France: One-day strike against austerity

Workers in both public and private sectors of the economy walked out in France on 9 April against austerity measures of the ‘left’ Hollande government.

300,000 people took part in demonstrations across the country – more than 100,000 in Paris – against austerity, for wage rises, against the Macron law on workplace deregulation, (including Sunday working, etc).

It was the biggest day of mobilisation and strikes since the 2010 protests against Sarkozy’s pension attacks.

There was a large presence of workers from the private sector, especially shop workers, bank and insurance workers and workers in engineering. From the public sector there were health workers out in force against the 22,000 planned redundancies, dockers, railway workers, postal-workers, and tram workers from several regions.

The Radio France employees, on strike for three weeks, were there, as were the engineers of Sambre and Meuse who are occupying their factories to stop closure.

Gauche Révolutionnaire (the Socialist Party’s French counterpart) says it is now necessary to launch discussions in the unions, workplaces, and neighbourhoods for a new day of action and strikes, which are even bigger and more combative.