Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Macron’s pension ‘reforms’ come from the pockets of those who can least afford to pay
The president may have succeeded in doing something no French leader has done before — uniting all workers against his policies. DENNIS BROE explains why the protests are mounting

“REFORM” is a word with a varied history. At the beginning of the last century there were many battles among progressives over whether capitalism as a system could be reformed or whether it needed to be abolished. 

Some time in the ’80s with the rise of neoliberalism, with its idea that markets can fix and resolve all social problems and create unlimited abundance, reform began to take on another meaning. 

In corporate capital’s unceasing attack on workers, reform became the code word for a series of changes that supposedly needed to be made in order to guarantee the survival of workers’ benefits which the neoliberal states were continually eroding, the money from which was then ending up in the pockets of corporate board members. See Donald Trump’s recent attack on food stamps, just in time for Christmas.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
LONGSTANDING MILITARY TIES: (L) Leo Woodall as ‘sexy mathe
Decoding network TV / 24 March 2025
24 March 2025
DENNIS BROE points out that Apple is part of the corporate and state surveillance network which the new series Prime Target rails against
BARE-KNUCKLE: Stephen Graham and Malachi Kirby in A Thousand
TV Series review / 4 March 2025
4 March 2025
DENNIS BROE appreciates the work of TV writer Steven Knight, and his systematic exposure of the debilitating effects of British capitalism
(L) Toby Jones as Alan Bates in Mr Bates Vs The Post Office;
Best of 2024 / 10 December 2024
10 December 2024
DENNIS BROE picks his highlights
DEFEATED: Kamala Harris holds up a phone as she phone banks
Features / 7 November 2024
7 November 2024
In sordid tactics that ended up backfiring, Kamala Harris’s ‘nomination’ was the least democratic in history, while the party actively suppressed dissident voices online and its lawyers suppressed third-party candidates from the ballot box, says DENNIS BROE
Similar stories
shifty
TV Network Monitor / 19 June 2025
19 June 2025

This plundering of the archive tells us little about reality, and more about the class bias of the BBC, muses DENNIS BROE

Amanda Seyfried and Rivera Reese in Long Bright River (2025)
TV Network Monitor / 22 April 2025
22 April 2025

DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid

MISLEADING: Owen Cooper and Stephen Graham in Adolescence
Decoding Network TV / 4 April 2025
4 April 2025
DENNIS BROE doubts the virtue of showing this series in schools, given its damaging portrayal of working-class boys as irredeemably violent
BY POPULAR DEMAND: Michel Barnier leaves
Features / 6 December 2024
6 December 2024
As heavy industry flees and public-sector strikes paralyse the nation, the French leader’s increasingly desperate attempts to rule without a majority reveal the deep crisis at the heart of European liberal democracy, writes KEVIN OVENDEN