Workers and Students Say No to Austerity


A banner of the CGT, a national confederation of trade unions, reads: “To live and work with dignity! The right to a job, to public services, and to social security.”

By Nathalie Clark

Paris, France.
On Saturday May 26, 50 organizations—leftist political parties, student groups, and unions—took to the streets across France to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s attacks on workers’ rights and social programs. This coalition united to protest government policy changes, show continued support for the railway workers, and communicate that workers will continue to disrupt business as usual as long as Macron persists in his attacks on their livelihoods. To voice their discontent, French workers from the SNCF—the railroad system—and from Air France, have been carrying out strikes for over two months. Energy workers, involved in a struggle to raise the minimum wage since December 2017, also joined this protest. Air France was forced to cancel 25% of flights, and train circulation around the country was disrupted. What’s more, the SCNF estimates costs of the strike at around 400 million euros since April 3. Workers have demonstrated their enormous collective strength in the face of austerity, racism, and the rise of neo-fascists.

Macron has been carrying out policies against workers across all industries. He is planning to hand over the French railway system to private companies that will attempt to squeeze the profit out of underpaid workers by threatening mass layoffs. Through struggle, railway workers in France have won benefits, such as 3 extra days paid vacation, but these workers still struggle with difficult work schedules, risks posed by the hazardous materials they handle, and health problems often incurred from their work.

In France, energy used to be a public service: the means of production were owned by the state, which gave workers more job security. But privatizing the energy industry has increased prices for individual households, and shortages for everyone. As a reminder to the bourgeoisie that energy is not private property, electric and gas workers have gone beyond merely striking– they’ve cut off power to multinational corporations that fire employees to increase profits for shareholders and have restored electricity and gas to families unable to pay their bills. As part of their support for the railway workers struggle, they also plan on cutting power at railway stations. The energy and gas workers in France are watching history repeat itself; Macron promises that the SNCF (the national railway company) will not be privatized, but the same promises were made about energy. Today, the state owns only 20% of shares, leaving employees at risk.

Attacking workers’ rights in the name of profit is more than immoral, it’s deadly: an estimated 10000 to 14000 people die per year because of unemployment in France. Workers in France and across the globe are defending more than labor laws when they take to the streets, they’re fighting for their right to exist. Workers provide the labor upon which society depends; without us, society would collapse. How would capitalists make their profits, without the work provided by electricians, tellers, secretaries, teachers, hospital staff, and all the other heroes too often forgotten? How would surgeons save lives without lights in their buildings? Capitalism constantly reinforces the idea that commodities and money matter more than people but we of the working class can use our power to put people before profits.

New groups of workers join the strikes

Remy Herrera reports from Paris that unionized fast food workers at McDonalds, at the big retail stores, and in elder care institutions have denounced low wages and speedups; the care workers have also demanded better conditions for the residents. Sanitation and sewer workers mobilized against the hardships of their jobs and demanded early retirement. In mid-June farmers blocked 14 oil refineries. Workers at the Catacombs (an underground cemetery) and museum workers have also gone on strike.

We Need Higher Wages, Lower Rents

Greedy Real Estate Developers Create Affordable Housing Shortage, Inflate Rents

by Gabriel Mangano

While the super rich rattle on about how wonderful the economy is doing, for the working class there is nothing but increasing poverty, misery, and insecurity. A new study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) shows that nowhere in the United States can a person working a full-time job minimum wage job afford a two-bedroom apartment.

At $7.25 an hour and with national and state data on rental prices, researchers calculated that the average worker would have to work 122 hours a week (17 + hours a day, seven days a week) at the national fair market rent. Even at the average renter’s hourly wage of $16.88, in only 11% of US counties can a renter afford a two-bedroom apartment.

In New Orleans, things are even worse. A New Orleans/Jefferson Parish worker must make $19.15 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment. For minimum wage earners, the outlook is bleak. A minimum wage worker must work 92 hours, that’s 2.3 full time jobs, to afford a two bed-room apartment. In fact, a minimum wage worker has to work almost 80 hours to afford even a one-bedroom. If a minimum wage worker were to rent a two bedroom without paying more than 30% of their income as “recommended” by bourgeois economists, she would have to find an apartment that rented for $377 a month.

While short-term rentals like Airbnb get much of the blame for the housing crisis, even more significant is what kind of housing is being built. Between 2005-15, the number of homes renting for more than $2,000 increased by 97% while homes renting for less than $800 declined by 2%. Of over 6.7 million units added in that time, there were 260,000 less affordable units. Even in New Orleans, there is a 20% vacancy rate while many of the 185,000-renter families scuffle to find an affordable place to live.

The capitalists have created the affordable housing crisis as another way to exploit the workers. The tiny percentage of set asides of so-called affordable units helps only a few and often come with time limits that force long time renters into the streets when their “affordable unit” expires. And while Section 8 affords some “lottery winners” with mostly decent housing it is not available to all. There are thousands of people who qualify for Section 8 but the program is shut off to us. To make it all worse, Ben Carson, Secretary of HUD has proposed raising the rents of those in HUD housing by 20% which will mean evictions and increased hunger and deprivation.

Longstanding homeowners, especially Black and older homeowners, are being forced out of homes by soaring property taxes caused by gentrification which is supported by the city’s mayor and city council.

We need a united Tenants movement for rent control and take overs of abandoned properties for people, not profit. There is abundant housing available and plenty of abandoned units that could be rehabilitated. There are thousands of people who could do that work. While only socialism, which puts the workers in control, will bring a total end to homelessness and even rent all together, we can unite now as tenants to wage a struggle to push back against these insatiable profiteers.