On Monday June 4, Carrefour workers were called to strike against the supermarket chain’s decision to close down 273 stores, a decision which directly threatens the livelihood of 2,100 people. Last year, Carrefour’s profit was in excess of 700 million euros and almost half of that profit went directly into the shareholders’ pockets.
But that wasn’t enough for the Moulin family who own 10% of Carrefour’s capital and who are one of the wealthiest families in France. It wasn’t enough either for billionaire Bernard Arnault who owns 8% of the company’s shares. As a matter of fact, cutting jobs is Carrefour’s recipe for guaranteeing growing profit rates for its shareholders. And it’s the same thing everywhere you look. Workers’ living conditions are determined by the capitalists’ expectations in terms of profit. In spite of the economic crisis caused by their system, capitalists want to rake in more billions. Whether their economy grows, stagnates or recedes, it is their thirst for profit that causes our working and living conditions to deteriorate.
According to the government, everybody has an equal chance. The pension reform prepared by Macron is presented as a step towards more freedom and equality. Seriously? In the system drawn up by Macron, every single euro entrusted by a worker to a retirement fund will yield the same value upon retirement. It means that workers earning lower wages--and making smaller contributions--would have lower pensions than those who can afford larger contributions. How “equal” is that? Macron also thinks workers should be allowed to decide whether or not to retire once they hit the legal retirement age--as if workers whose wages are already insufficient had any choice at all!
Of course, Carrefour’s senior executives—who voted themselves an 80% wage increase—aren’t the least bit worried about when they can retire. Neither are CEOs, who can rely on their bonuses, stock options and golden parachutes. But what freedom of choice do workers have? What freedom do Carrefour staff have when they don’t even know if they’ll still be on payroll next month? As for workers over 50 who are in poor health because of rough working conditions, what can they expect other than a lousy pension? What else could years of unemployment and minimum contributions to retirement funds lead to?
Suggesting that retirement is a question of personal choice is an outright fraud. Workers won’t be free to choose at what age they retire just like they’re not free to choose the job they do, the neighborhood they live in, the type of housing they can afford or the diplomas they can access. Under the dictatorship of capital, working people aren't free but rather under the constant fear of not making ends meet.
The government’s task consists in organizing capital’s domination over our lives. Just like his predecessors, Macron grovels before the capitalists and their demands. His reform of the pension system is part and parcel of the general attack launched against the working class with the recent reform of labor legislation. Macron hopes he’ll be able to sneak through a reform that will lower living standards, pensions and the legal retirement age without stirring a fuss.
The same goes for the reform of the railway system. Macron’s aim is to prove that he can roll back working and living conditions not only for railway workers but for all workers.
Media commentators have found some inspiration in current sporting events. They wonder which of the two contenders, Macron or the workers, will win Round 1. But when they fight against poor working conditions for themselves and the generations to come, when they stand up for their rights, a decent wage and decent living conditions, workers are not playing any game! For railway workers, supermarket staff and the entire workforce, the game is called survival. And even if railway workers alone can’t make the bourgeoisie back down, the fact that they’ve started the fight is a victory in itself.
The class war is not the product of Macron’s evil will, as heinous and foul as he is. The class war is permanently led by the capitalists who rule over the whole society. As long as they feel they can continue their attacks and as long as their power over the economy isn’t called into question, they won’t stop crushing our living conditions.
In capitalist society, the fight for our living conditions is a permanent struggle, but we do have the means and the power to challenge the system. Our work is what makes society run. Our work is also what makes the bourgeoisie rich because it’s the source of its profit. We have the power to threaten them by using our own class weapons, through strikes and demonstrations and by occupying factories like workers did in June 1936 in France. It’s the only way to make the capitalists back down and make them realize they could lose it all.