WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE TOULOUSE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, UCL AL #359 - Unionism - Toulouse: Libraries lead the fight against austerity (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

 The fight against budgetary austerity in the Toulouse metropolitan area

began in December 2024. Initially a movement of municipal librarians, an
attempt to coordinate with other territorial sectors facing similar
problems is now underway. The hard-right mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc
Moudenc, is a zealous servant of the government's massive sell-off of
public services, with tens of millions of euros in cuts for the city
hall and the metropolitan area. Of course, he has no plans to increase
local taxes for the wealthy segment of his electorate. Without any
consultation with the affected workers or the population who benefit
from these public services, the drastic "social" plan was discovered in
the fall by the librarians of Toulouse Métropole. Non-renewal of
fixed-term contracts and non-replacement of retiring employees,
reduction in document acquisition and operating budgets, and the risk of
closure of small organizations.

Then the struggle began, with occasional strikes and general meetings.
On February 4, a rally to which other sectors fighting against austerity
(departments, cultural actors, universities, etc.) and users were
invited peaked at 300 people. Ten days later, 400 people attended the
public meeting called at the labor exchange.

This dynamic is doubly interesting. On the one hand, in the case of
libraries, the struggle is decided at a general assembly of workers,
combining union members (mainly from the CGT and Sud des collectivités
territoriales) and non-union members. On the other hand, it quickly
seemed obvious and relevant to the various local sectors struggling on
the same issue to coordinate, come together, and develop the next steps,
from librarians to the Rangueil University Hospital, including cultural
centers. Corporatism seems to have been quickly dismissed, but the
question of an effective and sustainable struggle nevertheless arises. A
sufficient number of mobilized workers in each sector, capable of
launching a renewable and massive strike, is needed so that "expanding
the struggle" is not simply a matter of a minority of convinced
individuals. Various left-wing political organizations and opposition
municipal councilors quickly lent their support and raised the profile
of the struggle (social media, local media). It is to be hoped that this
pooling of forces will increase effectiveness, but also that the
autonomy of the workers' social movement will be preserved in the face
of the co-optation of parties, each of which is trying to steal the
spotlight and pursue its own strategies. At the initiative of the
Libraries General Assembly, a new local anti-austerity day is planned
for March 27th, a mobilization open to all staff in the local and
cultural sectors.

Marius (UCL Toulouse)

Follow the Instagram account bibliotheque_en_lutte_toulouse.
https://www.instagram.com/bibliotheque_en_lutte_toulouse/
Strike fund: Toulouse Libraries in Struggle
https://www.cotizup.com/bibliotheques-toulouse-en-lutt

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Toulouse-Les-bibliotheques-menent-la-lutte-contre-l-austerite
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