For the past twenty years, I have always kept track of French strikes, it is a fascinating topic in my opinion. Every time there is a strike, a wealth of information about the evolution of French society and politics is revealed.

These strikes are part of a long tradition of civil disobedience in France. Since the 1789 revolution, the revolutionary government of the 1871 Paris Commune, and the May 1968 students’ movement.

Strikes have become a constant feature of French political life. To the point where the question is not whether there will be another large strike in France, but when. As a result, the October 2022 strikes were easily foreseen. Everything, however, have changed in the last two decades.

Strikes in France are no longer as common as in the past. In November and December 1995, Alain Juppé’s conservative government faced a massive strike involving millions of people throughout France for several weeks.

It resulted in a long-term impact on the French economy and politics. Putting every government in power under constant pressure whenever a new law is passed not approved by the unions. If wanted to stay on power under normal circumstances you needed to get the unions on side, or at least make sure they did not get off side.

However, the situation has changed since then. Fewer and fewer French people are joining unions, and individualism is on the rise. This could be viewed as a side effect of social media, smartphones, and computers isolating people from others and their daily issues.

Taking this into account, unions have shifted their strategy, and now focus on their most powerful bastions, such as oil refineries, storage facilities, and public transport, which allows them to have a greater impact on the lives of millions of people. This is what happened in December 2019, when there was a train and metro strike in Paris for 27 days, causing me to wake up at 4:00 a.m. every morning to make it to work.

Their decision to strike on October 2022 has a different effect. Again, unions piled the pressure on millions of French people, in urban and rural areas, by blocking oil refineries and the distribution of oil and diesel throughout France. Ordinary people were found in an complicated situations from one day to the next, unable to go to work, unable to take their children to school, or shop for groceries.

The French economy was paralyzed, prompting reactions from the economy minister, Mr. Bruno Le Maire, and prime minister, Elisabeth Borne. The strike became the lead story in the media, and there were numerous TV panels on it. Short videos circulated on social media showing French people insulting and even beating each other over oil. Frustration and anger fermented everywhere a few days ago.

Second, this strike confirmed the two opposing factions within the French union movement. The chasm between the hardliners in the CGT, and the moderates in the CFDT. The CGT were in favour of extending the strikes, whereas the CFDT were ready to end the strike as soon as their members’ demands for increased wages were met. With professional elections approaching, this strike was also a show of strength, and allowed the unions to flex their muscles to sway as many voters as possible. We should not forget that the CGT lost first place to the CFDT the last elections.

According to the French labour law in every company with at least 11 employees an Economic and Social Committee must be elected every four years in order to defend staff’s rights. As a result there is what is called the professional elections where there is a stiff competition between syndicates. Each one tries to elect its own members. Symbolically it is very important to be the first union France.

So, the rivalry between the two different currents within the French syndicates is also at stake. Third, the October 2022 strikes in France could be explained as a power struggle between two opposing factions of the French Left. Since 2017, a significant portion of the French Socialists, led by Emmanuel Macron, have formed a new political party, and joined forces with centrist and right-wing political figures to win elections and dominate French politics.

Meanwhile, another part of the French Left, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, made a much more left-wing ideological and political choice, forming a strong alliance with Greens, Communists, and the former powerful Socialist Party. As a result, the oil refinery and public transportation strikes put Emmanuel Macron and his political party under pressure, while also allowing Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his allies to position themselves as defenders of blue-collar purchasing power. Paradoxically, for some, the 2027 presidential election is not so far away, and preparing to run even five years earlier.

Dr George Tassiopoulos is a Greek French political scientist, with a doctorate in political science from the University of East Paris. He was born in Athens, and has lived in France for the past 20 years where he teaches geopolitics in a business school in Paris.