In Paris, Rennes, and Strasbourg
“It’s difficult to mobilize people. They have already given a lot with the pension reform, fourteen days of mobilizations and weeks of strikes…” In the back of his CGT Air France truck on Boulevard du Port-Royal, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, Patrice notes that the call for mobilization from the inter-union did not arouse the crowds. “But they did not succeed in banning us from demonstrating, that is already a victory,” he adds, optimistically.
Three days before the Social Conference supposed to relaunch the dialogue between the executive and the social partners, eight trade union organizations responded to the call from the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) for a day of strike and demonstrations throughout Europe in the aim of protesting against austerity, for wages and gender equality.
“The social conference will be a flop”
“We cannot break records every time, but the anger is intact,” declared Sophie Binet, Secretary General of the CGT, at the head of the Parisian procession. A way of putting aside the weak mobilization while ensuring that the fight has only just begun. We are in fact far from the million reached, and even exceeded, during certain mobilizations against pension reform last April. According to the CGT, 200,000 demonstrators took to the streets throughout France, including 20,000 in the capital.
“Anyway, the most important thing is not Monday. The social conference will be a flop, like everything organized by the government. They don’t want to discuss, they just want us to believe that they are doing it, summarizes Murielle, town hall secretary in Seine-Saint-Denis, today, the important thing is not to influence the debate, but to finding a new lease of life after a grueling start to the year. » A shared state of mind among the demonstrators in the capital.
15,000 people in Toulouse, between 1,700 and 3,000 in Rennes
In Toulouse, where 15,000 demonstrators are counted, Cédric Caubère, general secretary of the CGT Haute-Garonne, nevertheless assures that “the aim of this day is to have influence during the social conference”, thanks to a unification of the unions which cannot ” to make things happen.” But the trade unionist still admits that “everything cannot be resolved in one meeting”. All the demonstrators interviewed, teachers, health professionals or apprentices, in the Pink City nevertheless assure that they will be there “until the end as long as salaries are not increased”.
“We come to the street to try to weigh in. We try to talk about it, to alert our colleagues but it’s not always easy to mobilize,” says Amanda*, territorial function agent for Force Ouvrière in Rennes, where the day only mobilized between 1,700 and 3,000 people.
If, according to her, some have the fear of having a bad image and the fear of reprisals if they strike, the reason for this mobilization lies elsewhere for Henri Rolland, union leader of retirees in the city of Rennes: “We are in a society of everyone for themselves when we should be united. It’s not just low wages that need to be fought. »
Between Israel and Arras, the difficult context
“It’s difficult to get back into it,” explains Mathis, a teacher on strike in Paris. With the result of the pension reform, many became discouraged. And then you have to succeed in motivating people in the current context. » Like many of the walkers of the day, Mathys blames the international context. The conflict between Israel and Hamas is on everyone’s lips.
Worse, a little earlier in the morning, those present learned of the tragedy that took place in Arras. “We are between the gloomy atmosphere, sadness and anger. We have the impression that everything is collapsing, it’s not easy to find faith again,” adds Marina, a “railway worker” in Île-de-France.
Faure in favor of a postponement so as not to be “cannibalized by the news”
If she already did not have much faith in the discussions planned for Monday, she now fears that the government will use this context to botch up, or even make invisible, the demands of the demonstrators: “Macron is going to give us another dignity stunt to say that we are irresponsible to ask for increases like this while people are dying around the world. »
It is perhaps in this state of mind that Olivier Faure, first secretary of the Socialist Party, said at the microphone of 20 minutes that he would be in favor of postponing the social conference: “In a moment like this, we must create unity and return later to these subjects which deserve a peaceful social debate and not completely cannibalized by current events. »
An opinion that Ian Brossat, new Parisian senator and spokesperson for the French Communist Party, does not share, who believes that “the question of wages cannot wait”: “Inflation does not wait. There is anger and exasperation growing everywhere in France, and the government would be wrong to ignore it or even minimize it, even in a context like this. They can be sure that this is only the first mobilization and that many others will follow. »