PARIS, November 6 — A new wave of layoffs has hit France, where official unemployment is 5,473,000 (19.3 percent). Some are due to companies going under in the continuing Great Recession, while others come at profitable companies that want to boost their profits even more. It all underscores the anarchy of capitalism, where capitalists produce goods and services to make a profit — not to satisfy the needs of the working class — while millions suffer from joblessness and privation.
Five Companies Announce Layoffs
Fagor-Brandt, Europe’s fifth-largest housing appliances manufacturer, went bankrupt, dumping 5,700 workers worldwide, (1,800 in France, 2,000 in Spain). French union leaders pleaded for a French government bailout of the French part of the company, while throwing Spain’s workers into the streets.
The union misleaders follow a nationalist road hoping to win crumbs from “your own government.” This is why communists build international unity to fight the bosses and their governments.
Crédit Immobilier de France (CIF), a small bank specializing in home loans is winding down the company, laying off 1,500 while 700 will continue to manage the bank’s outstanding loans. CIF could have continued making home loans to workers, but the French Finance Ministry intends to grab at least part of its 2.4 billion euros in capital (US$3.2 billion) to help the cash-strapped French government pay off its sovereign debt to the world’s finance capitalists. Under capitalism, homes for workers are less important than cash for financiers.
The Alstom corporation announced at least 1,300 layoffs, mainly in Europe. The corporation is expected to make a net profit of 361 million euros (US$487 million) this year.
Telecoms operator Alcatel Lucent announced 10,000 layoffs worldwide, including 881 in France in 2014. More than 900 other jobs in France will be impacted by internal re-organization and the closure of some sites. On October 15, Alcatel Lucent workers demonstrated in Paris, Rennes and Toulouse to protest the planned layoffs. In 2012, the corporation lost 1.3 billion euros net (US$1.75 billion).
The Kering corporation plans 700 layoffs, 21 percent of the 3,300 workers at its mail order subsidiary, La Redoute, in northern France, in a region already hard-hit by the economic crisis. Kering plans to sell La Redoute, as the down-sizing makes it a more attractive purchase. About 6,000 jobs are linked directly or indirectly to Le Redoute.
In the first half of 2013 Kering’s profits rose 582 million euros (US$785 million). CEO François-Henri Pinault’s salary in 2011 was 3,000,000 euros (US$4,000,000). His father’s fortune totals 8.1 billion euros (US$10.9 billion).
Socialist Government’s Capitalist Response to Unemployment
The “lesser evil” Socialist government has three “answers” to rising unemployment: (1) bribe companies into not laying off workers; (2) “disappear” unemployed workers from the statistics; and (3) allow French capitalists to super-exploit workers from other countries under slave-labor conditions. Of course, none of this will solve the problem. As Karl Marx analyzed in “Capital” long ago, capitalism’s boom-bust cycle inevitably produces periods of mass unemployment. He demonstrated that even in the boom times capitalism produces the exact amount of unemployment needed to optimize profits.
Disappearing the Unemployed
Meanwhile, the government will be robbing the jobless of unemployment benefits with its “harmonization” of the rules, which includes a detailed list of the documentary evidence a worker must provide to justify missing an appointment or be struck off the rolls. Every month, around 41,000 workers are struck down, 90 percent for missing an appointment.
Super-Exploiting Immigrant Workers
Under European Union regulations, French bosses can pay social security to an immigrant worker’s home country (within the EU) at the local rate, which is one-sixth of the French rate. In 2011, French bosses imported an estimated 300,000 immigrant workers from Eastern Europe, mainly employed in the building trades, agriculture and transport. These workers are mercilessly exploited by the bosses, some becoming virtual slaves. The bosses withhold a large part of their wages for transport and housing costs, force them to work up to 60 hours a week without paying overtime, provide substandard housing and confiscate their passports.
This cheap, or even slave, labor divides the working class. Unemployed workers are told that “cheap foreign workers are stealing our jobs.” This partly explains the election success of the fascist National Front (see CHALLENGE, 11/13). It also drives down wages and benefits for all workers. In addition, the bosses make super-profits on the immigrant workers. The workers’ trump card is anti-racist international solidarity and their ability to stop production (see box).
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International Unity Wins Immigrant Workers’ Strike
Thirty-five undocumented, mainly Egyptian workers shut down the AF-Interlog plant, with the active assistance of the other, documented workers. AF-Interlog is a subsidiary of an Italian company, which is itself the subsidiary of an Australian corporation. The workers are immigrants from Italy. AF-Interlog repairs pallets for Coca-Cola and the retail giant Carrefour.
The company ordered the workers not to talk to the trade union steward who helps undocumented workers obtain papers. When they disobeyed, the company told the workers they had to produce papers or they would be sent back to Italy, where they knew they would be laid off.
When the workers struck, the bosses immediately contacted the prefecture (the local representative of the central government), who also sent the workers a letter demanding papers.
The workers held out, forcing the company to fill out paperwork retroactively, and forcing the prefecture to allow the workers to file for documents allowing them to live and work in France.
This inspiring success reveals the power of international unity and organized, combined action. And it points the way to the ultimate struggle: overthrowing both the bosses and their governments through communist revolution, in order to create a society where we all work collectively (without unemployment) to produce what our class needs.