BY MURRAY SMITH
PARIS — Following the success of the massive one-day general strike on May 13, the government of French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is in deep trouble.
The May 13 strike, the largest since 1995, was in response to the government's plan to make it harder for workers to retire on a full pension. Under the plan, employees would have to work for 42 years (up from 40 years in the private sector and 37.5 years in the public sector) before being entitled to a full pension.
A one-day strike on May 19 was also a success. Although it mainly involved the public sector and was prepared on the scale of May 13, 800,000 demonstrators took to the streets in 70 cities.
The government's success in splitting the trade union movement, by persuading the second biggest union, the CFDT, to accept the pension plan has turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory. It has hardened the attitude of the other unions, who are all calling for a mass demonstration on May 25 in Paris.
Meanwhile, the opposition to the deal within the CFDT, which is stronger than the leadership expected, has made it clear that it will continue to campaign against the plan. In the militant Marseilles region, local unions, including the CFDT, have called a one-day strike for May 27 — the day before the French cabinet is expected to adopt the pension plan.
A strike by teachers is continuing. For weeks, the government and the capitalist media have tried to black-out news of the scale of the teachers' strike, claiming it was faltering when it was spreading. At the same time, they tried to ignore mounting protests over the pension "reforms".
But now there is a whiff of panic in the air. The press is full of articles about the "crisis in education" and even the "social crisis". Raffarin is haunted by the example of the November-December 1995 strikes, which broke the back of the right-wing government of Alain Juppe. He is faced with a potentially bigger crisis. Polls show that a majority opposes the pension plan and supports the strikes (72% of public sector workers and 46% of private sector workers say they are ready to take part in strikes and demonstrations).
Speculation is rife that the government will make concessions to the teachers, in order to hold the line on pensions. At one point, that might have defused the teachers' movement. But it may be too late.
The CGT trade union federation is maintaining its threat of a general strike from June 3 if the pension plan is not withdrawn. Rail and public transport workers' unions have already called an unlimited strike from that date. The Force Ouvriere confederation has called for turning the May 27 strike in Marseilles into a national strike.
The Raffarin government is under siege but not yet beaten. As the Paris daily Liberation put it, the unions and the government are engaged in a "conflict with no emergency exit". Whatever happens, the outcome of the present confrontation will determine the relationship of class forces and the political climate in France for some time to come. It is beginning to look as if it won't be to the advantage of the government and the employers.
[Murray Smith is a leading member of the Scottish Socialist Party resident in France.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 28, 2003.
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