Temperatures have dropped and are more bearable than last week. But while this heatwave episode is behind us, others are on the way. The race for profit, the unbridled exploitation of nature and the irrational organization of the economy have turned our planet into a ticking time bomb. Today, that bomb is exploding in the faces of workers.
It’s disastrous for workers and the poorest people first. The wealthy travel from one air-conditioned place to another in cars that are also air-conditioned.
For the working classes, it's grueling work hours, stifling commutes on crowded public transport, social housing and poorly insulated buildings that trap heat like pizza ovens.
There's no temperature limit when it comes to exploiting workers
Despite the heatwave, work continued uninterrupted on construction sites and in factories. Even in offices and stores, how many employees found themselves stuck at work in 95 to 100 degree heat?
High temperatures don’t keep employers from running their businesses because the profit-making machine must keep going at full speed. In the Drôme region, a 19-year-old roofer was sent to work on a rooftop: the heat killed him.
The government refuses to impose any limits on employers. Instead, it gives us its “common sense” advice - drink water, close the shutters - as if we needed to be told such things! Then, it goes back to its favorite pastime: stirring up hot air, something fans do much better than it does.
As with everything else, the government shifts responsibility onto each individual. As if we were all equal! Bosses decide what the working conditions are and hold the employees in their power, and in this case, it's a power of life and death.
The government's negligence
And what is the government itself doing to repair the damages for which it shares responsibility with polluting capitalists? It talks about “ecological transition” but what has it actually done in concrete terms?
Has it even placed the most polluting industries under surveillance? Has it restricted the use of private yachts and jets, as it sometimes does with cars? None of that, because it wouldn't want to upset the wealthy or go against their established interests.
There’s talk of housing renovation, but progress is snail's pace, while so many homes remain poorly insulated. Tens of thousands of applications for renovations are on hold for lack of funding.
Macron is touting his electrification plan. In the name of the transition to electric vehicles, ArcelorMittal and TotalEnergies, which flaunt billions in profits and are among the primary contributors to global warming, will thus continue to pocket millions of euros in public subsidies. This is happening with no real oversight from the state and no comprehensive plan to rationalize the economy.
When it comes to its responsibility, the state is failing completely. Of the 60,000 school buildings, many are thermal disasters. Only 10% are undergoing renovation. As a result, high school students sat for their vocational high school exams in rooms where the temperature exceeded 86 degrees. Schools and middle schools turned into sweltering ovens and have had to close. In many facilities, including hospitals, installing shutters or even just curtains on the windows and planting a few trees in a courtyard seem like an insurmountable task.
It's up to us, the workers, to take action!
Regardless of the fight against global warming, improvements are possible. The obstacle isn't technical, it’s political. Renovating school buildings would cost between 40 and 50 billion euros. It's a significant sum indeed but not much more than the 36 billion euro top-up in military budget voted two weeks ago. The money the government can't find to protect us from heatwaves, it can easily find to prepare for war.
Those who claim to run society are overwhelmed by the blind logic of capitalism. They are incapable of repairing the damage it has done and incapable of preventing it from causing further harm. What is missing is collective control of the economy and control by the workers themselves, in small matters as in great ones.
Nathalie Arthaud