BY JACQUES SALFATI AND FLORENCE DUVAL
PARIS - After several weeks of protests by unemployed workers, French prime minister Lionel Jospin announced January 21 that he rejected the demonstrators' main demand - a raise in "social minimums," which include funds for those no longer receiving jobless benefits, of 1,500F ($250) per month.

Under pressure from the protests, the government had previously given some minor concessions, including $163 million in emergency aid for jobless workers, and agreed to begin negotiations with the unemployed organizations.

To justify his refusal to raise the social minimums, Jospin tried pit unemployed workers against those holding a job by stating that this demand would cost $12 billion and that it would be necessary to increase taxes by the same amount in order to not increase the budget deficit. Unemployment in France is officially 12.2 percent.

Saying he was not "indifferent" to the actions of the jobless, however, Jospin pledged to link social minimums to inflation and to increase the Specific Solidarity Benefit (ASS), a stipend of $380 per month for unemployed workers whose jobless benefits have run out. By raising the stipend 10 percent, this would supposedly compensate for the loss of buying power of this benefit since 1994.

Following the prime minister's remarks, Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, head of the National Council of French Business (CNPF), declared that he had been impressed by Jospin's words. "His comments on a society of work and not one of assistance" reflect "genuine courage and vision. As businessmen, we appreciate these comments," said the leader of the bosses' association.

In the same televised interview Jospin warned the French Communist Party (CP) and the Green Party, "There cannot be two orientations in one government." Both parties have some officials who have participated in the actions of the unemployed, although they are part of the government.

Alain Bocquet, president of the CP group in the National Assembly, said afterwards he "would have liked several hundred francs more" for the ASS, but "appreciated the general orientation laid out by the prime minister."

As a whole, the unemployed organizations declared they were not satisfied, and all of them called for participating in a day of action organized for January 27 by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT). This protest centered mostly on the demand for a 35-hour workweek, instead of the earlier call for raising the social minimums.

On January 27 there were three separate demonstrations in Paris, as well as others throughout France. One organized by the CGT and the unemployed organizations -the Association for Employment, Information and Solidarity (APEIS), Act Against Unemployment (AC!), the National Movement of Unemployed and Occasional Workers (MNCP), and the unemployed committees of the CGT. Estimates of the demonstration ranged from 4,500 according to police to 10,000 according to the CGT. The lead banner read, "All together, women and men, for an increase of the social minimums, of buying power, and for the 35-hour workweek."

Elisabeth Forster, 40, explained why she came. "My husband spent four years unemployed. A year ago he got a job at the post office by passing an exam that gave 50 jobs to the 1,300 applicants. I work in the Social Security administration, but who knows if I'll always have a job. There have to be a lot of us at these demonstrations because this French situation is going to spread throughout Europe." Forster is part of a 20- member AC! committee in Sarcelles, a working-class suburb of Paris.

Another action in the French capital, called by the CGT together with the Workers Force (FO) and French Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT) federations of government employees, drew 6,000 workers behind the banner, "Enough job cuts, start hiring." The third protest, organized by the CGT federation of rail workers, demonstrated in favor of the 35-hour workweek and against the budget of the national state-owned rail network, the SNCF. Despite the similarity of the demands on employment, the different demonstrations did not unite.

The CGT made up the largest contingent of the demonstration that included the four main organizations of the unemployed. A contingent of Chinese and African immigrant workers, who are undocumented workers or sans papiers, was very visible, shouting "French, Immigrants, Solidarity" and "Jospin: documents!"

Chen Hui, 29, who came to demonstrate with the committee of Chinese sans papiers of the CGT, told the Militant, "We need solidarity between unemployed and the sans papiers. We don't want to take the jobs of those who are employed now. We just want to stop working off the books and be able to do something other than always work in garment shops or restaurants."

Some unemployed declared they were confused by the way the demands had changed since the January 17 action. Laurent Zalambani, 34, an unemployed printer for the last two and a half years and an AC! activist, said, "I thought it was still a demonstration to increase the social minimums and for a radical reduction of the workweek. But this morning, I hear in the media that we're going to support the government against the bosses. Yet I don't think there's much difference between them."

Florence Duval is a member of the Young Socialists in Paris. Jacques Salfati is a member of the CGT at the Peugeot factory in Poissy.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home