France: Our country is in mourning and angry (united appeal)

Original is available here

Our country is in mourning and anger. The murder of Nahel, killed by a police officer at point-blank range in Nanterre, has laid bare the effects of decades of discriminatory public and security policies targeting working-class neighborhoods and the youth who grow up there, particularly racialized and precarious people. The escalation of violence is a dead end and must stop. The essentially repressive conception of the police, and the legislative evolution of 2017 on the use of service weapons, aggravate what the population experiences and suffers in terms of discrimination and racist practices.

The tensions between the population and the police come from afar and are part of a history marked by injustice, prejudice, violence, discrimination, sexism... and systemic racism that runs through society as a whole and has not yet been eradicated.

The inhabitants of the neighbourhoods concerned, and especially women, often make up for the shortcomings in terms of public services alone. It is indeed the regression of these, the school, the places of sharing and culture, sports, the post, the administrations etc. and the decline in State support for associations, which have largely contributed to marginalizing these neighbourhoods and entire territories well beyond, particularly in the overseas territories.

The abandonment of these neighborhood populations is aggravated by the economic context of impoverishment, inflation, rising rents, energy prices and the reform of unemployment insurance. Social inequalities particularly affect children and single mothers. This is shown by the revolts that have shaken the working-class neighborhoods in recent days in reaction to the tragedy of Nanterre.

In addition to decades of excesses of a policy of maintaining order, security laws (global security law, separatism law ...) and exceptional measures, we have witnessed in recent days pressure from the government to set up expeditious justice. The imposition of systematic preventive detention with increasingly heavy sentences is not acceptable!

The urgency is not that of repression, which will only strengthen the extreme right and set back rights and freedoms once again.

Lasting appeasement is only possible if the government takes the necessary measures to respond to the urgency of the situation and the demands of the populations concerned.

The UN has repeatedly criticized security policies and institutional problems of racism in France, particularly in law enforcement.

It is discrimination that is a toxic poison that undermines the very idea of equality and sows despair.

The far-right is making it its bed to further divide society. We denounce the call for civil war against working-class neighborhoods and the characterization of people who come from them as "harmful" by police unions.

We condemn the constitution of a fundraiser in support of the policeman who killed Nahel at the initiative of a member of the extreme right and the absence of any action by the government, thus adding fuel to the fire.

Everything has to be rethought and built. We must start from new bases, create spaces for broad discussions and learn from the mistakes of public policies over decades, respecting the histories, backgrounds, cultures and singularities that feed our collective aspiration for equality. It is high time to listen and take into account the demands of the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods and in particular its youth!

The situation requires the government to assume its responsibilities and provide immediate responses to get out of the confrontation:

• Repeal of the 2017 law on the relaxation of the rules on the use of firearms by law enforcement agencies; 
• an in-depth reform of the police, their intervention techniques and their armament;
• the replacement of the IGPN by a body independent of the police hierarchy and political power; 
• the creation of a service dedicated to discrimination affecting young people within the administrative authority chaired by the Defender of Rights and the strengthening of the means to combat racism, including in the police.

However, nothing can be done without a different sharing of wealth, without fighting against social inequalities. Nothing can be done without the fight against poverty and precariousness, aggravated by climate change, rising rents and charges, and without strengthening public services and popular education. It is these projects that the government should tackle instead of carrying out regressive public policies that pave the way for the far right.

Our trade unions, associations, collectives, committees and political parties are mobilized to maintain public and individual freedoms.

In the immediate future, we call to join all the rallies and marches around these demands, everywhere in the country from Wednesday, July 5, like the march organized by the Truth and Justice Committee for Adama on July 8 in Beaumont-sur-Oise, and that of the National Coordination against police violence on July 15.

We call for citizen marches on Saturday, July 8 throughout the France and overseas territories.

We will build together the follow-up of these mobilizations.

Signatories
Unions:
Confédération générale du travail (General Confederation of Labour); Confédération nationale des travailleurs-Solidarité Ouvrière (National Confederation of Workers-Workers' Solidarity); Fédération Syndicale Étudiante (Student Union Federation); Fédération syndicale unitaire (Unitary Union Federation); Solidaires Étudiant-e-s (Student Solidarity); Syndicat des Avocats de France (Union of France Lawyers); UNEF le syndicat étudiant (UNEF the student union); Union Syndicale Solidaires (Trade Union Solidarity); Union Étudiante (Student Union).

