Mobilize the working class against Macron!

 

Mobilize the working class against Macron!

5 December 2018

After weeks of mass “yellow vest” protests against austerity and inequality, the French government of President Emmanuel Macron announced yesterday that it would temporarily suspend its planned fuel tax increase targeting workers and pledged to hold a “debate on taxation and public spending.”

The claims by Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe that the government is listening to popular grievances are worthless. Macron, determined to restructure French society in the interests of French and international finance capital, is on a collision course with the working class.

Rather, his government’s tactical retreat is determined by military and police calculations. It has been taken aback by the outpouring of working class anger at the financial aristocracy and capitalist exploitation erupting outside state-sanctioned trade union channels. Its mass arrests of hundreds of protesters, tear gas attacks and beatings have not halted the protests.

Macron’s government is playing for time, attempting to regroup and prepare the next wave in the assault on workers’ social rights, to be enforced, if necessary, through a re-imposition of the state of emergency and other police state measures.

Long historical experience shows that the initial confusion of the ruling elite does not ensure victory to the workers. The discovery that police posted snipers on the rooftops of the Champs-Elysées to monitor and take aim at protesters last Saturday, and Macron’s hailing of Nazi-collaborationist dictator Philippe Pétain last month as a war hero, are among many warnings. Terrified by rising working class anger, the bourgeoisie is preparing ruthless measures.

As Macron prepares a new round of attacks, workers must make…

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