French Trade Unionist To Speak At Éirígí Meeting
Dublin, Sat, Jan 18th.
Éirígí For A New Republic is bringing a French trade unionist to Dublin next weekend to speak about the six-week long nationwide strike in that country. Benoit Lahouze, an activist in the CGT union, will address a public meeting in The Teachers Club at 2pm on Saturday, January 18th.
The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) is one of the largest confederation of unions in France with over 700,000 members. It is also one of the oldest unions in France with a history stretching back more than 120 year to 1895.
The CGT is one of more than 30 unions that have now joined mass industrial action that began on December 5th. Millions of public and private sector workers have withdrawn their labour and taken to the picket line and to the streets to oppose radical changes to the French pension system.
Transport is among the sectors that have been most affected, with TGV, intercity and metro services all experiencing major disruptions. France hasn’t witnessed an industrial dispute of this length and intensity since the tumultuous days of 1968. Despite the widespread disruption cause by the strike, a solid majority of the French public support the strikers and their demands.
The initial response of resident Macron to the strike was typically arrogant, as he pledged to push ahead with all of his proposed pension ‘reforms’.
The police took their lead from Macron’s hard-line position, resulting in numerous incidents of police heavy-handedness and brutality against strikers and their supporters. In one video-recorded incident a police riot gun is fired at point-blank range at protesters in Paris.
Despite his initial bluster, Macron has now been forced to make concessions, including scrapping a highly controversial proposal to increase the age of retirement from 62 to 64.
The CGT and other unions have deemed this concession to be insufficient to end the general strike and have responded with further industrial action on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
This weekend’s public meeting will give Irish people an unique opportunity to hear the full background to, and first-hand accounts of, to the French general strike. We in Ireland have much to learn from the French culture of industrial action and street protest.
The meeting is free of charge and open to all, starting at 2pm in The Teacher’s Club on Parnell Square in Dublin 1. Bígí linn.