Pension reform passes, worker anger grows

On Oct. 28, the day after the French parliament passed a final version of pension “reform,” the unions brought 2 million people out into the streets in 268 marches throughout the country, according to the General Confederation of Labor (CGT).

That made seven different days of major protests against the government’s pension cutbacks since September. While the turnout was generally higher at the beginning, anger among the protesters has grown, and so has the support of the people generally, despite enduring some inconvenience from the protests and strikes.

Eric Aubin, a leader on the retirement issue inside the CGT, was quoted in L’Humanité on Oct. 28 that there was “a desire to continue the struggle.”

One of the most popular stickers is “I fight the class struggle” (“Je lutte des classes”).

Then on Nov. 6, about 1.2 million people came out in 265 demonstrations throughout France, according to the CGT. Now that the law, which is an attack on pension benefits, has passed the parliament, it must be examined by the courts before it can go into effect.

All the major French labor union confederations have maintained unity in the face of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s intransigence in both capping the amount of taxes the wealthiest French pay and sticking the costs of the financial bailout on the workers.

Also quoted in the same article in L’Humanité, Jean-Claude Mailly, leader of Force Ouvrière, feels “a spirit of resistance has been installed.” For Annick Coupé, the spokesperson for Solidaires, the government has “not put an end to the people’s anger.”

Bernard Thibault, CGT leader, stressed, “We are going to act on all levels. This isn’t a law which is going to put an end to our demands.” Bernadette Groison, head of the Unitary Union Federation (FSU), asserted that the unions had “every right to continue the fight over retirement” in order to “correct the law.”

François Chérèque, the head of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), pointed out, “Just because a law has been passed doesn’t make it just.” Wage earners “in their vast majority are against it and it is our duty to continue to say that.”

The general view expressed by the leadership of the unions and from the signs and banners on the marches was that what parliament had done could be undone.

Xinhua News Agency and International Business Times News published dispatches on the strikes’ costs, which France’s Minister of Economic Affairs Christine Lagarde estimated at “between 200 [million] and 400 million Euros each day” ($280 million to $560 million). (Xinhua, Oct. 25)

Giving the line of France’s capitalists, she said, “We shouldn’t be weighing down this recovery with campaigns that are painful for the French economy and very painful for a certain number of small- and medium-sized businesses.” (IBTN, Oct. 25)

The union movements have called a meeting where debate over their next moves will be on the agenda. The struggle continues.