France - a report from the mass demo in Paris on 17 October

French workers and youth take another step forward in their struggle to defeat Macron's attacks

On 17 October, well over 500,000 workers and youth poured onto the streets of towns and cities across France to take their latest step forward in the battle to defeat Macron and the French capitalists’ attacks on workers’ living standards.

The youth were again to the fore, with high school and university students making up a good proportion of the marchers. Workers and their families also came to the demos in huge numbers although official trade union contingents were less visible than they should have been.

In Paris, the march completely filled the streets behind the Place de la République as it made its way north towards the Place de Clichy, often coming to a complete standstill because of the size of the crowds. There were thousands of home-made placards denouncing Macron, budget cuts, police violence, and demanding a decent education and a future for young people. Youth climbed street furniture and scaffolding to wave banners and flags, to enthusiastic cheers. Cries of “Macron Démission!” – Macron Resign! – filled the air, along with other chants against the far-right and the police.

Supporters of La France Insoumise had also mobilised with banners and stickers demanding action on the cost of living and to build support for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s 2027 Presidential campaign. Big business has not yet managed to find a candidate that they can put forward to act reliably in their interests and the prospect of a run-off between Mélenchon and the populist-right’s Le Pen adds to the bosses’ fear at the rising tide of opposition.

From the very start, the riot police were even more aggressive than usual. Volleys of tear gas soon filled the Place de la République forcing people assembling for the march to scatter. Musicians who had gathered there to play protest songs during the march had to flee. Even the fast-food sellers had to drive away, and we also had to temporarily abandon our stall to give our eyes and throats time to recover.

Macron, Le Pen and the right-wing press had obviously decided on a strategy of trying to cut across support for the movement through hypocritical denunciations of ‘violence’. Instead of reporting on the powerful mass demonstrations, media reports have focused on the exchanges of tear gas and fireworks between a minority of protestors and the police, as well as the anger that a minority of alienated youth expressed through acts of vandalism. In the age of smartphones, some of the more obvious examples of police agents provocateurs were filmed, including an attack on firefighters. Their divisive strategy will not succeed, because the growing anger at the attacks on living standards demanded by big business runs very deep.

Gauche Révolutionnaire (GR), the French section of the CWI, intervened energetically with leaflets and newspapers putting forward a programme to advance the movement. In Rouen, a youthful GR contingent, bringing together both existing members and new supporters, formed one of the liveliest sections of their city’s demonstration. In Paris, high school students that I spoke to were keen on the idea that 20 November could be a day for a Europe-wide student strike.

For now, with schools and universities taking a half-term break, the next planned day of action is on 5 November, when the union federations have called another co-ordinated mass one-day national strike. Significantly, for the first time since 2023, this will involve not only public sector workers but private sector trade unionists as well, with the prospect that this could effectively become a 24-hour general strike. This will be an important opportunity for the movement to take a further step forward by building a massive joint strike of both students and workers. GR is proposing that this should be followed by a further escalation to a united two or three-day strike. The trade union and left leaders should take the lead in further strengthening the links between all the different sectors in struggle so as to build a movement that has the power to defeat both Macron and the bosses’ austerity plans.