Associations:
350.org; Adelphi'Cité; Amnesty International France; Alternatiba; Alternatiba Paris; Les Amis de la Terre France (Friends of the Earth France); ANV-COP21; ATTAC France; Bagagérue; Conscience; Coudes à Coudes; DAL Droit au Logement (DAL Right to Housing); La Fabrique Décoloniale (The Decolonial Factory); Fédération des Associations de Solidarité avec Tou-te-s les Immigrés-e-s (Federation of Associations of Solidarity with All Immigrants); Fédération Nationale de la Libre Pensée (National Federation of Free Thought); Fédération nationale des maisons des potes (National Federation of Houses of Friends); Femmes Egalité; Fondation Copernic (Copernicus Foundation); Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigré·es (Information and Support Group for Immigrants); Greenpeace France; Jeune Garde Antifasciste (Young Anti-Fascist Guard); Ligue des droits de l’Homme (League of Human Rights); Memorial 98; Observatoire nationale de l’extrême-droite (National Observatory of the Far-Right); Organisation de Solidarité Trans (Trans Solidarity Organization); Planning familial; Réseau d’Actions contre l’Antisémitisme et tous les racismes (Action Network against Antisemitism and All Racism); REVES Jeunes (DREAMS Young); SOS Racisme.

Collectives:
Alliances et Convergences; Assemblée des Gilets Jaunes de Lyon & Environs (Assembly of the Yellow Vests of Lyon & Environs); Colère Légitime (Legitimate Anger); Collective civgTENON; Collectif des Écoles de Marseille (Collective of Marseille Schools); Collectif national pour les Droits des Femmes (National Collective for the Rights of Women); Collectif Nouvelle Vague (New Wave Collective); Collectif Vérité et Justice pour Safyatou, Salif et Ilan (Truth and Justice Collective for Safyatou, Salif and Ilan); Collective des mères isolées (Collective of single mothers); Comité des Soulèvements de la Terre Sud-Essonne (Committee of the Uprisings of the Earth South Essonne); Comité Local de Soutien aux Soulèvements de la Terre Aude (Local Committee for the Support of the Uprising of the Earth Aude), Comité Soulèvement Bas-Vivarais (Bas-Vivarais Uprising Committee), Comité les Soulèvements de la Terre Lyon et environs (Committee the Uprisings of the Earth Lyon and surrounds); Comité local de soutien aux Soulèvements de la Terre Villefranche (Local Committee for the Support of the Uprisings of the Earth Villefranche), Comité local de soutien aux Soulèvements de la Terre Romans-sur-Isère (Local Committee for the Support of the Uprisings of the Earth Romans-sur-Isère); Comité nîmois de soutien aux Soulèvements de la Terre (Nîmes Committee for Support to the Uprisings of the Earth); Comité de soutien à Moussé Blé (Support Committee for Moussé Blé); Comité justice et vérité pour Mahamadou (Justice and Truth Committee for Mahamadou); Comité Les Lichens Ardéchois; Comité Vérité et Justice pour Adama (Truth and Justice Committee for Adama); Coordination des comités pour la défense des quartiers populaires (Coordination of committees for the defense of working-class neighborhoods); Democra'psy, Dernière Rénovation; En Gare; Justice pour Othmane; La Révolution est en marche (The Revolution is underway); Lla Terre se soulève en Corrèze (The Earth rises in Corrèze); Le Peuple Uni (The United People); Les Soulèvements de la Terre - comité Île-de-France (The Earth Uprisings - Île-de-France committee); Les Soulèvements de l'Entre2Mers (33); Lyon en lutte (Lyon in Struggle); Lyon Insurrection; Nîmes Révoltée (Nîmes revolted); Réseau GBM (GBM Network); Rejoignons-nous (Let's join); Collectif du 5 novembre - Noailles en colère (Marseille) (Collective of November 5 - Noailles angry (Marseille)); Syndicat des quartiers populaires de Marseille (Union of working-class neighborhoods of Marseille); Collectif Justice pour Claude Jean-Pierre; Youth for Climate IDF.

