In recent months, we have seen workers who went on strike in Germany and France. Might this be a prelude to overturning capitalism, or are those strikes a sign that capitalism is actually functioning rather well? Whether the end of capitalism is in sight or not, these strikes have made news headlines in Germany, as in France. 

Perhaps the recent strikes in both countries are a sign of no more than a “tradition”, a routine, a signifier of the function of trade unions inside capitalism. Yet, the goals of French and German workers could hardly be more different. Unlike in Germany, there is a revolutionary spirit on strikes in France. 

Since the beginning of March, the streets in several French cities have been littered with garbage. Actually, mountains of garbage bags have been piling up – including the stench that comes with it. 

Paris’s city administration has been discussing the almost 10,000 tons of uncollected rubbish in France’s capital. Almost self-evidently, corporate mass-media prefer to focus on the impact of the strike rather than the reason for a strike.

The strike by garbage collection workers has been part of the current protests against Macron’s so-called pension “reform” – an Orwellian euphemism. As so often, France has a head start in social protests. And the spirit of revolution still prevails in France. 

Perhaps this might be a myth. In order to understand why “some” strikes and demonstrations in France do not really follow a revolutionary spirit, one might like to look at how trade unions work in France. And one can contrast this to Germany’s.

Secondly, most people might find it interesting to follow how the presidential-parliamentary system of government in France governs labor relations and society. At times, France’s institutional setup seems to resemble more of a presidential monarchy than democracy – a rather telling assessment.

Undoubtedly – in Germany and in France – trade unions are legitimate bodies that represent the interests of employees. Yet, trade unions work rather differently in these two countries in terms of the way they are set up, their organizational forms, their goals, and procedures. 

Historically, the formation and methods of trade unions on both sides of the Rhine have not been the same. Actually, the contrast has been so great that in many ways one could say that these are actually two opposing models of trade unionism. 

Since its historical origins, both versions of trade unions separated even more. For example, at the beginning of the 20th century, the French trade union movement has been characterized by what might be called political pluralism. 

There are typical forms of French union organizations. On the one hand, this includes syndicalism. On the other, there are the accompanying political philosophies, and this includes anarchism, Marxism, socialism, and even Christian ideologies. 

The discord among these political groups has resulted into something that might be called as numerically weak organizational structures. According to a recent study published by the French Ministry of Labor, the overall level of trade union organization – in the public and private sectors combined – was just 10.3% in 2019. 

It got as low as 8% in 2023 with a stark imbalance between private and public sector: 15% in the public sector and 5% in the private sector. Yet, real union power comes from collective bargaining and workers’ readiness to go on strike. France’s trade unions do not depend on the number of members they have.

Viewed simply in terms of numbers, French trade unions – on the surface – appear to be a minority movement. In addition to the trap of only looking at numbers, there is perhaps the most important point: syndicalism in France is strongly influenced by a long and successful tradition of protests against the capitalist order. French unionism has never been about static organizations with registered members. 

Basically, French trade unions are not just a means of defending the interests of the workers. Instead, they see themselves as an instrument for the transformation of the capitalist system. Although many trade unions in France would no longer invoke the revolutionary syndicalism’s idea of direct action, they do participate in economic and social life in a variety of ways. Simultaneously, French trade unions remain suspicious of what became known as social dialogue as this incorporates trade unions into the structure of capitalism.

Instead of being incorporated, French trade unions favor confrontation, rather than engagement, participation, and being built into capitalism. Many trade unions view the ideology of social dialogue as a severe limitation to their autonomy. 

In particular, they reject any form of cooperation with employers and the state. This is seen as co-optation, pacification, and ultimately the corruption of trade unions. In short, French trade unions reject their incorporation into the apparatus of capitalism even when such a “cooperation” could be constructive. 

This is also reflected in the fact that in France, most of the civil servants are allowed to strike. Meanwhile in Germany, because of a very long history that was shaped by Germany’s highly accommodating social democracy, German trade unions have developed more, as what might be described as a “homogeneous” mass movement. This means that party-political and philosophical differences have been moved onto the political sphere and away from trade unions and industrial relations.   

