The alliance of unions which called the 18 September strikes has issued an ultimatum—but Bloquons Tout want more than concessions

~ punkacademic ~

Yesterday (18 September) France was engulfed in disruption for the second week running, following the Bloquons Tout actions on 10 Septembe, as unions attempted to reassert their relevance with strikes across sectors and large-scale disruption all over the country.

The CGT claimed a million people participated in the actions on Thursday; even the Ministry of the Interior was prepared to concede it was at least 500,000. Nine unions acted together for the first time since the pension battles of 2023.

The RATP union largely succeeded in shutting down the Paris metro, and schoolteachers and school staff walked out alongside colleagues from the energy sector and the railways, where there was significant disruption to local and intercity services.

Students mobilised at universities across the country. University activity in Paris, Caen, Montepellier, Nantes, Rouen and Toulouse amongst others was shut down according to Contre Attaque, who also noted that in Lyon, “Sciences Po and the ENS were closed ‘pre-emptively’ by the administration”.

Anarchists remained at the heart of the action. In Laon, the Peter Kropotkin brigade again participated in the demonstrations, this time with a focus on the local Sonoco factory where 117 layoffs had recently been announced.

Compared to the previous week, the police response was more muted—largely attributable to the fact that the same number of officers had been deployed against significantly larger numbers of protestors on the streets.

Small groups of fascists and far-right demonstrators also made fleeting appearances to confront protestors. In Montpellier—where between 15,000 and 20,000 assembled in support of the actions—a group of up to 30 far-right men confronted around 200 protestors and anti-fascists towards the end of the day.

The police ultimately intervened to protect the far-right group, some of whom were identified by observers as members of an ultras group associated with the city’s football club. Several protestors and antifascists were injured in a series of attacks by members of the far-right group, but the police took no action against the perpetrators.

Though the scale of the action is impressive, tensions remain between the aspirations of sections of Bloquons Tout—a leaderless, decentred movement which prizes spontaneity and has no mechanism or will to ‘negotiate’ with mainstream politicians—and the mainstream labour organisations, with whom the government is more comfortable.

Attempting to regain the initiative, the union alliance has issued the new Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, with an ultimatum demanding a withdrawal of the budget proposals which caused the demise of his predecessor, or face renewed action after 24 September.

Demands also included the introduction of a wealth tax and the abandonment of attempts to increase the retirement age.

When questioned, however, activists on the street influenced by Bloquons Tout were less convinced of the merits of negotiation or conventional union-politician bargaining.

Nantes

One activist told France 24 that “We have nothing to ask of the government. We are not trying to negotiate…We want to impose our demands and our only demand is that the government is that it steps down”.

Others noted the exclusion of the parliamentary left from government, and the unsustainability of Macron’s conveyor-belt of expendable Prime Ministers.

Zombie Macronism rolls on, but even as it does so the revolt grows. The orthodox unions—so often a vehicle for containing protest as much as facilitating it—have taken comfort from their role yesterday, but it is far from clear they will be able to control or channel the wider anti-political sentiment represented by Bloquons Tout.

With that in mind, it is in the interest of the government to come to some sort of rapprochement with labour’s permitted interlocutors before the 24 September deadline expires. However, given Macron’s track record of intransigence, and the anarchistic spontaneity of Bloquons Tout, France remains in the balance.

Top photo: Thomas Bresson, CC BY 4.0