Gazete Nisan presents the second part of its interview with Fred Bailhau, an activist from Gironde and a member of the executive committee of NPA Jeunes Révolutionnaires, the youth wing of the New Anticapitalist Party – Revolutionary. The interview took place the day after the September 29 strike in France.

In Part 1, we discussed the strike called by firefighters, budget cuts and the unexpected mobilization of high school students. In this part, we address the unions' stance on September 29, wage struggles, strike committees, and a class-struggle approach to confronting the far right.

Nisan: Budget cuts affect the public sector the most. Are unions organizing the struggle primarily around the public sector?

Fred Bailhau: I think unions, especially those with bureaucratic leaderships, are very insistent on keeping that focus. But the budget problem also directly concerns workers in the private sector. Because the money cut from schools or hospitals is given to employers to lay off workers and reorganize production. For example, car factories have fired many workers in recent years while simultaneously receiving huge amounts of money from the state.

Yesterday, some private sector workers went on strike because of wages. Wages are really very low. Eight years ago, a liter of gasoline was 1 euro 20 cents; now it is around 2 euros 40 cents. The price has doubled, but wages have not doubled. Previously, workers' money ran out by the 25th of the month; now it runs out by the 18th.

We have comrades working in state railways. These skilled workers used to be considered a kind of labor aristocracy. Now, among them is a colleague who has to engage in sex work to make a living and cover their family's expenses. So the situation is really dire for many workers. The number of workers who were able to take a holiday this summer also fell significantly. I think one of the reasons for the anger in society is this.

Nisan: You previously mentioned that some unions wanted a different date and that September 29 was not a jointly determined date. How did the unions prepare for that day?

Fred Bailhau: CGT (General Confederation of Labor) called for a strike on September 29, but the call came very late. The metal federation, one of the CGT’s largest federations, issued its strike call only three days before the strike, on Friday.

For example, we have a comrade working at the Dassault factory producing fighter jet parts near Martignas in Bordeaux. He could only participate in actions with two or three fellow workers because no preparations had been made inside the factory. In the railways, many local unions close to the federation opposed the general call by stating that the strike should only be carried out by railway workers. We also have a comrade working at a bus company; there the situation was even worse, and CGT union activists were explicitly against the idea of striking on September 29.

Many confederations said "September 29 for the public sector". If you look on the internet, you see that all unions called for strikes on September 29. But in reality, the number of unions calling for strikes in factories was quite low. Considering this, the number of strikers was good. Also, some workers do not want to strike for a single day and say it is useless. This view is becoming increasingly widespread.

Nisan: Are workers, unions, and those who participated in yesterday's action aware of the link between cuts and military spending and resources transferred to companies?

Fred Bailhau: There are unions that oppose the military budget and say that cuts in high school and hospital budgets are made to give money both to capitalists and to the army. CGT also says this. But for now, there is an important limitation: many unions and militant workers see war as a bad thing but do not see the army as a bad thing. "The French army should not wage war, but we need a large army to protect peace" is said.

A large part of the left also says that France needs a stronger army to be independent from American imperialism. That is, an attitude that is both anti-American and supportive of French imperialism. However, our enemy is not another country's army, but the French army. People are inclined to criticize the military budget but in the end say "we need someone who will manage the military budget better". One of the contradictions of the situation is this.

"They steal from workers twice"

Nisan: How does NPA-R assess the economic situation, the strikes developing in response and the resistance of high school students? What perspective do you propose?

Fred Bailhau: One of the things we are trying to say is that the responsibility for the situation lies not only with the government but with the general policy of the bourgeoisie and capitalists. Those who keep wages low and those who raise the prices of their goods are capitalists. Budget cuts are also in the interest of capitalists. Because paying back debt is actually paying off debts created by capitalists for their own profits. In the first stage, capitalists take money from the state, and the state borrows for this. In the second stage, when the state pays back the debt, capitalists profit again. So they steal from workers twice.

There is great anger in the working class against Macron and all of this. However, this anger has not yet turned into concrete struggle in factories. The main task of unions should be to help this anger become concrete.

