WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, UCL AL #351 - Unionism, Far Right in the legislative elections: A class and mass counter-offensive (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 "We are not the least bit frightened by the ruins. We will inherit the

earth, there is no doubt about it. The bourgeoisie can destroy and ruin
its own world, before leaving the stage of history. We carry a new world
here in our hearts." Buenaventura Durruti, Spanish anarcho-syndicalist
worker. ---- Whatever the results of the early legislative elections,
without denying that these results will influence the immediate
political and social situation, we will have to continue to mobilize to
advance our demands. Only collective struggles can constitute an
alternative to liberalism and fascism. What can we rely on during this
period? What is the role of revolutionaries? How to achieve victories?

Strikes have increased since the Covid-19 crisis
If there is a fundamental movement established since Covid-19, it is
that of conflict in the workplace. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of
individual days not worked due to strikes increased by 71%! At the
forefront of demands: remuneration.

In Loire-Atlantique, several sectors have experienced strikes this year,
including metallurgy, agri-food, construction (INEO, subsidiary of
Bouygues), the press (Ouest France), digital services companies (Smile,
Capgemini , Accenture), etc. For these last two companies, this is an
event in itself, as the sector is a union desert in proportion to the
number of employees.

Numbers are not enough
Our camp often denounces the figures of billions of profits of
capitalists to mobilize. But this has a distancing effect, the figures
being too far from the reality of workers. Workers' strikes start from a
simple observation: the difficulty of making ends meet, the boss's
arbitrariness, the unworthy conditions, etc. Knowing that the company is
making record profits is important, but it is not the main information
for launching a strike. It is the reality on the ground that takes
precedence.

Whatever the political side of the government, only the balance of power
in the streets and workplaces will lead to social conquests for workers.
RED PHOTO LIBRARY
The majority of business owners, wanting an end to strikes, are revising
their proposals upwards. If the proposals are so low that the employers
control the margin of increase, that does not necessarily make it a
defeat for our camp. Because we also need to see what a strike climate
allows in a company. Let's take the example of the February 2024 strike
at the Kuehne Nagel company near Angers[1]. Activity on the platform
began in 2020, employing 400 employees, mainly temporary workers and
immigrant workers. Working conditions are particularly difficult there,
wages low, and precariousness everywhere.

No union organization or culture was present. The perseverance of a
union team not part of the company, and the help of the local CGT union
to establish itself in this factory, allowed the creation of a small
section, of the link with the other workers a dynamic of solidarity
between temporary workers and internal workers. Following the
announcement of an increase in the rate which is added to all other
operating conditions, 200 employees on permanent contracts, and up to
90% of temporary workers, decide to strike. First with two-hour walkouts
the first two days and strike with occupation of the factory the last
two days.

Open possibilities
Taken by surprise, and with failed attempts at divisions, the boss then
had to sign an agreement to end the strike after four days with:
1. cancellation of the increase in production rates;
2. the hiring of 80 temporary workers on permanent contracts;
3. the increase of 130 euros per month in the productivity bonus. A real
victory considering the situation less than a semester before!
Without forgetting the culture of links and solidarity that has been
established between workers since this mobilization, this example shows us:

1. The importance of a combative local inter-professional Union which
brought the experience of its activists (legal, anticipation of the
boss's traps, logistical support, etc.) to workers who no longer wanted
to let it happen.

2. That even in the private sector with different types of contacts
(permanent contracts, temporary workers, etc.) it is possible to strike
and win.
But the few scattered victories in companies cannot hide the forest of
destruction of the planet and working conditions. This is why we must
strengthen ourselves and seize the defense tools of our class and open
the breaches. Despite its imperfections and limitations, the union is a
central organizing tool in the workplace. Undoubtedly, its current forms
do not respond to all workplace configurations, nor to the major
transformations of recent decades.

Our role as revolutionaries
Our role is to build our collective strength in the union tool, without
emptying it of its political meaning: a means of maintaining conflict,
even defensive, between us producers of wealth and Capital. As
libertarian communists, if we have called for making the tactical choice
to vote for the New Popular Front to prevent the arrival of the far
right to power, we remain convinced that our role is to participate,
strengthen and unify the struggles who emerge from our social class.

Whether on wages, ecological struggles, anti-imperialist struggles,
against wars, or oppression. Our energy must be focused on this
objective: organizing our class, our social camp. The power to act and
change reality will come from mobilizing the masses.

Organize over the long term
We have lost the battle for our pensions in 2023; the vice of the
bourgeoisie asphyxiates our daily lives. Today, our class is threatened
by the coming to power of the far right. If the prospects of
revolutionary and emancipatory re-enchantments do not emerge in the near
future, this should not impose the inevitability of defeat, or resignation.

Let us take stock of our commitments and our actions, what did not work
in the social movements and our mistakes, and let us build through the
smallest actions our power to act on reality. Starting with what may
seem banal: anchoring yourself in your territory and forging links in
the neighborhood, the workplace, a place of learning and with those
around you. No fighting force without anchoring.

UCL Nantes

To validate
[1]"Near Angers, why temporary workers and permanent employees are
striking at Kuehne-Nagel", Ouest-France, February 1, 2024.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Extreme-droite-aux-elections-legislatives-Une-contre-offensive-de-classe-et-de
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