A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #347 - Culture, See: On strike (rail in 2019-2020) (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In 2003, Christophe Cordier had already followed the railway workers of 
Paris-Est and Pantin during this "funny strike which perseveres, but 
does not take hold" as said in his documentary at the time, A day to 
bounce back. Sixteen years later, he and Adeline Gonin returned to the 
same places to film a historic, massive, powerful strike, the longest 
that the railways in France have known. ---- Started on December 5, 
2019, it happily made it through the end-of-year holidays only to end at 
the end of January 2020. And again, without bitterness or resignation. A 
few weeks later, the government used the coronavirus as an excuse to 
abandon its points retirement plan.

Between the two events, a common point is obvious: the few people at the 
general assembly, reducing self-organization. In 2003, it was the sign 
of a coughing struggle. In 2019, we were able to blame the culture of 
"distancing" (social networks, smartphones), but also, more prosaically, 
the impossibility of getting to the site when transport is blocked!

Despite the fact that the AGM is sparse, we are therefore pleased with 
an irresistible wave which "thwarts the forty-eight hour notice, where 
even at the switch the executives have walked out". It is a real revenge 
on the intermittent strike of 2018, which had accumulated 36 days of 
discontinuous strike, wasting combativeness without managing to create a 
balance of power. The movement does not forget the workers excluded from 
railway status: "At the counter, today, they put three temporary workers 
and two fixed-term contracts" to replace the strikers.

Well constructed, the film avoids the pitfall of the linear, scattered 
or emphatic activist documentary. We are there "on an individual level", 
with a narrative thread and recurring characters, notably the SUD-Rail 
unionists whom we followed in 2003... not tired, more seasoned!

Several scenes really make you smile. This caricature of a Parisian 
left-wing bourgeois, slapped head with his Michel Onfray look, who comes 
to treat the demonstrators as privileged; these armored police officers 
who burst into the middle of a street meeting to surround a trade 
unionist wearing a vaguely anti-cop sticker...

But, apart from a few more intimate passages, the most touching scenes 
remain those of the simple and warm exchanges between railway workers 
and employees of the Paris Opera. Strong images of the orchestra in 
dissidence, violins in hands at dusk, on the steps of the Bastille, in 
front of suddenly silent demonstrators. And the great dramatic aria from 
Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet that they then perform will return to 
punctuate the film sequences.

After five weeks of struggle, we felt a bit of slack in AG. A trade 
unionist then motivated colleagues by showing the progress made: "Two 
demonstrations between Christmas and New Year's Day, but what we did is 
historic!»

Guillaume Davranche (UCL Montreuil)

Christophe Cordier, Adeline Gonin, On strike, Kanari Films/Télé 
Bocal/Canal Marches, 2023, 60 minutes.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Voir-En-greve-le-rail-en-2019-2020
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