“Put your hand in your pocket” is the most effective way that Clara has found to “take an active part” in the mobilization against the pension reform. Since the start of the mobilization in January, this 45-year-old webmaster has already paid almost 600 euros to the strike funds. This month she even left a quarter of his salary there, without going on strike with her boss.
“I am happy that others are on strike. I am convinced that it is a real lever to establish a balance of power with the government, ”she adds.
“But I also know that in my position, going on strike would have absolutely no impact, unlike a garbage collector or a railway worker. No one would really notice my absence, so I prefer to support strikers in essential positions by helping them.” . financially”.
“If I go on strike, it only bothers me”
Like Clara, many French people who could not go on strike found in these strike funds a way to participate in the mobilization. Since a few days, strike funds record donations: More than 2.7 million euros were collected thanks to the two pots set up by the CGT and Sud. The equivalent of 300 daily contributions since January.
Last Friday, Syphaïwong Bay also preferred to donate 50 euros to the fund launched by the CGT-Sud, rather than go on strike and/or join the marches.
“And then it’s complicated, as the manager of a very small company with five employees. If I go on strike, it only bothers me because I don’t generate income,” adds Syphaïwong Bay. For her, the strike funds are therefore “a very easy way to contribute to the effort.” “We sacrifice part of our salary for all these people demonstrating in our place,” she says.
“For me it is a very good alternative. It fills my frustration, because up to that moment I felt a little marginalized from the debates with my environment, since I did not participate in the demonstrations”, this commercial manager in web marketing also develops, who “felt that I could not give my opinion because I could not get personally involved.”
The solidarity of retirees and expatriates
And donations from abroad are also arriving. From Tokyo, where he has worked as a seconded professor for more than twenty years, François Roussel has paid the equivalent of one day’s salary to the strike fund, that is, 150 euros. And this 61-year-old former resident of Ile-de-France intends to put his hand in his wallet again in the coming days.
“Even though I live in Japan, I’m still French. I probably wouldn’t be affected by this reform, but I wish I could be on the streets right now to defend those who have the right to have access to a well.” -deserved pension. well deserved”, assures BFMTV.com this professor of French and French civilization, who fears that France will lose “its system of intergenerational solidarity”.
Although he has been retired for ten years, Alain Huertas did not hesitate for a second to add 50 euros to the CGT jackpot, as soon as he discovered it on his Facebook news feed. “I put myself within my possibilities, it was the least I could do. In any case, I had no other means of action than to be outraged on social networks”, confesses this man.
The septuagenarian affirms that he wanted to “show solidarity”, either with “his former colleagues or with all the French who work in difficult jobs and for whom it is particularly unfair”, confides this former trader to the BTP, originally from Marseille.
Ask to double donations on Twitter
In the same way, some French people who are not particularly concerned about their own situation are still getting their hands dirty. This is the case of Anthony Ramine, for example, a 35-year-old computer engineer with a more than comfortable salary, who “really doesn’t want anyone’s working hours to be extended.”
Today he joins the Parisian processions, although he is not obliged to go on strike to demonstrate since his employer does not force him to “make an appearance”. So, to compensate and put real pressure on the government, he “provides a little financial help so that the movement continues until the total withdrawal of this unjust reform,” explains this thirty-something Parisian.
On Sunday, like others online, he even launched a call for donations on Twitter, promising the participants “double their bet up to 1000 euros”. A goal achieved by Internet users in just one hour.
To launch this virtual challenge, this engineer says that he was inspired “by the social movements in the United States where they are more used to making this type of double donation announcements, after a long reflection and having made several anonymous donations in my corner since 2019.”
“I ignored the impression of getting ahead of myself and instead focused on the fact that double 1,312 euros was better than only 1,312 euros,” concludes Anthony Ramine, who also fights for his mother, whom he saw working “in the catering business.” from a very young age.” “She ruined her ankles, (…) she was underpaid and sometimes fully understated, so she’s missing a bunch of terms you’ll never see color, and now she’d have to work for two more years? No, thanks”.
Source: BFM TV
