After students break stalemate French workers show
And while Deng and his gang may have chosen chiberal on occasion to invoke
arguments to strengthen hand of economic reformers against old Party routinists, they have no intention of allowing students let alone workers - to achieve democratic rights which might challenge their monopoly of political control.
Hence Deng's horror at the failure of Hu Yaobang to stamp on the demonstrations, and his attempts, through the exemplary sacking of Hu, to pull the bureaucracy into line, unchallengeable authority Communist Party.
The revolutionary victory of peasant-based Red Army imperialist-sponsored nationalist regime of Chiang Kai Shek in 1949 created very different circumstances from Eastern Euorpe following the arrival Stalin's Red Army liberation forces. one common feature between the Chinese Communist Party and its East European equivalents has remained its hostility to any independent movement working class: the result has been a so-called "dictatorship of the proletariat" in China in which the organised proletariat has never held real power in its hands. Deng and his cronies share a determination to keep it that way. their teeth
By JACK GOLDBERG
LAST October 30,
senate gave a quiet approval to
the "Devaquet law" proposing a
"restructuring • of the univer-
sities". The debate went on so
smoothly that no squeak of op-
position was to be heard.
A few days later, the main student
union UNEF-ID (independent
democratic) — close to the Socialist
Party - kicked off a half-hearted
campaign to inform students of the
dangers of the so-called university
reforms. The pessimism of the union
was echoed by a meeting of its ex-
ecutive as late as Novemebr 15th,
which estimated the
hopeless and decided that any hope
for action was pure fiction.
As for Prime Minster Chirac and
his right wing coalition,
the limit. Their electoral success, last March 16, gave them a not uncomfor-
table working majority.
teething troubles of the coalition had
certain the Chinese own RONALD Reagan's administration student relentlessly pressure on Nicaragua. upholding the of the hard by the gradually Mao's many as 7,000 US troops. the over arrived and those military construction of But more sustained military offensive. by the effort against Nicaragua. has revealed that the own the French and situation as Chirac sailed mat and working class legislation. the sky was divisions and, The early antagonisms
Reagan turns the screw crisis-hit has been increasing its A new round of military manoeuvres Honduran will border grow in scope to involve as Early in January the first contingents of 200 paratroopers been under of cover the"exercises" roads, airfields, and other will This projects be $100m carried on, creating the conditions for a Meanwhile new evidence has emerged of the arm-twisting exerted by the US State Department to compel its Honduran and new Costa Rica "allies" to assist its covert war Sandinistas' The former US ambassador to Honduras economy, USA forced the Hondurans to accept £210m military aid in March 1986, while economic blackmail to keep Costa Rica in line has included US been momentarily swept under the through ar- rogantly with a whole battery of anti- His master project was precise and emerge pacemaker, lucid, and commanded strong sup- port from his class. Despite strong at times, labyrinthine the different between Socialist Viewpoint No. 15 February 1987 p10
vetoes on a World bank loan and obstacles to the rescheduling of $4,000 in debts.
Costa Rica's President Oscar Sanchez has put Washington's nose out of joint by expelling a few contras, closing some of their barely concealed military bases in Costa Rica, and sticking with the reformist Contadora process, seeking a negotiated settlement in Central America.
In Nicaragua itself, the Sandinistas have
forced to contend both on the borders and central districts of the country with intensified Contra tension.
Thas been fuelled by Reagan's aid package last autumn, and a diversion from squalid revelations of the "Contragate" scandals
Constitution has just been adopted in Nicaragua which repeats the
commitment toa "mixed" non-alignment and political pluralism, though Interior Minister Tomas Borge declared rather ambiguously that
"We accept the mixed economy and pluralism like Norway accepts the cold." factions of the Right, Chirac was determined to balance between the different factional interest and
Tas the charismatic outdistancing all his competitors to become President of France in 1988.
So the first round of legislation was
Students rocked Chirao government's complacency carefully packaged to start, almost | Communist-Party surreptitiously, eating away at all the gains that the French working class has made during the last decade: the laws on Education were to be followed by a new racist nationality law abolition of social security reimPrivatisation of the national was the next major project. strategy would be no more than a
Cof paper if it did not set out from the start to bleed the working class. And it was on the assumption that workers would not fight back that, having successively achieved a wage freeze in 1986, Chirac undertook to limit wages to 3% in 1987.
In the face of this well-planned onslaught sp and CP — did, not sur- the traditional workers' prisingly, very little to organise the vorking class to fight back. Their bit ter divisions, since the defeat of last March, have grown
The Socialist Party is now busy carving up a bigger niche in the French electoral landscape in its hope to win the biggest share of the electorate. In the preparation for their next Congress in Lille, several currents' leaders are already jockeying for positions in the race to succeed Mitterrand.
