IL mum wage based on the CFDT's own cost of living index.
RIS P.T.T FRENCH POSTAL WORKERS launched a massive struggle for the miniare clear.
O. What are the chief flaws of the price index in France?
A. muen ine same as in any country l would think, The actual mathematics of the index are not wrong, but the basis on which it is made up doesn't correspond to the real costs and neede of the working class. Furthermore, it only reflocts rises in the shops; therefore take place in production.
O. Car you give examples? A. A classic one was the come of a retrigerator two years ogo. One year this was seling for 500 francs. Next year a'new model came out for B0D Francs.
as - in fact rathar worsn than ane. But it had an autornat@ detrostor. An automatic defraster domn't post anatring uke tou trancs, but under the syste on which the price index was calculsted this addition constituted a "quality change" and not a price i nereasn - so the real extra cost wan't reflectad iB A4 incrense in the price index. ClIP There ane many other examples of STE CUOR OUT WNE CIENCI TENHIY THC out about them without workars control In Britain it is often and correctly asserted that the oficial price index does not reflect the real increases in the cost of. living. This is true of every capitalist country. In France, however, the trade unions and revolutionary milifants have played a real role in exposing the retail price index - so much so that recent opinion polls have shown that the majority of the population of France considers the official retail price index to be wrong.
Red Weekly asked a revolutionary militant who works in the French National Institute of Social and Economic Studies (INSEE), the body which produces the official price index, to explain the development of the struggles which have taken place on this issue. The lessons for Britain - for example, the need for the unions to prepare their own price index, and the way in which the role of price committees can be linked to minimum wage demands Sation of the index? iF can'! keRn track of nl the chances vnich In fact this one was exactly the same the bid and supervision in the production process. Q. What about govemment manipuA. Given the unione' vigilanoe cuer the price index the Government can'! inTarvene in too open a way - this waule be immediately exposed rowever there are other more subtle ways in which it con intervene. A recent cose wos oer the спагде то спогде віслону плесота This lad been in the prica indok since the base line year of 1070. This suited re lovem zni zes brce nani gone up at all during this time, and down, Howeuer in Jenuary 1978 the price wint up by these or four times. This helped to put up the price index by .bour cent in that montn.
When the Minister for Financs, Fourcade, wus as usual informed in Jounco ot raw ruch tne rous neu gonc up, ne wanto to crow py snare SUC AR ISC n TAC IneX uE how to prevent it. This was dane by taking the meter cherge out of the index. After that the retail price index wes recalculated from 1970 without meters. When it sulmd the Goverment this charge was inciuded, but wher it wan't suitable it came aut. concerning the index?
A. As far as the workers in the Inetituse are concerned, we have put out lesfiets to the urons exposing come ot bie man Deuvres - for example, we put out one on the refrigerator example. Two years ago we por out a booker, 'Is the Price Index fixed?", which circulaned widaly an une uncons. vae are.niow preponinenew edition bringing it up to date.
But the unions themselves have also put forwerd alternatives to the official price index.
G. Can you give some examples? A. The largest trade union federation, the CGT, puns out its own index which more KOD ALT UE RRNAU OL SMOUS AINT of living for workers - for example, during the period wnen ine orce Cost DT 1410 index went up by 9 per cent, the CGT index went up by 14 per cent. Some workers have used this to get concessions - for example, same white coller workers in the Paris area get pay rises based on an index which is half way between the officiel index and the CGT index We're not so sure about the CGT index, however, because of the way it is calculated. We prefer the syster put forward by the other trade union tederation, the CFDT.
O. Can you explain this?
A. The main point about the CFDT index is that they calculete a minimum wage on the basis of the cost of the amount of goods which a family needs to live on, This allows workers to soe the real incrůis in the cost of living, and makes possible a real rale for committees on OTCE HI HIEKIM UO WIS ERC WOTKOCCES We had an interesting experincs of HE HIT TR SR JORA USUR OSOU-JESLI stare of Mammouth in Rennes exposed the price risos in the shop, put forward their own demands for a minimum wage. and working condiions, and put. cur propegende to local workers showing the real increeses taking place Thie CFDT index now srandis at 2,000 francs a month. There hava been important strupes round the demarkas of this index. For instance, two yers ago we poanr and taep tone toolse webt on sirike Tor tis minster sop: -which at that time stood at 130! france a month.
Q How do you see the struggle for a real cost of living index going A. The decisive thing is workers contral arid supervision at every level from production to tha shop. It's only on that besie thet you can tind out che real increases. Ail the octons takar so far must be seen as pointing in IHNE CISELIOH
6 Popular Front LEON BLUM June, forty years ago in France, saw the country in the midst of a wave of strikes and factory occupations outside the control of the leaderships in the Socialist Party (SFIO), the Communist Party, and the latter's trade union wing, the CGT. Over two million workers participated in the seizure of the factories.
The response of CP leader Thorez came on 12 June, when he said: "It is necessary to know when to end a strike." The same day, the Trotskyist paper Latte Ouriere came out with the headline: In the factory and the street - power to the workers.
The first occupations occurred on 26 May, following the Popular Front's sweeping electoral victory a few weeks in which the FIO, the CP CATHET and the Radicals between them took 334 of the 618 seats, The occupations spread rapidly, to such an extent that the strikes as the work of "provocateurs" which 'outrages the Tricolour'! In Toulon three workers died and many more were injured in clashes, but there was no doubt that the combativity of the working class was growing In the next months an electoral agreement was reached by the CP with the Radicals and the SF1Q, culminating in the publication of a joint programme on 12 January 1936. While the Popular Front as a whole won the Aprii elections, within it the decline of the Radicals was clear. They won 116 seats, representing a loss of 44 and 350,000 votes. The SFIO won an extra 45 seats, but in fact lost 53,000 votes. The CP, meanwhile, increased its vote by 706,000 and won 72 places in the Assembly as opposed to their previous ten, Moscow, however, was none too pleased. The correspondent of Le and the unions and the workers parties proposed a return to work.
factories refused the strikes and occupations ended, holiday on full pay. Clearly the working class had won important in May 1968 - by the reformist lenders.
ship of the unions rocketed. In the within a year from 50,000 to 775,000, The CCT, which resured Twice the delegates of the occupied It was not enough.
Finally, under immense pressure from the leaders of the SFIO and the CP.
Within a week Blum passed laws that reduced the working week from 48 hours to 40 and gave two weeks gains, but the danger of a revolutionary challenge to the capitalist power bad been headed off - as it was to be After this partial success memberengineering industry membership rosc from the fusion of the CP-controlled CCT and the CGTU in March 1936, 50,000 members in 1934 to 350,000 JU Red Weekl