Let’s voice our anger and stand up for the interests of workers!

Lutte Ouvrière workplace newsletter
September 15, 2025

Sébastien Lecornu, the new prime minister, has scrapped the idea of getting rid of two public holidays which had come across as an insult to workers.

But all the other attacks — increasing the number of unpaid sick leave days, multiplying out-of-pocket medical charges by two, freezing unemployment benefits, civil servants’ wages and retirement pensions, making cuts to services essential to working-class people, further attacking the rights of the jobless, etc. — all those are still in place. And let’s not forget the 730 days stolen from us since the legal retirement age was pushed back to 64!

No worker should be fooled by this so-called concession, which actually isn’t one and was likely planned from the start. It’s Lecornu’s job to wage a social war against workers hand in hand with the bosses of major corporations.

He’s not doing this because he’s close to Macron. It’s the capitalist system which is in a deep crisis that necessarily leads to attacks against the working class. While profits reach record heights for just a handful of capitalists, whole sectors of the economy are sinking deeper into stagnation. The trade war rages on with rising tariffs. The state funds have been drained and yet the future budget will include billions of euros more for the army because the general staff is getting ready for war.

Who will bear the brunt of all the human and financial sacrifices such a situation demands? The workers and the laboring classes, like always!

The workers are the ones who are constantly asked to be more competitive, more flexible and more productive. We have been paying the price collectively for years through insufficient wages, job cuts, understaffing, faster work paces, insane work hours and more people living in precarious situations.

In this capitalist jungle, the state has drip fed public money to capitalists, transferring billions of euros from state funds to the privately-owned safe boxes of shareholders. We have been paying a heavy price with our rights being pushed back and with the deterioration of hospitals and our children’s education. And with the debt as a pretext — which is said to be “unsustainable” — we’re expected to pay even more!

Lecornu’s strategy is to make us believe that it will be a shared effort and he even says he’s open to taxing the richest people—a little. Everybody knows that taxing the rich would be purely symbolic because we know just how loyal Macron is to the interests of those in his sphere, that is the bankers and billionaires! But simply mentioning a very modest contribution on the part of the rich enrages the bosses of big corporations. The leader of the bosses’ union (the Medef) exclaimed, “We won’t pay a single euro more!” and threatened there would be “a mass mobilization of the bosses”.

Well, one thing is certain, the bosses won’t be wearing out the soles of their shoes in the street in order to be heard! They are constantly being heard because a whole chorus of journalists spread their propaganda 24/7 in the media. They all try to outdo each other in explaining that the 2% tax on wealth suggested by economist Gabriel Zucman and supported by left-wing parties would be an economic disaster for the country. What a farce!

It would mean taxing the wealth of those whose fortune is over 100 million euros. Yes, you read right, over 100 million euros! It would affect 1,800 people who would be taxed 2% and it wouldn’t make them any less rich because their fortunes grow by 8% each year. It would simply be the bare minimum.

Such a tax, criticized as economic madness by the bourgeoisie, is not much at all when you consider how society is evolving.

The true madness lies in the fact that all the wealth created in society is monopolized by a handful of parasites and leads to the worsening of the living conditions of the social class that produces everything: the working class. The madness lies in the capitalist system itself which goes from one crisis to another and condemns us to destructive trade wars. The laws of the capitalist market prevent us from rationally planning out the economy. The pursuit of profit prevents companies from functioning in order to fulfill human needs. And this madness is dragging us into a world war.

We mustn’t accept to sacrifice ourselves for such a mad system! Let’s say it loud and clear on September 18, by going on strike and demonstrating!

The protests on September 10 were a first step. The trade unions’ call to action this Thursday, September 18 gives us the chance to take a second step. Let’s group together and get organized at the grassroots level to decide on our demands and actions, in other words let’s find the means to lead the struggle ourselves, a struggle which has only just begun.

Nathalie Arthaud