agenda is “the reduction of the public sector, as well as reducing the budget deficit and the expenditures on social insurance”.

The left press stresses that the strikers were not defeated in their struggle, but betrayed. The breaking of the rail workers strike has already had serious political consequences. Barely had the strikers returned to the work, when violent youth protests erupted in the suburbs. The strangling of the strike intensified the isolation of the most suppressed layers of society, whose future is inseparably bound up with the fate of the working class.

The betrayal of the trade unions

President Nicolas Sarkozy was prepared for the dispute over the regimes spéciaux since the spring so as not to suffer the same fate as Alain Juppé, who as head of government in 1995 made an initial attack on pensions, but was then forced to retreat and eventually resign from office following massive popular resistance.

Even before taking office, Sarkozy had met with the leaders of the most important trade union federations. He told them: “I want to tell you one thing immediately. I will carry out this reform (i.e. régimes spéciaux). The rest is a matter of negotiation.” (le Monde 26.11.) Since then he has cultivated his ties to the union leaders with a series of both public and private meetings, including dinner dates.

Unions, however, were not able to bring about an immediate end to the strike. The grass-roots resistance was too great. Possibly the strategy of attrition was used by unions—the strike was allowed to continue without support from above until it finally ran out of steam. Despite the considerable costs to the French economy, Sarkozy supported this strategy.

Proposed reforms include: the labour code, the merger of the employment exchanges with the unemployment welfare offices, private sector pensions, vocational training.

How the LCR and LO supported the sell out

The trade unions were already heavily discredited at the beginning of the strike. Open distrust of the leadership prevailed at strike meetings. Most discussions revolved around the issue of how to prevent a sellout by the trade union apparatuses. Resolutions were passed which warned of any deal made without prior to consultation with the rank and file.

During the past 12 years, French workers have undergone a series of experiences where the trade unions have intervened to demobilise social disputes and organised sellouts.

The result of the conflict in 1995 was not the success it is often claimed to be. At the time, hundreds of thousands of workers struck for three and a half weeks in the defence of social security benefits, pensions, health insurance and jobs. Millions took part in demonstrations. The most disputed part of the Juppé plan was withdrawn, but all his other measures remained in place. Prime Minister Juppé was able to hold onto his post for a period of time, and President Jacques Chirac was given the necessary breathing space to prepare a regulated change of government.

In 2003 the government renewed its reform (termed as attack by labor unions) on pensions and was able to impose its measures in the face of substantial protests.

In the course of the presidential election this year, the Socialist Party tried to overtake Sarkozy from the right on many issues. Following its defeat at the polls prominent members of the party switched directly into Sarkozy’s camp. In the course of the rail worker’s strike the Socialist Party did not even put up pretence of defending the interests of the workers. The party supports the essential point of Sarkozy’s reform, making workers covered by the special pensions work a minimum of 40 years, instead of the current 37.5, before receiving a full pension.

The discrediting of the trade unions and the official left parties has enabled the parties of the radical left to acquire considerable influence. Lutte Ouvrière and increasingly the LCR have become regular components of official French politics. In 2002, nearly ten percent of the electorate cast their votes for the presidential candidates of the two organisations—Arlette Laguiller and Olivier Besancenot. In this years presidential election, 1.5 million voters for Besancenot.

The utterly cynical and deliberate manner in which the LCR defends the bureaucracy was demonstrated in a public meeting held on October 22 in Paris. The meeting, featuring Olivier Besancenot as the main speaker, had been carefully prepared. Posters had been hung throughout Paris. In the event, around 2,000 assembled in the large hall of the Mutualité in the Latin Quarter.

One day previously, the trade unions had entered into negotiations with management and the government and on the morning of the 22nd most of the general assemblies of striking workers had voted to break off the strike. Nevertheless, Besancenot refrained from saying a single word about the betrayal of the trade unions and tried to portray the sellout as a success. He celebrated the strike as an expression of an unstoppable movement which will continue to grow and finally force Sarkozy to back down. The social movement was not at an end, it would continue and become permanent, he declared. Now the job was to “assemble the forces, to increase the pressure from the streets even more in order to rebuff the reforms”:

This sort of hollow phrase mongering is the stock-in trade of every trade union bureaucrat. It is aimed at covering up one’s own responsibility and clouding the waters when it comes to drawing political conclusions. The LCR is expert in this form of demagogy

An international perspective

In Germany, train drivers have taken strike action during the last six months for improved working conditions and wages. They confront a broad front of opposition comprising not only the government and management, but also the country’s major trade unions, the SPD and the Left Party, which are agitating against the demands of the train drivers and organizing open strike breaking.