Reportage
‘Tax the billionaires’: Strikes break out across France
The slogans are not aimed at a single reform but at an entire economic policy – the one Emmanuel Macron still hopes to impose in the next budget, which promises to be marked by austerity, with tens of billions in cuts to public services, healthcare, and education.
“You have to look for the money in the pockets of those who have it—and that means the billionaires!” shouts a union representative from Sud-Rail, a railway worker at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. Around him, a few hundred colleagues are taking part in the protest: some are lighting large red smoke bombs – the trademark of the cheminots (railway workers) – while others chant slogans into megaphones. The group had gathered a couple of hours earlier on the station’s last platform before storming the courtyard of the Bercy building, seat of the French Ministry of Economy.
Clusters of men in suits and ties are watching the railway workers curiously as they chant. Many other ministry employees walk by and smile at them. After all, during this “inter-union day of action” called by French unions on September 18 – which felt like a general strike, though it wasn’t officially one – one of the highest strike rates among the civil service was recorded right here in the tax administration. According to the administration, about 12.5% of its employees walked out.
“There is a strong demand, particularly from tax officials, to tax the richest,” Sandra Demarcq, secretary of the Solidaires-Finances Publiques union of employees in the public finance sector, told Agence France-Presse.
The railway workers leave quickly, because one never knows what will happen. While this particular action wasn’t met with a police response, earlier in the morning during blockades and pickets at transport depots, high school entrances and large logistics hubs from Marseille to Paris, police had charged protesters, deploying tear gas and arresting hundreds. Authorities applied the orders from now-former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau to the letter, who had promised to prevent any blockades “anywhere in France.”
As they left the courtyard unmolested, one cheminot shouts a sing-song slogan: “Hey, Bérenger! Stick with us, we want immunity too!” It’s about Bérenger Cernon, a former railway worker and CGT unionist who, in the 2024 elections, was elected to parliament with La France Insoumise.
Cernon says he is pleased with the mobilization in the rail sector, calling it “much stronger than what we saw on September 10. It’s clear that the resignation of François Bayrou [whose government lost a confidence vote on September 8] has not diminished the anger” against the budget bill he put forward. That same bill is now being pushed by the current prime minister, Sébastian Lecornu, as well. “Now the inter-union committee needs to meet quickly and set another date after today’s action,” the former railway worker says.
With unions claiming more than a million people took to the streets across France and some clashes in the major cities, Friday's mobilization was highly reminiscent of the numbers and tactics of the 2023 movement against Macron’s pension reform. Now, however, the slogans are not aimed at a single reform but at an entire economic policy – the one Emmanuel Macron still hopes to impose in the next budget, which promises to be marked by austerity, with tens of billions in cuts to public services, healthcare, and education.
“[Prime Minister] Lecornu must respond to the show of force we have made today,” said CGT union secretary Sophie Binet at the head of the march, surrounded by journalists from around the world. “The current budget proposal must be buried, and the pension reform must be repealed,” she said, adding that the workers “want tax justice and wage increases.” She promised a long fight, of which Thursday's action was only the first act – a mobilization destined to last “at least until the end of the budget debate,” according to the CGT leader.
Not far away, at the entrance to the Place de la République, protesters had hung a large banner that read: “The problem isn’t Black people and Arabs, it’s billionaires.” A hundred meters on, a group of young people sat in a circle on the ground around a Bluetooth speaker blasting techno music, with signs laid out before them that read: “Let’s get rid of the billionaires.”
Who will have to pay up to balance the French budget? On this question, the unions and movements are promising a fight, and seem to have ideas that are at least as clearly outlined as the signs held by the protesters.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/tassare-i-miliardari-lo-sciopero-in-francia-per-la-giustizia-fiscale on 2025-09-19