French Workers In Revolt

Amid protests, French government uses emergency powers to impose draft labor law

By Alex Lantier, 6 July 2016

The use of the constitution’s Article 49-3 to impose a redraft of the law without a vote in the National Assembly testifies to the Socialist Party’s contempt for democracy.

Courts persecute opponents of French labour law in Amiens

By Antoine Lerougetel, 2 July 2016

Two anti-El Khomri law protesters, Manon Chelmy and high school student Jules, 18, were sentenced to 90 hours of community service.

Interview with Manon Chelmy, protester against the labour law

By Antoine Lerougetel, 2 July 2016

Manon Chelmy was sentenced to community service after taking part in a protest against the Socialist Party’s reactionary labour law.

Interview with Manon Chelmy, protester against the labour law

By Antoine Lerougetel, 2 July 2016

Manon Chelmy was sentenced to community service after taking part in a protest against the Socialist Party’s reactionary labour law.

French president pushes for labor law vote as unions try to defuse protests

By Stéphane Hugues and Alex Lantier, 1 July 2016

Having already threatened to ban protests against the law under the state of emergency, the PS government is working with the union bureaucracies to wind down opposition.

045 CGT tacitly backs application of labor law to rail workers

29 June 2016

Mass protests follow failed attempt to ban opposition to French labor law

By Alex Lantier, 24 June 2016

Having pulled back from its attempt to ban demonstrations, the Socialist Party is proposing to outlaw left-wing parties that it considers opposed to the French state.

French government backs down from ban on protest against labor law

By Alex Lantier, 23 June 2016

Trade union officials told the Socialist Party government they feared large numbers of people would defy any ban on today's protest in Paris.

Despite mounting opposition, French unions signal concessions on labor law

By Alex Lantier, 20 June 2016

The Stalinist General Confederation of Labor has indicated that it may be open to negotiating firm-level contracts under the new law that violate the national Labor Code.

040 CGT & El Khomri

18 June 2016

French government threatens ban on protests against labor law

By V. Gnana and Alex Lantier, 16 June 2016

Shaken by rising working class opposition, the Socialist Party is signaling that it is prepared to shred basic democratic rights and institute a police state regime to impose austerity.

210 BHL denounces French strikers

16 June 2016

Opposition mounts to French labor law in new national day of action

By Anthony Torres, 15 June 2016

Despite the government’s efforts to smash strikes and demoralize workers, marches in several cities were noticeably larger than in previous mobilizations.

French unions boost pressure to end strike movement against labor law

By Anthony Torres, 13 June 2016

The union bureaucracy is isolating workers, industry by industry, while preparing new talks with the Socialist Party government.

230 BHL denounces French strikers

13 June 2016

French government threatens to crush strikes as Euro 2016 football cup starts

By Alex Lantier, 11 June 2016

Workers also faced criticism from union officials, who pushed for an end to the strike with claims that striking during the Euro cup would reflect badly on their image.

Strikes against austerity in France and Belgium defy union pressure for sellout

By Alex Lantier, 9 June 2016

Garbage workers took strike action in several cities across France, joining rail, port and oil workers in France and rail workers in Belgium.

Striking rail workers speak out on movement against French labor law

By Alex Lantier and V. Gnana, 6 June 2016

WSWS reporters spoke to striking rail workers and students mobilized in solidarity with their strike at railway stations across Paris.

Strikes in France elicit support from German workers

By Verena Nees, 3 June 2016

Sympathy from workers and young people, anger and resentment in the media—this is how Germany is reacting to the strikes in France.

Strike wave against labor law spreads in France

By Kumaran Ira, 2 June 2016

As the trade union bureaucracy prepares to sell out an escalating strike wave, opposition to the Socialist Party’s “El Khomri” labor reform is mounting in the working class.

030 German reaction to French strikes

2 June 2016

French strike movement exposes bankruptcy of New Anti-capitalist Party

By Alex Lantier, 2 June 2016

The emergence of the working class as the central force in struggle against France's Socialist Party government refutes the anti-working class perspective of the NPA.

The return of the “grand narrative”

By Andre Damon, 1 June 2016

The resurgence of the class struggle is undermining the intellectual charlatanry that underpinned the ideological dominance of various forms of anti-Marxism over the past half-century.

Belgian public sector goes on strike in run-up to French rail walkout

By Ross Mitchell and Alex Lantier, 1 June 2016

Workers are mobilising across national borders in Europe against the reactionary austerity policies that the entire European Union has imposed since the 2008 crash.

CGT union tries to block general strike against French labor law

By Alex Lantier, 30 May 2016

On the BFM-Politique show, CGT General Secretary Philippe Martinez said he was in back-channel talks with the government over its unpopular labor law.

Amid strikes, French President Hollande pledges to impose labor law

By Alex Lantier, 28 May 2016

Hollande is manoeuvring to use the trade union bureaucracy to contain social anger among workers against his reactionary labor law reform.

As strikes spread, mass protests demand withdrawal of French labor law

By Alex Lantier and Johannes Stern, 27 May 2016

Hundreds of thousands of people marched throughout France Thursday in the eighth nationwide protest against the anti-worker law implemented earlier this month.

