June 12 is going to be a new key moment in the railroad workers’ mobilization. Whatever our job or our status, let's hope that this “day of anger” is a success, so that it can once again send the message that railroad workers reject the government's attack.
Whether we work under a permanent or temporary contract, for the public or private sector, in a large or small company, as workers we are all concerned by the railroad workers' fight. They are defending everything that matters to any worker: general working conditions, wages and job security. With their strike, they have taken the first step in opposing the attacks that affect us all.
Macron set to work on the reform of the SNCF after pushing through a flurry of measures targeting the working class. In the process, he was hoping he could easily inflict a defeat on tens of thousands of railroad workers – a bet he has lost considering that his attempt was met with massive opposition! The railroad workers’ mobilization, which started in April, is sand in the gears of his anti-working-class policy. Even just for that, railroad workers can be proud of their struggle!
Despite the media’s biased reports, despite the nuisance caused to passengers, there is still strong support for their movement among workers. In fact, railroad workers have received support and encouragement, time and again, when addressing SNCF users and workers in different industries. The simple fact that railroad workers have from the beginning felt the need to address other workers is one of the positive aspects of this movement. Yes, their strike, which has been the main social and political topic for weeks, shows the path to follow for the working class as a whole.
We can be sure that Macron has new blows to inflict. He has promised to “reform” pensions, and the “reform” of welfare benefits is next on the list. Agnès Buzyn, the Minister of Health, claims that there will be no budget cuts for the poorest. But at the same time, she insists that “ineffective” benefits should be revised, like the Solidarity Allowance which is granted to jobless workers once they are no longer entitled to unemployment benefits. She also considers that the criteria used for unemployed workers to receive the minimum income (Revenu de solidarité active or RSA) should be revised because “they seldom lead to a return to work”.
As if such criteria were the cause of unemployment. Everybody knows that massive layoffs are to blame! The State itself is one of the worst job slashers: not only because it doesn’t create the jobs that it should in vital public services but also because it has recently cut hundreds of thousands of subsidized contracts.
The government claims it wants to provide the poor with “individual support” and help them up. But all it does is push them down, towards more precariousness and more exploitation! Neither the benefits granted by the State nor the wage increases granted by the bosses are enough to make a living. “Individual support”? It’s more like, “Accept our orders, and don't you dare protest”!
That is the kind of social model they want to generalize. A system where the government puts pressure on the workers who have been kicked out of their jobs, while the fat cats become fatter than ever. A world where Carrefour can fire 2,100 workers while the former CEO of the group, Georges Plassat, retires with nearly 17 million euros in his pockets – and maybe an extra 900,000 euro bonus if the shareholders agree.
The workers must oppose this world that is tailor-made for capitalists. The path forward is the very path that railroad workers have started to follow: there is no alternative. The history of the working class has always been a history of struggles. And even when workers do not fight, the class struggle goes on because bosses never cease to fight for their profits and privileges. They have reliable accomplices in the class war: their state apparatus and successive governments whatever their label.
In the past it was always by showing their strength during massive strikes and social eruptions that workers were able to impose concessions on the capitalist class. In the period ahead of us, the same remains true: the capitalists won’t back down unless they are afraid of losing everything. Only an explosion of anger threatening their property and their control over the economy can defeat them. What we must contest is the power of capitalists to impose their law on workers and on society as a whole.