As for the CP, their humiliation at the last election is stil working its way through, throwing thousands activists into despair demoralisation.
The trade unions didn't fare any better. The new political ordeal put them in a situation they rarely faced. Not only are the main trade unions CGT and CFDT further apart, but the
LYLE MaPLE has also lost massive membership (from 2.1 million in 1968 to 1.6 million in 1983).
This contraction and the absence of a wider political project was seized rationalise their reluctance to engage in any action, however defensive, in the fear that their members wouldn't
revolutionaries combativity of the working class. For many, the picture was of doom and despair with nothing moving at least in the foreseeable future.
And this despite a one-day public seemonstrations whose size supprised even their most optimistic organisers. The CGT organised a demonstration of its section in Paris, drawing some 25,000 members on October 24th. demonstration ( in fact 4 separate marches of the rival confederations
CFDT, FO and FEN) totalled 35,000 on October 21st; and finally the FEN (Education trade demonstration people on November 23.
Tin general terms, the and line up November 17, when a mutiny of students at Villateneuse university
snowballed, throwing Chirac and his cronies into total disarray.
In less than 2 weeks, it grew from universities throughout the country vere ripped by strikes, quickly to be followed by students from higher
From the FEN demonstration of Socialist Viewpoint No. 15 February 1987 pl1
CON DEVAGUET UNITE D'ACTION IDANT LACKENS November 23, students unions from Paris universities who were already on strike, called for a general strike of all students as from November 27, to coincide with the beginning of the debate on the Devaquet law at the National Assembly
On November 27, 200,000 students took to the streets from the Sorbonne to the Assembly, while some 400,000 took action throughout France - the biggest mobilisation of youth since
An elected strike committee was by
permanently to ordinate action and negotiations.
another was called for December 4.
Othe swirl of this gigantic movement, compromise. Sandwiched his hardliners (who tried to make
Tout of his demist) Chirac played for time in very uncertain
He then made vague promises of redrafting sections of the legislation that were most unpopular - to show some degree of flexibility, but also hoping to confuse wider layers of the
At the same time, he asked his
--tion Minister Rene Monory to take large of negotiating with the students. He also nudged his Interior Minnister Charles Pasqua to sharpen up the intervention by the CRS (riot
The demonstration of December 5th confounded the wildest estimates. Some 500,000 people marched and as they approached the rally in Place des Invalides were savagely attacked by the CRS. This provocation, and the breakdown of negotiations (in fact
there were no real negotiations, only Monory putting the case to a student delegation) were an important turning point, as studnets' hopes for a settlement were dashed.
By December 5, the movement had become openly anti-government, and a big Paris demonstration occupied the Sorbonne. Not far from there, the CRS made a push to clear the streets and it is then that a young student Malik Oussekine was murdered cold blood by the police.
The news of the murder spread like wildfire and "transformed movement. A swift and escalation was looming dangerously
Devaquet resigned. committee called for a general strike movement was divided over it: CGT (in favour of a one hour stoppage!) and FEN were in support; the CFTC and CGC were against, while the CFDT preferred to wait and see.
This was the final straw. December 8, Chirac capitulated and withdrew the legislation. Never in the history of the French movement has a victory been so swift and so decisive. And it was a victory against all odds.
The new generation of students was written off by many from the start as hopelessly apolitical, as motivated by greed, individualism and satisfaction. Well, the sons daughters of the rebels of '68 have confounded all the doubters and put their hallmark in the course of French history.
While it is still too early to measure the future of such a movement, its success in changing the relationship of forces is beyond doubt. explains the awakening of the French labour movement that
realise suddenly that government defeated was enough for workers to ability of students to fight had not been entirely unfounded. But what
perhaps as novement soon lerned its politica essons. It soon experienced polic brutality, it soon pushed to the limit the non-political balanced approach and at the end of the day, it matured movement need highlighting: firstly the strike committee gave leadership throughout; and what kept it united and at the same time authoritative demcoracy. Never have
precisely exhaustively debated and the broad movement allowed every current its ay with the majority view prevailing Mandates were respected.
