On Wednesday, March 6, 1,200 people attended a meeting in Paris held by Révolution Permanente (RP), the sister site of Left Voice and the French section of the Trotskyist Fraction – Fourth International. The objective of the meeting was to “put revolution back on the agenda.” The hall, with space for 500, was filled to capacity. 300 watched the meeting from in nearby bars, where it was projected on TV screens. A further 400 watched the meeting online.

　　The meeting was called during a period of relative working-class demoralization following the defeat of the movement against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms, which saw the age of retirement raised from 62 to 64. This defeat was in no small part due to the betrayal by the union bureaucracy, which refused to call a renewable mass strike, instead calling for isolated one-day strikes in the hope of convincing Macron to engage in negotiations. Further, La France Insoumise (LFI), the reformist party of Jean-Luc Melenchon, played a similar role by trying to redirect militancy into electoral channels. Macron was able to force the law through against the parliamentary majority using undemocratic executive powers. 

　　The objective of Wednesday’s meeting was to regroup militants of the working class and social movements in preparation for struggles against Macron’s current wave of repression and austerity. A revolutionary program is needed as an alternative to Melenchon’s electoralism and the union bureaucracy’s sectoralism. Anasse Kazib, a Trotskyist rail worker, argued for a program that “breaks from defensive struggles” and enables us “to wage war with the capitalist system.”

　　The meeting was chaired by Elsa Marcel, an RP member and defense lawyer known for her appearances on French media denouncing Macron’s repression. Speakers included Kazib; Frédéric Lordon, radical economist and philosopher; Salah Hamouri, French-Palestinian human rights lawyer from the collective Urgence Palestine; Mariama Sidibé, activist for undocumented workers from the Collectif des Sans-Papiers de Paris; Christian Porta, RP militant and CGT union delegate currently facing repression by his employer; Daniela Cobet, member of the RP executive committee; and Sasha Yarapolskaya, RP member and activist of the socialist feminist collective Du Pain et Des Rose (Bread and Roses).

　　The speakers drew attention to the wide-ranging attacks being carried out by Macron, the bosses, and the Far Right. These include growing state racism and islamophobia, the criminalisation of palestinian solidarity and migrant workers, and anti-union repression not seen in France since the Second World War. 

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  Deng Panyi

　　From: https://www.leftvoice.org/at-a-meeting-in-paris-1200-people-put-revolution-back-on-the-agenda/（2024-3-12）