Rail strike hits Belgium

By Ross Mitchell, 27 May 2016

Rail workers began an indefinite strike Wednesday evening in Belgium, paralysing mass transit and creating traffic jams in Brussels.

Strike wave against austerity spreads in France, Belgium

By Kumaran Ira, 26 May 2016

Police repression of anti-austerity protests in France and Belgium is enraging workers and driving broader layers of the working class into struggle.

Mobilize European workers to defend French strikers!

By Alex Lantier, 26 May 2016

The most powerful ally of workers struggling against pro-austerity governments in France, Belgium and Greece is the European and international working class.

International finance capital and the strikes in France

By Nick Beams, 25 May 2016

The aim of the “structural reforms” demanded by the IMF and the financial elites is the destruction of all the social gains of the European working class won in the past seven decades.

French government seeks to crush strikes against labor law

By Alex Lantier, 25 May 2016

A number of strikers were wounded when security forces assaulted workers blockading oil installations at the Fos-sur-Mer port near Marseille.

Workers speak on police crackdown against oil protest in France

By Anthony Torres, 25 May 2016

Dockworkers and students described a "war scene" as hundreds of riot police attacked demonstrators in Marseillaise with tear gas and batons.

Oil workers mobilise against French labour law

By Kumaran Ira, 23 May 2016

The Socialist Party is sending riot police to break up refinery strikes as they cause fuel shortages across France.

French parliament extends state of emergency amid rising protests

By Alex Lantier, 20 May 2016

Contrary to official claims, the state of emergency is not aimed at Islamist terrorism, but at growing opposition in the working class to social austerity and military and police violence.

013 Growing support for FN

20 May 2016

Defying police repression, protests continue against French labour law

By Stéphane Hugues, 18 May 2016

In the run-up to a rail strike planned for Wednesday, sections of truck drivers joined youth protesting the reactionary French labour law imposed by the Socialist Party government.

French government escalates repression of protests against labor law

By Stéphane Hugues, 17 May 2016

Even though this illegitimate and regressive law has technically been passed, a majority of the French people want protests against it to continue.

Paris meeting addresses war danger in Asia, bankruptcy of Tamil nationalism

By Kumaran Ira, 16 May 2016

Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka) assistant secretary Deepal Jayasekera explained the necessity for an internationally-unified socialist movement to stop war.

French police attack demonstrations against regressive labor law

By Alex Lantier, 13 May 2016

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated across France yesterday against the Socialist Party’s efforts to impose far reaching reforms without a vote in the National Assembly.

A new strategy is needed to fight French labor law

By Alex Lantier, 13 May 2016

The most politically conscious and advanced layers of workers and youth must prepare themselves not only for the mass struggles that will erupt, but for socialist revolution.

Protests erupt in France against regressive labor law

By Alex Lantier, 12 May 2016

Protesters clashed violently with police and sacked the headquarters of the ruling Socialist Party in several cities across France.

Protests shrink as police attack fourth day of action against French labour law

By Alex Lantier, 29 April 2016

The protesters are coming up against the absence of a viable strategy for mounting a political struggle to defend basic social rights against a reactionary Socialist Party government.

Workers and youth in Amiens speak out against French labour reform

By Antoine Lerougetel, 29 April 2016

A WSWS team spoke to protesting youth who unanimously criticised the strategy of the trade and student unions as insufficient to struggle against the labour reform.

French police attack demonstrators protesting anti-worker labor law reform

By Alex Lantier and Stéphane Hugues, 11 April 2016

The decision of the trade unions and their political allies not to call workers on strike alongside protesting students left the PS government free to assault the demonstrators.

Police arrest Air France strikers who confronted bosses over mass layoffs

By Kumaran Ira, 14 October 2015

The arrest of the strikers is a deliberate act of political intimidation aimed at the working class as a whole, which is broadly sympathetic to the strikers.

Mercedes-Daimler imposes unpaid work at French Smart car plant

By Antoine Lerougetel, 23 September 2015

The workers’ decision to accept unpaid working hours in exchange for supposed job security was a vote of no confidence in the unions.

French bosses’ call to end permanent job contracts, facilitate mass layoffs

By Kumaran Ira, 7 April 2015

The French business group Medef is calling for the creation of a new type of job contract in order to facilitate individual and mass sackings of workers.

The legitimization of Marine Le Pen

By Joseph Kishore and Alex Lantier, 20 January 2015

By opening its pages to Le Pen, the New York Times has signaled that powerful sections of the ruling class view anti-Muslim racism as a legitimate part of the public debate.

Air France pilots union signs concessions contract for low-cost subsidiary

By Anthony Torres, 24 December 2014

The move is the inevitable consequence of the union's betrayal of the September strike against plans to create a low-cost Transavia-Europe airline.

What way forward for the Air France pilots’ strike?

By Alex Lantier, 30 September 2014

Pilots must reject the abject surrender demanded by the pilots union, which would only lead to deep cuts to wages and conditions.

Air France delays outsourcing of jobs amid pilots strike

By our reporters, 24 September 2014

Faced with growing opposition from different sections of Air France workers, the airline may postpone the full implementation of its low-cost subsidiary Transavia-Europe.