On 22 and 23 November, more than 110 people gathered in Paris for this year's Revolutionary School to discuss the most urgent problems of our time.

Last week, Sébastien Lecornu resigned as Prime Minister after an unprecedentedly brief stint in power. Just days later, he was reappointed by Macron and tasked with cobbling together a cabinet that could pass his austerity budget.

The planned day of action on 2 October, called by the inter-union committee of trade union confederation leaders, will probably be massive, as so many days of action have been over the last twenty years. During the mass movement against the raising of the retirement age to 64, from January to June 2023, fourteen days of action were organised, some of which mobilised more than 3 million demonstrators. Macron, however, did not budge an inch: the counter-reform was pushed through.

The general strike against the genocide in Gaza on 22 September represented a huge outburst of mass anger which has profound implications beyond the borders of Italy. The idea that mass direct action is needed to stop Israel’s murderous assault on the Palestinians now dominates. At the same time, the Italian mass protest can also be seen as part of a ‘Red September’ of mass uprisings, revolutions and insurrections across the world.

The mobilisation on 18 September was massive. It involved more than a million demonstrators, numerous blockades and many strikes in transport, education and other public sector services. As for the hordes of ‘rioters’ prophesied by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, they did not show up.

Amidst everything on the news last week, from revolutionary events in Indonesia and Nepal, to the shooting of Charlie Kirk, a major political crisis is unravelling in France which has given birth to the Bloquons tout (Block Everything) movement.

Since Sébastien Lecornu's appointment on 9 September, the mainstream media have been singing the same old tune as they did in the early days of Barnier and Bayrou’s premierships: the new Prime Minister is a man of ‘dialogue’ and ‘compromise’, an affable ‘negotiator’ appreciated by the parliamentary opposition – in short, the political equivalent of the ideal son-in-law.

Several hundred thousand people took part in the mobilisation on 10 September. From dawn to dusk, the movement unfolded in various forms: blockades, rallies, demonstrations, pickets and general assemblies. The atmosphere was radical and combative. Young people dominated the marches, especially in the big cities.

François Bayrou's fall was celebrated last night with farewell parties organised in front of a number of town halls. Generally, it was welcomed with satisfaction by millions of young people and workers.

We republish here a translation of an article by Unité CGT – the left wing of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) in France, representing a significant number of its industry federations and Departmental Unions. In it, Unité CGT calls for the workers and their trade union organisations to take up the rallying cry of Bloquons tout! and shut down France on 10 September. They call for this mobilisation to be broadened to include factory occupations and a general strike.

Barring any dramatic developments, the Prime Minister of France Bayrou will fall on 8 September. Only political suicide on the part of the MPs of the Socialist Party could save this deeply unpopular government. For the time being, the leader of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure and his friends are not willing to take this step.

The measures recently announced by François Bayrou constitute a reactionary offensive on a massive scale: the abolition of two public holidays, a ‘blank year’ (freezing pensions, social benefits, etc.), the elimination of thousands of civil service jobs, cuts to local authority funding, a €5 billion cut to public health spending – and so on, for an estimated total saving of €43.8 billion.

On 5 June, 14 tonnes of machine-gun parts were due to be loaded onto an Israeli cargo ship at the port of Fos-sur-Mer in southern France, bound for Haifa, Israel. The day before, however, the CGT general union of dockworkers and port handling personnel of the Gulf of Fos issued a press release announcing its categorical refusal to load the 19 pallets of military equipment.

Over the last ten years in France, repression against young people and workers has continued to intensify: police violence, ‘preventive’ arrests of activists, the criminalisation of trade union activity, bans on demonstrations, gatherings and meetings, etc. The repression of the Yellow Vests and the solidarity movement with Palestine are two glaring examples, but this is a serious and ongoing trend.

In an article published on 2 March, Révolution Permanente announced the launch of a campaign entitled: ‘Against Macron and the Fifth Republic, we need a radical democratic response from below’.