BY MURRAY SMITH
PARIS — On May 13, French workers held their biggest one-day general strike since 1995, as 2 million people took to the streets of a hundred towns and cities. In Paris, 250,000 marched in Paris, 200,000 in Marseilles, 100,000 in Toulouse and tens of thousands in dozens of other places. They were striking against Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government's plan for pension "reform".
Minister for social affairs Francois Fillon wants to increase the number of years public sector workers must be employed (and pay into the pension system) — from 37.5 years to 40 — before they qualify for a full pension. This will bring it into line with the private sector. Fillon then wants to increase it to 42 years for everybody.
The result would be that people would work well into their 60s (the retirement age is presently 60) to qualify for a full pension — which would also be less than at present — or else they would retire at 60 with less than a full pension. Those who retire earlier, would be even worse off.
Private sector workers are often forced into early retirement in their late 50s so the company can employ younger workers, or as a form of redundancy when firms downsize or close. The average age at which people retire in France is 58.7 years. Women would be the worst hit by the Fillon plan, since, due to childcare duties and part-time work, they only pay into the pension system for an average of 32 years.
The demonstrations were the biggest since the November-December 1995 strikes against the French government's attacks on the health service and pensions. In some places, they were the biggest since the historic general strike of 1968. The bulk of the demonstrators were public sector workers. The big difference with the 1995 strikes was that significant parts of the private sector work force took part, in particular Citroen and Renault car workers, engineering and shipyard workers, and aeronautical industry workers in Toulouse. There was even a contingent from France's Disneyland.
The movement had been building for some time. Hundreds of thousands of workers had already demonstrated and struck in February and April. Teachers, who were among the biggest contingents on May 13, have been involved in a mounting wave of strikes since the end of March, in protest against government measures to break-up the state education system. Teachers' strikes are continuing and spreading.
There is a growing awareness that the government attacks on pensions and education are part of a broader plan to privatise the remaining public sector and dismantle the welfare state. Already, a "reform" of the health service has been announced.
Some workers stayed on strike after May 13, in particular public transport workers in Paris. The SUD independent unions and some teachers' unions are pushing for a general strike but the main confederation, the CGT, has been putting the brakes on, hoping the government will back down. The right-wing CFDT confederation, along with a small managers' union, has accepted the government's plan in exchange for minor amendments, but the CGT and the other unions have refused. The "Fighting CFDT" left opposition is likely to break ranks on the question.
Next on the agenda is a strike by state and local government employees on May 19. A national demonstration has been called for May 25. The CGT has announced that if the cabinet adopts the Fillon plan on May 28, it will call an unlimited general strike from June 3.
Many union activists feel that is too far away and that now is the time to join the teachers in a general strike.
[Murray Smith is a leading member of the Scottish Socialist Party resident in France.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 21, 2003.
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