PARIS, September 27 — Today, over 350,000 teachers struck and 165,000 demonstrated across France to fight mass layoffs, overcrowded classes and potential increases in working hours. Today’s actions were notable because public and parochial school teachers were acting together for the first time. Historically, the two groups have been opposed. (Eighty percent of pupils attend public schools and 20% go to private schools, 95% of which are Catholic.)

The force driving this unity, at least temporarily, is the government policy of replacing only one of every two retiring teachers. Education Minister Luc Chatel confirmed a government cut of 14,000 teaching jobs next year, following the 80,000 jobs already axed since 2007.

Over half the 322,000 public primary school teachers and almost half the 394,000 public secondary school teachers struck. The walkout was “strong” in the Catholic schools in western France, the bastion of parochial education. Nearly one-third of the private school teachers struck, entirely closing down some schools, “an unheard-of event.”

Today, 165,000 teachers demonstrated, some 45,000 marching here in the capital. But Guillaume, a high school math teacher, declared, “I don’t have any illusions. This is a big demonstration, and that is good for morale, but the balance of forces isn’t in our favor yet.”

But the major weakness of the teachers’ movement is its aim, to patch up the school system while leaving capitalism untouched, continually building up what the profit system tears down. How much better to build a movement to destroy capitalism and create a system truly serving the working class!

“It’s intolerable for primary classes to be overcrowded,” said high school teacher Philippe Hivernet, who teaches in Paris’s eastern suburbs. “The educational system is being destroyed and struggling pupils are the main ones to suffer.”

“Primary school classes with 32 or 33 pupils make good working conditions impossible. Education is being dehumanized,” said primary school teacher Giselle Skriabil.

In France there are 6.1 teachers per 100 students, compared to many other European countries with eight or more per 100.

“The problem is that education is not a service. We are supposed to be profitable, whereas you can’t put a figure on children’s education,” said retired primary school teacher Annie Gérard.

Polls show esteem for the nation’s school system plummeting due to government policies. Teachers felt encouraged to strike and demonstrate because they knew they’d get popular backing.

Moreover, all of the opposition parties, from the center to the “left” to the ecologists, have been using the ailing school system as a pre-campaign theme, diverting workers towards the run-up to next  year’s presidential elections.

But it would be a serious mistake to believe these politicians’ sugar-coated phrases. All are dedicated to maintaining and protecting capitalism. As Lenin wrote, “People have always been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learned to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises.”

Rank-and-file pressure forced all union leaders to back the protests. But Hugo, a 26-year-old student, warned, “We mustn’t limit ourselves to a one-day strike. For retirement pensions, we blocked the refineries and that put on the pressure….We shouldn’t wait for the trade unions to take the initiative, everybody should mobilize in every economic sector.”

“Protesting is good, but fighting back is a whole lot better,” said Alain Bonhomme, the father of a high school student.

Other teacher grievances include, an increase in the number of different jobs teachers are supposed to perform; the lack of recognition; closure of kindergarten to children under two; the impossibility of helping the pupils who face the most difficulties; and the savaging of teacher training. In addition, the system fosters racism (see box on left). 

It’s also becoming difficult to recruit teachers. Last year, 1,000 teaching jobs remained unfilled because not enough candidates passed the competitive exam. Some universities are closing their teacher-training courses due to a lack of demand.

The French government, however, is considering increasing class hours. Right-wing think-tanks are pushing a doubling of working and class hours.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy attempted to split the working class by pitting factory workers against the teachers. “My duty as head of state is to think first of the factory workers, white collar workers and executives who are facing international competition and who need the support of the government, rather than to think of those who do a hard job but whose status as civil servants protects them [against unemployment],” Sarkozy said today.

But when private sector workers strike for higher wages, the government is quick to point out that private sector wages are generally higher than in the public sector. The majority of workers here see through the bosses’ effort to divide and rule. Private and public sector workers usually support one another’s struggles.

Sarkozy’s words betrayed the rulers’ real fear. Workers and teachers, united and led by a communist party could overthrow the capitalists and their government and create an educational system that prepares all children to make a useful contribution to a communist society. Then, the watchword will be: “To each according to need, from each according to commitment.”J

HAM, FRANCE, September 21 — At 2:00 a.m. on September 17, the four Constellium executives held by angry metalworkers escaped from the plant. The workers are fighting mass layoffs and eventual closing of the facility (see CHALLENGE, 9/5).

