No to pension reform and war, bring down Macron!

This statement was distributed by members of the Parti de l’égalité socialiste (PES-Socialist Equality Party) at demonstrations in Paris, Marseille and Amiens on June 6 on the 14th day of action against French President Macron’s pension cut.

Today, workers and young people across France will march against Emmanuel Macron’s illegitimate pension reform. The desperate attempt by the union bureaucracies to move on from the struggle against Macron and against the capitalist state, by suspending the mobilizations between May 1 and June 6, has not succeeded. Despite this delay of several weeks between the days of action, the fight against Macron continues.

A wave of strikes is shaking not only France but all of Europe. Workers in Italy are demonstrating against Meloni’s far-right government and its austerity and war policies, and strikes are rocking the UK, Portugal, Belgium and Germany. In France, the workers of Vertbaudet, Disney, transport, at the Post Office carried out strikes against the social cuts and for better wages.

However, after a truce with Macron imposed by the union bureaucracies, the questions of political perspective and organization are urgently facing the workers. To lead the fight against Macron, the banks and their policy of wage austerity, workers must organize independently of the bureaucracies which demobilize the movement, and fight to bring down Macron through a general strike.

As a Ukrainian offensive causes thousands of deaths and injuries in a fratricidal war between Russians and Ukrainians armed by NATO, the French National Assembly has voted the Military Programming Law (MPL). It increases the military budget by 40 percent, from 297 to €413 billion between 2024 and 2030. It spends billions on cyber warfare, nuclear weapons and ammunition stockpiles in order to build the “economy of European war” wanted by Macron.