52. France on strike

Socialism

Millions of workers have downed tools to fight hated President Emmanuel Macron’s attack on pensions. The CGT union confederation reports that 1.5 million protested throughout the country during the 5 December strike, and over 800,000 on 10 December. In between, transport workers have kept communication routes in a state of near-paralysis. Blocked from ending austerity and privatisation through the rigged electoral system which capitalism offers, ordinary people in France have taken matters into their own hands. First in the heroic movement of the ‘gilets jaunes’, the yellow vests. Now in what may be France's biggest strike in a quarter of a century. A factory explosion in Rouen, resisting the far right, the struggles of young people, and the state of the mass left movement 'La France Insoumise' are discussed as well. Days before Britain’s general election could return any kind of new regime, this episode of Socialism looks at workers carrying on political struggle by other means: France on strike.