October 26, 2026 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French. The MEDEF is the biggest organization for business advocacy in France.
The racist attack in Trappes, near Paris, claimed the life of a 26-year-old man, Pengo Bossio Wangi, and injured five people, including a 12-year-old girl who is fighting for her life. The sadness is immense, but so are the rage and anger. This massacre targeted working-class neighborhoods that, like many others, are the targets of racist rhetoric seeking to belittle and divide the workers who keep this country running. [Extreme-right politician] Bardella had called Trappes the “European capital of Jihad.” [Extreme-right leader] Le Pen, [right-wing politician] Retailleau, and [French President] Macron’s supporters spew their Islamophobic hatred day and night on the billionaires’ TV channels, stoking identity-based divisions to better protect their system of social exclusion and exploitation. And this hatred hasn’t even had the decency to fall silent since Friday, as Macron hasn’t even called this murder what it is: a racist and Islamophobic attack.
It is these racist—because anti-worker—policies that armed the shooter in Trappes. Double standards: this is the ideology of this two-tiered society that young people have been rejecting for over a month now. The high school student movement, which began in the former colonies of Mayotte, the Antilles, and the working-class suburbs of the capital, shows no sign of letting up despite the school break. The threats from Macron and [Minister of the Interior] Nuñez had no effect: the youth, joined by hundreds of thousands of workers, were just as numerous on October 24 as they were on the 17th, despite the union leadership’s hesitation to challenge the bans on demonstrations.
The authorities spared no expense: rallies were banned in entire metropolitan areas, such as Lyon; designated routes were imposed; and “Centaur” armored vehicles and water cannons were deployed. The cops did not hesitate to use their arsenal of war against the demonstrators, once again maiming and blinding people. Far-right groups known for their violent tactics—satellites of the “establishment-aligned” National Rally Party (RN)—insisted on contributing to “maintaining order” in some twenty cities by attacking the marches before retreating behind the lines of complicit anti-riot police. The government, like the RN, claims to defend democratic freedoms such as the right to protest or the right to strike—including for school-age youth—… until workers actually exercise those rights!
This movement clearly shows that there are two camps: on one side, working-class youth and employees demanding an end to social segregation in education, health care, or any service that benefits the population; who demand that wages keep pace with prices through a catch-up increase of 600 or 700 euros per month and a minimum wage of 2,200 euros net so they aren’t in the red by the 10th of the month; who want to live off their work—and therefore ban layoffs and share the workload among everyone to put an end to unemployment. On the other side are Total (petroleum company), a war profiteer that rips off motorists; [French billionaire] Bolloré, who spews his racist hatred; and Dassault (head of a large French military aircraft manufacturing company), who lines his pockets off rising military budgets. This bourgeoisie feigns empathy only for “small business owners,” as if it lived the same life as independent small entrepreneurs. For everyone else—those who produce all the wealth that the bourgeoisie hoards—it’s the nightstick, racist division, and the electoral choice between Macron or his clone, Le Pen.
The proof is clear: the working classes have the strength of numbers and the determination to fight for emancipation and social justice. To bring this regime to its knees, we must now tackle the heart of the problem: halting the profit machine through a strike. This is what we must prepare for by discussing and organizing at the grassroots level—union members and non-union members alike—and by demonstrating on Saturday, October 31, then on Tuesday, November 3, alongside high school students, so that November 5 marks the beginning of a general strike!
