Millions of workers across France and the UK have gone on strike in recent days and weeks

to protest a raft of anti-worker measures, including efforts to roll back the right to strike

and the right to retire with dignity. What can we learn from these episodes in the class struggle

as Wall Street prepare similar attacks here in the United States.

We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded

impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. We are very excited to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us for a regular weekly segment

where we discuss the biggest stories relating to the economy, the state of the working class,

and the crimes of big business.

I'm Walter Smolerick, filling in for Brian Becker.

The Socialist Program brings new content three days a week thanks to the support of our patrons at patreon.com slash the Socialist Program. We appreciate all of your support and encourage you

to become a patron today if you enjoy listening to the show. Richard Wolfe is the co-founder

of the organization Democracy at Work and the author of many books,

the latest being The Sickness is the System.

When capitalism fails to save us from pandemics or itself, check out all of his work at r.d.wolf.com.

So Professor Wolfe, like I mentioned the introduction, major strikes the last few days in

France and in the UK.

These are workers across sectors, public sector, private sector, struggling against anti-worker

reforms and the cost of living crisis that is ravaging the globe, really.

Tell us about the significance of these actions. Wonderful question, but the answer is complicated because of the different

levels at which these things impact. Let me start with France. France has now, if my count is

correct, had three days over the last two weeks

in which the labor unions called out their own members and the sympathies of the larger public.

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