France: Joblessness Tops 17%, Union ‘Leaders’ Help Bosses Shift Crisis onto Workers

PARIS, December 29 — Unemployment in November hit new record levels in France, and the bosses’ government and the union misleaders agree: shift the burden of the crisis onto the backs of the working class by putting workers on short time, cutting their income, in order to help maintain the bosses’ profits.

Pôle emploi, the unemployment office, reports an “official” jobless rate of 10.1% — 2,844,800 jobless in an active population of 28,269,000 — a level of unemployment unseen in the past 12 years. However, the real rate rose to 17.1%.

The 1,400,000 persons working part-time but actively seeking full-time work raises the rate to 15.0%. An additional 589,600 workers on the unemployment rolls were sick, in job training or had a government-subsidized job so were not counted in the “official” rate because they were not obliged to actively look for work. This ups the real unemployment rate to 17.1%.

All this hits black and Arab immigrant workers from sub-Saharan and North Africa, and their children, particularly hard (see box). Because of racist discrimination, they are already at the lower end of the jobs and income level and now are being driven deeper into poverty.

On December 27, the Minister for Labor said that a January 18 summit on jobs “will make it possible … to put forward quick-action solutions to limit the effects of the economic crisis as much as possible.” He notably favored making it easier for companies to put workers on short time. French President Nicolas Sarkozy will preside over the labor-management summit.

On December 27, France’s largest trade union confederation, the CGT, said it will propose to the summit “the elimination of untaxed overtime hours; reinforced checks on financial aid granted to companies, with a firm commitment to maintaining jobs; and the establishment of a mechanism to avoid layoffs by working short time.”

Thus, the CGT is trying to help the capitalists manage the recession and shift the crisis onto the workers. It’s trying to patch up the rotten capitalist system instead of pointing workers towards revolutionary change.

The CGT is also calling for nation-wide demonstrations on January 18, demanding more jobs, more purchasing power for all, and a united struggle against the government’s austerity policies. Although these reformist demands may sound positive, the demonstrations (as in the past) will probably prove to be little more than an opportunity for workers to blow off steam, especially since the CGT has carefully avoided calling for strikes to back up the demands.

France’s second-largest union confederation, the CFDT (more conservative than the CGT) will advance four points at the summit: (1) working short time to avoid layoffs; (2) more access to unemployment benefits for temporary workers; (3) state action to maintain jobs for youth; and (4) hiring 2,000 more workers at the unemployment agency, Pôle emploi, to deal with the expected increase in unemployment!

The CFDT is not even organizing workers to demonstrate behind these demands, much less go on strike. In other words, it’s begging the bosses to make a symbolic gesture, a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Capitalism is based on the bosses netting maximum profits, making it impossible for the bosses to show pity, even if they wanted to.

This summit will amount to nothing more than a showy photo-op for the government in the run-up to the April 22 presidential elections. Workers are wasting their time if they look to the bosses, the government or the union leaders for solutions. The initiative for action will have to come from the rank and file.

The upshot is that the government and the union leaders are working together to persuade the bosses to put workers on short time instead of laying them off. They’re aiming to avoid the kind of social unrest resulting from mass unemployment. But this is no solution, even in terms of capitalism.

The government will receive less revenue from income and corporate taxes. Already, it’s increasing taxes on natural gas, food and home improvements. Lower incomes and higher taxes will force workers to reduce their expenses even more, plunging France deeper into an economic depression.

Ultimately, the bosses and their government can only look to imperialist adventures to exit the crisis. French participation in the wars in Libya and Afghanistan is no accident — the French ruling class is honing the war readiness of the French army.

The capitalist system has plunged this country into a vicious circle in which austerity begets economic stagnation and unemployment, which in turn lead to more draconian austerity measures. For the working class here — as for workers worldwide — the only solution is to smash capitalist exploitation through communist revolution.

Racist Unemployment Hits Black and Arab Workers

According to an Oct. 19, 2010 government report entitled “Trajectoire et Origines,” all else being equal, the unemployment rate among immigrants from Sub-Saharan (mostly black) and North Africa (mostly Arab) is over twice that of people born to French parents. The unemployment rate among children of black or Arab immigrants is 1.8 to 2 times higher.

The report revealed that almost 25% of black immigrants and 19% of Algerian immigrants had been unjustly turned down for a job within the previous five years, as had 12% of the children of black or North African immigrants.

This racist discrimination means immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa and Algeria earn 12%-13% less than people born to French parents.

The study showed that there was no significant difference in unemployment or income levels between European immigrants and people born to French parents.