President of France.
Mittetrand and the Union of the Left.
But Giscard has won by no more than a hair's breadth. The country is split almost exactly down the middle, and the next presidential elections are not due until 1981.
IMMEDIATE PERSPECTIVE
The working class will therefore he looking for a more immediate perspective than a possible victory for the Union of the Left in seven years* time. In this it will be encouraged by the experience of rapidly mounting class confrontation in the past few months It is abo unlikely to forget the words of Communist Party trade union leader Gearges Seguy, who before the second round promised a vast social and industrial upheaval if Giscard were to win. Seguy's intentions, of course, were simply to panic a section of the bourgeoisie into voting for Mitterrand in order to avert such a prospect. He has no intention of leading such an upsurge now that the electoral game has been lost.
But the effect on his followers may well be different, and a renewed upsurge of workers' militancy can thus be expected after only a very short down-turn.
NO TRUCE, NO COMPROMISE The period leading up to the clections was one of intense working class activity. Many strikes continued throughout the election campaign, with hundreds of thousands of workers refusing to agree to any kind of social truce - The most pressing advocates of such a truce were the leaders of the Communist Party and its trade union federation, the CGT. As Seguy put it: The CT considers that it is in the intereste of the workers that the presidential elections take place in an atmosphere of calm, so that every citizen can make his democratic choice with full awareness of the importance of his vote for the future of the country Despite such pleas, however, every day of the the election campaign saw new strikes being declared. Security guards at Brinks refused to recognise the truce and occupied their place of work;
workers at the Atlantic Nuval Dockyards responded with a threatened occupation to prospects of a lockout; while printworkers at the Darboy works not only occupied the place but started to print material for other workers in struggle. Even the Paris postal workers went on strike for two days against undermanning of the postal service.
MILITANCY But just as important as the number of strikes is the militancy that has been displayed.
Ever since the struggle at the Lip watch factory things in France have taken on quite a -different hue.
Can you describe the development of the strugHe for a contract at the Fiat plant?
Alter the mobilisations of the first week of February, the bosses had made some conces sions. They had offered an overall increase of 30,000 lire un the basse wage. After these concestons the trade union leaderships and the management engaged in very intensire discussions. Once agreement had been reached with the union leadership on the issues of investments in the South and investments in social products, the Flat management again proposed the wage ofter of 30,000 lire (£20 month. this offer represented un enormous step fortable to the ranks, Consequently it was very difficult for the burcaucrats to accept the proposal. In fact, during these discussions, the workers had continued to engage in hard-fought struggles in the corporation's various factories. The union leaderships therefore demanded more significant concessions on the wages issue, but Fiat management refused, and negotiations were broken off.
On the same day, that is Wednesday, 20 February, the Government announced a new increase in the prices of consumer goods, first of all gasoline, which was increased hy 30 per cent, and then a whole series of food products.
These two elements the breaking off of negotiations with Fiat, and the Government's Thursday 4 February into a day of very Price bitease decree seurce to translorm militant struggles throughout the whole of Italy, not only in Fial, but in a whole series of firms, On Thursday morning, when the workers learned of the breaking off of negotiations and read about the Government measures in tbe newspapers, there was an explosion of spontaneous strikes.
Red Weekly 23 May 1974 Paoc 4 This is a set-back for the working class. Big hopes had been put in a victory for It is now becoming almost second nature for workers to occupy in pursuit of their demands, despite the readiness of the police to intervene.
Even the CP/CGT has taken up this method of struggle at the Rateau factory, a small electronics firm on the outskirts of Paris threatened with closures.
to find a mass response.
There is undoubtedly a growing awareness by workers in struggle of the close ties which bind their own struggle to those of other sections of the class, Moreover, nearly all currents in the workers movement now accept the need to prepare workers self-defence against the police and the fascists All these developments have been generalised in the most difficult conditions for struggle.
For the worken have had to deal not only with the bosses and the police, but also with sabotage and hostility from the trade union bureaucTacy.
BANK WORKERS There was no 'official strike at Fiar, but several haurs after work began, the two main Fiat factories, Mirafion and Rivalta, were blockaded, Rivalta was completely blockaded; in Tact, it was the beginning of an occupation. And the same kind of action was proposed at Mirafiori. But there the trade-union bureaucracy immediately intervened, trying to prevent that. The bureaucrats called a big meeting of all depurtments at Fist, in which two of the main leaders of the trade-union left participated.