Political organizations:
ENSEMBLE! – Mouvement pour une Alternative de Gauche, Écologiste et Solidaire (TOGETHER! – Movement for a Left Alternative, Ecologist and Solidarity); Europe Ecologie Les Verts (Europe Ecologie Les Verts); La France insoumise (Rebellious France); Front Uni des Immigrations et des quartiers populaires (United Front of Immigrations and Popular Neighborhoods); Gauche Ecosocialiste (Ecosocialist Left); Génération.s; Nouveau parti anticapitaliste (New Anti-capitalist Party); Parti Communiste des Ouvriers de France (Communist Party of France Workers); Parti de Gauche (Left Party); Pour une Écologie Populaire et Sociale (For a Popular and Social Ecology); Parti Ouvrier Indépendant (Independent Workers' Party); Réseau Bastille (Bastille Network); Révolution Écologique pour le Vivant (Ecological Revolution for Life); Union communiste libertaire (Libertarian Communist Union).

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Why Australian unionists should build solidarity with Ukrainian workers and their Unions

Members of the Independent Miners' Union of Ukraine (NGPU) in Novovolynsk district with representatives of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign who were delivering donations to Ukrainian workers. Source: Ukraine Solidarity Campaign.

Lisbeth Latham

Sixteen months ago the Russian Federation launched a brutal invasion of Ukraine. Aimed at a quick lightning invasion, it was stifled, against all expectations, by the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian armed forces. This resistance not only blunted the attack but has been able to launch counter-offensives and liberate some Ukrainian territory - largely due to the much-delayed delivery of military equipment from Western imperialist governments. The ongoing conflict has sparked widespread debates globally about what attitude the left, particularly unions, should take to the conflict and how to achieve peace. I believe the only principled position for the left is to take solidarity with Ukrainian workers and their unions to defeat the Russian invasion. In doing so we not only have a position to build a better Ukraine post-Russia’s invasion but also our own ability to build a better world.

Picking sides
In the sections of the left and labour movement internationally and within Australia there has been determined resistance against supporting solidarity with Ukraine. Arguing variously:

• That the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine was provoked by the actions of the US and NATO; 
• That Ukraine is acting as a proxy for NATO and as such denied military aid; 
• That Ukraine receiving military aid is extending the war, and as such aid should end;

These arguments, apart from reflecting the position of the Russian Federation and its supporters in the global far-right, operate on the basis that global politics operate within a frame of a contest between two camps, US imperialism and its allies amongst Western imperialist states on the one hand, and an opposing camp of “anti-imperialist” countries in opposition to US interests and that it is necessary to pick sides in this conflict, with a view that the left must side with the opponents of US interests.

There are a number of problems with this. As has been argued by a number of writers it constitutes the “anti-imperialism of idiots” that simplifies politics to simply taking an opposing position to whatever one's own ruling class takes. It also, as Indian communist and feminist, Kavita Krishnan has argued results in the left uncritically supporting the actions of authoritarian regimes not only internationally but also against their own popular movements in the name of defending and supporting “multi-polarity”.

More importantly, it entirely ignores the agency of not just Ukraine as a sovereign country, but more importantly what the Ukrainian working class and their organisations believe is necessary. This has primarily been justified based on both the counter-posing of both US interests but also Russia’s right to a zone of influence - essentially accepting its right to a zone of influence where it can determine the domestic and foreign policy of its neighbours, similar to the US actions globally, particularly within Latin America under the Monroe Doctrine.

Central to the denial of Ukraine’s right to self-determination has been the maligning of Ukrainian society and culture as inherently fascist and far-right. This in part echoes some of Russian government’s justification of war in painting the idea of Ukrainian identity as inherently fascist but relies on the presence within Ukrainian society, and particularly the armed forces, which are “riddled with far-right forces that venerate anti-Semitic Nazi collaborators”. The Ukrainian left openly acknowledges that there has been, and continues to be, a significant influence in Ukrainian society by far-right forces. However, Ukraine is hardly alone in this problem, many societies have problems of far-right forces within society - indeed the Putin government is seen as a significant sponsor and inspiration for many of them. Also, many countries, including Australia, popularly venerate, at least within at least a section of society, thoroughly reactionary if not openly genocidal figures, it seems a strange threshold for a just war, particularly given that the most recent mass global anti-war movement against US imperialist action was in defence of Iraq, which at the time was lead by the Baarthist government with a long record of crimes against both its own population, particularly minorities, and its neighbours.

