Text of the Manifesto from the General Assembly of Workers in Rennes

Address to the wage-earners, unemployed and precarious workers of all the countries in the European Union

Some participants in the general assembly of the students of the University Rennes 2, in the movement of unemployed and precarious workers, and in the inter-professional general assembly of Rennes, France. 25 October 2010.

The text of the manifesto starts with: We are precarious workers, wage-earners, students or unemployed, currently taking part in the struggle against the pension reform by the Sarkozy government which plans to postpone the legal retirement age and to extend the number of years of contributions to be entitled to a full pension. This measure will lead to the worsening of the living conditions of the precarious sections of the population and a significant advance of the logic of capital valorisation. This is in line with the Thatcherite policies pursued by the French government over the last four years, as in most European countries during the 20-year reign of neo-liberal orthodoxy. This politics of social regression (privatisations, wage freezes, cuts in the public sector and in social spending) is all the more harshly felt because of the 2008–2009 recession (and its trail of mass redundancies) which, far from leading to a revision of the neo-liberal dogmas, was able to justify a new round of austerity plans at the expense of the working class.

In many countries such as Greece and Britain, governments no longer hesitate to announce sharp cuts in wages and pensions while they spend tens of billions to save banks. Everywhere, measures that are beneficial to the bourgeoisie are on the increase: “tax shields”; ultra-precarious contracts under which the employer’s exempted from tax, when he’s not exempted from wages too; simplified lay-off procedures; restrictions on the right to strike and criminalisation of social movements. Everywhere, they try to divert popular discontent onto scape goats: the Roma, the Arabic, the Unemployed-who-do-not-want-a-job will be the perfect culprits. Everywhere, this Europe that was built on the myth of a continuous social and cultural progress, guaranteed by the institutions, is in the process of recreating the unwanted proletariat it thought that it had assimilated. The peace between the European countries has as a double side effect the exporting of the conflicts around the optimal exploitation of resources outside the continent, and the cooperation of all the petty lords of the European economy against everything that goes against its laws, be it popular resistance or social welfare schemes. At the same time as protection walls are raised against migrants, they continue to import that part of the work force whose function is to carry out the work that the “native Europeans” no longer want, and to export the industries that can cheaply exploit the other part of the work-force which is confined there by the multinationals of Fortress Europe. Against this disheartening situation, the events of last spring in Greece paved the way for a counter-offensive on a European scale. ....

For the complete text see the link below.

Unlimited general strike! Economic blockade!

(we’re circulating this text as the most advanced and serious effort at practical re-flection that’s come out of the French movement so far. We hope, with its authors, that it will inspire discussion and action this side of the channel - even perhaps, across this whole stricken continent, which could in our opinion do with more striking). liensjournal.wordpress.com ; libcom.org/tags/france-against-austerity