Eighty years ago, as the Popular Front, led by the Socialist Party, was voted into power in France, workers across the country decided to hasten its promised reforms, striking and occupying factories to ensure that their demands were met: a forty-hour work week, higher wages, paid vacations, and union rights.

They occupied factories with the knowledge that, with the Socialists in power and the Communists supporting the government, they ran no risk of being attacked and driven from their bastions. Instead, they settled in with food, wine, and accordions, turning working France into a festival. And with the government acting in their favor, they won many of their demands.

In 2016, with the Socialists in power, people again took to the streets, this time protesting against the government’s drive to chip away at the rights fought for and obtained over decades of working-class struggle. Far from being protected by a Socialist government, they found themselves attacked by the police, demonstrations banned or restricted to routes of less than a mile.