European Workers' Mass Opposition to Anti-Social Offensive

Clash in France over Pension Reform Goes to Heart of Crisis of Liberal Democratic Institutions

Paris, March 23, 2023

Mass protests have been underway in France from January 19 to the present in opposition to anti-social pension reforms of the government of President Emmanuel Macron. Hundreds of demonstrations have taken place during that time, with as many as 3.5 million people taking part across the country on March 23 alone. The extent of the actions has been called historic in the last 40 or 50 years in terms of numbers of people participating.

In the face of this broad and sustained action by the people, the Macron government used special powers to force through its pension reform, that will raise retirement age from 62 to 64. On March 16, unable to negotiate enough votes to guarantee passage of the bill through the National Assembly, Macron sought recourse to Article 49:3 of the French Constitution, that allows governments to bypass the legislature and force through bills without a vote. These powers were enshrined in the constitution during the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, in the name of guaranteeing "political stability." Such use of the constitution exposed the government to two non-confidence votes, both of which Macron managed to survive, thus putting the deputies forced to vote with him in jeopardy of not being re-elected, showing how things unravel and go from bad to worse.

"By resorting to [Article] 49.3 the government demonstrates that it does not have a majority to approve the two-year postponement of the legal retirement age," Laurent Berger, Secretary General of the Confédération française démocratique du travail (CFDT) union central said on Twitter. "The political compromise failed. Workers must be listened to when it is their work being acted upon."

The unfolding situation in France reveals above all else the crisis in which what are called liberal democratic institutions are mired. It is not the people who set agenda and decide on the matters of concern to them, but an elite which has usurped the decision-making power. Changing the age of retirement will not solve the problems the French economy faces and taking measures which favour the rich and turn the working people of France into things which are disposable on a ledger sheet will definitely exacerbate them.

Slogan painted on wall in Paris

Amidst these protests, King Charles III attempted to make his first trip abroad with a visit to France from March 22 to 26. French workers gave a fitting response, and showed that they are in no mood for retrogression and symbols of anachronistic forms of governance that they brought to a decisive end more than 200 years ago. In Bordeaux, to be the King's first stop in France as an allegedly symbolic repetition of the itinerary of Elizabeth II to France after her coronation, mass protests stopped this in its tracks. In a move which makes one really wonder what world the ruling class lives in, the reception was moved to Versailles but the workers would have none of it. Train and bus lines were cut to Versailles, utility workers cut off the gas and electricity supply to Versailles and the workers from the protocol department of the French government refused to lay out a red carpet. The French workers to their credit and honour thus managed to cancel the visit; a fitting beginning for the ill-fated reign of this relic of history on the eve of his coronation.