With the neoliberal reforms that Macron has rapidly implemented, social dialogue between social movements, unions and the government has become more difficult and fragmented. The French trade union movement is split along political lines into several umbrella organizations, and the level of organization has stagnated. The yellow vests have not been able to decisively change Macron's course. But they have rearticulated positions critical of capitalism and class struggle, also taking migrant struggles into the equation.
The more social-democratic and consensus-oriented federations French Democratic Trade Union Confederation CFDT and the General Confederation of Labor Power CGT-FO, accept deregulation if internal structures are reinforced. The CGT, formerly closely linked to the Communist Party, relies on mobilization in the streets. It has a class-struggle orientation and wants to work from the workplaces into society. The CFDT, which tends to organize employees, has replaced the CGT as the strongest union in workplace council elections since 2017. This is predominantly due to structural change (from production in large factories to service industries). The level of unionization has stagnated at just 11%.
Elected president in 2017 and 2022, Emmanuel Macron and his LREM (The Republic on the Move!) party reject the previously usual social dialogue and state-mediated concertation between business associations and unions.
Macron has all reform projects passed in the shortest possible time to quickly create facts.
For weeks there were strikes at the SNCF, dozens of universities were occupied. On May 5 of 2018, more than 130,000 people demonstrated in Paris. However, the neoliberal reforms could not be stopped.
The yellow vests could not decisively change Macron's course. But they have rearticulated positions critical of capitalism and rooted in the class struggle, also integrating migrant struggles in the whole.
Police violence is now also addressed socially, linked to a structural analysis of the hierarchical, male-dominated and racist basic consensus within the police.
Left-wing alliance lists achieved major successes in the local elections of March and June of 2021. In April 2022, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, as the candidate of the Socialist party Rebellious France (LFI), missed the ballot for the presidency by a narrow margin with 21.95% of the votes.
Story-telling: Dario Azzellini , Illustration: Carina Crenshaw
This is a graphic storytelling inspired by the article "No End to the Resistance. Social Movements and Emmanuel Macron" by Sebastian Chwala, which was published in the anthology "If Not Us, Who? Global workers against authoritarianism, fascism, and dictatorships" (external link, opens in a new window) by Dario Azzellini.
This visual narrative is published under the terms of the Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0! (external link, opens in a new window) Share, use or adapt this graphic narrative for your educational work. Don't forget to republish it under the same terms, giving credit to L!NX and the authors!
With the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a fascist party has established itself that has reached the political center. It agitates against a " stateless big capital" that creates profits "at the expense of the German worker" abroad. The government promotes "mass immigration" to lower wages and "exchange the population." This social populism also has an impact on trade union members. In the political education program of the unions, right-wing agitation was increasingly countered with a realistic picture of asylum and migration policy especially after the "Summer of Migration" in 2015, for example with the seminar series "Facts instead of Populism".
Since 2014, a coalition led by the right-wing Hindu nationalist BJP, Party of the Indian People, has ruled under Narendra Modi. India competes as a location for manufacturing companies. To attract international private capital, layoffs and crackdowns on unions have been made easier, and state-owned enterprises (including railroads, telecommunications companies and airlines) are to be privatized. In this complex situation, not only traditional unions and federations are organizing, but informal and migrant workers are also becoming part of a movement facing a major socio-political challenge.
During the Trump presidency, U.S. unions initially opposed the rise of authoritarianism only symbolically. Over time, they acted more decisively. Where union members became active in the workplace, they succeeded in slowing the trend toward authoritarianism and sometimes achieved significant successes.
In 2019, Chile was swept by the largest revolt in its history. The uprising fundamentally changed the political situation. The right-wing government under billionaire Sebastián Piñera responded with military repression. At the height of the protests, there was a massive general strike that paved the way for a constitutional referendum. After two years of work by the constitutional convention, the new draft constitution was rejected in a referendum.
Colombia is considered the oldest democracy in Latin America. In fact, it is an authoritarian regime that has waged war against the population for over 100 years. How does the population resist? How do workers organize against injustice? Colombia: More than labor struggle!
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