Workers' Liberty

Cathérine Ayme is an activist in the JCR (Revolutionary Communist Youth, linked to the LCR, Revolutionary Communist League) in Lille, France. In London for the Workers' Climate Action gathering on 15-16 November, she talked to Martin Thomas about the efforts of the LCR and JCR to launch a broader new anti-capitalist party in January 2009.

1. Fascism and War Are Threatening!
To all the toilers of France!

At its congress in January this year, the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire, one of the main revolutionary socialist groups in France, decided on a drive to reach out and build “a new anti-capitalist party” (French initials NPA) from below. (See www.workersliberty.org/lcr-npa).

The "L'Etincelle" faction of Lutte Ouvriere has been expelled by LO, and will continue to work with the LCR on the project of a new united anti-capitalist party in France.

Bastilles and Bastilles

Two hundred years on from the day
They leveled down the wall
Of the glowering empty grim Bastille,

Ed Maltby reports from Paris

Bonjour, la classe!
A reply to Koos Couvée
In his article, "ENS: Why have we lost?", Koos Couvée raises vital questions relating to the strategy of the student movement.

Undocumented workers in France are taking up new strategies in the fight for regularisation.

The following is translated from the Le Monde newspaper's website.

Since 15 April, a series of unprecedented strikes by undocumented workers have taken place in France. In the greater Parisian region alone, an estimated one thousand undocumented workers are involved in strike action. The strike and actions, led by the CGT and other unions, is mainly concentrated in construction and restaurants. All the disputes are demanding the mass regularisation of undocumented workers.

In France, students and teachers are continuing a huge strike against the Sarkozy government’s planned attacks on education which threaten to demolish state education, and open the way for a Blair-style “choice agenda” and private-sector expansion into education.

In France, and especially in the Parisian region, students and teachers are continuing a huge strike against the Sarkozy government’s planned attacks on education.

Since the 15th of April, following a sustained organising campaign amongst undocumented migrant workers undertaken by the CGT, the CNT, and Solidaires unions, a series of unprecedented strikes by undo

The 2006 Movement Against Precarity – A First Assessment

For the Organisation of the Working Youth

On Our Work in the Lycées – from the JCR's 2008 Congress Second Discussion Bulletin

Christian Picquet, former editor of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire paper Rouge, will no longer be able to hold on to his full-time post in the LCR office after the poor level of support won by his tendency at their recent conference.

As British teachers are mobilising for a historic strike, their French counterparts are engaged in a bitter struggle of their own, in the face of a ferocious government attack and a scandalously timid union leadership.

A large teachers’ strike has been called for Tuesday 18 March in France, with teachers in many schools voting to strike indefinitely. As the preparations for this are underway, the JCR (the LCR’s youth wing) has been mobilising to get word out to lycée (roughly equivalent to post-16/FE college) students, at a time when the organisation has identified expansion into that age group as a priority.

The French Parti Socialiste (PS) has defeated President Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party in local elections.

Interview with Amaria Gacemi –
sandwich maker and CGT rep at the striking Grand Littoral Carrefour supermarket in Marseilles

Red: How did the strike start?

Pierre Lambert was in his time one of those “orthodox Trotskyists” who kept a banner of anti-Stalinist revolutionary Marxism flying in the worst years of Cold War and declining class struggle.

Following the massive strike movement of last Autumn which ended in stalemate, French rail workers are preparing for the next round.

In France, bosses have limited powers to regularise migrant workers; and in recent strikes in the Essonne region, this has been used against them.

Reports, comments, and discussion around the LCR's plan to launch a "new anti-capitalist party" in France.

Strike on the 1st of February

For the first time on this scale, following a call from the major retail
sector union federations CGT, CFDT and FO, the big retail sector mobilised

At its congress on 24-27 January in Paris, the LCR (Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire) decided to set about building "a new anti-capitalist party".

Statement from "L'Etincelle": The Central Committee of Lutte Ouvriere decided on the 2nd of February to "suspend" the "Etincelle" minority faction until the organisation's next congress, which will be in December.

Following the massive strike movement of last Autumn which ended in stalemate, French rail workers are preparing for the next round.