Pension reform: There is anger, the people must be heard

The fourth act of mobilization against the pension reform, what are the politicians of the French waiting for? A general mobilization or a country on general strike, where everything is paralyzed and stopped on March 7…

Until now, no one has listened to the voice of the people, nor the possibility of dialogue has been offered, since today’s social system is extremely weak. Do we not see the alarm signal that has been sounded, have we not understood that today six out of ten French people are poor!

Doctors, bakers, young people, unions and workers are on the streets of France to demand a solution of general reform. A well-adapted social system, in a situation where jobs are few and demand triples from job seekers.

In the first term of President Emmanuel MACRON, I heard that he promised a reduction in the number of homeless people and for the homeless!… ONLY WORDS! Today we have three times more homeless on the sidewalks of France.

Will it be the same with the pension reform, do you want to triple the number of unemployed or those looking for a job?

“There is anger, the deputies must hear it”, launches this Sunday on franceinfo Marie Buisson, secretary general of the Federation of education, research and culture of the CGT, the day after a fourth day of mobilization against the pension reform.

She considers that as elected officials, they have “a responsibility”, that of “hearing what is happening around them” and in particular the fact that the reform wanted by the government is “refused so massively by the citizens “.

Marie Buisson also wants to show the deputies that the opposition in the street is not weakening, on the contrary according to her “there is a renewal in the processions”. “We ask people to stay mobilized because we think the government can back down,” notes the trade unionist.

To maintain the pressure, the Intersyndicale has already called on “all employees to stop work on March 7”, not to mention “a certain number of actions” planned before this date. Marie Buisson also explains that the unions will invest “on March 8 to make it a day of mobilization on the working conditions, wages and pensions of women”. This date is far from trivial, since it is the international day for women’s rights.

Believing that the last day of strikes and demonstrations, February 7, confirmed “the very strong determination to refuse the pension reform project presented by the government”, the inter-union called on “the entire population” to demonstrate “even more massively ” this Saturday. According to figures from the CGT, the processions everywhere in France were more provided than Tuesday with “more than 2.5 million” demonstrators in the country. Figures are also on the rise on the side of the Ministry of the Interior, which has identified 963,000 people in the processions in France.

The Parisian demonstration gathered 500,000 people according to the CGT, 93,000 according to the police and 112,000 according to the cabinet Occurence. During the last day of mobilization, February 7, the union had counted 400,000 demonstrators in the capital (57,000 for the police). It almost doubled!

Some damage took place on the sidelines of the procession in Paris, franceinfo learned from the Paris police headquarters. The police have intervened several times since the departure of the procession. The thugs tried to attack a bank branch on Boulevard Voltaire, then an insurance agency, as well as a fast food restaurant on Place Léon Blum.

In addition, “radical elements” tried to commit damage rue de Charonne during the departure of a “wild procession” shortly after 3 p.m., also adds the prefecture. Ten people were arrested on Saturday in Paris according to the 6:30 p.m. point of the police headquarters.

Today the inter-unions will not give up and seeing that health and bakers have taken to the streets is a wake-up call. It remains for farmers to express their anger at the current situation. Is this the end of the fifth republic?

While the executive remains intransigent on the postponement of the retirement age from 62 to 64, the social movement could harden. The inter-union (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU) has already called for two new days of action, February 16 and March 7.

For his part, the leader of the CGT Philippe Martinez called for strikes “harder, more massive, more numerous”, “if the government persists in not listening”. “It will take other demonstrations, but for us it’s clear, the rest will be the renewable strike, around March 8”, added Simon Duteil. An appeal heard by the inter-union at the RATP. The unions are calling for the first renewable strike of the movement against the pension reform at the Régie, from March 7, to obtain the abandonment of the project.

The CGT-Cheminots also does not rule out a renewable strike from March 7, just after the school holidays in zone C, which covers Ile-de-France and Occitanie.

In the National Assembly, the first article of the reform on the abolition of special regimes was adopted Friday by 181 votes for and 163 against.
Nupes judges for its part that it is the government which has chosen to shorten the debates scheduled until February 17, the cut-off date before a transmission of the text to the Senate.

The inter-union ready to “bring France to a halt”

The intersyndicale said it was ready to “put France on hold on March 7 if the government “remains deaf to popular protest”. In a press briefing, in the presence of representatives of the main unions (CFDT, CGT, FO , CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU), she affirms that she will meet on the evening of February 16 and calls “here, the government withdraw its bill and “parliamentarians to take their responsibilities”.

The number one of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, again pointed the finger at a “form of democratic madness of the government to ignore what is happening”, while his counterpart of the CGT Philippe Martinez underlined that “the ball (was) in the executive’s camp.

The unions, which confirmed their call for a fifth act on February 16, are counting on a strong mobilization on Saturday, Philippe Martinez noting “already a lot of people” in the street.

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Gabriel MIHAI

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