France: “In the end, there is nothing better than the street”

Communiqué from the International Socialist League – France before the day of struggle of the 17 October, state repression and social crisis.

That the government and the employers stop feigning surprise at the massive day of mobilization of the 17 October. The dizzying deterioration of the living conditions of the working class and the popular sectors—a direct product of adjustment policies, precariousness and plundering of macronía—, added to an increasingly brutal police repression as the main state response, it couldn't end any other way. The lack of perspectives to which they have been condemning us and the open protest in the streets should be far from surprising those who provoked them.. What is truly surprising is that the accumulated anger has only been expressed against some containers and monuments., and not directly against the heads of those politically responsible for our misery.

We come from weeks of student mobilizations and on Saturday 17 It was the date that allowed several of the ongoing struggles to converge. 880.000 people mobilized throughout France despite the government's fear campaign, repression and persecution, with rallies that continued throughout the weekend.

Faced with the forceful message of youth and workers, Emmanuel Macron chooses to redouble the authoritarian bet. It continues to curtail the right to protest, appeals to the help of political and union leaders to condemn the direct action that their own policy provoked, and tries to channel the conflict into the trap of “social dialogue”. Why doesn't Macron read the 76.000 interventions of the high school students embodied in the official platform that his government, wanting to divert the anger, destined for it? It would be enough to ask any student at the door of a school to understand the generalized fatigue.. Shame on the policy of a repressive government that does not hesitate to mutilate and gas youth to guarantee a budget for debt, wars and genocides.

Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen and the extreme right, that seek to demagogically capitalize on the social discontent accumulated after almost a decade of Macronism, they criminalize popular organizations, to the extreme left and migrants. They talk about “order”, but they remain silent in the face of police provocations and infiltrations aimed at stigmatizing social protest. Yes, Marine, Those who violate the rights of the majority must take responsibility for their actions, but there you are presenting your presidential candidacy after being found guilty of corruption and diversion of public funds. What if, those who degrade social life must pay, and the main ones are your business friends, enriched at the expense of degrading the living conditions of millions of families throughout the country.

No monument, shop window or supermarket chain will never be worth more than the lives of the youth and the working class. The objective reality we face is dramatic: he 20% of young people report having had suicidal ideas in the last year, he 45% of people in poverty in the country are under the age of 30 years, job insecurity reaches 60% of the youth population and 1 decade 3 students go hungry every day. This structural misery hits the entire working class squarely., where more than 9 Millions of people survive below the poverty line, more of 2 Millions of workers are classified as “poor workers” for not covering the basic basket despite having a job., and more of 85% of new hires are made under temporary and extremely precarious contracts. While the multinationals of the CAC 40 break historical records, surpassing 150.000 million euros in profits, The accumulated loss of real income in recent years is around 1.200 euros per year per family from 2024, forcing the 60% of popular households to cut essential expenses on food, light and heating. Added to this is the bosses' barbarity in factories and workplaces.: France leads the tragic record of occupational mortality in Europe with more than 700 workers killed each year in their jobs and more than 600.000 annual work accidents. This is true violence that should shame!

From the International Socialist League (LIS) We maintain that to defeat this adjustment plan there are no parliamentary shortcuts or conciliation possible with businessmen. It is necessary to decisively unite all the ongoing struggles, articulating the mobilized rage of youth with the strategic force of the working class through common assemblies in each workplace, high school and university. We demand that the union leaders immediately call for a unified plan of struggle that prepares a general strike until the economy is paralyzed and the businessmen who enrich themselves at our expense are strangled.. To guarantee victory, we must take the fight into our hands through self-organization from below, promoting strike and grassroots committees with delegates elected and revocable by the assemblies themselves.

It is necessary to organize ourselves to bring down the capitalist State, the police and the fascists. This movement begins to raise, in various ways, the question of power. In that sense we have to make the idea our own and massive that only a workers' government, based on their fighting bodies and those of the young, will be able to change society and satisfy in a lasting way these demands that we need so much and for which we have been fighting so much..

That's why, in principle, we continue to demand:

• General and immediate increase in salaries, retirements and allowances, with sliding scale and automatic monthly indexation according to real inflation.
• More budget for education, health and social aid.
• Enough of job cuts and the cessation of precarious hiring.
• Freezing and popular control of prices on the family basket, rents and basic utilities.
• Cessation of repression, of the prosecution of the fighters and immediate release of all those detained for fighting.

“There is nothing better than the street, Ultimately!» (After all, there is nothing better than the street!), said a young protester in a video while a homeless person received a pair of sneakers in the middle of the day of the 17. Faced with the hypocrisy of bourgeois morality that cares more for private property than for people, the street is demonstrating deep class solidarity: There is nothing better than collective mobilization and struggle to shake this regime and achieve what we so deserve., a life worth living.