PARIS, December 31 — Official statistics show a staggering 5,242,000 unemployed or underemployed in France, or 18.5 percent of the working population (in a population one-sixth of the U.S.): 3,132,600 jobless, 1,484,600 part-timers who can’t find full-time jobs and another 624,500 kept busy in training programs and government-funded make-work programs. These “official” figures exclude those who’ve given up looking for non-existent jobs altogether!
Older workers are among the hardest hit. Raising the retirement age has meant a 16% year-on-year increase in unemployment among workers over 50.
Racism Spawns Joblessness
Like all capitalist societies, France enforces racism. Here the targets are Arab and black immigrants from Africa, and their French-born descendants. In 2005, the Natixis bank refused to promote a black employee because of his skin color. Seven years later, the courts have just ordered Natixis to pay him 47,700 euros in compensation.
This extremely rare case involves an executive. One can imagine the chances of an ordinary worker obtaining redress for racist discrimination. Consequently, it isn’t surprising that the official statistical bureau, INSEE, indicated in October that the unemployment rate among African immigrants and their French-born children is three times the national average.
In a new blame-the-victim argument, Louis Maurin, founder of the supposedly-neutral Observatoire des Institute, tried to explain this away by saying certain immigrant populations have no social network that can steer them to a job.
In reality, capitalism needs racist unemployment. It acts as a brake on the wages of all workers, thus generating additional profits for the bosses. Indeed, a 2010 INSEE study shows that during the world financial and economic crisis worker income in France has practically stagnated, essentially due to unemployment.
Super-Exploitation of Immigrant Workers
Another source of super-profits is the 35,000 immigrant workers from European Union countries like Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain. A 2006 EU directive allows French bosses who hire them through temp agencies in their native countries to provide those countries’ much cheaper legally-mandated benefits package.
In theory, French bosses still have to pay them France’s minimum wage, 1,400 euros a month. In reality, there are only 31 gendarmes to enforce the law in all of France. Unions have discovered cases of workers paid only 600 euros (US$774) a month for working 6- and 7-day weeks.
The 2010 INSEE study also reports that since 2007 a growing number of jobs are limited to a few hours a week. Young people under 25 are especially forced to take these jobs. Consequently, they only work 43% of the number of hours worked by everyone else. They remain economically dependent on their parents, increasing the stress on working-class households. And since retirement pensions are pegged to hours worked, they will only qualify for a marked-down pension.
But the Socialist government has already announced it will reduce future pensions for the 40,000 private-sector teachers by an average of 100 euros (US$130) a month. This is a first step to cutting future pensions for the 712,000 public-sector teachers and eventually for all workers.
All this has workers justifiably angry, so the Socialist government is pretending to act. Recently it’s created jobs for the future aimed at young people who are virtually totally unskilled, and promises another 100,000 jobs by the end of 2013. Even if true, it won’t change much when over five million people are looking for a job.
Even worse is establishment of a special work contract for young people, entailing less job security, lower wages, lower benefits and so on. The resulting super-exploitation of young workers adds to the brake on wages for all workers.
Now consider all the groups French bosses single out for special treatment: older workers, black and Arab workers, workers from other EU countries, private-sector workers, public-sector workers and younger workers. There’s a pattern: an attack on one group always produces super-profits from that group and also ratchets down wages, benefits and conditions for everyone.
What do all those groups have in common? They’re all workers. That’s one of the main messages communists advance: We’re united by a common class interest in destroying this capitalist system that creates unemployment and all kinds of racist discrimination. Making that unity a reality is a big step towards a communist revolution and a communist society where we all can work and share the fruits of our labor.