The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing 105 million workers in 135 countries, expresses its solidarity with the workers of France who will go on an indefinite strike, on Tuesday, March 7, against the pension, a reform project that President Macron wants to impose.

Indeed, after 5 days of strikes and demonstrations throughout the country since January 19, the class-oriented trade unionists of France have decided to launch a new strike in the strategic sectors of the country to make the government bend.

Calls for a renewable strike and economic blockage have been launched among railway workers, at the RATP, in refineries, in energy, in Agroalimentary factories, in trade, in chemicals, in ports and docks, among garbage collectors and sewer workers, highly organized sectors where the WFTU has many affiliates in France.

The challenge is to lead all the workers and the popular masses to get out of the losing strategy of “trade union lobbying” and “social dialogue” to go and demand, through strikes and struggle, the satisfaction of goals against a government that brutally defends the exclusive interests of the big capitalist companies.

Far from the hypocritical support of the ETUC and the ITUC for the “demonstrations”, the WFTU will strongly commit itself to the unfailing and concrete support of the strikers in France, as it did in 2019.

We call on all WFTU affiliates to concretely express their support for the workers of France in the struggle.

Comrades and workers of France: as in 2019 when you brought down President Macron’s points-based retirement plan, we have confidence in your militant spirit and your ability to win!

#France #WorldFederationOfTradeUnionsWFTU #WFTU

The World Federation of Trade Unions, which represents 105 million affiliates in more than 130 countries around the world, expresses its solidarity with the workers of France who are called for a general strike and demonstrations throughout the country on Thursday January 19, 2023 against the Macron government’s plan to raise the legal retirement age to 64.

The WFTU recalls that the French Social Security, which is an achievement resulting from the workers’ resistance against the Nazi occupation and which was set up by Ambroise Croizat, the CGT leader and communist Minister of Labor at the Liberation, is far from being in bankruptcy.

It is put in financial difficulty by the exemptions from huge social security contributions that the Macron government grants to the big capitalist monopolies.

The WFTU trusts in the great combativeness of the workers of France and their class struggle unions, which are many of its affiliates, to defeat this government attack as they did during the historic general strike from December 2019 to March 2020, when the Macron government had to withdraw its unjust reform.

As usual, the WFTU and its affiliates from the 5 continents will support the struggle of the workers of France until victory!

#France #AntiwarMovement #generalStrike #WorldFederationOfTradeUnionsWFTU #WFTU

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) expresses its solidarity with the workers and people of France who are fighting against the policy of high prices and excessive taxation of the French government and at the same time are protesting against the anti-labor policies of the European Union and the IMF. The international class-oriented trade union movement joins its voice to that of the working youth in France, with the homeless, the unemployed, the new-poor, immigrants for a world without capitalist exploitation.

The police state and state violence highlight the role of the state and the goals of the bourgeoisie. President Macron’s maneuvers to weaken protests through false and hypocritical social dialogues should not trap the working class and the people. The class unions, the class-oriented vanguard can significantly help the people masses, leaving their own mark, giving the orientation, the content and the appropriate forms of struggle, isolating the neo-fascist and racist elements, in order to strengthen the struggle and the anti-capitalist claims.

Long live internationalist solidarity! The WFTU Secretariat

#France #Europe #PeoplesStruggles #WorldFederationOfTradeUnionsWFTU #WFTU

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), representing 92 million members in 126 countries around the world, reiterates its internationalist solidarity with workers in France who will strike on 19 April.

In an international context where capitalists, multinationals and European bourgeoisies attack labor rights, promote anti-worker policies, reduce pensions and wages, dismantle social gains and union rights, European workers must organize their own counter attack. Today, it is more than ever necessary for workers to coordinate their struggles globally, under the values of internationalism and class solidarity.

At the same time, workers around the world must be well aware that the same political forces – like the Macron government – that are eliminating their labor rights are the same forces that bombed Syria a few days ago; they are the same imperialists who contribute to NATO and EU interventions and who, by assassinating peoples, maximize their profits. So, our answer must be the anti-imperialist struggle.

In this context, the WFTU expresses its solidarity and it guarantees the workers of France that will continue to firmly support their just claims.

Long live internationalist solidarity!

The Secretariat

#France #WorldFederationOfTradeUnions #WFTU

Fight Back News is circulating the following May 23 statement from the World Federation of Trade Unions.

