Let’s make Macron choke on his contempt!

Last Sunday, during a two-and-a-half-hour TV interview, Macron’s self-complacency was plain to see. He started by priding himself on the French army’s strikes against Syria, as if launching missiles on an already destroyed country was something to be proud of! Especially since he’s obviously ready to negotiate the return to power of Assad’s blood-thirsty regime.

But he had nothing to say concerning the unfairness of Carrefour’s decision to simultaneously hand out millions of euros in dividends to shareholders and announce thousands of job cuts. Not a word against the 60 to 80 billion euros in fiscal evasion either.

No. His number one concern, he said, was to “put the country back to work”. It was a bit rich of him to speak like a Reagan, a Thatcher or a Sarkozy when six million people are looking for a job and can’t find one precisely because of the government’s policies.

He cynically lectured French retirees, reminding them that their pensions are paid for by today’s wage-earners and that, as such, they represent a barely sustainable weight on wages! This stalwart defender of the propertied classes simply refuses to admit that it might be possible to increase wages when profits are on the rise.

He renewed the appeal he had made a few days earlier, in another televised interview, asking railroad workers, retirees and wage-earners to make an effort—that is, asking everyone, except the wealthy, except shareholders who make a ton of money without lifting a finger or the big capital-owners who saw five billion euros come their way following Macron’s elimination of both wealth tax and the flat tax on capital gains to pitch in.

He talked about the necessary “reform” and “reorganization” of hospitals and nursing homes but never mentioned hiring more staff or increasing salaries. He said he wasn’t against setting up a distinct division inside the Social Security system that would take care of the elderly but he had obviously made up his mind that the money should come out of the pockets of working people, through the deduction of a second « day of solidarity » for instance^[1].

Concerning the demands put forward by striking railroad workers, Macron defended the decisions made over the last 20 years by Guillaume Pepy, CEO of SNCF (the national railroad system), top executive Florence Parly and Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne. He stuck to his guns, presenting the transfer of SNCF’s huge debt to the state as a “concession” to railroad workers, who see no reason why they should be asked to reimburse a debt that was incurred by the government. 

Railroad workers are on strike against the deterioration of their working conditions and wages. They want to ensure that the young workers hired in the years to come are not condemned to job insecurity and low wages. They don’t want to become disposable workers, transferred or dismissed according to the bosses’ needs or whims. Every worker understands this.

But Macron would like society to be submitted to the imperatives of money-making and profitability. He gets all emotional when he talks about global injustice but his decisions increase already existing inequalities. And he has complete disregard for those who resist him.

For instance, he accused the students protesting against limited access to higher education of being professional trouble-makers. He presented the 200 or so anti-capitalist squatters who were forcibly expelled from agricultural lands near Nantes as dangerous agitators justifying the mobilization of some 2,500 special police! Macron doesn’t at all like those who opt for a different lifestyle.

In his eyes, being competitive is a quality which is second to none and everyone should submit to its requirements. However, for over two centuries, the capitalist economy has been based on market competition and private property.

Capitalist competition has created, along with recurring crises, a permanent race for profits that has serious and at times life-threatening consequences for transportation, agro-business, health care, energy, environment, etc. Competition also feeds trade wars which eventually lead to genuine wars.

It’s about time for us to say that we’ve had enough. Right now, the railroad workers are on the front line. Their strike is massive and we can see their determination in the fact that it continues.

The CGT^[2] has called all professions to come out on strike on Thursday, April 19. We have the opportunity to add our voice to that of the railroad workers and to proclaim our opposition to all of Macron’s political views. On Thursday, let’s all join the strike and the street protests.