After the lifting of Bismarck’s ban on trade unions in 1890 and as a result of the late industrialization of Germany, a different form of industrial unionism emerged. From 1914, powerful and efficient organizations were founded. 

This leads to one of the most important points: at the end of the Weimar Republic and during the great economic crisis of the 1930s, conflicts between Social Democrats and Communists, as well as rivalries with the Christian trade unions, led to a weakening of the trade union movement.

By 1933, this led to the capitulation to Nazism with all the bitter consequences that followed. Luckily, German trade unions learned some lessons from history. In post-Nazi Germany, trade unions are convinced that never again should there be weak and divided trade unions. In short, German trade unions should never – again – capitulate to the state.

In post-Nazi period, Germany’s trade union movement was rebuilt based on party-political neutrality – the very opposite in France. Back in Germany, a quasi-unified trade union movement emerged after World War II. 

The almost logical outcome was that there will be only one large union association: the DGB. The DGB is Germany’s peak body unifying several individual trade unions. While the DGB unites almost 6 million members, it is not divided among political or philosophical lines.

Overall, the level of trade union membership remains significantly higher in Germany than in France. This is mainly because German trade unions try to improve the immediate situation for workers through highly organized, ritualized, and regulated collective bargaining. This means working within the framework of existing capitalism. 

Meanwhile, French trade unions are rejecting compromises, sells out, and sought mini gains that only strengthen capitalism, for the sake of a better future.

Nowadays, one can still feel the revolutionary spirit of France’s working class. From a German perspective however, this is seen as being rather counterproductive. At the same time, the weakness of French trade unions and their unwillingness to compromise demands the acceptance of certain obligations that come with such a rejection. This prevents French trade unions from taking on tasks that would render them being mere ornamentations to capitalism. 

Averse to the incorporating ideology of social dialogue, French trade unions put conflict in the foreground. This means rallies, demonstrations, protests, strikes at individual companies, and even a general strike by almost all workers throughout France. Based on this tradition, some seek to overturn capitalism. By contrast, German trade unions are more confined about all this while existing within the imperatives of capitalism.

On the surface, it is no coincidence that the economic and industrial situation in France is often presented as “miserable” by corporate mass media even though France’s HDI ranking remains high with a health system far above Germany. 

While the German economy bases its growth on the competitiveness of companies and aggressive exports, economic policy in France focuses on household consumption and purchasing power. Yet, when it comes to pension “reforms”, Germans have been made to accept the worsening of their system.

Germany’s economy also remains based on the reduction of wage costs. For German capitalism, these are more important than maintaining the purchasing power of its people, specifically the pensioners. In France, the opposite is the case.

Meanwhile, in France, many remember the Yellow Vest movement that seems to have remained active. Three years after its so-called “demise”, the Yellow Vests are back again. Once again, the much sought after “law and order” in France is being threatened by those unruly protesters nationwide. By early 2023, the issue was still on Macron’s neoliberal pension policy. 

As a response to Macron’s neoliberal ideology, the closure of France’s most important refineries occurred – among them is the oil giant TotalEnergies, a refinery in Donges. 

Meanwhile, there were also a garbage collection strike, disruption to train and air traffic, and a strike at schools was organized. Meanwhile, French demonstrators clashed with the police. These semi-militarized police force was sent to protect companies and, ultimately, capitalism from striking workers.

In some cases, bus stops were damaged, and garbage cans lit up. The flip side of the coin is that French trade unionists actually had very little room to maneuver when defending pensions. 

Meanwhile in neighboring Germany, strikes are seen as a last resort. In France, strikes are – to a certain extent – a preliminary stage signifying the start of negotiations. Beyond all that, the French aversion to social dialogue emerged not only because of trade unions. Instead, it is shared by a not insignificant number of employers, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises. 

