Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

France: Wave of workers’ suicides

Since the beginning of this year, there have been five suicides by workers in PSA Peugeot-Citroën Mulhouse because of the exhausting conditions of work; these should be added to alarming cases in other firms. This is a sign of how alienation at work, as a result of the recapturing of management’s power and control from […]

Left Voice

July 27, 2007
Facebook Twitter Share

Since the beginning of this year, there have been five suicides by
workers in PSA Peugeot-Citroën Mulhouse because of the exhausting
conditions of work; these should be added to alarming cases in other
firms.

This is a sign of how alienation at work, as a result of the
recapturing of management’s power and control from all these years of
the neoliberal offensive, has made “life” in the factories completely
unbearable for the workers who in desperation have reached the point
of suicide, in view of this enormous oppression and exploitation.
These tendencies appear to be more widespread because of Sarkozy’s
attempt, in fact, to lengthen the work-day with his campaign slogan,
“Work more to earn more.”

The ideological and cultural campaign to achieve this aim is reaching
brutal levels, as shown by the opinion of the Finance Minister (who is
spearheading the new policies), that her compatriots should “think
less and work more,” as she stated in the National Assembly during the
discussion of the tax reform law, which includes abolition of the
taxes on bosses and workers during the extra hours. This is the land
no less that gave rise to rationalism with Descartes! It is
interesting that just as the cases at PSA and other firms have shown
the terrible negative face of this reality, a few weeks ago, in the
strike at the Kronenbourg brewery, against pressure for longer
work-days, now that summer is coming, with greater beer consumption,
they put up a poster on the factory entrance that charged, with dark
humor, “Work more, to die sooner.” A demand that disputes not only the
level of remuneration for labor power, but also the absolute power of
capital in production. A sign, small but enormously significant, that,
if it develops, could open a new stage in the class struggle in France.

To put an end to capitalist savagery and its miseries, it is necessary
to take up again examples like the struggle of the workers in May 1968
and the opposition to the “Ford” assembly line that developed in
factories in France, Italy and other advanced imperialist countries
during those years.

Facebook Twitter Share

Left Voice

Militant journalism, revolutionary politics.

Archive

The Unknown Paths of the Late Marx

An interview with Marcello Musto about the last decade of Marx's life.

Marcello Musto

February 27, 2022

The Critical Left in Cuba

Frank García Hernández discusses the political and economic situation in Cuba and the path out of the current crisis.

Frank García Hernández

February 27, 2022

Nancy Fraser and Counterhegemony

A presentation from the Fourth International Marxist Feminist Conference.

Josefina L. Martínez

February 27, 2022

Who is Anasse Kazib?

Meet the Trotskyist railway worker running for president of France.

Left Voice

February 27, 2022

MOST RECENT

“We are your economy”: Trans Youth Walkout and Speak Out

The following is a speech by a young trans person as part of an action called for by NYC Youth for Trans Rights.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

March 20, 2023
Three tables full of food, with signs hung above them. One says "The People's Pantry: FREE FOOD." Banners hung from the tables say "Free CUNY" and "Cop Free School Zone"

CUNY Administration Cracks Down on Student and Worker-Run Food Pantry

Students and workers opened "The People's Pantry" seven weeks ago as part of a broader anti-austerity campaign at CUNY, leading to several direct confrontations with the administration.

Olivia Wood

March 19, 2023

Neither NATO Nor Putin: An Anti-war Program for an Anti-war Protest

The following is a flier that Left Voice distributed at the March 18 rally in DC with the anti-war program we believe we must all take up.

Left Voice

March 19, 2023

France: Macron Bets On His Presidency as Millions Rise Up

A historic two weeks of mobilizations against Macron’s pension reform, with several sectors going into open-ended strikes, and including a spectacular show of solidarity on International Women’s Day. Yet despite the massive turnout, the government pushed through the reform Thursday night, using an antidemocratic maneuver to bypass the National Assembly. Which direction will the movement take? Will it fizzle out in a failed top-down union strategy, or will it generalize the struggle to all sectors from the bottom up?

Antoine Ramboz

March 17, 2023