On 19.01.2023, the wheels in France came to a standstill. Buses and trains did not run, schools, kindergartens and hospitals remained closed in many places, factories too. Up to two million people went on strike last Thursday, taking to the country's streets to demonstrate against the reactionary pension reform that the current government around President Macron is trying to push through. The French government plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 - an attack on the working class of France that is falling on deaf ears among working people and causing enormous resistance.
The reform is a necessity for the French state to maintain the basic features of the pension and social system. Due to the economic crisis of the imperialist system, which is also getting worse in France, the bourgeoisie is depriving the workers of more and more achievements that were fought for in the past, as is always the case in crises. The French government's pension reform is thus a clear confirmation of the fact that the rulers cannot continue as before and they always shift their crises onto the shoulders of the working class and the people.
President Macron has so far stuck to the reform despite the opposition. On the day of the protests, he was at the Spanish-French summit in Barcelona, from where he commented on the reform and the protests against it: "We will do this with respect, in a spirit of dialogue, but also with determination and responsibility." In the same breath, Macron tried to appeal to the demonstrators to protest peacefully.
The workers and the people, however, did not at all let the reactionary president dictate how they should unfold their resistance. There were fights against the police in various cities. Especially in Paris, where up to one million people are said to have been on the streets, there were heavy riots in which several policemen were injured.
The proletarian revolutionaries of the Jeunes Révolutionnaires (Revolutionary Youth) and the comrades of the revolutionary newspaper La Cause de Peuple (The Cause of the People) also took part in the demonstrations and the struggles. According to La Cause de Peuple, propaganda committees were in action at demonstrations in Paris, Lille, Caen, Rennes, Limoges and in Clermont-Ferrand. Under the slogan "The rebellion is justified!" the comrades marched with banners on the demonstrations and developed different actions in this course.
These are not the first protests to break out as a result of reform plans by the French state to raise the retirement age. Several times before - most recently in 2020 - French workers managed to prevent the pension reform through their resistance and brought the state to its knees.
