Revolt of the damned

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A striker fights back aguinst the CSL. More: page 5. SINCE the Socialist Party government came to power in France in May 1981, the wheels of capitalist crisis have continued to grind down the working class:

But the most oppressed and exploited workers are fighting back. The strike just ended at the Talbot Poissy car factory is the latest ard most spectacular battle, following struggles also led by immigrant workers at Citroen Aulnay and Renault Flins.

From December 7 to December 31 the workers occupied the factory. On January 3 they stopped than bary he parties the bosses were attacked by thugs from the CSL fascist 'union'. 55 people were injured, some seriously, and 19 hospitalised: but even then the bosses could not restart production.

Only on January 8 did the most militant union, the CFDT, call off the strike. The factory is due to reopen on January 11.

The mainly African workers at Poissy fought this tremendous class battle:

DESPITE the majority union at Poissy, the Communist Party led CGT, which approved a government/management agreement for 1905 sackings and repeatedly denounced the more militant CFDT as guilty of "maximalist acts" which "played into the hands of management";

DESPITE the national leadership of the CFDT, which has consistently supported the government's calls for capitalist austerity. On January 3 the CFDT leaders at Poissy proposed as a compromise that the 1,905 sacked workers be laid open inspire toe Socialist the sociallst party/Communist Party government. The government - and specifically Jack Ralite, the CP minister of labour - made an agreement with the bosses for By Colin 1,905 sackings, and then helped to enforce it by sending in riot police on December 31 to evict workers occupying the factory.

The biggest single group of workers in the Poissy factory are Moroccans - recruited by the company, with the aid of Moroccan government agencies, directly from the most remote villages; brought on the boat and train to a company hostel in Poissy for a life of super exploitation.

Three-quarters of the Moroccan workers in Poissy have been in the factory over ten years.

'I have been working here 14 ‚years" , one told a French newspaper, "and I've seen all the changes in the factory. Each time the bosses make profits, and for us the work always gets harder and harder.

'I am recognised as 30% handicapped" , said another, showing an industrial injury.

'What use is training or a repatriation allowance to me? When I arrived in France, I was strong and healthy. Now I'm good for nothing.

These ultra-exploited workers have had enough, and they're fighting back. In the end they were not strong enough to stop the union leaders, the government, and the bosses making a deal over their heads. But they were strong enough to throw French politics into crisis for a month.

The French bosses are now planning 2,000 more sackings in the coal industry, and 200,000 job cuts overall in heavy industry this year. If other French workers can learn from the immigrants at Poissy, then these plans can be stopped.