The WFTU expresses its indignation against the forced evacuation of oil storage facilities and its full solidarity with all workers in France, who are fighting against the law “travail” of the Social-Democratic government of François Hollande.

The WFTU expresses its full and fraternal support to its affiliate, the FNIC- CGT, which strengthens the struggle of workers until the withdrawal of this unacceptable draft law.

The government’s decision is to pass the law at all costs, serving the interests of the capital, shows that the working class, workers must have no illusions about the role of government, if it is a social-democratic government or a liberal government.

The only way for the working class is to strengthen the class-oriented trade unions, to be organized against the attacks of the capitalists.

The WFTU and its affiliated trade-unions in France will give all their strength to organise the working class of France against the “travail” law and any other attack against the workers.

The Secretariat

#France #Europe #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #WorldFederationOfTradeUnionsWFTU #strikes #WFTU

“On behalf of Freedom Road Socialist Organization I would like to express my sincere condolences and solidarity to the people of Paris and in particular to the family and friends of those killed in the Friday evenings attack by the so called Islamic State. I would also like to express my sincere condolences to the people of Beirut and the family and friends of those killed in Thursday’s market bombing, also carried out by the so called Islamic State.”

“The racists both within the mainstream media and on social media have taken the attacks in Paris as a license to run unrelenting attacks against Muslims, Arabs and refugees. Others have expressed less overtly racist and national chauvinist sentiments – that are also wrong. President Obama made himself a poor example. He made no statement on the bombing of the Beirut market the killed 49 and injured 239. In stark contrast, he termed the Paris attack to be “an attack on the civilized world.” I do not mean to diminish the pain that people in Paris are feeling right now, only point out that it is the same pain felt by people in Beirut, the bombed hospital in Kunduz Afghanistan and the wedding party in Yemen. “

“The events of 9/11 in New York City have been the justification for 14 years of war and counting. Without going into a complex analysis I think that it is fairly simple to draw the connection between the actions of U.S. Imperialism since that time and the events in Paris. It is easy to be jaded and feel like more war is the inevitable outcome of the events of Friday. We cannot sit by and allow that to be the case. We must oppose further war moves and not let this be a rationale for the expansion of U.S wars.”

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #MiddleEast #Europe #PeoplesStruggles #Lebanon #Syria #France #Antiracism #ParisAttacks #IslamicState

Tampa, FL – It is Cinco de Mayo, or May 5, but before you participate in “Cinco de Drink-o” and yell, “Happy Mexico Independence Day!” read this article.

In the late 1960s the Chicano movement started to commemorate the battle of Puebla and held annual events to mark that history. Over the years the Cinco de Mayo events spread to the point that they reached the ‘mainstream.’ Then U.S. beer companies started to sponsor the Cinco de Mayo events. Eventually Cinco de Mayo increasingly lost its political significance and became a marketing tool for alcohol and other products.

Looking back, it all started around 1862. Mexican President Benito Juárez, of indigenous, Oaxacan descent, declared Mexico would not pay any foreign debts for two years. France reacted by sending in troops to Mexico and demanding payment. What happened on May 5 was the Mexican victory in La Batalla de Puebla, or the Battle of Puebla. The battle was fought in the state of Puebla, Mexico and it was one of the few victories against the French. The poorly-equipped Mexican army defeated the powerful French army.

Just under 15 years earlier, in 1848, Mexico was invaded by another foreign power – the United States. After supporting pro-slavery American settlers who broke Texas away from Mexico, the U.S. took one-third of the land of Mexico, which is now the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and even parts of Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma.

Once-Mexican people would now become trapped in a land that would not acknowledge them as Americans and one that Mexico would shun as non-Mexican. This was in 1848 – the U.S. war and takeover of what is now called the U.S. Southwest would become the homeland of the Chicano nation.

In Mexico, the Battle of Puebla is still remembered and will forever remain a victory for the Mexican people. But Cinco de Mayo is not celebrated in Mexico the way it is commercially celebrated in the U.S. In the U.S., we see major companies and various types of businesses push for parties, drinking, new liquors and ‘Mexican’ memorabilia.

The fact is, Cinco de Mayo is not mentioned in the U.S. as a day when Mexicans fought and won against foreign domination and in particular against France, which is still sending its troops to other countries. Never is the day called “La Batalla de Puebla,” and much less is it ever linked to the Chicano Nation and how it came to exist.

