A few weeks ago, French President Macron lectured an unemployed youth on how he could find a job “just by crossing the road”. And his contempt continues to shine. Only a few days ago, he was challenged by a retiree who was not happy with her pension. Macron’s answer? “The one thing you’re not allowed to do is complain.”

Because Macron serves the bosses’ interests, he dreams of workers who accept exploitation, layoffs and pressure without saying a word. Well that’s yet another reason for workers to show him whenever they can that they don’t accept his policies and are going to oppose them!

Retirees are absolutely right to protest against any reduction of their income! To live without being in need is the very least they should aspire to after a full working life.

It’s sick-making to hear Macron justify the freezing of pensions and the increase of the CSG for retirees[i] in the name of “intergenerational solidarity”. He’s attacking retirees for the same reason that he wants to diminish the rights of the unemployed and reduce all state expenditure on vital public services that are useful to the population–health, education, housing, etc. These reductions have an immediate effect on the working class and their only use is to finance the tax breaks given to big bosses and a minority of privileged rich people!

After his labor legislation “reform”, which in fact meant reducing workers’ rights, Macron has confirmed that he now wants to “reform” the retirement system. Yet again, we can expect new attacks and the deterioration of living conditions for numerous categories of workers.

Macron says he wants to set up “a more just system”. But for as long as workers see part of their wages being taken away to pay for their retirement pension, there will be no justice! Bosses steal the riches created by workers so they should pay for retirement pensions in full. That would be a just system. But justice for the workers will have to be imposed.

Macron’s contempt should be a lesson to us. To make those who exploit and govern us back down, we need to make them fear us and we have the collective strength to do so. The workers mustn’t accept that their standard of living be sacrificed to allow a minority of wealthy capitalists to get richer.

Several unions have called for strikes and demonstrations on October 9, to protest against Macron’s policies. We must of course seize this opportunity to protest against attacks from bosses and the government.

But days of protest, however successful, are not enough to move the balance of power to the workers’ side. Determined fights on a wide scale and real, unpredictable social explosions are needed. We must be conscious that neither the working class nor the population at large can hope for improvement until big capital’s hold on the economy has been broken and the power of the bourgeoisie has been overturned.

Its economic system is sinking deeper into crisis and the capitalist class can only hope to increase its profits by increasing exploitation, unemployment and job insecurity. No matter which party is in power, the only way for governments to satisfy the cupidity of this profiteering minority is to wage what amounts to social war on workers.

The domination of this class of bourgeois parasites is driving the world towards catastrophe, towards an economic crisis that’s going to be even worse than the current one. It is essential to humanity that society be rid of this domination.

Only the working class has the power to lead this social change up to the very end, to when capitalism has been wiped out. Workers are at the heart of everything. They make everything work in all sectors of activity and it is they who create the riches that are today appropriated by a minority.

Their essential social role gives them the ability to completely reorganize the economy so that the needs of the greatest number are satisfied.

But if workers are to use the massive strength at their disposal, they must organize themselves with the conscious goal of taking over the running of society.