(Eng) Les Syndicats sont _toujours_ des bordels

neil birrell (neil@lds.co.uk)
Thu, 14 Dec 1995 01:51:27 +0100

The government is negotiating with the French railways unions. The railways
workers are at the backbone of the movement and if they come to a consensus
with the government, the movement might break. This is why the government
chose to discuss with them.
The union leaders, especially Force Ouvriere, also seem rather ready to
negotiate with the government and compromise. The leader of the latter
union has already hinted, in his language, that he was ready to do so.
On the other hand, it seems to me quite clear that the mass of strikers do
not want any compromise in which they would lose some essential demands ;
and the major unions are looking for a conflict situation (!). The
government is, of course, backed by the financial establishment (the franc
is higher since the Prime Minister decided those measures) and approved by
London, Bonn, etc.
But there are also many people who are not striking and whereas some are
very strongly against the strikes, others have mixed feelings, sympathise
with the strikers although they go on working.
This is not really a social crisis but what the French call a "ras-le-bol",
that is to say that they are fed up with all what is asked from them. The
stupid thing the Prime Minister did was to ask everything at a time instead
of demanding things from one group after the other. The several social
groups then discovered that they had the same problems.
For the time being, even if the strike is one of the most important since
World War II, this does not mean that people are making any revolutionary
demands. As we know, the importance of a movement has no relation with its
radical character. And the union leaders are still, presently, accepted by
their troups, although there are signs that they might be compelled to
follow the more radical grassroot militant. This is the case of another
important union, the C.F.D.T., in which some of the leaders have
desolidarized with their head, who declared that she was satisfied.
Therefore, although it is too early to predict any outcome, there are no
reasons to get very excited for the time being. There is no reason to
despairor to hope, but plenty of arguments to continue the fight. In this
era of acceleration of history, every hour may see the world changing.

Ronald Creagh
Universite Paul Valery
B. P. 5043
34032 Montpellier Cedex 1
France
Fax (Domicile/Home) : (33) 67 64 77 23

THE UNIONS ARE _STILL_ BROTHELS

Louis Viannet is the leader of the communist trade union in France - the
CGT. In this position he is at the head of the union whose membership
contains large numbers of people who have been on strike for nearly three
weeks and in particular the railway workers who have brought about a wave of
industrial unrest which is paralysing France.

The opinion polls in France - for what they are worth - show that the French
people fully support the strikers and yesterday they showed their support by
taking to the streets. The Unions put the figure at around 2,000,000 whereas
official figures grudgingly admit to 1,000,000. As we have pointed out
before these figures need to be seen in the context of lack of transport
making it hard for people to get to the demonstrations. And despite the
disagreements as to who turned up all are agreed that these are the biggest
demonstrations to be seen in France since the second world war.

So given this situation where labour seemingly has the state by the throat
what exactly does M. Viannet want? Last Sunday he told us: a meeting with
the prime minister.

No sooner asked for than granted and so on Monday Alain Juppe' sat down
individually with the union leaders in the beginning of what is to be seen
as a process of 'dialogue'. M. Juppe' has nothing to lose by talking to M.
Viannet and his ilk. Now the spectacle can begin. The next stage is for a
'round table' conference bringing all the 'interested parties' together. So
we can expect to see the CGT sit down with the bosses so they can work out
an 'honourable agreement' so the France can get back to 'normality'.

We can begin to see the danger which is coming directly from the trade
unions. For they know as well as anyone that M. Juppe' has nothing to offer
them.

He has so far offered a couple of small concessions to the railway workers
in the hope of being able to prize them away from the movement which is
growing around their action. But M. Juppe's agenda is essentially other than
this. The process of European economic integration has set its sights on a
single currency to be in place by the end of the century. For this to be
achieved the French State knows that it will have to get its budget deficit
down from where it currently stands (5%) to where it needs to be to satisfy
the demands of Maastricht (3%) and even the savage proposals he has already
put forward which France is up in arms against will only deal with 1% of the
required 2% gap. M. Juppe' - despite nice cozy chats with "communists" - has
no choice. Within the liberal framework which the communists want a part of
we are talking austerity programmes like France has never seen before.

As we say it is the attitude of both sides that an agreement 'must be
reached' and it is to be expected that this 'dialogue' will be the agenda in
the establishment media over the next few days/weeks. But there is a nagging
doubt at the back of M. Viannet's mind and he shares it with M. Juppe'. When
the agreement is reached what if the workers refuse to return to work? What
if the union leaders lose control of their membership? What if the workers
take control of their own strike instead of being mere consumers of the
media spectacle? The answers to such questions for both M. Juppe' and the
CGT leadership borders on the unthinkable and smells of anarchy.

Let's hope the people when they make their choice (and it is theirs)
consider carefully who can best represent their interests. The answer is of
course that it is they themselves and they alone. Instead of dialogue they
need to up the ante: the next stage will have to be occupations on a massive
scale.

Neil Birrell

FREEDOM PRESS
http://www.lglobal.com/TAO/Freedom