During the past few months the world has been rocked by a financial
crisis that has attracted a lot of comment.

While we get a kick out of the speculators’ and stockholders’ agony,
we need to keep an eye on where the crisis is heading and on its
impact in the real world.

What crisis? More importantly; who’s crisis? The workers at Renault
Sandouville are affected, sure, the American workers who have lost
their capitalized pensions, of course, the 40 000 extra unemployed,
yes, in fact; all workers, because they will now be subjected to the
blackmail of a so-called "recession". But what does the crisis mean to
"our" political and economic leaders?

No one has seen Parisot in a breadline, nor Lagardère at the Welfare
Office, and Bolloré has not been hanging out with the Salvation Army
either. So far, Sarkozy has not sold his Raybans and Carla Bruni still
has her Dior dresses. The bosses continue to eat very well and none of
them are begging in the street.

Of course, their crocodile tears are flowing freely; it’s going to be
tough, the economy is in bad shape, we must all tighten our belts. We
have been hearing that kind of talk for a long time. The government is
out of money; total panic, fire the civil servants, quick, privatise
everything! Public pension funds are running low; work 41 years and
pay part of your medical bills yourself! Unemployment; it’s your own
fault, just flexibly take the first available job and say "Thank you
very much." Companies not competitive enough; work longer and better.

We have already given plenty. So just how tight are the bosses’ belts?
They have been doing quite well lately. Derogations from social
contributions, 30 billion a year, golden handshakes and stock option
plans. The 2 242 taxpayers who make more than 41 982 EUROs get 82.9%
of the tax refunds. That come to 84 700 per millionaire. PMEs in
trouble; 22 billion EURO aid package. We are too embarrassed to
mention the salary hikes of the bosses of the top 40 enterprises
because they are obscene.

The sad truth is that our sacrifices are their profits. And it goes
on. The taxpayers’ money goes to the banks, leaving public budgets
bankrupt; growth has disappeared and taken our jobs along, because
there are just too many unemployed we need to cut benefits. This is
going to hurt.

Parisot herself admits that the government’s "recommendations" do not
really hurt the bosses. It is all about "moralizing capitalism" as
Sarkozy likes to say. What other ethics can capitalism have except to
let a few people get rich at everyone else’ expense? What problem does
capitalism have with inequality and the concentration of wealth?

Capitalism is what makes us sacrifice while the bosses and governments
fill their pockets. Capitalism lets homeless people die in street
while others own several houses and apartments, sometimes paid for
with tax money. Capitalism created the crisis that we are paying for
today. Capitalism is what is putting health, education and welfare
into the clutches of profit-oriented corporations who do not care in
the least about our rights or even about our very lives. Capitalism
plunders the natural resources of the Third World and exploits its
people as cheap immigrant labour that is dumped when no longer needed.
The pursuit of short term profits has been destroying this planet.
Capitalism starts wars to cover up its little accidents.

No wonder the bosses praise capitalism as the only viable social
system. It is they who keep on telling us to work more and better for
less pay while their salaries and stock option plans go through the
roof. They make the economic choices, so they alone are responsible
when a company goes bust, sending the workers to the ANPE with a
paltry severance package. This list could be continued into all
infinity.
It is time to stop waiting for our rulers to "moralize" or "regulate"
capitalism. We need to launch a full frontal attack on the system.

We have decided to trample it wherever we find it growing. The place
to start is the where we work, because capitalism lives off our
exploitation. Fight for higher wages and lower profits, better
conditions and shorter hours, and end to harassment and the chase
after competiveness. Fight for a redistribution of wealth without
waiting for some law that will never get passed anyway or for a
government to come and save us. We need to transpose those on-the-job
struggles into generalized social confrontations about pensions,
health, education, welfare, public transportation and communication.
So one and all can live their lives in dignity. This will not be won
with so-called "days of action" that do nothing, half-day or one day
strikes that bring only a loss of pay but do not keep our rights from
disappearing one by one. The highly developed class conscience of our
opponents and their combativeness means that short term, purely
symbolic actions are useless. What we need is class conscious,
fighting unions for a general strike that is extendable. All the
victims of capitalism need to stand together regardless of origin,
language, colour, and legal status so that they can win what is
rightfully theirs and what they need.

In the face of repression, sanctions and threats we remain defiant.
Hope for a more libertarian and egalitarian society keeps us going.
Our struggle is the only thing that can hurt the bosses badly enough
to make them give us our due. Our method is revolutionary, libertarian
unionism that dares to attack the bosses and the state while building
up the new society within the shell of the old.