September 29, 2025 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French.
For the past week, right-wing and far-right politicians have been rallying around Nicolas Sarkozy, a former French president found guilty of criminal conspiracy. These same people constantly call for making examples of punishments for petty crime, but cannot bear to see one of their own sentenced. On Thursday, October 2, workers and young people will once again stand together in the streets and on strike. After the strikes of September 10 and 18, this will be the third opportunity to show that we are the only force capable of putting an end to every policy of social regression.
The bosses are happy
Sébastien Lecornu, the new Prime Minister, has still not announced the makeup of his government, but it is certain that the new team will look just like the old ones: a pack of henchmen serving the shareholders of France’s biggest corporations. His interview with Le Parisien (daily newspaper) had barely gone to print when the president of the Medef – the bosses’ “union” – was already complimenting him. No wonder: Lecornu confirmed there will be no return of the wealth tax, the rich will not be taxed (not even symbolically, as suggested by economist Gabriel Zucman with his plan of a new wealth tax of 2% on fortunes over €100 million ($117 million)), the pension reform will not be repealed… With just a little bit more effort from Lecornu, even the big rally planned by the so-called “angry bosses” could be canceled. Only the (reformist middle-of-the-road) Socialist Party is whining by threatening that if what Lecornu has planned is “too unfair,” they might vote for censure.
And with good reason, the war on workers continues!
Bayrou wanted to reduce the public deficit to 4.6% of the GDP (gross domestic product), Lecornu will settle for… 4.7%! His intentions are in line with those of his predecessor: drastically increase military spending, keep showering shareholders with money, and slash public spending. No more reaching across the aisle to the Socialist Party, from now on Macron’s camp is counting on the National Rally (Marine Le Pen’s extreme-right party).
Lecornu has taken up the racist and anti-poor program of the far right, which attacks those it considers to be “welfare recipients,” namely beneficiaries of minimum social benefits, foreigners, and the unemployed. The result is brutal attacks on the most vulnerable: unemployed and undocumented workers.
However, it is not the unemployed or the undocumented who are plundering the state budget, but the wealthy capitalists, through tax avoidance and even outright fraud, all the while, pocketing $318 billion a year in subsidies. The bosses are the real welfare recipients, the real parasites fattening themselves up on our exploitation!
We cannot defend ourselves with toy weapons
In the wake of the successful strikes and demonstrations on September 10 and 18, the leaderships of all the unions did nothing other than issue an “ultimatum” to Lecornu… who couldn’t care less. After they came away empty-handed from their meeting with him on September 24, they called for another strike day on October 2. Now, Sophie Binet, leader of the CGT (the biggest labor union in France), says that they’ll return to negotiate with him “on the basis of the balance of power after October 2.” As if we’re taking to the streets only to go begging to the government the next day! To make the government and employers back down, one more day of protest will not be enough. We need to block everything with a strike that spreads to all sectors and lasts long enough to paralyze profit and force them to comply. Making the bosses pay means seizing better living and working conditions from them – who can live today on a monthly salary of less than $2,300 a month?
Let’s strike en masse on October 2, in every workplace, but also in universities and high schools, where young people have been mobilized since September 10. Let us strike massively not to beg for talks with the government, but to organize at the grassroots level, to decide for ourselves how to fight, and to build a united movement. No budget cuts on our lives: to live and not just survive, we will take from their profits!