 A high-ranking gendarme came to the factory gate and talked to the workers to divert their attention. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the plant, a team of gendarmes cut through the metal fencing and helped the bosses escape by squeezing through the hole in the fence and racing down the railroad tracks in the middle of the night.

The local union leader said the workers are “nauseated by management’s attitude.” He added that “There was no dialogue. We didn’t obtain any concrete improvement.”

On the evening of September 16, a representative of the central government attempted to obtain the liberation of the bosses in exchange for the promise of negotiations, to be held three days later at a hotel 20 miles away. The workers rejected the offer as a stalling maneuver.

“Now we know that we would never have seen them at that…meeting,” the union leader commented. Today, the workers voted against a company offer of a 15,000-euro bonus (US $21,000) for each laid-off worker.

The workers want a commitment to keep the factory open. The plant makes aluminum structures and windows. Constellium plans to lay off 127 of the 207 permanent workers. Forty temporary workers will also lose their jobs. The subcontractors that do work for the Ham plant are expected to lay off 170 of their workers.

The workers’ courageous and militant action to defend their jobs merits praise. But they need to set their sights higher. Instead of accepting the continued rule of their heartless bosses, they should organize for the long-term goal of communist revolution.J

In actions that inspired the world’s working class, millions of Egyptian workers and students filled the streets of Cairo and other major cities in January demanding the head of Hosni Mubarak, the dictator who ruled Egypt since 1981. Workers’ strikes in key industries, such as oil, textile, transport and on the Suez Canal were crucial in persuading the military to abandon Mubarak, forcing him out.

Sadly, nine months later the workers’ and students’ hopes have been dashed. The absence of communist ideas and leadership and the consequent reliance on the dead-end capitalist notion of reform as the key to ending workers’ oppression doomed the movement from the beginning. Consider:

• One of the most widespread demands was raising the minimum wage, which has remained at $6.30 A MONTH since 1984. In the last ten years, national output (GDP) per person has doubled from $250 a month to $500, but the increased income has all gone to those in the top 10%. The new military government has steadfastly refused to raise the minimum wage. Nor has it raised pensions: in its last year, the Mubarak government raised the minimum pension (what most retirees get) from $9 a month to $24.

• Another key demand was the right to organize independent unions, student groups and political associations. The military government did allow the formation of new political parties if focused only on the upcoming elections. But meanwhile, it has viciously repressed protests. Rather than abolishing the hated military tribunals and the fascist “emergency law” (in place since 1981), the military government has used them more than ever. About 12,000 civilian protestors have been brought before military tribunals, with over 99.9% given long prison sentences — ten times the pace under Mubarak. Workers protesting unsafe working conditions and low wages have been especially singled out for attack.

• The January protests demanded a government more accountable to the people. The great “accomplishment” of that Papyrus Revolution (as it was called) replaced an 82-year-old Air Force general (Mubarak) with a 78-year-old Army general (Mohamed Hussein Tantawi), the head of the new military government!  And these honchos have carefully designed election rules to ensure that the same old elite is re-elected to Parliament. Dissolution of the old ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), mattered little. In the old system the local bosses in each city and town would buy their election, often as “independents” who, after winning, simply rejoined the NDP. The new system will produce the same result; in fact, probably most of the old Parliament members will remain.

Workers and students have lost because they relied on capitalist “democracy.” For months under the new government, they poured into the streets in the hundreds of thousands. But the military government out-waited them.

By contrast, the fascist Muslim Brotherhood is advancing from victory to victory. The military government has been making lots of changes reflecting the Brotherhood’s agenda, allowing it partial power in exchange for Brotherhood cooperation in crushing the workers’ and students’ movement. This deal was on full display in July and August, when Brotherhood-linked thugs — the “Salafist” religious fundamentalists — and the military attacked protestors on alternate days.

Most Egyptians reject the Brotherhood’s religious extremism. The military government has been forced to use the Salafist thugs for its dirty work, especially the racist campaign against the Copts, the 10% of Egyptians who are Christian. They have traditionally suffered tremendous racist discrimination.

