Despite ongoing social unrest across France and calls by Philippe Martinez, the leader of the militant CGT trade union, today’s May 1st demonstration is unlikely to see a “convergence of struggles”, reports RFI.
Nothing new there. Traditionally, International Workers Day does not, with rare exceptions, see a united front of common demands from left wing political parties and trade unions.
May 1st, 2002, was one such exception when 1.3 million people demonstrated following a joint call from French trade unions to "stop" Jean-Marie Le Pen. No such a common cause exits at the moment.
Indeed, last year in the run up to the presidential elections, the unions failed to agree on a common position in respect of the far right’s Marine Le Pen, who had made her way into the second round of voting in the presidential election.
"We must show unity against a government that hits hard," Martinez said on Tuesday morning on the national news station BFM TV. Asked about unity he said: "We are working on it," stressing that "all the social conquests in this country [France] were obtained when the unions were united".
Force Ouvrière's new leader, Pascal Pavageau, admitted on the French news radio station, franceinfo, that "the confederations [unions] have not, perhaps, been sufficiently seen and united" to make a "common diagnosis of what is happening".
In all, the CGT has called for 240 demonstrations or rallies across the country, under an umbrella call-to-action that goes "Against the questioning of the social progress, [against] the selection for university. For the social progress, the peace, the international solidarity!"
The Paris May 1st march, organized with a number of other unions – the FO, FSU, Solidaires and Unef, - will start at 2.30 pm Place de la Bastille in the east of Paris and head north in the direction Place d'Italie.