In this article, we will undertake an analysis explaining several significant moments of contemporary struggles to preserve the system of social rights built in the 19th century and established in 1945, guaranteeing French workers favourable working conditions, health insurance, social security in the event of job loss and retirement, which are gradually subject to neoliberal reforms. The subject of our analysis here are three important moments in the struggle to preserve acquis sociaux, i.e.,
the social rights won, allowing us to understand the social meaning of the changes that have taken place in this matter since the early 1990s in France. The first of these moments is the largest labour strike since 1968, which took place in 1995 and was aimed both at defending the public sector, in particular the state railways (SNCF and RATP), against their privatisation, and at preserving the social rights existing in France at that time, including the pension law in force at that time. The second moment we will devote attention to here will be the “Yellow jackets” revolt, which took place in 2018—2019, and whose participants demanded the revocation of pro-ecological rights. The third moment is the fight against the pension system reform finally introduced “by force” in 2023.
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