WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE uk United Kingdom - news journal UPDATE - (en) UK, ACG: September 18th in France (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 A week after the Block Everything day on September 10th in France, a

million took part in strikes and demonstrations against the neo-liberal
policies of the Macron regime. ---- This follows the fall of the
government led byFrançois Bayrou, who was forced to resign after a vote
of no confidence. Macron then appointed  former Defence Minister
Sébastien Lecornu as the new prime minister. These minority governments,
weakened by the 2024 elections, have had to make various agreements and
fixes with opposition parties , in order to stay in power.

On September 17th, a day before the strikes and demonstrations, Lecornu
met with the leadership of the Socialist Party, themselves not adverse
to implementing neo-liberal policies. A dirty deal to keep Lecornu and
Macron may be cobbled together. As for the far-right Renouveau National
(RN), led by Marine Le Pen, they have stated that they "understand" the
discontent, whilst of course taking no part in it, hoping to
hypocritically garner votes in forthcoming elections.

The following day, after calls from the main unions-CGT, CFDT, FO,
CFE-CGC, CFTC, UNSA, FSU, and Solidaires- a million joined in actions.
The Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, as he had done the previous
week, brought out 80,000 cops and gendarmes, and again deployed armoured
vehicles and water cannon.

Tear gas grenades were fired at demonstrators in Paris, Nantes and
Marseille, and a blockade of traffic in Toulouse was broken up. The
police also attacked demonstrators in Lyon and Rennes. In Paris, the
cops attacked several demonstrations during the course of the day.

In Paris and the surrounding Île-de-France, bus drivers and tube workers
came out on strike. As a result, only automated lines operated, whilst
other lines were seriously affected.  Strikes at power plants fell by
around 4,000 MW, the equivalent of the output of four nuclear reactors.
Many primary school teachers came out on strike, with as many as 45% in
Paris. Blockades of schools and universities again took place as they
had on September 10th. A hundred rail workers managed to gain access to
the Ministry of Economy and set off flares.

Many health workers also walked out. Pharmacists also took action, with
18,000 of 20,000 pharmacies in France closed down. At Le Mans,
pharmacists took this further , with a sit-in strike. Workers in tax
offices and in public utilities also went out, with 12% of civil
servants out, twice that of September 10th.

Once again, Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) were to be seen, as at
Besançon. There were 700 blockades of roundabouts and roads and
motorways.  120,000 demonstrated in Marseille, 55,000 in Paris, 40,000
in Toulouse, 10,000 in Nantes, and large demonstrations in Besançon,
Clermont-Ferrand, Tours and hundreds of other towns, over 260
demonstrations in total.

The police made a total of 309 arrests.

This day of action was in response to cuts to public services, reforms
to unemployment insurance, freezes on civil servant and contract worker
salaries, reductions in social benefits, pension deindexation, potential
cuts to paid leave, and cuts in education, research, subsidised
university meals, which helps poorer students. In addition, as in Italy,
there is widespread disgust at increased military spending, and at the
increasing gap between the rich and the poor, with big corporations
receiving tax benefits worth EUR270 billion.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2025/09/27/september-18th-in-france/
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