March 17, 2025 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French.
The negotiations among the great powers over the war in Ukraine are in full swing: Putin lays down his conditions, Trump grows impatient, and European leaders, led by [French President] Macron, try to interfere in the game. Their aim? Certainly not to achieve a “just and lasting” peace, but to get their hands on Ukraine’s mines. With no regard for the Ukrainian people, who have been the victims of this war for over three years, or for the Russian people, who are also suffering from the war and Putin’s dictatorship.
Under the pretext of protecting us: declaring a social war on us
Macron, widely hated, is posing as a warlord in an attempt to enlist us behind him. Here he is again, pulling the Covid stunt: “We’re at war!”… And now all the political parties represented in the [French] National Assembly, from the left to the far right, are playing along. With a few nuances, between those who emphasize the need for a broad European defense led by France, and those who favor the defense of France’s borders. A good way of making us realize that they are not preparing peace, but war. A war whose aim is not to defend us, but to test the balance between the great powers, at the expense of the peoples of the planet, as the Ukrainians are tragically experiencing.
In the meantime, they are declaring a social war on us, with the utmost unanimity. From the bosses’ union, the Medef, to the trade union confederations, from the parliamentary left to the extreme right, everyone is going along on the priority given to national defense in the government budget. It’s a costly priority, since it would mean doubling military spending by 2030. Suddenly, there is no more talk of budgetary austerity… because they want to dip into our pockets and into all public services, health and education.
Neither cannon fodder nor boss fodder: workers of the world, unite!
Our pensions are in the line of fire. While the trade unions had held out the illusion that the pension reform could be repealed by the “conclave” – the gathering of union confederacies along with the bosses’ group Medef to discuss the balance of the pension system, to which the government had invited them – [French Prime Minister] Bayrou just dashed their illusions, on Sunday March 16, by categorically refusing to go back on the retirement age of 64… As for the Medef, it is talking about a legal retirement age of 70! The idea of a capitalized pension, with pension funds to finance the arms industry, is also resurfacing. Working longer, without knowing how much we’re going to get at the end, and all for the greater profits of [the big French war industries] Dassault, Thales, Safran and many others. We’ve come full circle.
We’re not going to let ourselves be conscripted into their war effort. Our own struggles are the only way to defend ourselves against war-mongering and exploitative capitalism. Students are currently contesting the budget cuts planned for their universities, as part of this austerity cure that targets only what is useful to us. This government wants to prevent the children of the working classes from gaining access to education, and wants to send them to work as soon as possible. Young people are right to organize, and it’s time to show our anger too: wages, pensions, living conditions, there’s no shortage of reasons. The government also wants to divide us, based on borders, nationalities and origins, and attacks ever more violently those it deprives of papers. On March 22, let’s take part in the Solidarity marches against racism, which will be organized in many cities across France.
