Twice repetitive After September 10: more than 1000 people once again gathered on the station’s forecourt at the call of the railway workers to discuss the continuation of the movement. And as last week, the police will have attempted everything to prevent the junction between railway workers and other sectors mobilized: significant police presence, closure of the station entries, controls of SNCF cards at the entrance to the Cheminote assembly, etc.
Gare du Nord, a rallying place to converge the sectors in struggle
A repression to which Anasse Kazib, railway worker and southern Rail has returned, opening the assembly: “This repression shows that they are afraid that what we are doing today at Gare du Nord becoming an example for the movement. It worries them that SNCF workers, whatever their trade union organizations, are not only concerned with rail, but also the future of youth, teachers, hospital staff. They want to avoid at all costs that we discuss and think together. ”
On the station’s forecourt, several sectors were present to discuss the mobilization and think about it. Hospital workers on strike, who came in procession from Tenon, high school students, teachers, as well as several delegations of RATP workers, massively on strike this September 18.
Bastien, professor at Blanc-Mesnil, also insists on the need to share experiences to extend the mobilization: “We came with colleagues from Blanc-Mesnil because we think that the strike will be built with all workers and by weaving links with all sectors”.
Two students from the Suger high school in Saint-Denis will also speak to denounce the situation in high schools and the repression that high school students are under: “We blocked our high school this morning against the lack of means. The answer was the repression: 4 second and terminal students were struck and arrested ”.
Will follow several strikers from the RATP. Farid, Solidaires RATP activist, protests: “There are many of us today. We are presented in the media as the violent, but violence, it is institutional: it is in this system, in the police which batches the strikers, in social misery “. In 2019, the alliance of SNCF and RATP transport workers had made the strength of the movement to block the country and build mobilization. For Laurent, machinist bus, the question of links and alliances will be decisive: “We have to build alliances between us, that all those who want to participate in the change are based on the blocking of transport to build the movement with us”.
Build mobilization from below and organize itself in the face of repression
The interprofessional general meeting also made it possible to discuss the follow -up of the mobilization. Elsa Marcel, activist at permanent revolution and the collective of legal action, first returns to the importance of organizing itself in the face of repression: “They continue to try to repress us. Our activists are already in police stations to help them, but the best way to fight against repression is political: it is by the class struggle. What scares them is what happened this morning with workers who went to support high school blockages. This general meeting must vote for the fact that each time a high school student, a student or a worker is at the police station for having mobilized, there are massive rallies to support them ”.
In the assembly, the question of the continuation of the mobilization is at the heart of concerns. For RATP Farid: “We must go beyond the union directions which try to put the cover on the social pot of the start of the school year”. Bastien, teacher, goes in the same direction: “This day is a continuation of the success of 10. We have shown that we could organize from below, without the agreement of the union departments. We should not stop in isolated days, but think about the continuation by organizing ourselves in general meetings ”.
Hugo, hospital in Tenon, defends the need for a battle plan: “The union directorates will still lay us with pearl strikes, we must go beyond them and the strike is generalized. General assemblies must multiply, that we debate and claim our own watchwords: from the resignation of Macron and Lecornu to salary increases, from the ban on retirement layoffs at 60, but political claims such as the denunciation of genocide in Palestine, the end of austeity at the service of militarization or the refusal to leave our future. professionals “.
A few minutes later, the General Assembly unanimously voted for support to demonstrators in police custody and called to join the support rallies. The construction of a unitary pole in the Parisian demonstration, before union processions, is also acted, to carry the watchwords of the general strike and the need to continue to build mobilization.
While strike rates are massive at the RATP and in other sectors, this new assembly at Gare du Nord testifies to the desire for movement sectors to coordinate to unite their forces. An example to generalize everywhere in order to give yourself the means to win.
