 |
| source of photo: Agence France Press |
"The revolutionary key to the situation in Europe and in the entire world is now above all in France!" - Leon Trotsky (1934)
two comments on the article by Jerome Metellus:
France: Battle over Pensions - Bring Economy to a Halt !
http://www.marxist.com/france-battle-over-pensionsbring-economy-to-a-halt.htm
J. Metellus wrote: "...After October 12, the movement against the attack on pensions has reached a critical threshold. The great days of action are no longer the centre of gravity, although they are still massive and increasingly militant, as shown by October 19. Now, the central axis of the struggle has shifted onto open-ended strikes and pickets blockading different sectors of the economy..."
[this shift is a tactical response of the movement against the deployment of police and security forces to suppress the social revolt, which is in fact a convergence of social forces against the racist and anti-worker neo-Gaullist regime. the movement started out as a workers movement in opposition to the neo-liberal pension "reform", but as it developed it was joined by the immigrant community and by students; social forces that have their own set of grievances against the Sarkozy regime. the strategy of coordinated labour power withdrawal and blockade of strategic sectors of the economy is hitting the financial oligarchy and the neo-liberal political class right where it hurts them. the development of this movement vindicates the analysis of Karl Marx and Rosa Luxembourg that it is the intensification of class struggle by the working class that serves as primary motor of social revolutionary convergence of social forces against capital. note that it was at the point that the industrial workers paralysed the energy industry, that the movement radicalised into a generalised social revolt against the Sarkozy regime.]
J. Metellus wrote: "The development of an indefinite general strike should be accompanied by democratic centralisation and coordination of the movement. Sectors on strike should coordinate at local and national level, on the basis of delegates elected by General Assemblies, and with the right of recall. A national inter-professional coordination of such delegates could centralise information, circulate it, discuss the movement from day to day and take the necessary initiatives to strengthen the strike. The national "Intersyndical" [trade union alliance], many of whom speak about quitting the movement after the Senate vote, cannot play this role."
[just as the movement has developed as a convergence of social forces, this movement must begin to develop convergent forms of organisation and a convergent program that makes political demands. this is the only way that the specific demands of the workers, the immigrants and the students will come to be implemented. this coordination of sectors on strike at the local and national level culminating in the development of general assemblies could become the basis for the refoundation of france and the emergence of a post-capitalist sixth republic. indeed. assuming the emergence of a post-capitalist sixth republic, as i wrote elsewhere: such a development would tear appart the core of the Franco-German Imperialist Entente and bring down the edifice of the so-called "European Union" (a political and economic front for the Franco-German financial oligarchy). a succesful overthrow of the neo-Gaullist regime by a convergence of worker led social forces would have a direct impact on Spain, Greece, and Iceland. it would paralyse on its tracks the effort to impose the anti-worker neo-liberal economic agenda, it would reverse the overall european trend towards anti-immigrant anti-Roma xenophobic racism, it would empower students accross the continent to revolt against efforts to destroy public education and school democracy through privatisations. i add: it would also be a direct hit upon the entire structure of atlantism in decline and have major geo-political consequneces in favour of multipolarism. France would withdraw its contingent form the AFPAK war and the process of integrating France into NATO (imposed by Sarkozy) would be reversed; meaning that a post-capitalist French Sixth Republic would join the multipolar bloc and ally itself to the Shanghai Pact and ALBA/UNASUR. a post-capitalist French Sixth Republic would also likely utilise its veto in the UN security council to thwart efforts by Anglo-British imperialism to impose Washingtons unipolar dominionist agenda. France is a major developed political-economy and a member of the G8, it also has its own nuclear arsenal. an alliance of a post-capitalist French Sixth Republic with the National Democracies of the West Eurasian Core (Ukraine, Belarus and Russia) would place the final nails in the coffin of the moribund and obsolete NATO imperialist infrastructure./n2]
 |
| photos source: World Socialist Website |
The strike wave in Europe and the decay of bourgeois democracy
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/pers-o20.shtml
"...The growing struggles of the working class in Europe and internationally against mass unemployment and government austerity policies are exposing the reality behind the façade of bourgeois democracy. In every country, the government, whether conservative or nominally “left,” is cutting jobs and wages and slashing social programs in complete disregard for the overwhelming opposition of the population. Elections, parliamentary debates have no effect on policy. The state does the bidding of the financial aristocracy, tearing up the living standards of the masses in the interests of the bankers who are responsible for the economic crisis. The financiers and corporate executives are making more money than ever by exploiting mass unemployment and growing social distress to slash wages and increase the exploitation of the working class. Where the best efforts of the trade unions do not suffice to hold the workers in check and struggles break out that challenge the plans of the capitalists, most prominently in France and Greece, the state uses its powers of repression to smash strikes and protests. In France, the Sarkozy government has deployed riot police to break up workers’ blockades of oil depots and attack protesting students with tear gas and rubber bullets, arresting hundreds across the country..."
[the racist, anti-worker neo-Gaullist regime in France has unleashed the full power of its security forces to suppress the convergence of social forces aligned against the now discredited and desperate government: ]
French President Sarkozy moves to break strikes against austerity measures
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/fran-o21.shtml
"...President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to break strikes against his government’s pension cuts and social austerity policies yesterday, sending riot police and army civil service units to disperse picket lines and end oil depot occupations. Workers and students have mounted mass strikes for more than a week while debate in the Senate has continued over provisions of the pension “reform” bill. A final vote on the bill is expected by early next week..."
[Capitalism is political economy premised upon private ownership of the means of production and on the basis of private ownership of the said means, "the accumulation of (surplus) value by means of the exploitation of wage labor in the process of mass production of commodities". Rosa Luxembourg and the Venezuelan Communists would add that Capitalism also involves systematic police state repression in order to ensure private capital preservation and suppression of working class resistance. The actions of the Neo-Gaullist regime vindicate these analyses:]
How riot police broke the occupation of the Marseille oil depots
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/mars-o21.shtml
"...The French government gave the order Friday morning, October 15, to send in the CRS riot police to unblock the Fos oil depot occupied by workers near Marseille in southern France. The workers were blocking the site to protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension cuts and the partial privatisation of the French ports. The CGT (General Confederation of Labour) called upon workers not to show any resistance to the police..."
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/pers-o22.shtml
"...Police action to break strikes and blockades in the oil sector has not ended France’s fuel shortage or curtailed strikes and protests by workers and students against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s deeply unpopular pension cuts. The French strike wave is the most developed expression of growing working class resistance to the drive by European governments to impose austerity measures in the face of overwhelming popular opposition. The refusal of the unions to organize broader strikes or protests against the police attacks on oil blockades must be taken as a serious warning. These organizations will mount no struggle to defend workers from state violence. On the contrary, they are sending Sarkozy a signal that he can employ even greater police violence with their tacit support..."
---
(CC) Material on this Weblog is licensed by Miguel Angel Torres, under a Creative Commons (by-nc-nd 3.0) [6] license, except for links to articles that are posted with permission. Readers are welcome to share and use material belonging to this site for non-commercial purposes, as long as they are attributed and credited to their author(s), inclusive Miguel Angel Torres.
0 comments:
Post a Comment