EUROPE
Strike brings Renault to a halt
A TWO week pay strike has brought the French state-owned car manufacturer Renault to its knees.
nomic policy at the US Treasury, did not hide his bewilderment when he recently stated that the American economy was in the worst possible sifuation, in which lower interest rates were failing to raise lending, while the budget deficit, estimated at $340bn for 1992 would not permit any fisca relaxation, and household spending, which makes up two thirds of GNP remaine sluggish
So here we are — after the victory in the Gulf, the "reconstruction" of
Kuwait and the great opening to the East, It is the economies of the most industrialized countries that are failing to turn. A new wave of stock market fever is underway, with various alliances, buyouts and fusions on an international scale. This is drawing on the reserves of many firms at a time when other (or even the same) firms have not yet dealt with the financia burdens assumed in the frenzy of the 1980s.
Everything costs money, whether German unification or the broader
European unification, with its host of draconian measures aimed at disciplining and homogenizing the different national economies. The costs of the international reorganization of capital consistently turn out far higher than predicted, while the Third World has already been sucked dry and
Eastern Europe is far from providing a new fountain of profits,
In this situation, governments are maintaining and toughening austerity policies. All kinds of deceit are used to get public opinion to swallow the bitter pill of the bosses needs. At a time when capitalism is becoming even more internationalized, the workers of each country are being told that they must tighten their belts so that "their bosses can be in the best position on tne market or reconversions
Even the union bureaucrats understand that their own fate depends on snowing some signs of life to avoid being completely marginalized in the new institutional arrangements. In the Netherlands, France, Italy Finland
(see /V 215) and Australia (see p. 22) important social groups are pushing for struggle. The union apparatuses are taking advantage of this to keep up pressure while channeling these revolts into an illusory search for new social pacis, like in the good old times of growth. But those times are gone.
scale. Under the pressure of the health industry lobby which represents massive investments in this sector, European governments have reduced the social safetynet and promoted the concentration of services in the hands of a few large private groups who compete with each other. Health has become a commodity, hospitals big business, patients clients. In this framework, the policies of the Rocard and now Cresson governments and their health ministers have been to dismantle public hospitals.
The hospital reform, which has been presented as a delayed response to the
1988 demonstrations, has in fact only responded to the needs of capitalist rationalization in the framework of the market. The crisis of the public hospital is manifested especially by an unprecedented crisis of personnel, which has been amplified by the departure of staff discouraged by the lack of response to the problems they have expressed.
Last but not least was the emergence of a new form of self organization. For the first time at this level, a movement of wage workers forged a recognized leadership which came out of the movement itself, even forcing the government to accept it as a negotiating partner. The majority of union organizations for their part, were swept aside by this phenomenon. The CFDT(Democratic federation of French Labor) even went so far as expelling from its ranks those unionists — especially in the Paris region — who actively participated in the steering committee. In order to maintain their union organizations the latter formed their own federation.
Today, three years later, another movement is being formed which has drawn on past experiences and their lessons. The health sector is continually experiencing movements among all job categories. They have been answered by 1. See International Viewpoint issues #149 of October 17, 1988, and #152 of November 28, 1988. 2. "Cohabitation" refers to the period when Socialist President Francois Mitterand was forced to appoint a Prime Minister from one of the bourgeois parties Jacques Chirac of the neo-Gaullist RPR (Rally for the
The strike, although until now confined to the company's main gearbox and engine plant at Cléon, west of Paris, has halted all domestic production in what is France's second largest company in terms of sales Renault is now losing 5,000 vehicles a day, and the stoppage is estimated to have cost the firm several hundred million francs.
Over the past ten years, more than
40,000 Renault workers have lost their jobs, while wages have declined by 17% in real terms. Cléon has a long history of struggle and a particularly militant CGT (General Confederation of Labour — France's biggest trade union federation, associated with the Communist Party) tradition. A factory management renowned for its arrogance has denounced the striking workers as "terrorists" and part of an "extremist plot", and attempted to organize a number of physical provocations.
The French employers' organization has supported the Renault management in calling for police intervention to allow scabs through the Cléon picket lines - CGT pickets have blocked all access to the plant.
The Socialist Party government of
Edith Cresson, increasingly beleaguered as its standing in the opinion polls plummets, and facing pressure from a wave of industrial action in the public service, as well as the continuing revolt of French farmers (see /V 215), appears to be divided on what course to follow. The minister for industry supports police intervention, whilst other sectors of the government are mindful of the possible explosive consequences of this -but the government is united in rejecting the demands of the strikers.
The strike has the support of more than 80% of the 5,000 plus workers at the factory, and pickets are several hundred strong. In addition, the stoppage is massively popular among local people. A support committee of strikers wives and companions has been set up, and the local farmers' confederation has organized a march to the factory gates in support of the strikers.
Messages of support, donations, and requests for further information: Comité d'établissement RNUR, B.P.
114, 76410 Cléon, France. *
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