May 1st parades: the unions prepare their third round in the street
On May 1, 2021, 25,000 people marched in Paris, according to the CGT, despite the rain and the Covid-19.
REUTERS - GONZALO FUENTES
Text by: Pauline Gleize Follow
3 mins
A week after the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, May Day parades will be organized all over France on Sunday.
A call for demonstrations was notably launched by the CGT, UNSA, Solidaires, the FSU and student and high school student unions for this Labor Day which falls between two major electoral events.
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After a split electorate in the first round and a duel in the second round which left many French people hungry, the demonstration on May 1 "
has a fairly strong symbolic importance
", estimates Murielle Guilbert, co-delegate of the trade union Solidarity.
“
We are coming out of a particularly painful electoral episode, with the risk of the far right and trade unions coming to power, that is what we particularly feared.
But there is also the idea that we must reshuffle the cards because we cannot start over five years of macronism as we have already experienced it.
»
“
Not a mandate for new social regressions
”
While the political class has its eyes fixed on the legislative elections qualified as the
third round by Jean-Luc Mélenchon
, the unsuccessful candidate in the race for the Élysée, the unions are therefore preparing their third round in the street.
“
We are convinced that May 1 is the first date for mobilization between the presidential and the legislative elections,
explains Catherine Perret, confederal secretary of the CGT.
This is of crucial importance to repeat to the President of the Republic that of course he is re-elected, but that he does not have the mandate for new social regressions.
It is of course very important that there are many people on May 1 to give a sign of what will be the future mobilizations in the coming weeks, if Emmanuel Macron decides to open hostilities
”.
Pension reform
In the crosshairs of the unions, there is
pension reform.
No more question of a total overhaul of the system which caused weeks of disputes at the end of 2019,
early 2020
.
The new version still strikes a sensitive chord.
"
We are going to say that we are totally opposed to the shift in the retirement age to 65
," recalls Catherine Perret, who stresses that this is not the only reason for dispute.
Another campaign promise that worries the unions,
the conditioning of the RSA, the active solidarity income, to a certain number of hours of work desired by Emmanuel Macron.
Murielle Guilbert also draws up a Prévert-style list of expectations: "
on purchasing power, on social protection, on the establishment of public services throughout the territory, on a hospital with a sufficient number of carers
".
Concerns about the climate emergency and the war in Ukraine should also be heard.
The 1st of May more and more shunned
But not sure despite everything that this May 1st attracts crowds.
The CGT remains optimistic and is counting in particular on the mobilization of young people.
Other unions are more cautious.
Moreover, Dominique Andolfatto, professor of political science at the University of Burgundy and author of
Anatomy of trade unionism
, notes a lesser interest of the French for Labor Day.
"
The 1st of May, nowadays, these are demonstrations that no longer mobilize much
," he points out.
There are hardly more than trade unionists who demonstrate and not all trade unionists.
If we look at what happened during the last May 1st, there are hardly more than a hundred thousand people demonstrating throughout France, and that's not a lot.
However, the health crisis has complicated contact between unions and employees, and this year Labor Day falls in the middle of school holidays for Paris.
That said, the demonstrations could mobilize beyond the unions, those disappointed with the presidential election.
“
This May 1 can be an opportunity for these voters,
for Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his party,
La France insoumise, to mobilize.
It could be a kind of second round
, ”said Dominique Andolfatto.
In addition, on social networks, some accounts attributed to "yellow vests" are calling for demonstrations.
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France
Economy
Emmanuel Macron
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