Now that winter is over and tenants can legally be evicted again, the Abbé Pierre Foundation¹ estimates that 140,000 people risk being thrown out onto the streets after a record-breaking year of evictions in 2023. More and more workers risk losing their homes because they don’t make enough money to cover all their bills.

The government chose the exact same moment to announce a new wave of attacks. Ranks of government officials lined up to announce to the media their battle plans against the poor, the unemployed and the sick.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire justified targeting the sick by stating, “We can’t just have people helping themselves to medication”. But it’s the bourgeoisie that has unlimited access to medication! When it comes to healthcare, just like everything else, as long as you have the means to pay, you have no problem getting the best, most sophisticated treatments.

By contrast, more and more sick people in the working class don’t seek the healthcare they need because they can’t afford it. The deductible sum to be paid on each package of medicine has already been doubled and now the government is targeting prescriptions for patients with long-term conditions and those who need medical transportation. Medical deserts are spreading but those who are sick and have no means of transportation or have inadequate medical insurance will have to make do and find their own way to get treatment. How revolting to be condemned to this!

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal lectured the unemployed on the evening news explaining that to pay off public debt it’s high time to save money and bring in more revenue. But for this loyal defender of capitalist interests, using the billions of euros that the state hands out to big companies through financial aid, subsidies and tax exemptions is out of the question.

So he announced that the government will be clamping down on the unemployed. Although both the duration and amount of unemployment insurance have already been reduced through previous measures, Attal said he was in favor of limiting the maximum duration of compensation and dared to add that it’s necessary to incite people to work.

In recent months, nearly 10,000 jobs have been cut by clothing retailers. In the automotive sector, even though profits have never been higher, car manufacturers are pocketing billions in the form of state funding in order to finance the so-called transition to electric vehicles, all the while laying off hundreds of temporary workers. Equipment manufacturers like Forvia have announced thousands of layoffs, and the list goes on in other sectors like banking, construction, or telecommunications. So, the government is clearly not fighting against unemployment since it gives employers free rein to lay workers off. Unemployed workers are being called lazy while being condemned to poverty.

This government made up of millionaires in the service of billionaires claims to speak in the name of “France’s early risers”. Attal declared, “When you work, you have more means to be in control of yourself”. But what decisions can a worker who is forced to work at an insanely fast pace make? Or a temporary worker forced to travel long distances for a job? Or a cleaning lady who works split shifts and whose wages aren’t high enough to put food in the fridge? What control do they have?

The government claims to be clamping down on the unemployed so that “work will pay”. But if work doesn’t “pay” it’s because the bosses impose low wages that aren’t enough to live on. Pushing the unemployed into poverty won’t raise wages, quite the contrary! Reducing the rights of the unemployed, forcing them to accept any job at any wage, will only give the bosses another weapon to impose their own conditions.

The government’s announcements are a declaration of war against all workers. They remind us that making the capitalists pay for the crisis of their system is out of the question. In fact, for big companies, the economic crisis and the “march-to-war” atmosphere are accompanied by record-breaking profits – 150 billion euros in 2023!

In order to ensure such a high level of profits for a handful of super-rich capitalists, the government wants to make all workers bow their heads.

To submit to the law of the bosses in the current context where the threat of war coincides with the general economic crisis is to be exploited today and cannon fodder tomorrow.

No one has the power to oppose exploitation on their own. But if workers get organized and become conscious of their collective interests and strength, then they will be able to not only oppose Macron’s attacks but also the barbarity into which capitalism is dragging society.

Nathalie Arthaud