June 30, 2026 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French
Last week, an RATP (public transport company) bus crashed into a tree at Porte de Saint-Cloud in Paris: the driver had lost consciousness due to the heat. As our comrade Selma Labib—a bus driver and NPA-Révolutionnaires candidate in the upcoming presidential election—explained “surfaces inside the buses—the plastics, the seats, the steering wheel—go well above 40 °C (104°F). We’ve recorded temperatures as high as 47 °C (116°F) in the driver’s cab, and up to 59 °C (138°F) on the rear windshields.” In hospitals, nursing homes, and schools, the situation is unbearable for staff—and even worse for patients, the elderly, and children, who are especially vulnerable. In Rueil, high school students took their French oral baccalaureate exams in an underground parking lot! And the situation in hospitals is becoming critical with the influx of people in distress due to the heat wave.
When it comes to “respond” to an act of violence, people like Minister of Justice Darmanin or Minister of the Interior Retailleau rush to pass a new law on the spot. But now, conveniently, it didn’t occur to them to issue a decree banning work as soon as the temperature exceeded 28°C (84°F), as the CGT union demanded. No, quite the opposite: Jean-Pierre Farandou, the Minister of Labor, declared, “We’re not going to shut the country down because it’s 30 degrees out.” What he really doesn’t want to shut down is the profit machine! That is the kind of statement that makes your blood boil and makes you want to drag its author out of their air-conditioned office and send them to work on a rooftop under the blazing sun.
In this chorus of “move along, nothing to see here,” the only one missing was President Macron, who rushed to brag about his supposed achievements on this issue during his two terms in office. So how is it that even though experts have been warning for 35 years about global warming and the necessary adaptations, nursing homes, hospitals, schools, and public transport aren’t properly insulated or air-conditioned when needed? Greening schoolyards, insulating buildings, and removing concrete from urban areas: where and when did he address these issues? On the contrary: the budget of the “Green Fund”—intended, precisely, for the climate transition—was cut by two-thirds, even though it was already insufficient. And on May 28, right in the middle of the first heatwave, the government decided to dissolve a research group on ecological transition, the Epau! All Macron has done is cut down the budgets of hospitals and schools to free up funds to line the pockets of his friends among big business: while public services are falling apart, every year the state spends 211 billion euros (241 billion dollars) in various subsidies to employers.
And what about Bardella, a far-right politician and a loyal defender of the bosses, who has suddenly discovered a passion for air conditioners? His party, the [far-right] National Rally, has always voted for measures that allow bosses to exploit workers and the planet even more, to pollute even more!
Just like during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s up to us to figure out how to defend ourselves. At some companies, like Stellantis, workers have gone on strike. Elsewhere, they’ve used their right to withdraw from dangerous working conditions. In hospitals and nursing homes, staff are demanding breaks and reduced workdays, as well as equipment to protect a particularly vulnerable population.
This society is overflowing with wealth—wealth that we produce: we should be the ones deciding how it is used, particularly to implement the many solutions proposed by climate scientists.
We work and we produce everything: it is up to us to decide when, how, and whether we should work. So there’s no way we’re going to risk our health and that of the people in our care by working as if nothing were wrong!
