BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN
PARIS - "France is still reeling from the social unrest and economic damage caused by 24 days of nationwide strikes last month," writes the International Herald Tribune's Alan Friedman in a front-page feature January 11, accurately summing up ruling class concern here.
Spearheaded by rail and transit workers' strikes, working people faced down government and employer attempts to curb social spending and cut the budget deficit by forcing a longer working life before allowing eligibility for retirement.
In local strikes throughout the country, workers added their own specific demands. A five-week walkout by 2,700 transport workers in Marseille scored a significant victory January 9 when employers agreed to jettison a two-tier employment structure and give newly-hired workers full pay and benefits. They also agreed to pay the strikers for 20 days of their 33-day action.
In spite of the success of the workers' mobilizations in pushing back some of the harshest features of the government's austerity package, known as the Juppé plan, the faltering economy is forcing the rulers to press ahead. Official unemployment in France increased from 11.5 to 12 percent according to government statistics just released. Industrial production registered a 0.9 percent drop in October, two months before the social mobilizations whose economic impact will only be registered in future statistics.
Across Europe economic slowdown is clearly visible, blocking off the possibility of an export-led recovery in France and increasing pressure on the employers. Both the French and German governments have said in the last week that they have not met the criteria established by the Maastricht agreement for European monetary union.
Unemployment in Germany has reached 9.9 percent. Italian prime minister Lamberto Dini, whose government has just taken over the six-month revolving presidency of the European Union, said, "You can't think about monetary union with a Europe-wide unemployment level of 11 percent."
The French government has announced its intentions of continuing the offensive against the rights of working people. Prime Minister Alain Juppé has said that his austerity plan is still on the table.
Meanwhile French troops continue to leave for Bosnia and the government has said that the most visible features of the plan dubbed Vigipirate - "vigilance against terrorism" - will remain. These include deploying large numbers of armed police and soldiers in and around public buildings, and routinely stopping and searching people, especially those of north African origin.
Following the December social mobilizations a broad discussion has developed among working people and a shake-up of the labor movement has begun.
One of the three major trade union confederations, the French Confederation of Democratic Labor (CFDT), is going through major upheaval. Nicole Notat, head of the CFDT supported the Juppé plan's objective of a balanced budget, while tens of thousands of rank and file CFDT members - including the confederation's entire transport workers union, the FGTE - participated in strikes against the government.
A broad opposition, including the FGTE which held a national conference January 6, has called upon the leadership of the CFDT to convene an emergency conference to discuss the crisis. Notat responded with a well-publicized red-baiting circular denouncing a "network" of 13 prominent left-wing officials in the union.
The recent turmoil in the CFDT follows significant defections from the union federation by postal workers and health workers over the past couple of years.
BY ERNIE MAILHOT
PARIS - Sales of Nouvelle Internationale hit the 300
mark January 13, as a team of international volunteers, and
a number of workers and students from France, continue to
get a favorable reception for this Marxist magazine
published in French.
Fifteen copies of Nouvelle Internationale were sold on January 12. Students at Nanterre snapped up four copies from a literature table, and a professor at the school bought one and said he planned to recommend it to his students. Seven other copies were sold at a community table in the Latin Quarter.
Three copies of the magazine were sold at a Militant Labor Forum on the "Struggle for the Independence of Quebec." Thirty-seven people attended the gathering, including many who had bought copies of Nouvelle Internationale and literature published by Pathfinder Press at tables set up by the international team.