We defend the indexation system regarding wages, meaning that wages should increase automatically according to the cost of living. But this index should be based on a measure of living costs determined by workers themselves, because we can be deceived with an incorrect figure. We say that no monthly wage should be below 2,000 euros. This comes from the most basic demand of workers: Today, no one can live with dignity with an income below 2,000 euros per month. At the same time, we demand a wage increase of 500 euros for all workers, because this is a demand that can mobilize every level and every section of the working class together.

Unions generally want proportional increases of 3% or 5%. The problem is that in a proportional increase, those with the highest wages gain the most, while those with low wages receive less. We really want to start from the basic demands of workers. We conduct surveys in the factories where we organize: How much money do you need each month to sustain a good life? Do you think a strike can be effective? How many days are you prepared to stay on strike? Then we publish the results. This is one of the ways we try to understand and make visible workers' demands.

Nisan: What method do you advocate in organizing strikes?

Fred Bailhau: This is not something unique to us, but we understand it quite differently from other far-left organizations. We believe that simply urging unions to take action is not enough. Workers should form their own struggle structures while fighting. We do not limit ourselves to bringing all the unions in a factory together or encouraging unions to go on strike. We are trying to organize workers in an elected strike committee.

Workers elect their own strike committee in the general assembly. The committee includes workers who are members of different unions as well as non-unionized workers. Even if your goal is to advance the unions, the best way to do so is to make unions fear that workers will take the initiative independently of them. When workers organize themselves, unions often end up taking a pro-movement stance. Other left-wing groups either prioritize the unions or insist that nothing is possible due to the low level of class consciousness. We do not think this way.

Nisan: But you are not against the participation of unions in the process, right? Do you think that strike committees can force unions to take a more combative and pro-worker stance?

Fred Bailhau: Of course, we are not against unions. We say that workers should be in unions. But we also say that we cannot trust unions. Unions can sell out the movement at any moment, even so-called radical ones. Therefore, the only guarantee that a strike remains under workers' control is to establish a strike committee and, if possible, coordinate different strike committees.

If workers do not have their own strike committees, for example when CGT decides to stop the strike, they will also lack the means to decide whether to continue or not. Of course, unions led by revolutionaries and militants can be an advantage in establishing these committees. But unions are not the natural leaders of a strike; the workers themselves are.

Our main focus is the working class, but we have many militants in universities as well. We also worked to organize the September 29 strike in universities. Previously, we also helped launch movements that we led against budget cuts. In fact, on days when demonstrations against Erdoğan were held in Istanbul, we were organizing general assemblies with 1500 participants at Bordeaux Montaigne University against budget cuts. For larger strikes such as the struggle against pension reform, our policy was to organize national coordination: each local general assembly would select delegates to participate in a national coordinating body so that the leadership of the strike would not fall into the hands of the major unions.

"If we want to fight against the far right, we must do it through class struggle"

Nisan: What role does the far right play in this atmosphere of anger?

Fred Bailhau: The far right is trying to build support by exploiting insecurity and hostility to the government. I think everyone hates Macron, and many workers see the far right as a way to oppose Macron. The far right claims to be against rising fuel prices, but the only solution they propose is for the state to give money to oil companies like Total to lower prices. The left hardly speaks about combining strikes for wages and taking money back from bosses.

We think that many workers and perhaps even leftist activists feel the pressure of the far right. Our stance as NPA-R is: If we really want to fight against the far right, we must do it through class struggle. It is hardly surprising that the bourgeoisie moves further to the right as it becomes more aggressive. However, it is not natural for far-right ideas to exist within the working class. Therefore, our goal is to prevent the spread of far-right ideas within the working class. In times when there were large workers' movements, far-right ideas could not find such easy ground.

We also say that we should not underestimate the responsibility of the traditional left in the struggle against the far right. A slogan we used in some actions against the far right explains this: The 40% vote share of the National Front [i]

is due to the attacks on ordinary people carried out by the left and right for 40 years. The response to the 40-year attacks of the left and right should not be the far right, but class struggle. Because many workers vote for the far right because they do not like the traditional left that betrayed them.

Editorial notes

[i] National Front (Front National): The far-right party led by Marine Le Pen; has been called National Rally (Rassemblement National, RN) since 2018. (ed.n.)