Pick your country, and there is a need for solidarity across those borders, as the various states use their purloined power to stifle any attempt by the people to reclaim that power. There is a world war going on at the moment, it is the war against the tyranny and exploitation of the capitalist system, it is a world wide class war. If we want a world of freedom and justice, a world we would be proud to hand to our children and our grandchildren, then it is a war we must win.
We have to forget those phoney lines drawn on maps by kings, presidents and dictators, and realise that the struggle, in any part of this world, by people defending their conditions or fighting for a decent life, is our struggle. The system we are fighting is world wide, it is not national, though states call on us to be patriotic, their masters, the capitalist system, is never patriotic, they laugh at those same borders they insist we observe.
Today French unions, students and undocumented workers have been in the streets day and night to reject the anti-labour reform pushed through the government without a vote. Not that our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media notices. They are on the streets defending some meagre conditions that they wrestled from the system, and it now wants them back. That struggle is our struggle, it is the same system, what is implemented there can and will be implemented elsewhere if it suits the profit motive. Don’t be fooled by the propaganda that the French workers have it easy with their guaranteed 35 hour week. The facts are somewhat different. The French workers on average work longer hours than their UK and German counterparts. The figures for 2014 show that on average the French workers worked 37.5 hours per week, UK, 36.1 and German workers, 35.3. Like all conditions for workers, they can be manipulated at will by employers.
Those in struggle in France are part of that world wide class war, they are planning a general strike for June 14, it demands all the support and solidarity we can muster. Let the borders melt, we are one people in one gigantic struggle. Our solidarity is our most powerful weapon, if we use it we can win.
Some points from the French labour reform bill.
Where in this is there anything that is a gain to the workers? It is an employers bill
- The 35-hour week in theory remains, but as an average. Firms can negotiate with local trade unions on more or fewer hours from week to week, up to a maximum of 46 hours.
- Firms are given greater freedom to reduce pay.
- The new law creates easier conditions for laying off workers, which is regulated in France.
- Employers given greater scope to negotiate holidays and special leave, such as getting married and maternity leave.
