Last Thursday, around 1 million people in France took part in nationwide demonstrations against the government’s plans to “reform” the pension system, i.e. raising the age of entry and cut pensions. (1) Only members of the police are to be excluded, as the government stated just before the 5th of December, after trade union representatives of the cops had declared that they also wanted to take part in the protests. Work stoppages occurred mainly in the public sector, train cancellations of the state railways were high, metros were rare in the Paris metropolitan area and many bus lines were also cancelled. Flight operations were also disrupted. There were also extensive work stoppages among teachers and health workers, who have been fighting for months for better working conditions and better pay. In the private sector, there were hardly any strike actions, but since Thursday, work has been suspended in the majority of the major oil refineries, here the majority of the workers are organized in the CGT and the workforces are one of the last bastions of the classic, militant working class. At the same time, roads and roundabouts have been blocked nationwide, although to a much lesser extent compared to the beginnings of the Gilets Jaunes movement.
A review of the first big day of action and the attack on the new “pension reform” from the point of view of a participant.
This is a translation of the German version which was translated by Sebastian Lotzer. The original report was published by Paris-Luttes.
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