What has been happening in France since January 2023 comes closest—in terms of its breadth and duration—to a revolutionary situation in an advanced capitalist country in decades. In addition to the objective factors, such as the deepening contradictions of capitalism and the political crisis entailed by this, there is a key subjective factor: a mass movement of revolt. Analysing the significance of the movement, and the lessons to be drawn from it, is decisive both for revolutionaries in France and for those fighting against capitalism throughout the world.
Three weeks earlier, after the enactment of a new law on pensions that sparked unrest, Macron had bragged, in his usual arrogant manner, that the issue was closed. However,hostility to the law was not simply a matter of passive discontent. Led by the trade unions, it rapidly took on a class character. It has involved, at the time of writing in late May, 13 national days of action.
The extent to which some union leaderships adapted to neoliberalism allowed preceding governments to partially erode the protections granted to workers by the pension system. However, Macron decided to embark on a general offensive, concentrating on the red line that none of the union leaderships, even the most moderate, could accept: retirement at 64.
The objective was thus clear. The new law was about provoking and then breaking union resistance and organisation. Despite the law being enacted on 15 April, though, Macron has still lost. The unions are stronger than they were four months ago, reversing a long tendency towards loss of members and weakening of workplace implantation.
One possible result of the movement and with the impasse over the pensions issue might be a period of social and political guerrilla tactics—the devolving of the general struggle into a proliferation of local economic conflicts and political fights. We argued that a strike is not just an economic weapon but, above all, a weapon of collective emancipation. Strikes overcome the atomisation and the alienation forced on workers within the labour process, allowing them to retake control of their lives through collective organisation. Herein lies the importance of “renewable” strikes and spreading them to all workplaces and sectors as well as the significance of fashioning organisation that enables democratic decisions to be taken in workplaces and local areas. There are are numerous other examples of theoretical debates stimulated by practical questions, including about the analysis of fascism (“should we go to Le Havre or stay and demonstrate in Paris?”) and questions of racism or sexism (“are these struggles a diversion from class struggle or an expression of its highest level?”).
The movement is not just a response to the crisis—it is also an accelerant, speeding up the crisis. This makes the development of a revolutionary alternative more urgent than ever.
Editor: Zhong Yao、Liu Tingting
From:http://isj.org.uk/workers-shake-macron/（2023-6-19）