Donning ‘sombreros’ and shaking maracas is just plain incorrect and should not be encouraged. As far as the Independence of Mexico goes, that day is the 16th of September. In 1810 when father Miguel Hidalgo gave the Grito de Dolores, a cry for independence from Spain. And while U.S. beer companies and Dos Equis will keep finding a new beer to market, we remind everyone Cinco de Mayo meant much more to the people than getting drunk. The fifth of May symbolized the day people united to fight back against colonization and against the pillaging of their people by a foreign occupier.

Marisol Marquez is a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Marquez organizes in Tampa with a group called Raices En Tampa. If you wish to contact her, you can message her on her twitter account: twitter.com/elmaryelsol

#TampaFL #Mexico #CincoDeMayo #history #antiimperialism #France #ChicanoMovement #MexicoIndependence #LaBatallaDePuebla #Americas

Describing General Giap as a “warrior of the twentieth century, architect of the future,” the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) stated, “Japan, France and the United States, three of the strongest powers in human history, fell successively, humiliated before his military and political genius.”

A statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said “Giap was the first military commander to defeat a Western colonial power in Asia, and his legacy is renowned not only by the Vietnamese people but by all peoples around the world and all movements for liberation from colonialism and imperialism.”

The Communist Party of the Philippines, summed up some of the lessons of Giap’s efforts, stating, “Comrade Giap led the Vietnamese People’s Army in the historic Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the center of French military power in Indochina. Here, the Vietnamese people demonstrated how they could defeat a more modern army through the use of guerrilla tactics. They marched in their thousands to build hidden trails, dug hundreds of kilometers of trenches, dismantled their cannons and artillery and manually pulled them up to high mountain ridges in order to quietly encircle the overly confident French troops. They launched a blitzkrieg attack against the French military base and after 55 days of fighting, forced the complete surrender of the French colonialists on May 7, 1954.”

The Communist Party of the Philippines also stated, “The lessons of the Vietnamese people’s war of resistance continue to illumine people’s wars around the world, including that being waged by the Filipino people through the New People’s Army. The military writings of Comrade Giap, especially in waging guerrilla warfare, have been translated into Pilipino and other local languages, enabling Filipino revolutionaries to study the lessons of the people’s war in Vietnam.”

#MinneapolisMN #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #Remembrances #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippines #RevolutionaryArmedForcesOfColombia #Vietnam #Japan #USImperialism #France #GeneralVoNguyenGiap

Iosbaker, who is helping to organize a campaign against U.S. drone warfare, stated “A U.S. drone base in Niger is a terrible development. President Obama says the base will provide intelligence to support Western intervention in the war in Mali. The base is part of U.S. and French plans for recolonizing Africa.”

The government of Niger, a former French colony, is dominated by U.S. and France.

In a Feb. 22 letter to congress, Obama stated, “This deployment will provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali and with other partners in the region. The total number of U.S. military personnel deployed to Niger is approximately 100.”

In January, 2013, France began a large scale military intervention in mineral-rich Mali, in an effort to defeat an anti-Western rebellion. The U.S., which had long been planning to use troops from western African counties for its own invasion of Mali, is currently providing military assistance to France.

#ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #JoeIosbaker #USImperialism #colonialism #drones #Mali #France #Niger

St. Paul, MN – With the wind chill at 15 degrees below zero, about 30 peace and justice activists gathered here, Jan. 23. Their slogan, “No U.S. Drones in Mali, No U.S. intervention in Mali” was the week’s theme of the Peace Vigil that happens every Wednesday on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge across the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

“U.S. and western intervention, including drone strikes, will not lead to peace In Mali,” said Sarah Martin of Women Against Military Madness.

Marie Braun, an activist with Women Against Military Madness and the Twin Cities Peace Campaign, explained the reason for the protest in her speech at the bridge: “We are focusing on Mali today because of our government’s decision to support the French military action in Mali by providing them with surveillance and other intelligence, transport troops and military equipment, and possibly aerial refueling and drones.”

Drones are a growing part of U.S. intervention around the world. The U.S. has carried out extensive drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, leading to many civilian deaths.

