It was the second such demonstration in several weeks. On May 22, close to 15,000 workers struck and demonstrated in Paris and more than 5,000 in Marseille in response to the call of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the largest union of industrial workers in the country. The CGT slogan, "the conquering spirit: new century, new workers rights," reflects the deepening combative mood among workers in France.

This fighting spirit is spreading from workers in the state-run industries such as the railroads, postal, telephone, and gas and electric workers to industrial workers in privately owned companies. Workers in private industry suffered a series of sharp defeats in the 1980s in such industries as coal, steel, auto, shipyards, and textiles, from which they are only now beginning to recover.

Following the June 9 action, workers at the Bata shoe factory in Moussey, in the Lorraine region, announced that they were "releasing" Antonius Van Es, their plant director, who had been retained in his office by 100 workers for more than 24 hours. The workers took turns blocking the plant's gates. Van Es promised he would return to the plant Monday for negotiations. The factory remained occupied. "We want Toronto [where the Bata family has its headquarters] to commit all means necessary to ensure that we have zero unemployment," said Anita Marchal, representing a three-union coordinating committee.

On June 11, the director returned to the factory to announce that the plant, which has 875 workers and had already laid off 277 workers in 1997, would close permanently. Workers voted to continue to occupy the plant, holding 450,000 pairs of Bata shoes inside the factory as their "war chest."

"Before, we used to protest, but finally accepted layoffs. We had a sort of fatalistic attitude," said José Perez, as he stopped by a table doing a brisk business selling Pathfinder books at the Paris demonstration. Perez had come to the demonstration from the Sotteville railroad depots in Rouen, where he became a well-known figure in the nationwide railroad strikes in 1986 and 1995. "Now workers are discussing how to forbid layoffs. We are more offensive than we were before."

Correa Bissent agreed. He also stopped by the Pathfinder table to check out the books and pamphlets and speak to some of his co-workers helping staff the table. "If a company is making profits, it should not have the right to lay off workers," said Bissent, who comes from Senegal and has worked for the last 10 years at the Peugeot auto assembly plant at Poissy near Paris where he is a member of the CGT. "We need a law giving new rights to union representatives allowing them to block layoffs."

Workers have been particularly angered by layoffs in companies that have been making substantial profits. These have been dubbed "licenciements boursier"--stock market layoffs. The lead contingent in the June 9 demonstration came from more than 20 companies at which such layoffs have been announced, including the workers at the two LU cookie factories owned by the Danone company, the AOL-Air Liberté airline, Valéo auto parts, Bull computer equipment, Moulinex household appliances, Marks and Spencer department stores, and Dim clothing.  
 
Support from Basque Workers Union
Two thousand workers from the Basque Workers Union (LAB) came to the June 9 Paris demonstration. Members of the LAB had previously occupied the Basque summer residence of Franck Riboud, the director of the Danone company, in solidarity with the struggle of workers protesting the closure of Danone's LU cookie factories in northern France.

They had come to Paris for another demonstration that morning, together with Corsican and Breton nationalists, to defend the rights of political prisoners from the three areas. Many of the Basque workers came from that part of the Basque country occupied by the Spanish state. They stayed over to join thousands of French workers for the afternoon demonstration protesting layoffs. Their youthful and enthusiastic contingent waved Basque flags and sang the International in Basque.

Storm clouds have been rapidly gathering on the European economic horizon as both the German and French governments have been forced to lower their expectations for economic growth this year. Since last fall French economics minister Laurent Fabius has continued to lower the projected growth rate of the French economy from 3.3 percent to "a little less than" 2.5 percent. At the same time, officials announced an increase in May unemployment, reversing a four-year trend to lower rates. The euro took its sharpest one-day dive against the dollar in the last six months.

Companies in Europe have started to cut back production and reduce their workforce as the economic slowdown takes hold. This has sparked a wave of strikes and demonstrations in France, as well as a political debate among workers as to what measures offer the best protection against such layoffs. The debate has also involved the Socialist Party (SP) and French Communist Party that make up the governing coalition known as the Plural Left, and the CGT.  
 
Union demands
Militant workers involved in the struggles have been increasingly raising the demand to give veto rights over layoffs to the shop committees. Such committees, made up of union representatives elected by workers, are obligatory in any workplace of at least 50 workers. The committees already have some legal rights, including the right to open the company's books under certain conditions, but under current law they can only give their opinion concerning the company's decisions.

The CGT called its May 22 national day of action and demonstrations for a new law making "every plan to restructure a company dependent on the consultation of the workers and the agreement of a majority of their elected representatives," thus giving shop committees decision-making power.

Most of the leaders of the CGT are also members of the Communist Party and public differences between the two organizations are very rare. Nevertheless, the PCF, which is in the government coalition, did not mobilize for the CGT's May 22 action, calling instead for its own action June 9, supported by the Green party and several centrist groups, including the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) and Lutte Ouvrière. In return, the CGT publicly announced it would not mobilize for the June 9 Communist Party demonstration, but instead would send only a limited delegation. In the end, a number of local CGT unions such as those from the Peugeot auto assembly plant at Poissy and the Citroën assembly plant at Aulnay-sous-bois were present with small delegations at the June 9 action, but with banners repeating their call for union veto power over layoffs.

Workers' resistance to layoffs has also provoked a debate within the government over a draft law, the Social Modernization Act. Contradictory amendments to the law were presented by Socialist Party premier Lionel Jospin and by the French Communist Party.

With Jospin insisting that "the state can not forbid layoffs," the Socialist Party introduced amendments doubling the minimum severance pay which, they said, would discourage companies from laying off workers "unnecessarily." But under pressure from workers demonstrating for "new union rights," the PCF announced that they would vote against the law, putting the government in a minority.

Following the mass demonstrations, the SP and PCF agreed on an amended version of the law that would give shop committees the right to vote on layoffs. However, if they vote against, a mediator would be named and given a month to try to reach an agreement. After one month, the company would be free to go ahead with the layoffs anyway.

Bernard Thibault, the general secretary of the CGT, regretted the move, saying that the government's adoption of measures concerning a mediator are ones "the unions had not asked for." Charles Hoareau, the leader of the CGT unemployed committees in Marseille, wrote a public letter to PCF leader Robert Hue asking how he "expects us to feel other than as someone who has been stabbed in the back?" Hue insisted that the law demanded by the unions "would prevent thousands and thousands of speculative layoffs."

Nat London is an auto worker at the Renault auto parts plant in Choisy-le-roi and a member of the CGT.  
 
 
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