So Macron has chosen to confront railroad workers brutally. Such attacks are nothing new but this one is on a very large scale.

Year after year, job cut after job cut, railroad workers have seen their working conditions deteroriate. They have seen sub-contracting and job insecurity increase and their workload get heavier, all in the name of competitiveness. Like all the other workers, they have had to accept fewer retirement rights. But Macron wants to go much further. He wants to strip them of their rights by taking away their specific railroad worker status and forcing them to transfer to private operators if they don’t want to be transferred geographically or get fired,

And then there’s the way he’s doing it. By announcing that he will resort to executive orders, as he did to sweep labor legislation aside, Macron is being deliberately provocative. By attacking a section of the working class that has a reputation for being more willing than most to go on strike, he wants to prove to the bourgeoisie on the one hand and to the workers on the other that he is capable of brushing off worker resistance.

In this fierce struggle, the railroad workers aren’t the only ones at risk, all workers are. For each and every one of us, workers and SNCF passengers alike, the stake isn’t limited to the closure of branch lines and a rise in ticket prices. Above all, it’s a political power struggle between the workers and the bourgeoisie and its government.

The strength of the railroad workers, their number, the essential role they play in society and their fighting spirit have always been an important factor in the overall power struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie, a sort of dissuasive weapon against anti-working-class politics.

In 1995, the railroad workers made Juppé, the prime minister at the time, back down not only on his reform of specific retirement regimes but also on most of his plan against Social Security. The memory of that resounding defeat still haunts politicians.

Macron wants to do exactly the same thing to the railroad workers that Margaret Thatcher did to the miners in Great Britain in 1984: use them to give a lesson to the working class as a whole and clear the way for new attacks. He plans to cut 120,000 jobs in the public sector, hand over whole segments of state services to capitalists and reduce retirement pensions even further.

Macron is spoiling for a fight with the railroad workers and his arrogance is more obvious than ever before. This is how boxers flex their muscles before climbing into the ring but once the fighting starts it’s a different story. Juppé in 1995 and De Gaulle in 1968 both found out that, when opposed to the strength of workers on strike, political leaders have to back down.

But to enter the fight and win it, railroad workers need the support of all workers. This support should begin with the refusal to accept all the media nonsense about the so-called “privileged railroad workers". Counter staff, laborer, station master and technician: these are all demanding jobs. Being a train driver on shift work is not a sinecure either – since it means working most week-ends and often not sleeping in your own bed.

“I can’t have farmers with no retirement pension on the one hand and a special railroad worker status on the other and not make any changes”, Macron declared at the annual Paris agricultural fair. Not only does the government make it sound as if all SNCF problems are due to railroad workers having special status but he even accuses them of making farmers poor! This demagogy has one purpose only: to divide workers.

In the past, railroad workers have managed, by resisting, to keep some of their rights. Today, just like anyone who is exploited, they are right to defend themselves against the greed of would-be railroad barons.

The only choice railroad workers now have is to get ready to go on strike. And in order to be victorious, the strike will have to last as long as it takes. This is not amusing for anyone and especially not for passengers. But the problems posed by such a strike are nothing compared with the setbacks that we’ll suffer if Macron and the bourgeoisie are given free rein.

Let’s hope that the movement will be as wide-reaching and as strong as possible. Let’s hope that the railroad workers will not only dare to fight but also do so with the pride of workers whose wages are hard-earned.

We must not leave them to fight alone. They must have active and moral support from all of us. The workers must turn the situation around against the big bosses. Macron must be defeated and forced to eat humble pie.