A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #363 - Spotlight - Social Return: Let's Fight Back Against the Bourgeois Offensive (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Faced with the social destruction of the Bayrou government, faced with 
the militaristic and imperialist policies of the State, let us organize 
ourselves to fight back as soon as the social sector resumes on 
September 10. ---- Having waited until the end of the parliamentary 
session, François Bayrou announced on Tuesday, July 15, what his budget 
proposal for the new school year would consist of. The least we can say 
is that the bill is steep. We had already heard him proclaim that EUR40 
billion in savings should be made, but they've put in a little more for 
the road. EUR44 billion in savings have been announced. All this under 
the pretext of reducing the public deficit for the coming year to just 
over 4%. All this to more or less preserve a sacrosanct budgetary rule, 
seriously jeopardized by the petty secrecy of Bruno Lemaire, Minister of 
Economy and Finance for more than seven years, who had indeed left an 
unforeseen and record deficit.

This budget hits hard and hard. A blank year for state spending, which 
will therefore be mechanically reduced by inflation. The elimination of 
two public holidays. One in three civil servants retiring will not be 
replaced, even though the civil service is already aging. A full-scale 
attack on the long-term illness (ALD) system, from which one in five 
French people benefit: medications are less well reimbursed and patients 
"  in remission  " are excluded from the system.

And all this for nothing ! Indeed, to reduce the deficit, this budget 
forecasts GDP growth of 1.2% for next year, while it will only be 0.7% 
in 2025. The vast majority of countries in the economic North manage to 
maintain around 1%. Our Western economies are therefore struggling to 
create more activity and produce more goods or services. Even better, 
this budget with which Bayrou intends to save the country could further 
undermine French growth. By limiting public investment and state 
spending, activity could decline even further. The IMF itself had 
finally recognized, after the Greek disaster, that austerity was idiocy.

Even newspapers like Le Monde and Les Échos can no longer ignore the 
dismay of many economists. This policy should remind us that the state 
is nothing more than the ruling class's mechanism of oppression. It's 
hard to pretend to ignore the fact that this budget only serves the 
capitalists. To continue accumulating ever more capital despite stalled 
growth, the bourgeoisie has no choice but to attack workers head-on. 
Their goal is simple: to tear us even more from the wealth we produce.

In his press conference on August 25, François Bayrou announced that he 
would seek a vote of confidence in the National Assembly on September 8.
French government

Unite against militaristic policies
And as another side of the same coin, we find militarism: the army's 
budget will escape this massacre and will see its envelope increase by 
3.5 billion euros for next year. "  Never since 1945 has freedom been so 
threatened and never to this extent ,  " Macron had asserted, just 
before the announcement of the establishment of a militarized version of 
Defense and Citizenship Day (JDC) for young people under 25.

Indeed, a crucial problem undermines the capitalist dynamic: its actors 
want to see their capital constantly increase, and to do this, they need 
to sell more and more. But sell to whom ? If not to employees , whose 
remuneration they also seek to limit ? In short, workers should be able 
to buy everything, while the bourgeoisie tries to reduce as much as 
possible the share of wealth produced that remunerates labor. Our 
leaders' solution, to win on both counts, is export. Capitalist 
societies must always find outlets for their goods in secondary markets. 
In this way, they can reduce their costs at home and make their profits 
elsewhere. This is the heart of the imperialist project. Today, as a 
century ago, capitalism carries war within it like a cloud carries a 
storm. What we see unfolding before us is a war against the people.

General meetings are being organized in many cities across France. To 
sustain the movement, we must foster self-management dynamics and build 
a sustained strike.
The Swan Song

September 10 and beyond
A call to shut down the country on September 10th appears to be gaining 
support from a portion of the population.

 It seems to have been proposed in part by circles of confusion and 
conspiracy theorists. Some may therefore fear that the far right is more 
or less at the origin of it. Indeed, we have seen that a constellation 
of "concerned citizens" who have been involved in the anti-vax movement 
want to get involved. But we cannot stop there.

A real feeling of rejection of government policy has taken root among 
the population. In any vibrant popular movement that is not led by a 
party or a union, there is bound to be political confusion. It is angry 
workers who first bring these initiatives to life. So, let's be there! 
Our camp has already made the mistake of getting involved late in the 
Yellow Vests, allowing political confusion to spread. But as soon as we 
were there, wherever we went, we could see the movement shifting towards 
the search for social justice.

The UCL will be present at the September 10th demonstrations. Contact 
your local group to join our marches!

But stopping there must be out of the question! We must mobilize in our 
unions, in our associations, in our circles; we must build a massive and 
renewable strike. We are all bitter about the results of the pension 
struggle. Go-slow strikes will no longer be tolerated by our friends and 
colleagues. We must build a real balance of power. Remind our leaders 
that we are the ones producing and that they are nothing without us. 
It's the only weapon they truly appreciate. If the economy shuts down, 
anything is possible for workers. The UCL therefore calls on all those 
who can to join the social movement wherever possible, and to renew the 
strike for three consecutive days.

We must not stop if Bayrou backs down or if the government is censured. 
When we succeed in building a movement, we must remind everyone of the 
state of social war we find ourselves in. We must reiterate our 
solidarity with Palestine and demand an end to the arms trade with 
Israel. We must demand an end to the reform of the RSA (Responsible 
Social Welfare) and its forced labor. We must fight against the ableism 
that is causing the freezing of allowances and benefits for people with 
disabilities. We must reiterate that we want an end to exploitation and 
the capitalist bourgeoisie.

Wendelin (UCL Alsace)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Rentree-sociale-Ripostons-contre-l-offensive-bourgeoise
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