The dramatic workers' struggle continues in France against anti-union and austerity measures but gets no notice in US media. We hear much on our news about fundamentalist-driven terrorism in France but nothing about the terrorism of the bosses and the state in response to worker protests. Recent statistics show that world union membership is down to something like 7 per cent, prompting many people to say that union struggles and class struggles are irrelevant. I think that just the opposite is true: workers and the people can advance in places where unions speak for the needs of the entire working class and ally with workers' parties, and if workers can win decisive political power in one or more of the major industrial countries and in the colonies and former colonies then pressure will be brought to bear on the capitalist nations to do better.
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