Following our statement on the social struggles in Greece in the spring of this year (http://www.leftcommunism.org/spip.php?article154&lang=en) Controversies has mobilized to intervene in all struggles that have developed since, to the modest extent of our presence and possibilities. These interventions have taken diverse forms : the writing of several leaflets ; oral intervention and appeal to assume general assemblies at the work places and in the demonstrations ; appeal to extension and self organizing of the struggles ; selling our revue, etc. According to the possibilities we have realized these interventions in association with other revolutionary groups and elements. In what follows we publish an actualization of the latest leaflet we have distributed in the demonstrations that have unfolded in France in the course of the past weeks :

Jobless, pensioners, jobbers, workers, pupils, students :

Let’s take our struggles in our own hands !

This government, or any other one, has only one solution : to intensify our exploitation ever more !

The Sarkozy government wants to raise the minimal pension age from 60 to 62 or more for all wage earners but, for several weeks, the unions pretend to oppose this in order to contain the worker’s anger, whereas they have accepted the principle of this ‘reform’. Despite the law is on the verge of being voted by the senate, the street cries out its discontent : the number of demonstrators is growing with every demonstration in the whole of France. Strikes are now unleashing in several sectors and become ‘renewable’ : petrol, transport, education, postal services, etc.

The students and pupils understand that a world is being changed : that a miserable life awaits them, and that they have to work harder and longer for miserable pensions. They have joined the movement, which is of a decisive importance for the relations of force between the bourgeoisie and the whole of the working class because, following these austerity measures, there will still be many others to come, given the unrepairable crisis that capitalism is stuck in.

This umpteenth attack against our living conditions (the reform prolongs the duration of capitalist exploitation by two years - and more for some - and aggravates the competition between us in order to find work) is not a particularly French case : In July the ‘socialist’ government of Greece has passed the same type of ‘reform’. There also the working class has demonstrated its resolve in the streets and by strikes. Two weeks ago the working class in Spain has manifested its determination against its bourgeoisie and, last Saturday, the Italian workers expressed their anger at a large rally at Rome ( http://www.leftcom.org/it/images/activities ).

Because of the disastrous economical state of capitalism, no country will be spared and every government will be pushed to make the wage earners pay for the consequences of the crisis, like Britain, Belgium and other countries are preparing to do. A ‘socialist’ or even a ‘leftist’ government does not change anything about it (as the measures taken by the ‘socialist’ Zapatero in Spain show). At Barcelona the demonstrators have not hesitated to occupy a banking office in the city center. The working class has to distrust any promises, regardless who makes them, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the NPA. It has also and above all to reject negotiations behind closed doors by the unions, the employers and the government. Today the stakes are about the working class taking back control over its own struggles, by installing strike committees elected and revocable by its general assemblies, like it has succeeded to do in the mass movement in Poland in 1980.

An important struggle

As the bourgeoisie is being pushed by the laws of the economy in order to carry through this new attack, only a resolute and offensive movement, one that costs her still more by the halt of its industries, can force it to make a step back. We have to establish a real and solid force relation in our favor – like the stops in the petrol and the transport sector are beginning to do – and generalize the strikes by sending massive delegations of workers from factory tot factory and in all possible sectors, in order to have the bourgeoisie back down.

General assemblies after the demonstrations

The struggle against these measure is far from being won, we have to struggle even harder by generalizing the strikes and all possible actions. If the French bourgeoisie ever succeeds in winning, the door is open to the acceleration of new attacks against our living standards.

Even in case of a withdrawal of this law, will we respectably keep waiting for the next attacks to follow inevitably? Will we continue to waste our lives while gaining a living? When will we finally take our future in our own hands ? We have a world to win, a different society to create. Let us start building the force relation by organizing General Assemblies at the end of the demonstrations, to discuss between us, to go further than making a simple ‘walk’ and open up the dialog on the means of action and support, outside any union encapsulation.

Controversies – Forum for the Internationalist Communist Left.

19-10-2010