After months of tireless rallying from highschoolers, massive protests on the 17th and 24th of October, and all of us living acts of joyous solidarity, the only answer from this authoritarian government is to criminalize and suppress. The number of people held in custody is skyrocketing, with arrests mostly being imposed on minors, and everyday capital’s militia mutilates and wounds, hoping to break down our resolve.
Once again, the goal is to enforce an unfair budget until we reach our breaking point by brutally axing the public service and education. These « budget cuts » inflicted upon the working class are again diverted to the pockets of shareholders, CEOs and capitalists of all kinds.
As capitalism and racism go hand-in-hand, racist violence is also getting unleashed, as given away by the bonds between fascist thugs and police as well as the dreadful racist attack in Trappes. This mediatic and political landscape made far-right rhetoric commonplace, and it is our duty to build a massive anti-racist and anti-fascist front through union action.
The government and their loyal mutts forget that class solidarity isn’t broken with batons and sob stories about smashed storefronts. It is time, more than ever, to amplify our action and make the struggles converge. At every workplace, reach out to colleagues and comrades and organize strikes and general assemblies. Let us enforce our demands with walkouts and solidarity.
It is crucial to remember one does not conjure a general strike, one builds towards it. Community canteens, strike funds, pickets and blockades are all actions that allow movements to flourish until victory.
This is why the STJV is calling for a strike in the video game industry from the 5th to the 13th of November, to take the initiative and prevent employers from organizing against it. We call upon each and every worker to mobilize, be they employed or not: the unfair layoffs we have been enduring for years do not hinder our ability in the slightest.
We demand a budget that actually improves the lives of workers and students alike, policies that put an end to unfair mass layoffs in the video games industry as well as in every other sector, and an immediate end to the violent repression of social movements, in the streets and in companies.
Let’s use that nation-wide call to organize locally in the long term. Let’s take part in blockades and local actions, protect our younger comrades during protests and lend a hand to community canteens and union action. It is not up to unions to organize the working class, it is up to the working class to organize unions.
This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a video game publishing, distribution, services and/or creation company – whatever their position or status and whatever their company’s area of activity (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, licensed products, esports, online content creation, etc.). It also applies to all teachers working in private schools in video game-related courses. As this is a national strike call, no action is necessary to go on strike: just don’t go to work.