WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 16 — On Monday, members, supporters and friends of the Workers Party answered the call of the workers’ General Assemblies of France by staging solidarity protests in different cities.

All of the protests held on Monday were organized by the Party, as no other organization responded to the appeal of the C.C. Bureau from last week. The protests, small in numbers and participants, were nevertheless a show of support for our brothers and sisters continuing to fight austerity “reforms” by the French ruling classes and their government.

From Washington, D.C., to Saginaw, Mich., Party organizations held informational pickets at French government offices and businesses to inform passers-by about what was happening, as well as introducing the Workers Party to interested working people.

Party members, supporters and friends held a small but visible protest outside the gates of the French embassy in Washington, distributing copies of the Party’s leaflet and issues of Working People’s Advocate to passing cars and pedestrians. A reporter for a local radio station interviewed a Party spokesperson briefly about the struggle of French workers.

The most interesting exchange, however, occurred when a representative of the French ambassador approached our small picket to smugly inform us that “the law is passed; the movement is over.” We gave him a copy of our leaflet, which includes the call from the Tours meeting of the General Assemblies, to which he said he had “no comment,” then he scurried quickly back inside the embassy.

Similarly, the Party’s newest Unit in Saginaw, Mich., held a small picket outside the offices of Sodexo, a major French business that provides food and medical equipment services in the U.S. and around the world.

Members and supporters carried signs in English and French saying, “Working People Should Not Pay to Clean Up the Bosses’ Messes,” and, “Their Fight is Our Fight; Together, We Can Win,” as well as distributed leaflets and copies of WPA to the public.

The manager for Sodexo (accompanied by a local cop) came out and demanded to know why we were picketing them. We explained that, as a French business that supported the anti-worker “reform” of retirement, Sodexo was as much responsible for the imposition of austerity on French workers as Sarkozy and his rightwing government.

The manager, though seemingly slightly relieved that the picket was not directly about the starvation wages Sodexo pays to its workers, still wanted our members to go away. The cop told the manager that as long as we were being “peaceful” and not “impeding pedestrian traffic,” our members and supporters could stay and continue the protest.

However, the fact that the cop decided to stick around and make sure our members and supporters remained “peaceful” and were not “impeding traffic” sent a clear message.

Although the Party’s solidarity protests were small and few, we understood from the beginning that they were meant as a symbolic show of support by American workers. Although the Workers Party doesn’t normally organize symbolic events, we felt that it was important to do what we could to boost the morale of our French brothers and sisters.

Moreover, we also realize that the ongoing struggle of French workers today will be the new struggle of American workers tomorrow. With Obama’s “bipartisan” commissions recommending massive cuts to retirement and pension programs like Social Security and Medicare, as well as cuts to social
welfare programs run by the states, we will soon need similar solidarity and “symbolic actions” as French workers currently do.

The Workers Party is proud of our organizing of these protests, even though they were small and few. They show that our organization is willing to step forward and act independently to fight for the common interests of working people. Both French and American workers know which side we’re on.