French workers keep fighting anti-worker policies

This video says about itself:

23 May 2016

Several hundred activists from France’s CGT labour union blocked an oil refinery at Fos-sur-Mer Monday, the latest in a months-long campaign of protests against government labour reforms.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

France: More refineries called out after police picket violence

Wednesday 25th May 2015

FRANCE’S militant CGT union federation reacted to police violence against striking trade unionists yesterday by spreading strike action to all eight of the country’s oil refineries.

Police used water cannon yesterday to disperse pickets blocking the key fuel depot of Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, after they had attacked under cover of darkness to force a way for fuel lorries.

“Socialist” Prime Minister Manuel Valls was gung-ho in support of police action to smash the resistance to the government’s anti-democratic decree to weaken workers’ rights and make it easier for employers to sack people.

“Other sites will be liberated. I’m very determined,” he declared.

“That’s enough. It’s unbearable to see this sort of thing,” Mr Valls told French radio.

“The CGT will come up against an extremely firm response from the government. We’ll carry on clearing sites blocked by this organisation.”

The strike has gradually spread across France’s fuel infrastructure, hitting oil refineries, fuel depots and petrol stations across the country.

The government says that one in five petrol stations are affected, but motorists have uploaded details of many more that are running short.

Unions plan to hold further strikes on the SNCF rail system and the Paris Metro and buses later this week as the two-month protest movement against President Francois Hollande’s anti-worker offensive continues.

The president denounced the blockades yesterday as a “strategy supported by a minority.”

The government provoked union outrage earlier this month when it resorted to a constitutional device to force its anti-union agenda through parliament without a vote.

MAMMOTH strikes in France have spread to the oil industry, leading to petrol shortages nationwide and adding to the government’s woes. The El Khomri law — named after Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri — is billed in the British media as an attempt to revitalise the French economy. As usual the reality is different: here.

Police assaults wounded a number of strikers, according to CGT sources, who denounced “virtual war scenes, with volleys of rubber bullets being fired to clear the blockade”: here.

Workers speak on police crackdown against oil protest in France: here.

International finance capital and the strikes in France: here.