On 17 May, workers at the PSA Aulnay car factory near Paris ended a four-month strike over plans to close the factory. They did not stop the closure, but they won many concessions. Below is the editorial of the Aulnay bulletin of the French revolutionary-socialist group L'Etincelle for 21 May 2013.
The end-of-strike agreement just signed does not mean the end of our struggle, quite the contrary. This was the first round. Many new developments may occur between now and 2014.
By opposing managements' closure plan for four months, we have not only raised our heads, but led a determined strike which had impact throughout the country. A popular strike, as shown by the 800,000 Euros collected by solidarity. A strike that warmed the hearts of tens of thousands of workers who had their eyes on us, and that worried the bosses and the government that supports them.
The agreement signed last Friday eliminates all sanctions against the militants of the strike: the social amnesty, which the government refuses to pass into law, we have won in practice by our struggle! This achievement alone, limited though it be, made it possible for us to suspend the strike head high, while saving our determination for the future.
The agreement, of course, does not solve anything on substance: during the coming months, those who for four months have faced the freeloaders and led all the actions will continue to mobilize and might be joined by all those who may not have been on strike yet, but now feel betrayed by the management. PSA is not immune to new outbursts of anger!
There is the situation in Aulnay, but also in the rest of PSA with the so-called competitiveness agreements (called "performance agreement" in the group), the job cuts and the pressure for allegedly voluntary departures. These will require new responses.
And not just in PSA.
Across the country, companies are continuing to close, layoffs are proliferating. We must not resign ourselves to scattered responses. Our four-month strike and the popularity of our movement gave us quite an experience. We knew how to prepare for months before the strike, we succeeded in uniting the most determined workers from one production unit to another, and then went on strike, elaborating and making our decisions in a strike committee and in general assemblies, while organizing actions outside the plant.
We got an extremely warm welcome from other workers during our visits to Saint-Ouen, Flins, Cleon, the cargo section of Charles-de-Gaulle airport, Geodis, Lear and elsewhere. Many bonds can be created and structured. We must therefore consider what comes next.
The experience we have gained gives us the expertise and legitimacy to lay the groundwork for the struggles to come, and not just in PSA. In the same way that we coordinated the combative minorities of the different workshops within the factory, we can do it outside, by seeking to coordinate the efforts of all those who, in the recent months, have fought as they could against their boss, as well as of those who will in the future.
The general strike, which will change the balance of power and will force the employers to step back, will not happen miraculously. It will require that the workers who have been at the forefront of the struggle – as in Aulnay (but also, in other forms, Sanofi, Candia, Arcelor, DMI, Freescale, Ford and others) – wanting to initiate the preliminary steps.
Yes, we will need to put in place – together with other workers fighting against their boss – stepping stones for the coordination of these struggles (often very localized and invisible at the national level), allowing their eventual convergence, their extension and ultimately their generalization. In short, it is now a question of giving a perspective to those who are currently feeling isolated and back to the wall.
We will therefore need, whatever name you give it, to consider setting up a committee for the struggles and mobilizations with all those who have the same problems than we have, with all those who have responded against dismissals, whether with gatherings, legal actions, demonstrations, walkouts or strikes more or less long. Because the expectations are high from the workers of this country, abandoned by the trade union confederations.
Yes, we have to make common cause and we must provide us with the means to do so. It is possible and necessary. Work-sharing and the prohibition of redundancies will only be possible if a part of our class coordinates to give the perspective of the convergence of the struggles.
