The same vote in the Assembly or Senate, we do not let go!

Sandra Demarcq
November 3, 2010
Published in: Hebdo Tout est à nous!

The government is keen to silence protest, claiming that the mobilization is over. We will show them otherwise.

The pension counter-reform has been passed by both houses against the wishes of millions of demonstrators and a large majority of the population. Central to the government's austerity plan to make the majority of the population pay for the crisis, this law - extending the legal age of retirement and the contribution period in particular – in the end does nothing, as demonstrated in May last report of the Policy Board (COR) and as has been understood by the millions of demonstrators. This is just an excuse to decrease drastically the amount of new pensions and to leave some space to private insurance. Worse, one of the amendments voted by the Senate and retained in the final text, grabbed the steering of pension to prepare a report for the first half of 2013 on the implementation of systemic reform, scheduling and a new social attach. So it's a great scam and a real coup on the part of the government.


Les syndicalistes "Solidaires" sautent : grève générale !
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On the morning of the day of demonstrations and strikes of 28 October, ministers and commentators of all kinds were unanimous in attempting to bury the movement once again. They all reported breathlessly, the end of the mobilization, while the day was attended by 2 million demonstrators in full during school holidays, with parades also even more dynamic and aggressive than previous days. So it was very, very far from being a failure. Instead, this new day has demonstrated once again the roots of the movement, the denial not only of the Pensions Act but also for any of Sarkozy's policies tailored to business and the wealthy. Through this movement, employees in the private and the public, youth, pensioners also reject layoffs, job losses, rising unemployment and employment insecurity, poor working conditions, wages lower, but still also the whole aspect of this racist and secure government that has still not grasped the depth of the dissatisfaction caused by its arrogant policy.

After the vote, the government wants to whistle the end of the mobilization. We are told in every tone and every wave that now the law is passed, we can no longer be resist or even continue to state that a "law of the republic" would be "undemocratic". A democracy would be for Sarkozy and his clique to impose a social regression against the wishes of those it effects? In any case, the determination is still there. And in the past weeks links were forged between workers of different sectors, local actions of all kinds, such as blockades, collective action, general meetings, and which has developed a significant layer of motivated activists, will not easily be removed by a single vote.

It is true that in the week just past, the renewed strikes were suspended in many areas, especially in garbage services in Marseille, SNCF and the refineries, the marked pause in the pace of mobilisation up to that point. But pockets of resistance persist as in territorial agents in the Paris region or in waste where employees are on strike for their wages and working conditions. Already, it is expected before the new day's event on 6 November in many cities, protests, rallies the students' initiative in conjunction with other sectors. The movement can rebound in other forms, other struggles. Many of us know that the solution to our problems is not the perspective of a plural left government in 2012, headed a Socialist Party that votes in the National Assembly lengthening the contribution period or the requisitioning of the municipal employees strike in Marseille, with the "left" who, when she has a majority, leads de facto right-wing policies as are in Europe, like our friends in Greece or Spain. It is in our struggles to forge able to make those have caused the crisis pay for it, capable of challenging capitalism.

In raising the head, winning the battle of public opinion against the propaganda of the ruling classes, we have already scored points.