July 15, 2024 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French
Since July 8 (election day), negotiations have been underway in all parties to put forward the name of a Prime Minister. In the New Popular Front (NFP), the various parties have still not managed to agree: the Socialist Olivier Faure has put himself forward first, while LFI (La France Insoumise—France Unbowed) is the largest group in the NFP and has its possible candidates, but which the others don’t want; and the PCF (French Communist Party) is putting forward its own. In any case, [French President] Macron is in no hurry to call on them to govern. On the right, Xavier Bertrand is calling on Macron to form an “emergency government led by someone from LR (Les Republicains—right, but not far-right), while [centrist] François Bayrou is hinting that he’d like to be part of it… Quite daring!
But what about our own problems, our demands, or even just what we were timidly promised on the left—a minimum wage of 1,600 euros (about $1,750 per month), the repeal of the latest pension law? Forgotten already?
No new government, but the bosses’ policy continues
The French employers’ federation (Medef) immediately reacted to the election results, declaring that a “renunciation of pension reform or labor market reform,” “a brutal revaluation of the minimum wage” or “a freeze on prices” would be a “catastrophe.” In their view, the policy of undermining social rights and lowering labor costs should continue. And for the time being, it does. As for the ministries: the Ministry of Education has confirmed that the introduction of level groups, i.e. social tracking in education, will go ahead at the start of the new school year as planned. In the private sector: last May, the CGT (labor union federation associated with the Communist Party) noted that 120 companies were affected by layoff plans, threatening 60,000 to 90,000 jobs. The workers concerned are reacting. But we’ll only be able to put an end to these layoffs if we all work together to ban them.
With the poverty rate higher than ever (over 15%), the Abbé-Pierre charity foundation warns that “freezing prices,” as proposed by the NFP, is not enough. It’s wages that need to be increased!
To change things, we’ve got to take matters into our own hands!
Some CGT and student unions are calling for demonstrations on July 18 to pressure Macron into accepting a government from the NFP, the group with the most Members of Parliament. But we’re already hearing from left-wing leaders that the 1,600-euro minimum wage can’t be achieved straight away, as it would require a rectifying law, and, adds the head of the Greens, a vote in exchange for aid to small and medium-size company bosses. The same goes for the repeal of the pension law that brought us out into the streets: it would take more than a decree, and months of babbling in Parliament. Tomorrow, they’ll tell us that, not having a majority, the NFP, even if it governed, would have to deal with the right and drop its meager promises.
The minimum wage we need to live on today is not 1,600, but at least 2,000 euros a month. And not just the repeal of the latest pension reform, but a return to retirement at 60. And it’s not enough to have, with relief, prevented the RN (far-right National Rally party) from coming to power if, now, we don’t set about blowing up that law against immigrant workers that [Minister of the Interior] Darmanin pushed through last December with Marine Le Pen’s party (the RN).
The leaders of the NFP like to present themselves as heirs to the Popular Front of 1936. But let’s not forget that it was through a general strike that workers imposed wage increases and the first paid vacations, which the Popular Front didn’t even have on its agenda. Today, we don’t even know whether the left, the right or a mixture of the two will govern. But we do know that the only way to win our demands is through our struggles!
