On Monday, December 22, 2025, an accident at the Elkem factory in Saint-Fons, south of Lyon, resulted in two deaths and two serious injuries. This tragic accident is just the latest in a long series, a consequence of the capitalist organization of labor, and should prompt us to question both the management of our production facilities and the facilities themselves. ---- The context of this accident is significant: it occurred in the heart of the chemical valley industrial zone, home to numerous Seveso-classified factories, where it is just the latest in a long line of such incidents. In the same factory, a man was killed in a 2016 fire involving silicone drums in a warehouse, and in 1966 an explosion followed by a fire killed 18 people and destroyed over a thousand homes. Such accidents are inevitable in our capitalist, productivist society, while in 2025, 764 people died from workplace accidents in France and more than 330,000 worldwide. As the FNIC-CGT union points out in its press release, "There are no industrial catastrophes, but rather industrial accidents that are too often linked to problems with work organization."
An inevitable accident
This work organization, in an attempt to maintain profit margins, consists of reducing costs as much as possible through subcontracting, work intensification, and insufficient attention to safety. It is the appropriation of the means of production by the workers that can put an end to this exploitation and these deaths. In the meantime, it is the union struggle that will allow workers to win the means to work without endangering their lives, for fair wages and in dignified conditions. However, this appropriation alone is not enough: we must radically rethink our production.
Productivism in question
The Elkem factory and those in the chemical valley produce goods based on chemicals and petroleum, which implies the extraction of resources-often in developing countries-at the cost of poisoning the air, water, and soil, and displacing many people. In France, these factories release significant quantities of PFAS, persistent pollutants whose harmful effects on health they are well aware of, and they fight against environmental movements and unions to continue doing so, always in the name of their profits. But given the scale of this pollution, will reformist measures be enough? Faced with climate change and the poisoning of our environment, three revolutions are necessary: a revolution in production, a revolution in lifestyles, and a revolution in trade. Faced with this catastrophe, we must envision a world free from capitalism, but also from productivism and consumerism. Delagnelle (UCL Lyon)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Nouvel-article-No-10978
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