It is starting to smell like trouble, all the way to the heads of state. Macron and his ministers are doing everything they can to stop the spread of the revolt after the December 5 strike. So they let out the same old tunes: that the strikers are “privileged“, who fight to “preserve inequalities“. Such an insult and a lie, from the president of the rich and his millionaire ministers, gives us all the more reasons to get all together next Thursday.
What are they so afraid of? Of course it is the famous “coagulation“, as they say, the convergence of anger that has threatened Macron for a year, since the Yellow Vests movement has sent out the signal to let out general exasperation.
Signs of frustration have multiplied: strikes in public hospitals over the past nine months, teachers’ strike in June, untimely strikes in Paris public transports and the national railways in September-October, strikes and student demonstrations against precariousness in November… To these movements, the government has responded only with contempt, if not outright repression.
“In that case, we’ll coagulate!”
This is how the inter-emergency department collective that initiated the hospital strikes entitled its call to join the December 5 strike, in response to the umpteenth “plan” from Macron and his Health Minister Agnes Buzyn to “save” public hospital. As a rescue plan, the government is proposing nothing more than to pursue its policy of budget cuts – only masked by a few pathetic bonuses for a few categories of staff. Something to get angry about, and something to “coagulate” about!
This is just the start…
We must take advantage of this day of December 5: through the strike and in the street, of course, but also by organizing ourselves from the grassroots, starting with general assemblies, at our workplaces or after demonstrations, to decide together how the strike will continue.
December 5 is just the beginning. Already, the strike is expected to be unlimited in some sectors (public transports in Paris, national railways… not to mention hospital departments where the strike has been going on for months!). Without waiting for the green light from union leaders, eternally cautious and always ready to “dialogue” with the government and negotiate dubious deals. Let us take charge of unifying the fights of the working class, by pushing the movement forward wherever possible and by coordinating ourselves from the bottom up.
… we will give up nothing
The government is anticipating a success for the December 5 strike, but hopes to hold out by letting the movement run out of steam. Not to mention the confusing and contradictory explanations they give us about pensions. “Reform, less reform… later but now…, understanding but ‘firm’… ” Give it a rest: so many tricks to, in the end, make us work longer for smaller pensions!
So it is up to us to ensure that this movement is massive enough to defeat their entire policy.
In defending our pensions, let us also defend our salaries, our working conditions and our living conditions. By attacking the government’s policy, its entire policy, let us also attack those ultra-rich people it serves, those “first in line”, as Macron says, who get billions in tax exemptions and hundreds of billions in profits. When Bernard Arnault, with assets worth nearly €100 billion, is able to buy an American jewellery store for 15 billion, we see that there is definitely money for our pensions, our salaries, hospitals and public transport… Let’s go get it! And get them out of here!
