12) FRENCH RAIL WORKERS ON THE FRONTLINE AGAINST PRIVATIZATION

By Adrien Welsh, PV correspondent in France

            The last two elections in France were catastrophic for progressive people and workers. The right and the ultra‑right obtained the highest votes, reflecting anger against the austerity agenda of the Socialist Party.

            In the Euro elections held in May, the FN (National Front), an ultra‑right and xenophobic party, gained almost 25% of the votes, electing the largest French group to the EU Parliament. The right (UMP) came second with just less than 21%.

            In municipal elections, the right won almost 46% of popular support, and the ultra‑right around 7%. The right won about half the cities of more than 9 000 inhabitants, while the ultra‑right now rules 9 cities and elected around 1200 councillors. Over one-third (36.45%) of French voters did not vote in the municipal elections, for which the population is usually the most mobilised.

            With just 15% of popular support, Hollande now has nothing to lose by implementing anti‑social policies. Following the municipal elections, he named Manuel Valls, a representative of the "right" of the Socialist Party, as Prime Minister to succeed Jean‑Marc Ayrault. Valls is also known for his expulsion policies towards Roma people in the country. This indicated that the Government would not take any left turn, but would stay on the path of austerity policies, such as the territorial reform and the Railway Reform.

            We are seeing a recomposition of the left, with the so‑called left wing of the Socialist Party, led by Arnaud Montebourg, as the main representative of social democracy. The project aims to gather all progressive forces unhappy with the Socialist Party's policies into a broad "left" front, like in Greece with Syriza or in Germany with Die Linke. A first meeting was convened on June 7, to which all the political forces that supported Hollande's election in 2012 were invited. That large spectrum starts from the centre party led by Francois Bayrou, the MoDem, over to the Communist Party.  

            The struggle against Socialist policies, however, goes beyond political manoeuvres. On June 10, railway workers began a two-week long national strike, the biggest since 1995, against the "Railway Reform" put forward by the government. More than 50% of workers responded positively to the strike call of the CGT (the union historically linked to the Communist Party) and SUD trade unions. In some sectors like in Paris East, the rate exceeded 80%, a historical high, especially since some unions like UNSA and CFDT (a supporter of the reform and linked to the Socialist Party) opposed the strike.

            The reason for this movement is to be found in the anti‑people orientation of the Socialist Party. This reform is a step towards the privatisation of SNCF, the national corporation of railways of France, a public monopoly since 1936 when the Popular Front government was elected following massive mobilisations and strikes.

           Railway privatisation began in 1997 with the split of SNCF into two different entities: the passenger transportation side, which was open to privatisation; and another publicly owned side of SNCF infrastructures. The totality of SNCF's debt was then transferred to the latter. This move was part of the global strategy of privatising profits and nationalising losses. Then in 2006, freight transportation was privatised and subcontracted.

            It is worth noting that since 2000, i.e. since the application of these reforms, around 30,000 jobs were lost within SNCF.

            The new reform is presented by the corporate media as a reunification of the two entities. It is actually an attempt to "reunify in order to better separate". The government presents the creation of a new public structure overseeing the two railway organisms, a cynical manoeuvre since it is totally incompatible with European Union directives to be followed by the Socialists. The public structure will be eliminated as soon as it is created! The two establishments will be totally independent in juridical and financial terms.

            The goal of this reform is to break the railworkers union to help achieve SNCF's total privatisation by 2019, as required by European Union directives on opening markets - another example showing the impossibility of "reforming" the EU. The government's proposal is to force rail workers to sign a collective agreement for each branch. But railway workers are not fooled. They know that what they sign now with the State will be null and void.

            Politically, this move is at the core of Hollande's anti-social policies to fulfill European Union requirements. The right (UMP) globally supports the project. A UMP deputy urged his colleagues to vote for the text "as is" in order not to complicate the task of the government and to end the strike movement quickly.

            The reform also aims to isolate one of the most combative sections of working class, just like Thatcher did with mineworkers, by breaking their unique status.

            The right was never able to go so far in privatisation measures. The government tested the reaction of labour unions several times, waiting until June to introduce this measure, just before vacations.

            Indeed, this strike was far from being spontaneous. The labour movement has been trying to negotiate with Guillaume Pepy, SNCF's director, and Frederic Cuvillier, Minister of Transport, as well as with President Hollande and Prime Ministers Ayrault and Valls. Several one‑day strikes, rallies and actions, were called, one of which gathered about 22,000 rail workers.

            The movement is much more powerful than estimated by the government and the ruling class. Their representatives urged strikers to go back to work, and tries to turn the population against the rail workers through demagogy such as declaring that "because of the strike", national exams for high school students were in danger; or by saying that the rail reform is necessary for economic recovery.

            The French population and especially the rail workers are not fools. They know that the reform will not create more jobs nor provide better service. In England, where the privatisation of railway industry is at the most advanced stage in Europe, problems were not solved. Since 1996, the situation is even worse than in France. Users have to pay twice as much for a poor service (an average of one train out of six is late) with lax security (the Landgrove Broke accident in 1999, where 31 people died and about 500 others were injured, is a tragic example). The UK rail service debt is 40% higher than in France, since the privatisation of the industry.

            The struggle of French rail workers is closely linked to the global capitalist crisis, which is used as a pretext by the bourgeoisie to sharpen its attacks on the people by dismantling social outcomes and public services, just like Canada Post is doing in our country.

            It is easy to find similar examples in the rail industry. Capitalist South Korea's government had to deal last winter with one of the country's longest strikes (22 days) against the further privatisation of the railways. The movement was supported by 45% of Korean rail workers, and more specifically by young people (60%). A one day general strike organised by the KCTU union was violently repressed by the authorities, and a 78 year‑old woman was killed.

            In Sweden, often cited as an example of social democracy, the rail workers are engaged in a lengthy strike against the French corporation Veolia, the main operator in the southern part of the country. After the first attempts to split the public monopoly in 1988, there are now eight subsidiaries, some of which are privatised. However, 70% of the Swedish population is in favour of a public monopoly.

            In France, more localised struggles arose in recent months, especially in the postal and health sectors.

            All this shows the importance of the fight for the SNCF's integrity, and to protect the unique status of rail workers. French railworkers are not alone. Maintaining public services and assets is in the interest of the people. The government however is more and more isolated.

(The above  article is from the July 1-31, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)