France needs 'more public services', 'salaries are too low', 'schools are in very, very bad shape'

As France confronts another wave of strikes and protests, Gaëlle Martinez, National Secretary of the trade union Solidaires, presents the general strike as more than a confrontation over wages, public spending or the cost of living. Her account reveals a deeper struggle over economic dignity, the future of public services and the democratic right to collective protest. “People just want to live, not survive.” For Martinez, deteriorating schools, insufficient salaries and the dismantling of public services are not isolated policy failures. They are interconnected symptoms of political and economic priorities that, in her assessment, place fiscal restraint above social welfare. Her demand for “a new budget” that is “not based on cuts” is accompanied by a call to “tax the biggest companies, the richest companies where the profits are made.”