government's some smooth in the costly On student self- and Chirac and Devaquet played by the This movement quickly the JCR (LCR Ouvrière, and the David Assouline, respect for his ability to chair and meetings of the strike co-ordinating an apolitical Education Minister Monory. importance and its leaders played at times a crucial role: Isabelle Thomas president of UNEF-ID and most mportantly its president Philippe Lambert's PCI, but now close to the leaderless, the Trotskyists steered the movement towards a confrontation with the government. Looking back at May scrupulously achieved the Socialist Viewpoint No. 15 February 1987 p12
(by The second aspect was the role Trotskyists times led from the front, at others led from the back, but in all instances wage transformed a precise There was important involvement action from the Vargists) through committee, and at one stage led the The weight of the UNEF-ID has Despite claims by the French '68, the students then never degree same
democracy and, in fact, in the early stages had no clear political strategy. The movement was more anarchistic and more sectarian (one of its main
"election, piège à cous"
"elections? con-trick!") and it was
Othe movement matured that the students made a turn towards workers. The 1986 movement, despite a certain naïvety - marched on the National Assembly from day one. situation, but was a constant marker for all workers to emulate. And they
dust settled, than workers in transport, railways,
harbours and aviation took up the relay baton almost spontaneously. The movement at that time couldn't have been other than spontaneous. tens of thousands of workers woke upone morning with the sudden urge to set up picket lines. work had already been done in some strikes tht spread to certain areas.
Gare du Nord in Paris, particulary, had been for some time
growing unrest which culminated in a work-to-rule by
sections. But what stirred its legislation
Why should they end endure any longer a wage freeze which had been forced on them since November 1985 government); previous socialist
Why should they accept the SNCF's (French railways) survival plans which were formulated under order from Chirac to balance its books and which introduced a new
struture based on merit and their working conditions? The time was ripe for
Tand railway workers had no hesitation in taking up the cudgels.
From the start they had to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. By the time the strike started to spread, CFTC and CGC) had already agreed the new conditions on December 23. The company, having established a constituencY had hopes for its new working their senses and follow suit.
determination of the pickets, which involved initially only engineers — a total of 18,000 out of the 250,00 railworkers — brought to a halt the national network in a matter of days despite vicious attacks by the CRS. Trade union officials made some timid efforts to limit the action but it was too and soon all railworkers were on strike. wrongfooted, started looking for a way out, and offered independent arbitration to work out a compromise.
By then, the movement was so strong that trade union officials did not dare to interfere. The emergence of rank become a new factor in the situation. necessity not only of keeping control of the national co-ordination but also of beig involved in any negotiations that might take place.
This provided a formidable cement activists not just aross the different sectors of the railway but also across Nevertheless experienced real difficulties. improvement in working never crystallised properly. This was
understandable result of the workers eager reverse at once all of the changes that Furthrmore, the level of democracy determining grievances: while they all pointed in the right direction, the shopping list appeard untidy and confusing. was to be a determinging factor in the return to work as workers were also
about what was on the
Secondly, the relationship between the strike co-ordinating committees problematic: the committees was not insignificant. In opposite point of view.
Tand a naive rank and filism divisions. One of the representing of workplaces participate in their own right in the negotiations. The other "national coordination" was in favour of officials negotiating alone. differences, and kept topping up the offer until conditions were created (independent), FO and CFDT wanted
Ideal, while the feraing the strength of the strike
chose to make recommendations.
On the wage front, the contentious new salary scale was withdrawn by the SNCF. There was also an offer to consolidate certain bonuses in the wage packet and improve others, and increase the number of promotions from 5,000 to 5,800. Finally, Company offered an increase on basic salary of 1% in June 1987 and 0.7% in October 1987.
Workers, having made important gains on their salaries, felt victory at
Tand pressed
days (at present 116), 18 Sundays off (at present 14); changes in the working week (5 days work followed by 2 days leave; at present 6/2 or even 7/2); improved rostering; no work on nights after Sunday rests (giving 48 hour instead of 36 hour rest); improved conditions in rooms; and better terms for casual concessions, the SNCF made vague negotiations but only once the offer was accepted
The trade unions sat on the fence, organisations would not stand the stress. And this is exactly what has
Tas the movement slowly crumbled, in total confusion.
Some workers thought they had won everything they wanted; others thought this was the best that could be achieved, while a minority core improvements
were secured. As the decisions were taken depot by depot, the strike c-ordinating were too weak to build a natinal opposition to the offer.
depots, even when a continue the strike, they finally went back to work in order not to break their unity with the minority
SNCF's offensive has been momentarily checked and this had
Td emerged determined to win. However achievements extremelly significant. Socialist Viewpoint No. 15 February 1987 p13
But it had its limits. It has shown that rank and file organisations can achieve much, but wind up sold short unless they resolve the question leadership in the unions as a whole. We have seen here in the case of fended off trade union vacuum remained — which sooner or later would be filled by those same
This is why they led the negotiations and this is why they will lead the forthcoming negotaitons for a new wage structure. strikers didn't suffer from isolation. In fact important strikes broke out in the RATP (Paris buses and metro), and EDEEGF (Electricity and gas); there was an embryo of a strike in the Post
Tand an ongoing guerrilla warfare brought many harbours to a
Most of these strikes — apart from the sailors' which was about jobs were over wages and improved working conditions. This, and the enthusiasm and the determination of the strikers, were the only features that made them similar railstrike. None of them achieved the same peak or the same degree of self-organisation.
