Amid 24-hour news coverage on the war, we learned last week that the Stellantis plant in Poissy will stop producing cars. This means that the last automobile assembly plant in the Paris region will soon shut down.
The announcement made by Stellantis — which was barely reported in the media — is outrageous. The group has raked in 54 billion euros in profits over the past five years and yet 2,000 jobs will be cut in Poissy and thousands more among subcontractors.
Likewise, car-manufacturer Renault has announced cuts to engineering positions. That’s another thousand jobs eliminated! Of course, we are becoming used to this kind of announcement. There’s an endless stream of plant closures and layoff plans — ArcelorMittal, Brandt, Vencorex, Arkema, Domo, Teisseire, Auchan, Casino… — and all sectors are affected. But every such announcement gives us even more reason to be angry.
The right to a wage is a fundamental right
In a society like ours, based on exploitation, the right to earn a living is the only real right workers have and it is constantly trampled on, plunging more and more women and men into poverty and hardship.
Workers aren’t machines that can be plugged in then unplugged and scrapped according to the fluctuations in production, the market and competition. In order to live, everyone needs a regular income because rent and loan repayments need to be met every month and because workers’ children, like the children of the bourgeoisie, need to eat every day.
Those on the bosses’ side say that factory closures are inevitable because of the economic crisis, the war or Chinese competition. Such pretexts serve only one purpose: to make workers accept sacrificing their living conditions.
But for shareholders, no matter the reasons given, their millions are safe. Better still, they get richer every year because, while major corporations are subject to market fluctuations and to competition, they are the decision-makers and they reap the benefits.
Rising prices — including the soaring cost of fuel — aren’t a law of nature. They are decided by the bosses of major corporations. They are the ones who are leading the economic war in which they themselves face no risk because it is being fought with workers’ jobs and wages, whether they are permanently hired, working temporary positions or employed by subcontractors.
So let pundits parrot big business on energy, automotive, chemical and trade crises and the major disruptions caused by the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. That’s the big bourgeoisie’s business — we need to focus on our own!
We, the workers, have never before faced such a class war. The full-scale offensive led by the capitalists is being intensified in this period of economic crisis and war.
It takes the form of multiple layoffs to which is added extortionate fuel prices that in turn become widespread extortion because, through a ripple effect, all prices are increasing but wages are failing to keep up. And there will be no ceasefire on the part of the bosses from this kind of war.
Workers must defend their right to a job and a decent wage. They must organize and fight back, first in their workplaces, then by reaching out to other workers across the country.
A united struggle is necessary
We are all under attack in one way or another. The attack led by big business is widespread and we will only truly be able to make ourselves feared and respected by fighting back on the same scale.
We must not allow the bosses to have the power of life or death over the working class. The big bourgeoisie runs the capitalist system and is responsible for the way it evolves. And they are the ones who profit from it. Shareholders — past and present — must pay the price to guarantee the right to live a decent life for the only true producers, workers. The living conditions of the working class must come before the fortunes of billionaires, who are nothing but parasites!
Nathalie Arthaud