Braun went on to explain, “And again as usual, this intervention on the part of the French and the U.S. is about resources. North Africa and West Africa and its valuable resources are going to be the focus of the U.S. government for many years to come. U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM – set up in 2007 – has already turned Africa into a web of U.S. bases and other operations with approximately 5000 U.S. military and Department of Defense personnel working across the continent at any one time. It is important to also understand the situations in both Mali and Algeria are about blowback – at least in part, the consequences of the U.S. bombing and policy of regime change in Libya. Military attacks and military interventions always lead to terrible consequences…death, destruction, hundreds of thousands of refugees and extreme suffering on the part of the people. Military action was not the answer in Iraq or Afghanistan, and it is not the answer in Mali or any other country.”

The event was organized by Women Against Military Madness and the Twin Cities Peace Campaign. The Anti-War Committee, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, Occupy the Hood, Veterans for Peace and others co-sponsored the action.

#StPaulMN #AntiwarMovement #WomenAgainstMilitaryMadness #USImperialism #TwinCitiesAntiWarCommittee #Mali #France

Abdallah’s family and friends took part in the protest, as did delegations from Hezbollah and the Communist Party of Lebanon.

Abdallah, who was to be released on Jan. 14, has spent the last 28 years in French jails. Observers believe that U.S. pressure is responsible for his prolonged confinement.

In the course of the Beirut protest, a taped message from Abdallah was played in which he hailed the Lebanese resistance and all the resistance movements against Israel.

#Lebanon #Beirut #PoliticalPrisoner #PoliticalPrisoners #France #GeorgesIbrahimAbdallah

Comrade Emad Abu Rahma, member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, condemned France’s failure to release Lebanese fighter for Palestine Comrade Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. Abu Rahma said that the failure to release Abdallah on January 14 – and the postponement of the court’s order of parole until January 28, pending a deportation order from the interior ministry – reveals the hypocrisy of the French legal system, exposing its claims to be a cradle of respect for the law and judicial independence. Direct interference in judicial matters by the French government is clearly evident in cases relating to the Arab and Palestinian peoples; it is also clear the involvement and extent of U.S. intervention in French political decisions, noted Abu Rahma.

Abu Rahma said that Abdallah has maintained his convictions and commitment to the Arab cause and the Palestinian cause in particular, as represented by his struggle in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and has not hesitated to pay the price for his convictions for over 28 years in Frenh prisons; what is happening now, said Abu Rahma, is a battle of wills, as French authorities seek to break his will and force him to apologize for his convictions, which Abdallah has rejected entirely. He saluted Georges Abdallah with pride and appreciation, saying that he is a model for activists all over the world, and international pressure should be applied around the world to pressure the French government to release Abdallah.

Comrade Marwan Abdel Al, political bureau member of the PFLP and leader of its branch in Lebanon, also denounced the French postponement of Abdallah’s release, pointing out that this action shows the ugliness of discriminatory French justice.

Abdel Al said that despite the court decision that Abdallah would be freed and deported to Lebanon after 28 years in French prison, the refusal of the French interior minister to order deportation, thus preventing his release, confirms that his imprisonment is political, embarrassed the French judiciary, revealed the true face of France and demonstrated the role of America and its concern for freedom and democracy.

The US demanded that Abdallah’s parole, despite the court decision, not be granted.

Abdel Al said that the French authorities failed to pressure Abdallah to deny or denounce the Palestinian and Arab struggle. “His steadfastness makes clear that his values will remain his own, the same struggler who refused the concept of a truce with occupation in the 1970s. His struggle has taught us that no matter how the enemy restricts one’s freedom, steadfastness and confrontation will always be victorious.”

Abdel Al said that George Ibrahim Abdallah’s revolutionary beginnings came from the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and aimed specifically at fighting for the victory of the Palestinian cause. “He was always resisting, focused on this idea, and he was a sharp and provocative intellectual and debater….his arrest became a political issue and a trial of the entire history of struggle against the occupation.”

Abdel Al said that many French intellectuals are also convinced of the fact the French judiciary is discriminatory, and continues to adhere to the ideas and framework of colonialism, adding that Arab governments’ relationships with the judiciary represent similar frameworks, having been built on the same composition and retaining their connection to former colonial powers. Abdel Al noted that control of the region is today maintained through proxy governments.

