REPORTAGE – In the streets of the capital, this Thursday, the organizers counted 10,000 demonstrators. The authorities, for their part, have counted 2,400.
«Mean», «not too bad», «we feared worse“… At the Parisian demonstration of the CGT for wages, this Thursday, the crowd was up to forecasts: low. Even before the procession set off from Place de la République, at 2 p.m., the union’s management preferred to point out the progress made in recent weeks in several companies such as TotalEnergies and Esso, following social movements. A way to avoid talking about sparse ranks in the street.
According to the CGT, the mobilization brought together some 10,000 people in the capital on Thursday, and “over 100,000in France. Figures much higher than those of the authorities: in Paris, the police counted 2,400 demonstrators, against 300 in Bordeaux, 650 in Lille, a thousand in Lyon and 30,400 throughout the country. Figures, there too, low, while the authorities expected a slight increase in the number of participants, between 40,000 and 50,000 demonstrators at the national level, and “less than 5000 in Paris“, according to AFP. The balance sheet is still up slightly compared to the mobilization of October 27, during the school holidays: that day, according to the police, the parades had gathered 14,000 demonstrators in the provinces and 1,360 in Paris. The CGT, for its part, had not given a figure.
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It must be said that the Montreuil power plant was the only one to parade, this Thursday. FO did not participate in the demonstration, just like FSU and Solidaires. General secretary of Force Ouvrière, Frédéric Souillot recently castigated the proliferation of days of demonstrations “leapfrog“, believing that this strategy”not only is it counterproductive, secondly it does little to move things, thirdly it wears out the troops».
Several reasons were put forward by the activists present to explain this timorous mobilization. First, the transport strike which made it difficult to access the center of Paris. “I took two and a half hours to come“, illustrated Sandrine, member of the CGT Monoprix, who lives in the Yvelines. If she was able to easily reach the Saint-Lazare station, the arrival to the Place de République was another pair of sleeves, strike at the RATP obliges. Same desire to see the glass half full for Fanny: the mobilization “meanwould be explained by “the agreements already signed in many companies under the pressure of social movements», Wants to believe this activist in the CGT and the Communist Party. Conversely, Felix, 31, says to himself “disappointed“. He hoped “at least twice as many people” in the street.
However, despite this failure, no one wants to give the impression of giving up. “We make visible a malaise that is real“, emphasizes Lucian*. Same for Peter.*train driver at the SNCF, whowants to show that we are there“. Despite the weak mobilization, the hope is “still there“, according to those interviewed, “but that’s not going to make things happen“, points the railwayman, lucid.
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Some, like Fabien Roussel, are still counting on renewed mobilization: on the sidelines of the demonstrations, the national secretary of the PCF called on employees on Thursday to “s’unir» and to «reoccupy roundabouts and public spaceto demand pay rises in the face of the high cost of living. “I hope that others will join this movement (…), let’s unite, let’s be as many as possible, even if it means finding the roundabouts, even if it means reoccupying the public space“, he chanted, four years after the beginning of the movement of “yellow vests».
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*Names have been changed.