PCR of France calls for broader popular struggles

In the statement, the PCRF describes a summer of fires and a heatwave that caused 7,300 deaths, blaming the French state and capitalist system for the conditions which exacerbated the crisis. 

The statement emphasises that the French state is preparing 54 billion euros in cuts to public services and social aid even as French monopolies continue to post strong results. As evidence, the PCRF cites the 61 billion euros in dividends paid in France in the second quarter of 2026, which it says puts the country second worldwide behind the United States. It also points to recent contracts and earnings at CMA-CGM, Alstom, Nexans and Veolia, and to the profits of the energy monopoly Total. “The riches are therefore created, but remain in the hands of the monopolist bourgeois classes thanks to the laws of capitalism and the States that they subordinate to themselves.” reads the statement. 

The statement sharply criticizes the electoralist route. It describes presidential elections as a means of diverting people from class struggle and says no candidate addresses what the PCRF calls the single cause of all crises: private ownership of the means of production. It further says that strikes and demonstrations should not serve as "simple testimonies" addressed to presidential candidates, a criticism it extends to the main trade union confederations, instead urging that they broaden, expand and take an anti-capitalist character. 

The PCRF in the statement further welcomes the September 29 strike by civil servants and firefighters over the freeze on public sector pay and the funding of public services. It also praises the high school student protests, which it says has stood out for its demands and its persistence despite police repression, and which it credits with opening the way to calls for joining forces with students, teachers and workers in other sectors. 

The PCRF's stated strategy is to continue popular struggles over the long term in order to build enough strength to force the government to concede on immediate demands, while linking those demands to an anti-capitalist revolution, the only route to socialism-communism.