September 23, 2024 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French
It’s the latest episode in the summer soap operal [new French Prime Minister] Michel Barnier has announced his government. But good shows last at least a few seasons before running out of steam; this one is not even three months old and feels a little worn out. Finally knowing the composition of the Michel Barnier government was hardly the greatest concern of the millions of working men and women who can’t make ends meet, get medical treatment, send their children to quality schools, or who are threatened with lay-offs. In any case, it smells of money and mothballs.
Racism, sexism, homophobia… and the bourgeoisie
Many of the ministers and secretaries of state are former figures of the “Manif pour tous” (so-called « Protest for All » movement), in which the right and extreme right protested against the rights of LGBTQ+ couples, and more recently opposed the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution.
Between that and the proportion of top executives who have passed through various CAC 40 companies (the top 40 corporations of the French stock market), this government of old reactionaries is first and foremost that of the big bourgeoisie, like the Minister of National Education, the Macronist (center-right) Anne Genetet, MP (Member of Parliament) for the French abroad, whose favorite subject is… relations between “expatriates” and their household staff!
A Macron-Barnier-Le Pen government
We know what we can expect from this government, which will need the votes of the Macronist and Rassemblement National (RN : main far-right party) groups in the Assembly: Barnier or Retailleau, the new Minister of the Interior, are aligned with the RN’s anti-immigrant policies, and all these ministers will accept budgetary austerity and the continuation of the wage freeze without the slightest qualms. Bruno Retailleau is so well-aligned, in fact, that he recently extolled the “golden hours of colonization.» A perfect profile to take over from [former Minister of the Interior] Darmanin in the infamous repression of the revolts taking place in Kanaky-New Caledonia and now in Martinique.
The intense mobilization of the working classes in Martinique
Since the beginning of the month, thousands of people have been taking part in demonstrations and blockades in Martinique, to protest against the high cost of living. Everyday consumer goods, almost all imported from mainland France, cost at least 40% more than here. All this to feed a handful of capitalists, notably the descendants of slave-owners, the békés, who still control the plantations, import companies and supermarkets.
The French state’s response is always the same, slander and repression, with the dispatch of police reinforcements (such as CRS 8, which had already cracked down on Mayotte (French colonial island off Africa) and working-class neighborhoods in France after the police murdered young Nahel (a 17-year-old French youth of Moroccan and Algerian descent)), the introduction of a curfew and the banning of demonstrations.
But before the strikes and demonstrations, the situation didn’t seem to worry the authorities!
Martinique’s workers are revolting because they can’t take it anymore, while a few bigwigs gorge themselves on the workers’ backs. During the 2009 general strike in Martinique and especially [neighboring French colony] Guadeloupe, they imposed their own price controls in supermarkets and at the pump for months on end. And that’s exactly what worries the capitalists and their servants, who know that only our strikes and mobilizations will enable us to challenge them for control over prices, production and society as a whole.
Already, the inter-professional strike day called by the unions for October first, for pensions, wages and public services, should give us the opportunity to make our mark against this government.
Beyond this single day, we should undoubtedly follow in the footsteps of Martinique’s workers!