Commenting on what legal actions Georges Ibrahim Abdallah may take after his release, Abdel Al said that “Achieving his freedom first is the greatest achievement, it will mean that he has broken the false and counterfeit claims against him and stopped the bullies of the United States. Abdallah is a freedom fighter committed to his principles and will continue to struggle because resistance is part of his environment, and it is a collective responsibility to raising demands for compensation to the French authorities.”

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #France #GeorgesIbrahimAbdallah #MiddleEast

The Belgian government has decided to participate in the military intervention of France in Mali, contributing two C-130 transport planes, two helicopters and 75 soldiers. The Western military force is avowedly aimed at stopping the advance of Islamist rebel groups in the North of the country, at the demand of Mali's government and with the support, provided only after the start of the intervention, of the UN Security Council.

With the military intervention of France, French President François Hollande plays 'cavalier seul'. By his act of war, he undermines a peace initiative the UN elaborated with several African countries. The fact that Mali has recently become a hornets' nest is largely due to the consequences of the NATO war in Lybia and of decades of Western political meddling in the country's affairs. In Mali's complex situation, the only chance for peace, stability and development to succeed is by extremely cautious initiatives that have a large base of support and are principally African.

France's intervention is of course not devoid of self-interest. As the former colonial power, France continues to have huge economic interests in the region. Mali possesses gold mines and petroleum, while also uranium is extracted in the region, which is used for part of the French nuclear industry.

Just like with the deadly NATO bombing on Lybia two years ago, Belgium has been very quick to offer its participation to the French military intervention. And this without any democratic debate about its objectives, consequences or cost. In a period of painful austerity measures and cuts in the social budgets, any increase in the Defense budget is simply cynical.

The Belgian government is not clear about the duration of its military intervention in Mali. Defense Minister Pieter De Crem only informed the Belgian taxpayers that it could be of a « very short, short, or medium » duration. As a first evaluation will be made only at the end of February, the mission will take at least six weeks. That is, as a starter, because this period may be prolonged several times yet, as was the case with the Belgian military mission in Afghanistan. In the meantime, for how many deads, wounded and refugees in Mali the Belgian government of Di Rupo (PS) will be responsible ?

The Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB) is opposed to any imperialist intervention in Mali, as elsewhere.

#Mali #AntiwarMovement #Belgium #WorkersPartyOfBelgium #antiimperialism #France #FrancoisHollande #Africa

The World Federation of Trade Unions strongly denounces the military intervention of the French “socialist” government of Francois Hollande in Mali with the support of other imperialist forces, using as pretext the intensification of the conflicts between the Malian army and the militant organizations that are appearing to be fighting for the independence of Northern Mali in Azawad.

The military intervention was presented as a response to the request of the Malian President, Dioncounda Traore; the President who was appointed in his position after the military coup of last March.

This French-led military operation in its former colony has been joint by Britain, Germany and the European Union, as well as USA, Canada and ECOWAS, all of whom have already been sending troops and airforce to Mali and have been providing their support according to the December resolution of the United Nations Security Council.

After the genocide in Rwanda and the demolition of Libya, France continues to use the military bases it maintains in Africa in order to strengthen its role in the inter-imperialist competition and to serve the interests of its monopoly groups who are plundering the wealth-producing resources (gold, uranium etc.).

This orchestrated conflict between all the belligerents is another bloody show in the wounded African Continent, with the African people paying a heavy toll, aiming for the protection of the French interests in the uranium mines found in Tuareg areas of the West-African Region, the inter-imperialist competition for the control of the wealth-producing resources of Mali and the placement of puppet-governments in the African countries serving the leading imperialist forces.

The World Federation of Trade Unions in solidarity with the working people and the poor people of Mali and the West-African countries is strongly denouncing the intensifying aggressiveness of the imperialist forces in the region that are further deteriorating the already difficult living conditions of the people in the region and are aiming for the maintaining and enhancing of the plundering of the wealth-producing resources which belong and should be used for the people’s needs.

Finally we call upon the trade union federations, first and foremost, of the belligerent countries to denounce and act against the participation of their governments to this warfare. The position of each trade union on the issue of imperialist wars is crucial and constitutes a criterion of what type of trade union organization it is. The workers of the imperialist countries must express their international solidarity with their brothers in other countries.

THE SECRETARIAT

#Mali #AntiwarMovement #WorldFederationOfTradeUnions #antiimperialism #France #FrancoisHollande #Africa