TODAY the French people will celebrate the inability of the state and its increasingly unstable governments to hold back their anger and opposition to yet more pro-Big Business, anti-worker impositions.

The powerful unity between the unions and the widespread community initiative Bloquons Tout (Let’s Block Everything) put well over 1,000,000 on the streets on September 18 to support the general strike, and this has struck panic in corridors of very shaky power.  

All President Emmanuel Macron et al can do is infuriate the people further, with pretend Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin blustering: “Security is indeed my absolute priority. To this end, I am firmly restoring order to the functioning of our justice system and our prisons.”

The determination to mobilise even greater numbers on strike and on the demonstration was inevitable when the latest of the procession of faceless neoliberal prime ministers — appointed by the hapless Macron — refused to even acknowledge the arguments of the united trade union delegation.

As a journalist from the Communist newspaper L’Humanite said when asked about how they had responded to PM Lecornu (The Horned One) “Well, they arrived together, left together and called a general strike together!”

The strike and demonstrations were immediately endorsed by the Communist Party, by France Unbowed (La France Insoumise), by the Greens, and also by the Socialist Party from where they were sitting uncomfortably on the fence.

Sophie Binet, the much-respected leader of the CGT union federation, spelt out the immediate demands of the unions. These are: the immediate burial of ex-PM Francois “Bye-Bye” Bayrou’s austerity cuts budget; the abandonment of unemployment law “reform”; the scrapping of attacks on pensions; and properly taxing the rich.

Meanwhile Eric Clotti of the right-wing Republicans, trying hard to cut a deal with Marine Le Pen’s fascist-led National Rally, together denounced union and community calls for the taxation of the richest, warning that it was part of “a far-left ideology that would drive wealthy taxpayers and investors out of France.” So much for their fake patriotism!

Of course, the massive issues of wealth and power, of socialism or barbarism will not be resolved without Macron recognising the vote of the people in the general election that was won by the New Popular Front just a short time ago. But that denial of democracy is currently being reflected and repeated every day.