So what do Ukrainian workers and marginalised communities see as necessary in the face of the invasion? Ukrainian progressive organisations such as Sotsialnyi rukh (Social Movement), are very clear in their assessment that the defeat of the invasion is necessary for the broader liberation struggles in Ukraine to be successful. The Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine in a statement marking one year of the invasion said:

“This unprovoked war was started not only against Ukraine. It undermines everything that we, trade unions, represent – peaceful labor, democratic values, sustainable development, and justice. The unjustified invasion of the Russian army into Ukraine endangers not only our freedom and independence but also peace and stability in Europe and the world.

“We call on all people of goodwill to help Ukraine and its citizens protect the right to life! Stand with Ukraine! Help Ukraine to win this 9-year war, to restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity and to return peace to Ukraine!"

For these reasons thousands of workers, members of the LGBTIQA+, Tatar, Roma, Jewish, and feminist communities are participating disproportionately within the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces, and partisan units in Russian-occupied Ukraine. As such, they have made it clear that they support the provision of military aid to Ukraine to enable it to defeat and roll back the Russian invasion.

However, these forces also recognise that their struggle will not end with the defeat of the invasion. During the current invasion, the Valensky government has sought to carry roll back the rights of workers and their unions. It is also clear that both Ukrainian and global capital will seek to use any post-war rebuilding process in Ukraine to further liberalise the Ukrainian economy and increase the poverty and marginalisation of Ukrainian workers.

In the face of both the current invasion and the looming struggle in a liberated Ukraine, Social Movement and the Ukrainian unions are calling for material support from the global labour movement to maximise the capacity of Ukrainian workers to organise. The ability of organisations such as the Confederation of Free Ukrainian Unions, to support its members, both as they continue to keep Ukrainian society functioning and as they participate in the armed struggle, not only to speed the turning back of the invasion but build the authority of the union movement in seeking to build a more democratic and equal Ukrainian society in the future.

It is essential that Australian unions join global efforts to build material and political solidarity with Ukrainian workers. The simplest way to build material support is to make donations to the solidarity convoys being organised by those sections of the European labour movement that are supporting Ukrainian workers. Equally important is the building of direct links with Ukrainian unions and awareness amongst Australian workers of the current struggles in Ukraine. This is not just in keeping with our movement’s long history of struggle and solidarity with international struggles against imperialist oppression, but to maximise our ability to place pressure on the Australian government and its imperialist allies against their efforts to transform Ukraine into a neoliberal “paradise”.

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Lisbeth Latham is a long-term union activist and organiser. She is a trade union solidarity representative in Australia for the European Network in Solidarity with Ukraine. She tweets @grumpenprol and would like to hear from Australian unionists interested in building solidarity with Ukrainian workers.

This article is posted under copyleft, verbatim copying and distribution of the entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. If you reprint this article please email me at revitalisinglabour@gmail.com to let me know.

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How we can respond to the cost of living crisis

Lisbeth Latham

Throughout late 2021 and 2022, we have seen rising inflation pressures both in Australia and internationally. The growth in inflation, whilst initially dismissed as a serious problem, has now triggered sharp increases in interest rates by central banks globally combined with a significant rise in capital and governments blaming inflation wage growth and warning against the “danger” posed by efforts by workers seeking to maintain their purchasing power via wage rises - an action which has been blamed for driving the current inflationary pressure.

What is causing inflation?
While there is generally a range of pressures at any given time to increase the cost of goods and services, the current increases reflect an intersection between different world events. These are primarily:

• the continued disruption of a range of global supply chains, many of which have their origin in China, due to the impact of COVID on manufacturing, transport, and distribution networks. 
• The disruption range of food production areas has been disrupted by extreme weather events, where crops have been wiped out or damaged, which has driven up some food prices. 
• The ongoing war in Ukraine and the economic sanctions imposed on Russia in response have caused significant disruption in Russian gas exports and Ukrainian grain exports. 

All of these factors have placed upward pressure on the costs of goods.

However, a more significant factor has been the decision by a wide range of companies to boost the price of their goods to a level substantially above any underlying rise in costs. This is reflected in a wide range of companies experiencing massive growth in profits substantially above their growth in turnover - suggesting that the primary driver is deliberate price gauging by these companies in a context where they believe they can shift blame for price rises to external factors.

Interest rates
Globally the response of central banks to inflationary pressures has been to move to reduce the money supply by raising interest rates. While for certain sections of the economy, such as in stock market speculation and the housing market, this will undoubtedly result in an effective reduction in spending that will not necessarily disrupt the economy - for most working people these rate rises are likely to cause potentially catastrophic disruption, that will not only be individually devastating, as a consequence of rising mortgage repayments in the context of significant and widespread mortgage stress, and the inability to afford basic costs of good.

