France at a Crossroads
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- Published on Wednesday, 15 January 2020 01:30
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1977 ... January 15, 2020
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France at a Crossroads
Richard Greeman
The nationwide general strike in France, now entering its record seventh week, seems to be approaching its crisis point. Despite savage police repression, about a million people are in the streets protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed neoliberal "reform" of France’s retirement system, established at the end of World War II and considered one of the best in the world. At bottom, what is at stake is a whole vision of what kind of society people want to live in -- one based on cold market calculation or one based on human solidarity -- and neither side shows any sign of willingness to compromise.
On one side, the Macron government has staked its legitimacy on pushing through this key "reform" intact as a matter of principle, however unpopular. On the other side stand the striking railroad and transit workers, who are bearing the brunt of this conflict and have already sacrificed thousands of Euros in lost pay since the strike began last December 5. After six weeks, they cannot... accept the prospect of returning to work empty-handed, and they have set their sights high: withdrawal of the whole government project.