FRANCEBURNING

Blockades, factory occupations, mass strikes – what can we learn from the class struggle in France?

International Seminar: Saturday, January 8, 2:00-8:00pm
Mehringhof, Gneisenaustr. 2a, U6/U7 Mehringdamm, Berlin

In recent months, France was rocked by protests of workers and youth. Millions took to the streets against an increase in the retirement age – it also came to blockades of refineries, occupations of schools and several mass strikes. Nevertheless, this movement could not prevent the adoption of the law.

This was because the trade union leaders blocked all tendencies towards the self-organization of the workers. The revolutionary left (such as the New Anti-Capitalist Party, NPA) did not want to present an alternative to the trade union bureaucracy. Against this background, there have been intense discussions about the orientation of the NPA: Recently, a Revolutionary Tendency (Platform 4) was established.

What lessons can be drawn from the class struggle in France? At the international seminar of the Revolutionary Internationalist Organization (RIO) and the Trotskyist Fraction (FT-CI), the tasks and perspectives can be discussed at length.

2:00-3:30pm Militarism in Switzerland

Albert Olter (RIO, Zurich) presents an analysis of the Swiss Army based on the anti-militarist tradition of Karl Liebknecht and V.I. Lenin.

3:45-4:30pm Resistance in Europe

Stuart King (Permanent Revolution, London), Roman Novotny (RIO, Prague) and Leon Fädler (RIO, Munich) discuss the protests against the austerity programs in Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Germany.

5:30-8:00pm Resistance in France

Jean Baptiste (FT-CI, Paris), a teacher and a member of the Revolutionary Tendency of the NPA, analyzes the strike assemblies, the students’ movement and the conflicts within the NPA.

Manu Georget (Paris), a worker at the Philips factory in Dreux and a member of the Platform 4 of the NPA, reports how the workforce occupied the company and produced under workers’ control for 10 days.

International Seminar: Saturday, January 8, 2:00-8:00pm
Mehringhof, Gneisenaustr. 2a, U6/U7 Mehringdamm, Berlin

Old School Revolutionaries, New School Rappers

Hiphop concert for the first birthday of RIO

Lea-Won (Munich)

Cien (Santiago)

Crument (Munich)

January 8, 10:00pm, in the Red Island, Mansteinstraße 10, U7/S1/S2 Yorckstrasse, Berlin

Luxemburg-Liebknecht-Lenin-Demonstration: January 9, 10:00am, Frankfurter Tor

Organized by:
Revolutionary Internationalist Organization (RIO)
Internationaler Klassenkampf / Trotskyist Fraction (FT-CI)