ORIGINAL FRENCH ARTICLE: Des rails et des classes
by Michel Guilloux
Translated Monday 23 February 2015, by
The so called merge of the French Rail Networks–responsible for infrastructure – and the SNCF took effect on January 1st. Happy New Year passengers: the train fares jumped by 2.6%, adding pages to the fee schedule already deemed to be a maze. The decision was lauded by the transport authorities and, strangely enough, by the Ministry of Ecology. This would improve the quality of service for passengers. Well then, if such is the case, why not increase the ticket costs by 26%, the quality would increase ten-fold… Before a Macron bill whose proponent is not big on self-censorship, as the second class, reserves the modernity of coaches for the poor and illiterate, wouldn’t the announcement mean that for this government, green is but the varnish of social injustice? You wouldn’t dear to believe it... Those who, last spring, have criticized the strike led by the bulwarks of public service who are railway workers should remember that before talking about class… the worker. “The labour movement has moved history forward.” By its participation in the economic plans of our country, of course. By, above all, its self-awareness, its union, social and political struggles”, explained the head of government, on Saturday, while on his way to Liévin for the commemoration of the 1974 mining disaster. Manuel Valls remembered that in the end France still had “more than 6 million workers”. And in this calculation he does not include the unemployed, technicians, production engineers who compete according to class… Finding the collective conscience in the face of a ruling class which only has hate to offer as a smoke screen: this remains a lofty undertaking to write. At present.