Following the national and inter-union call to strike and demonstrate, this Tuesday morning, nearly 150 people (according to the unions) gathered on the Place de la Poste, in Vichy. A timid and rainy mobilization which could call for others.
There were far away, on October 1, from the large-scale demonstrations which regularly snaked through town at the time of the revolt against pension reform, at the beginning of 2023. But, despite the rain, dozens of demonstrators were present, this Tuesday morning, Place Charles-de-Gaulle in Vichy, to express multiple demands, after a summer marked by the long soap opera of the change of government, and while the general policy speech of the new Prime Minister Michel Barnier is expected this 1st October afternoon.
Day of social mobilization: 180 demonstrations for the repeal of the pension reform and the increase in wages
A speech which was in all the conversations, under the banner installed by the local CGT, largely in the majority in the crowd of demonstrators, where a few FSU, Solidaires, or Attac banners also stood out.
“And for us, there is little doubt that it is austerity that will be discussed in this speech,” thundered Antoine Jubin, on behalf of the local CGT union. “But this austerity always impacts the same people, there is a dogmatic refusal of power to put on the table the taxation of the richest. Yet this is where we must look for the money, in big companies who make a profit.
“We must make a radical but marginal government, born from a denial of democracy, listen to reason”
Other gatherings already planned
Thus, for Antoine Jubin, the government “does not serve France, but financial capital. Today, we must make a radical but marginal government listen to reason.” A government which would also be “minority, and born from a denial of democracy”. “And faced with it, faced with the problems of wages, purchasing power, public services which are deteriorating, we have no other choice but to consider all the means of struggle which will be necessary. The demands for progress social needs to be heard urgently!”
Locally, the CGT is calling for “Employment Conferences” to be held in order to “act against layoffs”. And already, after a social movement at the Vichy hospital which was well attended, other union actions are planned in the thermal basin.
Pierre Geraudie
Photo François-Xavier Gutton
