What France’s Retirees Are Fighting For
Now under siege, France’s state-run pension system has delivered a decent standard of living to millions — a reality that retired telecom workers in Marseille have experienced firsthand.
51 Articles by: Cole Stangler
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Cole Stangler is a journalist based in Marseille writing about labor and politics. A contributor to France 24, Cole has also published work in the Nation, the New York Times, and the Guardian.
France Has an Interventionist State — but It’s Intervening to Serve Capital
Neoliberal reformers often call France’s welfare model an unsustainable burden on private enterprise. But in recent decades, public aid to firms has almost tripled as a share of GDP — showing how state interventions increasingly prop up private profits.
French Left-Wing MP Danièle Obono: “Yes, There Is Structural Racism in France”
This summer’s French riots were a rebellion against police violence and the targeting of working-class men of color. For France Insoumise MP Danièle Obono, it’s high time the country attacked its problem of entrenched racism.
In Senegal, the Government’s Boasts About Upholding Democracy Ring Hollow
Senegal’s government has condemned last month’s coup in Niger, even pledging to send troops to help restore the rule of law. But far from a beacon of democracy, this ally of Paris and Washington is mounting its own bloody crackdown on opposition at home.
How France’s Wealthy Elites Keep Their Grip on Power
A new poll found that 80% of French people believe the class struggle is a reality. While workers are seeing their pensions cut back, the superrich are wealthier than ever — and it’s because of their success in capturing the Republic’s institutions.
France Won’t Accept Emmanuel Macron’s Attack on Pensions
Emmanuel Macron plans to raise France’s retirement age — but this Tuesday, well over a million people mobilized against him. One of the biggest social movements in years, it has a chance to deal a decisive blow to attacks on welfare.
François Ruffin: It’s Time to Put an End to the Neoliberal Era
Filmmaker François Ruffin has become a leading critic of the destruction of France’s welfare model. Today an MP, Ruffin told Jacobin how the Left can rediscover its purpose — and again rally the discontent of rural and peripheral France.
France’s Most Degrading Talk Show Is Promoting Far-Right Politics
It’s easy to think of French public life as more highbrow than its US counterpart. But France’s top-rated talk show is fusing politics and entertainment — and it’s a key part of a billionaire-funded effort to normalize far-right talking points.
French Workers Are Refusing to Pay for Inflation
Recent oil workers’ strikes in France are at the cutting edge of a rising wave of industrial action. CGT union leader Philippe Martinez told Jacobin how organized labor can lead the fight against the rising cost of living.
The French Left Is Uniting Around Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Radical Agenda
After years of division, left-wing parties are in talks to run together in June’s French parliamentary elections. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s strong presidential bid has placed him at the heart of the Left — and an alliance that could deny Emmanuel Macron a majority.
How France’s Intellectuals Became Reactionaries
France has always had right-wing thinkers — but they are more prominent now than any time since World War II. A decades-long counterrevolution against the Left has led to reactionary provocateurs reshaping French intellectual life.
France’s Presidential Election Is a One-Sided Culture War
Emmanuel Macron has often warned that France shouldn’t imitate US-style culture wars. But ahead of April’s election, the liberal president and his far-right challengers are all obsessing about what they call an “Islamo-leftist” threat to French national identity.
Joe Biden Is Still Fighting a Vaccine Waiver for the Rest of the World
Biden and European Union officials continue to help Big Pharma prevent the distribution of intellectual property rights to fight COVID.
Benoît Hamon to Jacobin: “French Democracy Is Unquestionably in Crisis”
Next year’s French election looks like it’ll be dominated by right-wing discourses around identity and immigration. Former Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon tells Jacobin how the Left can put inequality back on the agenda and win.
Europe’s Big Polluters Want to Ensure the EU Doesn’t Limit Their Polluting
The European Union is weighing major climate legislation to scale back emissions across the continent. But there’s a familiar foe mobilizing to scale back the legislation: lobbyists for corporate polluters.
Left Unity Can Stop France’s Rightward Drift
Next year’s French presidential election looks set to be dominated by Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, with the Left struggling in the polls. We have to unite or face certain defeat.
Big Pharma’s EU Lobbying Could Spell Disaster for Global South Vaccine Waivers
Pharma giants have spent big on lobbying European Union officials over vaccine waivers. It’s paid off: now key European power brokers oppose suspending global vaccine patents to fight the pandemic in the Global South.
In Northern France, A Divided Left Is Finally Coming Together
No one on the French left wants the 2022 presidential election to be another contest between Macron and Le Pen, yet its own forces remain deeply divided. A left-wing alliance for the Hauts-de-France regional election is making parties like the Greens and France Insoumise put aside their differences — but also highlights the difficulties of forming any common strategy for national politics.
The Growing Pains of Marseille’s New Left-Wing Government
Last June, France’s second city voted for the “Marseille Spring,” a left-wing coalition that put an end to two decades of conservative rule. But difficult pandemic conditions — and now the abrupt exit of mayor Michèle Rubirola — have raised questions over its ability to put ordinary citizens in charge of city hall.
Emmanuel Macron Is Creating a Liberalism Without Civil Liberties
On Tuesday, France’s National Assembly passed a bill effectively banning citizens from posting videos of police officers. Emmanuel Macron is trampling on historic press freedoms in order to prove himself as a “law-and-order” president — an authoritarian turn which makes a mockery of his claimed defense of liberal values.