PARIS, March 20 — Yesterday’s general strike and demonstrations of three million people — 500,000 more than the January 29 action — saw 350,000 marching in Paris and 300,000 in Marseilles. Workers are reacting violently to rising unemployment and to French president Sarkozy’s attacks on social reforms won over the years. They are angry at the joblessness in a crisis triggered by financial speculators, while French bosses are reaping record profits and top executives are getting fat bonuses and golden parachutes.

Following the union-organized demonstrations, fierce confrontations with the police erupted in Paris (300 arrests), Marseilles, Toulouse, Nantes, Saint-Nazaire and other cities. Before the general strike, workers took several militant actions:

• On March 12-13, Sony-France workers held its chairman, Serge Foucher, overnight until he agreed to pay at least 45,000 Euros each ($60,000) to the 311 workers losing their jobs from the closing of Sony’s Pontonx-sur-l’Adour factory.

• In Evreux, workers occupied the GlaxoSmithKline drug factory on March 11, demanding a 10,000-euro bonus (over $13,000) for “mental suffering” for its 2,000 workers following announcement of 798 layoffs. The workers settled for a permanent 5,000-euro yearly bonus, starting this year. (The company calls it a “performance bonus.”)

• After the Clairoix Continental Tire factory boss announced its closing in 2010, the 1,150 workers immediately struck. On March 12, 500 workers ambushed him inside a tire warehouse and bombarded him with eggs.

Finally, yesterday, the working class again demonstrated its ability to halt production — and profits. Half the trains were not running, one-third of Orly airport’s flights were canceled, no national newspapers were printed and the radio stations were forced to play only music all day long.

Overall, the strike included railroad, telephone, electricity, state radio and TV, weather service, postal, pharmaceutical, chemical, banking, telecommunications, Airbus, glass and building material workers, along with primary and secondary school teachers. For the past seven weeks, teachers and students have partly or completely shut down half the universities, forcing Education Minister Xavier Darcos to “give up” some planned changes in recruitment of primary and secondary school teachers (Liberation newspaper; see below).

‘Danger Of Uncontrollable Social Unrest…’

For the bosses, their government, and their lieutenants among the labor leaders, both the January 29 and today’s general strikes were carefully-scripted theater. Rémi Barroux spilled the beans in France’s newspaper of record, Le Monde (2/18): “In times of crisis and social torment ... [French President] Sarkozy needs the trade unions more than ever. Without them, and in particular the five so-called ‘representative’ union confederations, there is a real danger of uncontrollable social unrest.”

According to Le Monde journalist Barroux, the government mainly wants the unions to “help…transform…the French social model,” meaning dismantling the welfare state. Union membership has declined 50% over the past 25 years, down to 8% — unable, Barroux says, to obtain an increase in the minimum wage, much less follow the example of the militant workers of Guadeloupe (see CHALLENGE, 2/11, 25, and 3/11,25). But “for all that, the unions cannot abandon their protest activities, as they risk losing out to more anti-authority unions, like Solidaires.”

Government Pretends To Grant Concessions

Thus, with widely-spaced one-day general strikes, the major unions pretend to be militant and the government pretends to give in. On February 18, the government reacted to the January 29 action, announcing 2.6 billion Euros (over $3.4 billon) in social measures: a one-time 150-euro bonus to the poorest families; a 500-euro payment for 12 months to unemployed workers who don’t qualify for jobless benefits, and “encouraging” companies to pay workers on short-time 75% of their normal salary, with the government paying two-thirds of the cost.

“Answering” yesterday’s actions, Sarkozy merely announced speeding realization of the above measures and promising to add more measures “if needed.”

On education, minister Darcos gave up changing the content of recruitment exams while maintaining the core of his reform, giving students teacher training without recruiting them. (Presently, most teachers are recruited by competitive exams first, and afterwards get a salary while receiving teacher training.) This would enable the recruitment of large numbers of lower-paid temporary teachers. These “concessions” are a government maneuver to get university teachers to accept the principle of its reform and then ram through its entire program.

Bosses’ Leader Plays ‘Bad Cop’

While the government pretends to give workers crumbs, Laurence Parisot, head of the bosses’ organization, does a “bad cop” routine. She denounced the general strike’s cost to the economy, saying it was “an easy way out,… [not] an answer.” She attacked the CGT union as guilty of “demagogy and creating illusions,” holding it responsible for companies going bankrupt, hoping to split the eight confederations. And by talking tough she lets the Sarkozy government appear “uninvolved” in the conflict, hoping workers will view Sarkozy as the “lesser evil,” or even the neutral arbitrator between labor and management.

The union confederations met but couldn’t agree on a future plan of action, other than looking into making future mobilizations more effective, agreeing to plan for May Day and to meet again on March 30. The obvious course would be to take inspiration from the 44-day general strike of the workers in Guadeloupe.

Need For Communist Leadership

The one factor that could upset this shadow-boxing by the union leaders, bosses and government is the workers’ class anger and ability to stop production and defend themselves violently. One vital element is the fight against racism, mostly missing during the strike, as was solidarity with the now-ended militant strikes of black workers in Guadaloupe and Martinique. This is where communist leadership is crucial, forging the multi-racial unity and developing the communist class consciousness necessary to win the real prize — not merely reforms that the bosses take away but seizing state power, abolishing capitalism and running society in our interest.