AFTER SOME of the most extensive strike action in Europe since 1968 the struggle against Prime Minister Juppé's onslaught on social security, health, education and welfare have been suspended. But Juppé is not out of the woods.
It is difficult to see how Juppé can find a long term solution to the central problem — how to placate the union Icaders, who are under massive pressure from their members, and satisfy the Maastricht criteria for a single European currency.
Important concessions have already been won by the strikers and their supers who were in the forefront of the Concessions Suppé was forced to scrap plans to restructure the railways. halt privatisa. tion talks, sack the railway chairman and leave intact the special pension rights of rail workers. Students have also won important concessions from Education Minister Bayrou.
The discussions of the social summit which took place just before Christmas in which Juppé was forced to raise the question of the reduction of the working week to combat unemployment opens up a new target for the struggle of the workers movement. Unemploy. ment looks set to rise to over 3 million in the Spring according to the governments own forecast.
The Ligue Communiste Révolution. naire (French section of the Fourth In. temational have made a 32 hour week with no loss of pay one of the key slogans during the upheavals.
Confidence
Obviously the confidence of the French workers was massively in. creased by the strikes and demonstrations. Tens of thousands participated in daily strike meetings, while many others who were not on strike lined the streets to hail the massive demonstra. tions which brought the whole of France to a standstill.
Militancy was by no means confined you news, reports and analysis of struggles from across the world. To ensure you receive your copy, subscribe now! Annual subscriptions in Britain and Ireland costs E22. Send to Outlook International, PO Box 1109, London, N4 2UU. Make cheques & POs payable to Outlook International. Name. Address. Post Code Telephone, The Lique CommunisteRraltionnaire won on eager audience for revolutionary ideos to Paris. Astronomical proportions of the population in provincial cities such as Rouen and Marseilles were involved in actions Students were a vital compo. nent of the fightback. The fight spread from Rouen to other campuses outside and then later extended to the large universities in the capital.
The demands of today's French students are not for professors off the campuses but for more money and teachers. At the same time students organised not only at campus level but through a national co-ordinationing body of elected delegates from each of the universities #vorcu. Ency nave also called for the repeal of the viciously racist Pasqua laws.
There have been limitations to the struggle. Despite the popularity of slogans such as "Public, private: together we can win' on the mass demonstrations, there was a complete refusal by the leaderships of the big union confed. crations to call for strike action in the private sector.
Strikes
The CGT (the Communist-led trade union federation) Congress of December passed a resolution calling for the generalisation of the strikes against the wishes of Viannet and the rest of the leadership.
But the rejection of a call for a general strike was key because private sector workers have lost the right to pensions after 37 and a half years.
The Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire, has been a key force in the fight against the Juppé plan. In particular they have been the only force on the French left to call for a general strike.
As a result some militants of the French Communist Party (PCF), whose leader has argued that Juppé should not resign, have rushed to help the Ligue with flyposting. Such debates will lead to a deepening crisis inside the PCF.
The struggles in France have been an inspiration to many workers across Europe, many of whom faced similar assaults on the wetare state as embod ied in the Juppé plan. We now need to turn the anger into action.
way for multinationals to evict This raised the stakes mas. tional way for the West Socialist Outlook 95 • January 20 1996.
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