France

Oppose France’s new racist laws

On 19 December the French parliament adopted yet another immigration law.

Marc Lasalle  ·  14 January 2024

Oppressed French youth demand justice for Nahel!

27 June, Nanterre (a banlieue of Paris): two policemen stop a car, one shouting, ‘Open or I put a bullet in your head!’. Seconds later, a shot. 17-year-old Nahel M is dead.

Marc Lasalle  ·  05 July 2023

French workers step up battle against pension reform

Protests over pensions have become a battle for democracy

Marc Lasalle  ·  27 March 2023

Would the real NPA please stand up?

A credible refoundation of the NPA necessarily must start with a thorough balance sheet of the class struggle in France.

Marc Lasalle  ·  18 December 2022

French workers on the march

The cost of living crisis is prompting the biggest strikes in years. But trade union leaders are holding back a general strike.

Workers Power  ·  01 November 2022

Is the New People’s Union a step forward for the French working class?

By Marc Lassalle “FRENCH PEOPLE IF you want it, with your ballots you can satisfy many essential demands”. “On June 12th and 19th, if you so decide, by electing the MP of NUPES, that day will blossom the spring of the people, echoing the spring of nature.” The message delivered by the New Popular, Ecological […]

Marc Lasalle  ·  08 June 2022

France: Macron or Le Pen – no choice for the working class

THIS SUNDAY’S second round of the French presidential election pits the incumbent, authoritarian neoliberal Emmanuel Macron, against veteran far right racist Marine Le Pen. Immediately after the results of the first round were announced, a series of demonstrations, thousands strong, took place across France, composed largely of young people, students in universities and lycées, against […]

Dave Stockton  ·  23 April 2022

Mali: war on terror or new scramble for Africa?

By Marc Lassalle In June, President Emmanuel Macron announced the end of France’s eight year military operations against Islamist insurgents in Mali.  Codenamed Operation Barkhane, its initial objective was to prevent the fall of its capital Bamako to these forces, and to bolster the other former French colonies of the Sahel region, Burkina Faso, Chad, […]

Marc Lasalle  ·  17 August 2021

What’s behind the split in the NPA?

The Revolutionary Communist Current claims it has been expelled from the New Anticapitalist Party in France. What's really going on?

Martin Suchanek  ·  21 June 2021

The Paris Commune at 150: Blueprint for a proletarian state

150th anniversary of the Paris Commune.

Workers Power  ·  18 March 2021

Macron declares war on ‘Islamic separatism’

New law is an attack on France's Muslim population.

Kady Tait and Dave Stockton  ·  09 February 2021

France: down with the ‘security’ laws and police impunity!

By Marc Lassalle – PARIS The second wave of the pandemic, combined with a second month-long lockdown, are certainly far from the best conditions to organise a fight back against President Emmanuel Macron’s draconian new global security law. However, his government is suddenly being confronted with major resistance: more than one hundred thousand marched on […]

Workers Power  ·  30 November 2020

France: Government tries to split workers’ united front

ON FRIDAY 10 January, workers across France walked out for the 37th day of strikes and demonstrations against the Macron government’s attempt to raise the retirement age and introduce massive cuts to public sector pensions. The frontal attack on the public sector pension provision aims to introduce a single points-based system that would sweep away […]

KD Tait  ·  14 January 2020

“Pas de retrait, pas de trêve” – UK solidarity with French workers

Socialists and trade unionists picket the French Embassy in London in solidarity with the resistance to the Macron government’s attack on pension rights.

KD Tait  ·  10 January 2020

French workers say ‘we’ve had enough – now we must win!’

ONE AND A HALF MILLION on more than 200 demonstrations across France. Nine out of ten trains cancelled: the Paris metro paralysed: two thirds of teachers on strike, together with air traffic controllers, health workers, electricity workers (EDF), firefighters, and students … On December 5, France was at a standstill. This could swiftly become the […]

Marc Lasalle  ·  09 December 2019

Workers step up resistance to Macron, but left continues to stagnate

Paris – a prolonged strike in Accident and Emergency departments throughout the country, a successful strike on the Paris metro on September 13, with an indefinite stoppage forecast for December, a national day of action on 24 September by the CGT: this accumulation of actions shows that there is a growing polarisation in French society and that the working class is again taking the road of resistance against the attacks of President Emmanuel Macron

Marc Lasalle  ·  23 October 2019

A crisis of leadership among the French working class

The current situation in France is characterised by a turn to the right, a severe weakening of working class consciousness and the rise of “classless” populism, all in conditions of greatly increased social and political instability.

Workers Power  ·  09 July 2019

France: yellow vests but no red flag

By Marc Lassalle PARIS – WE ARE witnessing another of France’s powerful social movements. This time it is directed against the increasingly unpopular President Emmanuel Macron and his supposed eco-tax on petroleum products, which has seen the price of diesel jump 16 per cent in the last eight months. On November 17, more than 2,000 […]

Workers Power  ·  29 November 2018

Self determination for Kanaky! Down with French imperialism!

By Marc Lassalle PARIS – ON 4 NOVEMBER, 174,154 voters, from a population of 268,000, in Kanaky voted on the question: “Do you want Nouvelle Calédonie (New Caledonia) to access full sovereignty and become independent?” Kanaky, better known by the name New Caledonia given by James Cook to several islands (the largest is called Grande […]

Workers Power  ·  13 November 2018

France: The working class strikes back

By Marc Lassalle – PARIS WITH a successful day of action on October 9, the major trade unions, CGT, FO, Solidaires, FSU, which organise the most combative sectors of the French working class, have shown that they are still a force to be reckoned with. In Paris, the demonstration was tens of thousands strong, with […]

Workers Power  ·  25 October 2018

French workers’ and students’ struggle at a turning point

By Marc Lassalle PARIS – After a month of militant but inconclusive strikes and occupations by railway workers and students, activists are organising to relaunch the mobilisation against the government attacks, with a national day of action in the first week of May. At the beginning of April workers on the state rail network, the […]

Workers Power  ·  01 May 2018

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