Murray Smith, Paris
After two months of a mass campaign against the CPE (First Employment Contract), on the morning of April 10 the French government finally caved in and withdrew the measure. The CPE would have enabled employers to sack young workers under the age of 26 from their first job in the first two years of their employment, without having to give a reason.
The CPE's defeat was the first time a mass movement blocked one of the government's neoliberal measures since the right came back to power in 2002. The government forced through a reform of pensions in 2003 despite months of demonstrations and strikes. The following year it imposed a reform of health insurance. Why did it fail this time?
In the first place, the CPE was aimed at a very specific part of the population: young people. And those young people who would have been directly affected — university and high school students — mobilised massively against it. There is a tradition of powerful student mobilisations in France, and this is not the first time one has been successful. In 1986 the government was forced to withdraw an education reform and in 1994 a measure similar to the CPE was defeated. Last year, there was a four-month long militant movement of high school students. The fact that there are regularly movements among students — sometimes national, sometimes just local — means that there is a frequently renewed layer of activists.
Secondly, the trade unions — all of them — supported the movement from start to finish. One reason for the defeat in 2003 was that one of the main unions, the CFDT, defected early on and accepted the government measure in exchange for insignificant amendments. It lost many members as a result. This time, everyone stayed on board. Only a few months ago, a measure similar to the CPE, the CNE (New Employment Contract), went through with little opposition.
The CNE allows employers in companies with less than 20 employees to sack workers in the first two years of their employment without providing a reason. A day of strikes and mass demonstrations against the law on October 4 was not followed up and the CNE went through. What was different this time was that the initiative was not with the union leaderships but with the students, and the student mobilisations steadily expanded. By the end of the movement, three-quarters of universities and over a quarter of high schools were occupied or blockaded.
The support of the unions was a key factor in the victory — there was a united front of eight trade union organisations and four student unions. But it was the youth who were the locomotive. The student unions were actively involved in the movement, but its leadership was the Student Coordination, comprising representatives elected by mass meetings, which met every weekend in a different university and which was dominated by left-wing activists. The movement was supported by the entire French left, from the reformist Socialist Party to revolutionary organisations like the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) and Lutte Ouvriere (Workers Struggle).
Thirdly, the demand for the withdrawal of the CPE had mass support. As people understood what was at stake, opposition rose to around 70% of the population, and more and more people were ready to take to the streets. The first day of action on February 7 mobilised 400,000 demonstrators. The next one a month later had a million, then 1.5 million on March 18, 3 million on March 28 and even more on April 4. On the last two days the number of those on strike was significant but not really massive — not as big as the biggest strikes in 2003. And the experience three years ago demonstrated that a series of one-day strikes was not enough to make the government back down. This time it was the combination of the massive nature of the protests and the fact that the higher education system was progressively paralysed that brought victory. As the movement grew, university presidents called for the CPE to be withdrawn and splits developed in the governing UMP party, with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who introduced the CPE, becoming increasingly isolated.
Underlying the whole movement is an ongoing refusal of French public opinion to accept the inevitability of neoliberal capitalism. This was demonstrated at the polls when the projected European constitution was defeated in the referendum on May 29 last year after a dynamic campaign by the left for a "No" vote. It has just been demonstrated in the streets, and the activists who built the mass mobilisations were often the same who campaigned against the European constitution.
The victory has left an arrogant right-wing government in disarray before next year's presidential and legislative elections. The last 25 years have shown that a return to power by the Socialist Party would not mean the end of neoliberal policies. It is up to the anti-capitalist left to build a political alternative.
From Green Left Weekly, April 26, 2006.
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