By John Catalinotto
September 18, 2025

On Sept. 10, a half-million workers and farmers in France held blockades in the morning, mass union and student demonstrations at noon and rallies in the afternoon, while facing 80,000 gendarmes (national police), who made 200 arrests by noon. The unifying slogan was “block everything.”

The goal of the protests, which took place in cities and towns across France, including Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Toulouse, and Rennes, was to stop cuts to social programs planned by the government of President Emmanuel Macron. Another major day of national actions is planned for Sept. 18.

Popular demonstrations are nothing unusual for France −− think of the struggles over the last eight years by the Yellow Vest protesters, and the numerous strikes held by organized labor attempting to stop the regime’s raising the retirement age.

What gives this autumn’s popular protests more weight, however, is the acute nature of the political crisis in the French regime. This is multiplied by the threat of the European Union to fight a war with Russia using NATO and the unstable rightist regime in Ukraine. Macron is completely identified with the war threats, which endanger the living conditions and the very lives of European workers.

The French regime is particularly unstable. Macron is a professional banker whose every move has been directed against the workers and poor. His approval rating has dropped below 30% in most polls, with some less than 20%. His last cooperating prime minister, the equally unpopular François Bayrou, lost a vote of confidence on Sept. 8 and Macron has nominated a replacement.

Bayrou’s latest budget proposal included social cuts totaling 44 billion euros (about $51 billion). Bayrou said that the entire population (except the capitalists) “will have to participate” in solving the debt crisis. He criticized the planned September demonstrations and advised that workers in France “work harder.” (management-rse.com, Sept. 1)

After improving during the period from 1968 to 1990, conditions for workers in France have deteriorated, especially in the last 15 years, throwing more workers and rural poor into serious poverty.

Impact throughout EU

The same challenge for workers in France exists throughout the European Union. The regimes, reinforced by the EU bureaucracy, have doubled military budgets. They plan to cut social services and workers’ benefits to come closer to balancing those budgets. As in France, those pro-capitalist regimes have no plans to increase taxes paid by the rich.

It is telling that in Madrid, the Spanish capital, workers’ organizations held a demonstration that same Sept. 10 protesting the increased military budget and cuts in social services. The leaflet was entitled, “The French people are opening paths to struggle.”

Senior unionist’s analysis

Jean-Pierre Page, a former national leader of the major union federation, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), was interviewed in the Communist Initiative news magazine before the Sept. 10 action. Here are some excerpts from his statement:

“The social movement that is being prepared for the 10th and 18th, and already preceding it at Radio France, EDF, and other companies, shows a very strong fighting spirit and undeniable potential for growth.

“What matters is to mobilize workers and reconcile their legitimate anger at the reactionary Macron/Bayrou budget with the rejection of its root cause, namely predatory and militarized capitalism. Because that is the real issue at stake: defeating capitalism and bringing it to its knees.

“For CGT unionists, especially those who defend class positions and are at the forefront of this movement, this requires a great deal of initiative to seize opportunities for action wherever they arise. It also means knowing how to build alliances with all those who are determined to act.

“What lies ahead may be an unprecedented class confrontation, the political dimension of which cannot be ignored. We must therefore be ready to act.” (initiative-communiste.fr, Sept. 10)