The strike movement in France: interviews and reports... Galia Trépère

Submitted by martin on 26 October, 2010 - 12:30 Author: Martin Thomas

Galia Trépère is a member of the leadership of the NPA (New Anti-Capitalist Party) and of the editorial board of the e-bulletin Débat révolutionnaire. She spoke to the AWL delegation visiting France on Sunday 24 October.

If the refineries remain solid, the government is in a difficult situation. The movement has pushed the union leaderships to go further than tney wanted to.

Sarkozy is going to get the law through parliament. But that will not end the protests.

However, Galia thought that the decisive moment when the struggle could have expanded into a general strike had probably now passed by.

There are relatively few workplaces with strike committees and relatively joint strike committees linking different workplaces. However, lots of links have been created by joint union committees linking different industries.

In Le Havre, the joint union committee for the city has been producing a daily bulletin.

In département 92 (Hauts-de-Seine, the near western suburbs of Paris), Haute-Loire, and around Peugeot at Mulhouse, there are similar sorts of links.

Galia teaches in a collège (junior high school). At her school, she said, about 50% of the teachers come out for the days of action, but there is no strike between those days. There is widespread sympathy for the strike movement, but not a huge level of discussion.

Generally, there is a very deep and very wide discontent in the working class. That has been built up by things like the Bettencourt affair (in which a lawsuit about the family fortune of the l'Oréal cosmetics empire has produced revelations about tax evasion and underhand donations to Sarkozy and his allies).

Bernard Thibault, leader of the CGT union confederation, faces strong opposition within the CGT. SUD, a more militant confederation, is gaining ground.

The NPA calls for Sarkozy to resign, for the withdrawal of the pensions law, and for a counter-offensive by the working class.

Galia was not in favour of calls for the dissolution of the National Assembly and early elections. That sort of agitation would come across as too linked to "alternance" in government (the Tweedledee-Tweedledum system by which since the early 1980s the Socialist Party and the right have succeeded each other in office, or sometimes "cohabited", a president from one and a prime minister from the other, with little change in policy).

If revolutionary socialists are calling for Sarkozy to go, what should they say about what should replace him?

If Sarkozy is pushed out by street protests, thought Galia, then revolutionary socialists can raise the idea of a government of workers' organisations, or a democratic workers' government, linked to a workers' plan for the crisis. Maybe it could be explained in popular terms by advocating a government of people like Bernard Thibault (CGT leader). Olivier Besancenot (NPA presidential candidate), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (leader of the Parti de Gauche, a left splinter from the SP now allied with the CP), and Nathalie Arthaud (presidential candidate of Lutte Ouvrière)...

The NPA, said Galia, is very active and involved in the struggle, but more need to make its political intervention fully sharp and coherent.

Discussions inside the NPA have moved forward, said Galia, on the question of systematic work in the unions. Previously the idea of trade-union fractions was taboo (it is a lasting legacy of the once-dominant syndicalist tendency in French trade-unionism that left parties in France generally disavow any intention of organising union fractions), but now there is discussion about developing a class-struggle current in the unions.

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.