Stagnant wages
Wages in advanced capitalist countries prior to the current crisis had largely been stagnant during a period of low inflation, this stagnation has been exacerbated by the current inflationary pressure. Wage stagnation has been a result of: 

• Hostile industrial relations regimes that have weakened the power of workers and their unions whilst limiting the restrictions on employers deploying power; 
• An aggressive approach to bargaining and wage setting by employers as a consequence of historically low-profit growth 

In Australia, the problems of enterprise bargaining under the Fair Work Act - which has seen record low wages growth in the past decade have been raised by both the ACTU and the ALP as a basis to amend the Act, most notably to enable unions to engage in multi-employer bargaining and have access industrial action during such bargaining, currently, workers are prohibited from taking industrial action in pursuit of a multi-employer agreement.

The introduction of improved multi-employer bargaining will have the potential to improve the bargaining power of those workers who have been historically excluded from enterprise bargaining, however it is important to recognise that the legislation excludes more than 2 million workers employed in smaller workplaces from this bargaining pathway. In addition, the passing of amendments is unlikely to help boost the wages of many workers in the short term, particularly not quickly enough to address the current cost of living crisis. This is due to a number of factors but most significantly: 

• Bargaining is not a quick process; 
• The legislation won’t magically overcome the low level of union density, which is compounded by low levels of workplace organisation in the majority of sectors; 
• Many workers are already covered by agreements that have yet to expire and will deliver a decline in real wages over their remaining lives of those agreements 

As such we need to explore ways in which to address the cost of living crisis outside of wage fixing. The most obvious solution would be to create a universal income supplement that would be received by all. This would able to be more rapidly adjusted than wages, and by making it universal it ensures that other groups outside of wage setting systems, such owner operators and those on government pensions, also have their purchasing power maintained. However, the creation of an income subsidy should not be seen as counter to the existing push to increase pensions to the poverty line, but instead as an additional supplement to that.

Limiting price rises
However, simply seeking to maintain working people’s purchasing power will be insufficient to deal with the current cost-of-living crisis. As increased purchasing power is likely to drive costs up in at least some sections of the economy. This is not because these mechanisms are necessarily inflationary - they aren’t - but instead, the maintenance of purchasing power would allow owners of capital to seek to increase their profits by absorbing this increased ability to pay. To ensure that we aren’t just boosting profits to sections of capital, there will need to be strict limits to increases in costs to those caused by actual inflationary pressures rather than gouging. While this is widely discussed in relation to power and fuel prices, there is no need for these companies to be compensated for their profit not rising as much as they could - indeed their significant profits should instead be properly taxed to help fund the income supplement. In addition, governments should act to freeze both rents and mortgage payments - both need to be frozen to ensure we don’t see mass defaults in the residential housing market - which would further open this market up to vulture capital buying houses cheaply in any depressed housing market, particularly in a period when working-class home buyers will face significantly higher borrowing costs.

Paying for an income subsidy 

A major argument against any such increase in social spending will be the state of the federal budget, particularly in the wake of the significant social spending during the earlier period of the pandemic, after all as Theresa May sad, “there is no magic money tree”. 

However, the reality is that there are significant sources to improve the treasury’s revenue situation. 

The first of these is to not go ahead with third stage of tax cuts which were originally legislated by the former Morrison government. These cuts primarily benefit high income earners and if stopped would retain an estimated extra $238B in government revenue over the next ten years.

Secondly, is to recognise, as John Christensen and Nicholas Shaxson have put it “there is a magic money tree or trees: one version of which would be “tax havens, multinational enterprises, and the mega rich””. Research by the Australian Institute indicates that five of the six major gas exporters paid no tax on $138 billion in revenue in the past seven years. This reflects the ongoing and problem of large corporations avoiding their tax obligations, a problem which requires, like in other countries, further tightening of a broad range of regulations. In addition, Australia should also look at imposing windfall taxes (that is higher taxes) on any profits that are being expanded as a consequence of them taking advantage of the current inflationary pressure, rather than look at increasing the subsidising fossil fuel companies to compensate them for limiting the extent of their profiteering.

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This article is posted under copyleft, verbatim copying and distribution of the entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. If you reprint this article please email me at revitalisinglabour@gmail.com to let me know.

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