The boos and whistles of disapproval that greeted Macron and the scuffles at the Salon de l’Agriculture showed that the farmers' anger is still intact. Under pressure from demonstrators, Macron was forced to make new announcements.

To farmers in difficulty, he has promised a year of exoneration for the repayment of their loans. The farmers called for this measure but the state would never offer it to over-indebted working-class households.

He has announced a minimum price for each product based on the farmers’ actual costs . But the workers on minimum salary are well aware that it doesn’t allow anyone to escape poverty. Ensuring a minimum price was already the aim of the Egalim law, voted in 2018 and revised in 2021. It had no effect because, in the jungle of the capitalist economy, prices are the result of the worldwide balance of power between agri-food and retail groups.

The Lactalis group is bleeding milk producers dry so that the Besnier family remains in the top 10 French fortunes. Small farmers are being eliminated so that Danone, Bigard, Carrefour and others can hand out record dividends to their shareholders.

Farmers relayed by campaigning politicians denounce foreign imports. But the very firms that are strangling small farmers are French. France exports more dairy products and wine than it imports fruit and vegetables. The group Avril (Lesieur oil, etc.) run by Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA (Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles), the biggest farming union, makes half of its business abroad.

Grain and poultry farmers in France and Poland denounce the unfair Ukrainian competition. But behind Ukrainian exports of chicken and wheat, there are huge agricultural firms in which Western financiers, including French banks BNP and Natixis, have invested.

In agriculture as in all sectors, there are two camps. On the one hand, there are those who produce and make a living from their labor – small farmers but also and even more numerous, farming workers – who are never given a voice – not to mention workers in dairies, slaughter houses and transport. On the other hand, there are those who make profits because they own the capital.

The role of the state is always to defend the interests of the most powerful capitalists, it is never to defend the interests of the workers who are ruining their health. Macron will not impose more constraints on Lactalis so that it pays farmers a fair price just as he refused to tax Total’s profits or to cap its energy prices.

As far as Le Pen and Bardella are concerned, they lure farmers by talking about national sovereignty. Several Coordination rurale¹ leaders are showing support for the Rassemblement national. But if Le Pen comes to power, she will, like the others, comply with the capitalists’ and financiers’ demands. And she will forget the promises made to farmers and workers who allow themselves to be fooled.

This idyll between the RN and some farmers should be a warning for workers. At a time when the capitalist economy is sinking into crisis, the difficulties faced by small farmers, merchants and tradesmen can only get worse and fuel their rage.

Flanked by right-wing demagogues, these small bosses could attack the employees who “only” work 35 hours a week; the unemployed blamed for not coming to pick their apples; the poor neighborhood inhabitants accused of being welfare scroungers. Attacking workers will not save small bosses from bankruptcy but it will serve the interests of capitalists.

To avoid this trap, it is vital that we too, salaried workers, command respect. We too, are strangled by charges that have increased tremendously such as petrol, electricity and food. We too, are working hard for salaries that don’t allow us to live decently. We too, are essential to the running of society.

Those who are responsible for our difficulties are the capitalists who get fat off our labor. We must overthrow their dictatorship. Only the working class can lead this struggle to its term because it has no land or business to lose. It must encourage the other social categories that are victims of the system and not just look at the farmers’ struggle with sympathy.

Putting an end to the dictatorship of capital will be beneficial to all those who are crushed by the law of the most powerful and it will open perspectives to humanity.

Nathalie Arthaud