This is not without consequences. For one, it requires the constant intervention of the state, which, in fact, is the real regulator and arbiter of France’s industrial relations. Unlike in Germany, where the state limits itself to setting minimum working conditions, in France however, the state intervenes in contractual relations in a variety of ways. It has passed many laws on all essential areas of working life. 

Ironically, the so-called revolutionary spirit in France leads to the fact that trade unions and companies are dependent on the state to ensure social progress. Finally, there is at least one more important point to be made. The French government can easily pass rafts of legislative rules. 

If a government does not have an absolute majority in the National Assembly (France’s parliament), the government can extract paragraph 49.3 of the Constitution in order to pass a bill “without” a parliamentary vote. In short, the state bypasses democracy.

This is exactly what Emmanuel Macron has been doing to push through his neoliberal pension “reform”. Interestingly, for the term “reform”, the Oxford Thesaurus suggest “improvement”. Yet, Macron’s pension “reform” is not an improvement. It makes life in France worse, not better. 

If the head of the government initiates this procedure, France’s members of parliament will only have the opportunity to apply for a vote of no confidence within 24 hours. Such an initiative by France’s right-wing National Rally (RN) narrowly failed in the National Assembly, recently.

Article 49.3 has already been used eleven times in Élisabeth Borne’s cabinet. And a hundred times since the beginning of the Fifth Republic. Besides all the politicking, some sarcastically say, in Marseille the garbage cans overflow even without a strike. 

In reality, the recent protests in France are more than just a revolutionary form of democratic participation. They are also and above all, a form of a popular revolt not just because of French trade unionism’s tradition of protesting against the capitalist order. It is also against the current system of government that stabilizes capitalism.

In the midst of all this, the 39th congress of the French Communist Party – held in Marseille in early April 2023 – was largely dominated by the current struggle against Macron’s neoliberal pension changes. Yet, current resistance is not limited to those plans which, after all, are rejected by two-thirds of the French population. 

It is also about much broader issues and they are directed above all against social injustices. These had been on a sharp increase of inequality because of the neoliberal policies of President Emmanuel Macron and his government.

Even today, many argue that the French communists remain indispensable in the fight against Macron’s neoliberalism. It still has an important role to play. Those who predicted the end of history and the disappearance of French’s Communist Party 30 years ago, were seriously mistaken. 

Although the ideals of communism are burdened by the negative experiences with Stalinist attempts to implement some of communism’s ideas during the 20th century, French communists are convinced that the basics of communism are still valid today. Even today, communists agree, that the unbridled rule of capitalism is doomed for failure.

The Communists even see their ideals confirmed by a recent survey in the French newspaper L’Humanité. According to the survey:

• 83% of French people still consider class struggle to be important;
• 73% of supporters of France’s right-wing Republican party also hold this opinion;
• 80% of respondents believe that areas such as health, education, and housing should be protected from competition in the interests of all citizens;
• 72% of the respondents consider it extremely important that employees should have a greater say in the companies;
• 64% are convinced that it is possible to create a society based on cooperation and power sharing; and,
• 56% believe that the capitalist system is the main culprit of global warming.

All this comes as a no surprise. Meanwhile, France has just invested €413 billion ($450bn) in arms and weapons – allegedly to prepare for war. On the other hand, about €7 billion ($7.7bn) will be missing from France’s pensions in five or six years – a comparatively meager sum. 

Worse, the state has recently given €150 billion ($164bn) of public money to 40 of France’s largest companies which just made a net profit of €80 billion – a record amount! 

At the same time, France has 43 billionaires who collectively own €500 billion ($545bn). Simultaneously, there is tax fraud and tax evasion. This alone amounts to a loss for the state of €100 ($109bn) to €140 billion ($152bn), annually. 

Worst of all, now the French are being asked to tighten their belts and work two more years just because a few billion euros could be missing from pension payments. Perhaps capitalism and neoliberalism aren’t the solution but the problem that evil heretics might claim.

Thomas Klikauer is the author of German Conspiracy Fantasies – out now on Amazon! 

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