They wanted to discuss the forms of struggle and the kind of action to take. Two For the union leaders, It was clear that while processions formed up,blocking the operation o to woe ractory, ano tace mace toci way ward on management's part, it was still unaccep- to the meeting. The majority of the workers called lot the occupation of the factory to force management to give in, and even demanded that the date of the general strike set for the follow ing week be advanced.
More than 10,000 workers participuter in the meeting. The bureaucrats had a lot of difficulty presenting their position, for there was great distrust toward them, When the union leaders came out against the occupation the workers reacted very violently, booing them and preventing them from continuing. Many workers spoke up, but they made no concrete proposals for the accupation.
After this meeting, the strike continued until the next shift. The afternoon shilt also went on strike and tried to organise an nocupation. But the bureaucrats were very chergetic, and they succooded in preventing the occupation from spreading at Mirufiori, while at Rivalta the occupation continued throughout the day.
You said that the strikes didn't develop only at Fiat. Could you explin the situation in the rest of the country?
In fact, on Thursday 21 February, which war later called "Red Thursday", there were strikes in the main Italian factories. The workers *68 events. tremendous step forward.
commissions had many functions.
publicity, posters and so on.
warkers have also been geolsic.
ery with them.
of the economy border. The workets from all the Olivetti factories held a big march in the city, Al Italsider there was an occupation was teying to control and demobilise the struggles.
What happened after Thursday? once more, the bureaucracy succeeded in • struggle. placed themselves at its bead.
rumoured scandals; whilst yet others took up those of the trade union bureauctacy, WORKERS' POWER democracy as a copdition for victory brings up the far wider question of the ricans of developing the struggle against the bourgeoisie as a whole-the formation of alternative organs of workers power to the institutions of the bourThis takes on added Importance in the context of other forms of struggle sparked off by Lip. The Lip workers occupied their plant and sold the watches they produced to finance the strike. When the police ejected them from che factory, they took essential parts of the machin The bank workers followed suit. They occupled their banks intending to close down the whole of the banking system. When they in turn were ejected, they took with them the computer tapes needed by the French administration to channel funds to essential sectors Through a combination of such actions they at Alfa Romeo hekd a march wat blocked the express highway between Milan and the Swiss The workers were expressing their revolt against The Government's attack on their living standards. They were expressing their desire to set off a general strike. But the bureaucracy After Thursday the unions called three hour strikes al Miradiori and Rivalta during the day. The workers immediately wont beyond these umon directives. From the beginning of che day, Rivalta was blockaded, as well as the majority of departments in Miraflori. The strike Tasted eight hours, and in all the factories the workers tried to organise an occupation. But 1 preventing this from happening, with the support of the most backward sectors of the Fiat workers. For example, the members of the Italian Communist Party openly boycotted the But even if we didn't succeed in carrying out an occupation, the bureaucracy was largely outflanked, and the meetings voted for a strike lasting a whole day and not three hows. Workers marebed through the factory calling out those who were working and the foremen. The class, delegates" council met the following Saturday. The burenucrats violently attacked the delegates who had not followed the unions instructions but bad foilowed the mass movement or even We defended the following position: it was necessary to carry out this kind of struggle and to organise the occupation before the general strike scheduled for 27 February, and above
----- pull-quotes -----
Democratically elected strike committees and mass assemblies of springing up in the most surprising places Mobilisations in active solidarity with hard fought and long standing struggles have begun
These now piethods of struggle were pion ered by the Lip workers, But Lip was quit peripherl to the French economy. It is only in the last few months that Lip has been trans- ferred to the major sections of the French
The most remurkable struggle in this respect has been that of the bank workers. Their struggle stasted in the nationalised Credit Lyonnais bank in Puls, but during two months of
lead the strike in a anified way: gle from other bank workers, organising a situation of low level unionisation in
the more obvious tasks of developing solidarity, Control was also exercised over what went to the media. All in all, the workers did their best to ensure that the running of the strike was firmly in their own hands rather than in
These developments in the uemocrațic organisation of strikes have implications going far beyond these immediate struggies. The understanding of the need for workers'