The ruling classes everywhere use racism to secure political and economic control. But Egyptians who turn out in the streets have repeatedly demanded more jobs, higher wages and better public services, not religious extremism. Only communist leadership can move these militant reform demands into revolution.

Egypt’s experience shows how much a communist party matters. Just think of the difference if Egyptian workers had a revolutionary communist party which could organize millions of workers to target the heart of Egypt’s ruling class (instead of concentrating on Tahrir Square). That party could have turned this part of the Arab Spring into a glimpse of a worker-led communist society.

PHILADELPHIA, September 15 — “Racism? You’ll never stop it, never!” declared a retired hospital worker, echoing a pessimism many workers feel. But the promise of communist revolution is that the overthrow of capitalism removes the reasons racism exists. The lower wages paid to black, Latino, and immigrant workers generate billions in extra profits that the bosses can’t do without. Racism also allows the bosses to divide the working class. Communist revolution against the class- and profit-driven system of capitalism is the first step in building the world without racism that most of us want.

At a meeting between the nursing bosses and the nurses, a black nurse with long years of service at a large teaching hospital spoke up against laying off the nursing assistants. Shortly afterwards, she was fired. Hospital workers were shocked and outraged.

The fight against the firing of this veteran black nurse shows how we can’t back down from fighting racism and that the bosses will increasingly use fascist terror. As in other cities, the bosses at this hospital are increasing their attacks on patient care and the hospital workers. On at least one hospital floor, the bosses terminated all the nursing assistants.

PLP members have a long history at this hospital and immediately organized against the firing. We described the firing as racist and an example of fascist terror to scare the workers, especially nurses. We tied this racist firing to the recent police murder of the son of another black co-worker and described both as examples of fascism on and off the job.

Some workers, however, thought we shouldn’t mention that the nurse is black or that the firing is racist. This opinion was expressed by both black and white, mainly nurses. Their main concern was that mentioning that the nurse is black and bringing up racism might alienate the doctors who also wanted to fight the firing. Working-class union members, on the other hand, saw the firing as clearly racist and agreed with our response. And interestingly, the nurses who disagreed with us about the firing being racist nonetheless participated in the actions we called for.

When our organizing became evident, the bosses tried to defend the firing by claiming that there was more involved than we knew, which supposedly justified the firing. Most workers thought this was a lie. So-called “friendly” nursing bosses repeated this claim but never offered any evidence. Yet even this pathetic defense illustrates a bigger truth.

It’s the bosses who kill and hurt more patients, who cut healthcare funds, benefits and staffing and who close hospitals. Of course they won’t be fired. Under capitalism, the rich bosses hold state power and run the government. Only communist revolution can give these real criminals the “pink slip.”

A week ago, the fired nurse was re-hired. But now the bosses are going after the workers whom they think led the fight for the fired nurse’s job. Today, the bosses alleged that narcotics were “diverted” by another nurse, Wesley, who was ordered to have a Breathalyzer and urine test and leave the hospital. The results of the urine test were negative.

Wesley did not “divert narcotics.” Wesley does have a long history of building multi-racial unity to fight for better conditions for patients and workers. Wesley did support organizing against the racist cop killing of the son of another hospital worker. Wesley did help organize the fight to reinstate the fired black nurse.

The hospital workers know Wesley well and did not waiting for the test results. The day after Wesley was ordered off the premises, a leaflet appeared all over the hospital calling on workers to demand that Wesley be brought back to work immediately. Workers are calling Wesley to offer their support.

Although the nurses are not unionized, Wesley has strong ties with Local 1199 union members. The leaflet urges them to call on the union and organize members to defend Wesley. The nurses who worked in the unionization drive with Wesley are urged to demand that the nursing union also support him.

As long as the bosses hold state power and remain in control, they will overturn any victories we might win. In 2012, the hospital bosses want union give-backs in benefits and pension that will hurt this 1199 local, which that is primarily black. These cuts will be as deadly as mass lynchings.

This experience shows that the bosses will fight us tooth and nail when we fight to protect a worker’s job or protest against a racist police killing. Let’s get off this capitalist merry-go-round and instead organize all our fights, big and small, with the goal of overthrowing capitalism once and for all. Capitalist racism and fascist terror can end — but only with communism. Join PLP.