In the RATP (Paris buses and metro) the strikers never succeeded in shutting down the service. One unions involved chose different days to pull out the maximum of their members. January 7 was the hardest day, as strikers blockaded three main depots and shut down nearly 50% of workers across the craft and trade
union divide.
The SAT representing more than 50% of metro skilled drivers wanted a increase of 400-500FF to keep parity with the SNCF suburb drivers. The other unions (CGT, CFDT, CFTC, GCG) wanted wage increases to catch up with the purchasing power in 1986 and 1987 (around: 7-8%), rejection of merit increments, rejection of job losses, and full implementation of the 1983 wage structure.
The RATP made concessions: for the SAT drivers bonus of 150FF in exchange for the transfer of 4 days rest from the sumer period - usually a busy period - to the winter period. For the rest an increase in wages of 2.98% in two instalments: 1.2% on 0.5% on September 1. The minority unions (representing some 40% of the workers) grabbed at the deal, while the CGT, CFDT and SAT continued on strike.
Further negotiations centred whether a special bonus ("glissement vieillesse technicite") of 1.7% was included or not in the calculations However, on January 13, the broke ranks and suspended strike, the Company having them everything the demand ot including the parity increase FF500.
Unlike the railway workers, transport workers remained divided in their sectors and in their respective unions. Also the officials charge of the negotiations and finally made recommendations to mass meetings.
However, the result was equally significant. The eagerness to almost unanimously whenever they were asked to take action. craftist traditions and the disastrous divisions between the different trade unions allowed the RATP to limit the damage. For the most powerful it was an easy push: the ST members won their demands in 8 days!
The electricity strike was not that
different. Again the different unions
involved decided not to shut down
the network but to proceed with 24
hour revolving strikes, involving no
more than 50L§ of workers at any one
time, with a peak around January 7.
Othe strike started
resulting in cuts, some of the unions
took fright and offered to limit the
cuts to 20%, spread across the
network in order to bring down even
further their duration. The company
responded to this gesture of goodwill
by offering some
consolidation of a 0.4% bonus in the
1986 wage review,
rise of around FF1,700 for 1986 and
1987.
offer were
negotiations on working conditions.
The CFDT was quick to oblige and
(independent) monthly FO, loss in quick June 1 and on Rail strikers recommend acceptance. Despite an uncertain delegate meeting (605 for and 578 against with 14 abstentions SAT the given agreement on Monday 12. The CGT, cpaital denouncing the the were in violent action sailors then at a later stage by all sections of staff employed by the port authorities. fight biting, holding out until the last minute. gathered momentum, concessions: and an average also further
12 votes not cast), the CFDT
made maximum betrayal of Secretary) before finally suspending
The most determined and at times
was taken first by
What was at stake was perhaps the disappearance of the totality of jobs
merchant navy. The government "survival plan" allowed the maritime companies to transfer all their ships to a flag of convenience. This meant the end of all the trade union agreements and the sacking of harbours, with Marseilles the hardest
daily battles with the CRS After two weeks of the government caved in and agreed to freeze all the applications for registration received after December 22. Here the same pattern was repeated with the CGT
In the Post Office, the strike never
Tand remained confined to small pockets. Less than 1% of workers were on strike, but a signiticant situation developed in the
post office in Paris where around 200 staff were on strike. In view of the involvement of Trotskyist activists — the PCI (Lambertist) and
The CGT preferred to play | down this action - the biggest Socialist Viewpoint No. 15 February 1987 p14
support for the strike - and instead focussed its fire on the CFDT which resolutely refused to be involved.
It is yet too early to measure with accuracy to what extent the students' relationship of forces. view would recognise this victory as a
event which created a brief favourable conjuncture where powerful sections of workers advantage and pressed home some improvements in conditions.
did not do that badly. After the initial shock of the students' battering ram, major industrial conflicts achieved guidelines of 3%.
A more facile analysis would see acquired political maturity and ready for another tidal wave.
The reality is far more complex and the outcome far from settled. Yes, the doubters. Yes, the working class has
Tand proved that its combativity is still intact. Even the CGT has revived its fortunes.
By supporting every struggle, by holding until the last minute until after every single other union has capitulated, the CGT has cynically put all its energy into projecting the image of being the only union that is fighting. Krazucki, general secretary, scored his biggest
Tat the height of the the French media accused confrontation with the government!
The overall picture can only be one of optimism. The workers have come through with increased confidence and the battles ahead in the public service, in education and in industry may well prove to be the next decisive test.
Conference" - or a