In Rennes, around 2,000 demonstrators in the street for May 1 [En images]

They will not have reiterated the “historic” figures for 2023. While the unions had managed to mobilize more than 10,000 demonstrators in Rennes for the May 1 parade, this year there were only 2,500 (according to the inter-union) and 1,400 (according to the police) to have taken to the streets of the Cleunay district. “We find the configuration before 2023,” explains the secretary general of FO 35, Fabrice Lerestif. “But bringing around 2,000 people in the middle of school holidays, in an outlying area without public transport, is still significant,” he believes. Same story with the CGT. “We are satisfied with this mobilization. And we have great feedback from people in the neighborhood, who are very happy that we are coming to their home. It shows that we were not mistaken,” confides the general secretary of CGT 35, Dominique Besson-Milord.

2023, exceptional year

If 2023 is to be marked with a milestone, it is because the May 1 demonstration was organized in the heart of the social movement against pension reform, at the initiative of eight major trade union organizations in the country. . An unprecedented fact for 15 years. It was even followed by a second procession, which brought together around 14,000 people and continued with clashes in the city center.

This year, no pension reform to boost mobilization. And no common front: this May 1st is in fact organized at the call of four central groups (CGT, FO, FSU and Solidaires), with also the Peasant Confederation and the student unions FSE and Union Pirate. For Fabrice Lerestif, “no question of giving in”. “We must not give up. We are facing a government which is pursuing a policy which is a form of manhunt, targeting the most precarious, says Monique, a demonstrator. Faced with this, I don’t want to rage alone on my couch, I want to take to the streets and to the polls”

A family parade

Leaving before 11 a.m. from the roundabout of the Leclerc shopping center in Cleunay, the procession paraded in a calm and festive atmosphere through the streets of this popular district in the west of Rennes. Many families made the trip, like Yann and his three children: “It’s important to be there together. We do it regularly, says the father of the family, even if my older daughters, since the movement against pensions, have been a little afraid because of the police and the thugs. »

Alongside these families, we find numerous organizations and collectives, several of which defend the cause of Palestine. At the head of the demonstration, behind the traditional union banner, the collective of undocumented immigrants was also present and, further in the demonstration, employees of the Casino logistics platform in Gaël (35), threatened with closure, or even the Peasant Confederation and its tractor bearing the logo “Peasants and employees, same fight”.

The demands of all these little people? They are numerous: defense of wages, opposition to pension reform and future social reforms, peace in Gaza and Ukraine, defense of the climate, fight against the far right, taxation of surplus profits… All along the way, there are numerous speeches were organized in front of the Leclerc supermarket, the Sagesse clinic, Cleunay college and the Post Office.

After this first parade, a second demonstration is planned in the city center of Rennes this May 1st. Organized by the Solidaires union with other organizations (Alternatiba, the Uprisings of the Earth, All of Us 35, France-Palestine Solidarities, Permanent Revolution and Le Poing Raised), it will start from the François-Mitterrand mall at 2 p.m. With slogans close to the morning demonstration.