Around one million people took to the streets of France this Thursday, according to figures from the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), in protest against President Emmanuel Macron and his austerity policies. This was the second major mobilization in recent days, after the relative success of the Bloquons tout! (“Let’s Block Everything!”) movement’s call for strikes and blockades last Wednesday, September 10.
The appeal for last week’s mobilization had spontaneously spread online, before actions were organized through popular assemblies held in many French towns and cities. Bloquons tout! had called for the blocking of France’s transport routes in protest against the austerity budget presented by then prime minister François Bayrou.
The massive police deployment last week (with eighty thousand officers, a record number) dismantled the blockades, but more than two hundred thousand people participated in the mobilization — a considerable success for a movement that had not existed just a few months earlier. Even though the original call was launched by a small nationalist group, they were not involved in the organization of last week’s protests, where the Left had the most prominent role.
The most combative unions (the CGT and Solidaires) had supported the September 10 call. Yet, the Intersyndicale, which brings together all the major workers’ organizations, decided to call its day of mobilizations for this Thursday, September 18. By then, Bayrou and his budget had already been defeated in the National Assembly, he had been forced to resign, and Macron had appointed a new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu. However, the French responded to the unions’ call, convinced that the new prime minister would change nothing about…
Auteur: Pablo Castaño
