France

Twelve “sans papiers”, migrants with no legal status, who had been on hunger strike for 50 days in France, have learned that they will get full rights. They had moved to a trade union centre in Paris after they were turfed out of the offices of Unicef. The demands of the sans papiers were endorsed by branches of the CGT, CFDT, CGT-FO and Solidaires trade unions, and by many political and campaigning groups. But for these men to do something so desperate — they are all still in very poor health — shows how badly neglected their cause is, day to day, by the trade union and wider movement. We...

On the weekend of 14-16 May, some eleven members and friends of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty will be at the political festival organised by the French Marxist group Lutte Ouvrière in the countryside near Paris. This festival, organised every year for over 30 years now, draws some 20,000 people each year, and — alongside the food, kids’ games, film showings and so on — has long been the major annual meeting point for diverse groups of the revolutionary left from across Europe. LO provides facilities for such groups to run stalls and stage political debates. The number of such groups...

A recent opinion poll shows around 55% of people who have made up their minds plan to vote "no" in the French referendum on the European constitution on 29 May. 28% of voters are undecided. All 25 EU countries have to ratify the proposed constitution for it to come into force. Ratification can be by a vote in the country's parliament or by popular referendum. Spain, Slovenia, Lithuania, Hungary, Italy and Greece have approved the constitution. Only Spain held a referendum. Tony Blair has promised to put the constitution to a referendum - probably early in 2006 - even if the French vote "no" on...

Message from the French union CGT Maxi-Livres and the Stop Précarité network concerning Latifa Abed, a courageous trade unionist being sued for defamation by her employer. Please give Latifa moral support by sending a message to one of the links below. Latifa Abed, an employee of Maxi-Livres at the Gare de Lyon [station] in Paris, a CGT union delegate and member of the Stop Précarité network, is due to appear before the Correctional Tribunal of Paris on Tuesday 29 March to answer the charge of “complicity” with Jean-Paul Cluzel, the chair of Radio France, for words described by her employer as...

Big union mobilisations stalled attempts by European governments in the 1990s to cut public pensions. There was a mass strike wave in France in 1995 [see below]. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi’s first government, in 1994–5, fell after its attempts to cut pensions brought strikes and street demonstrations. >Berlusconi eventually regained office, and in July 2004 pushed through measures that require employees to pay 40 years of contributions before retirement or, if they pay only 35 years, to retire at 60 rather than 57 as at present. That was less than he wanted, and he got it through only after...

Vicki Morris surveys the campaigns of the French far-left against the proposed EU constitution. The French left and far-left are far ahead of us in discussing the proposed European constitution. They expect a referendum this year — which the advocates of “Oui” (yes), including president Jacques Chirac, the Socialist Party (although with a strong minority opposed) and the Greens, expect to win. The vast majority of the far-left is campaigning for a “Non” (no). “No to the constitution, another Europe is possible” The biggest no campaign is a joint campaign by the French Communist Party (PCF) and...