France: Revolutionary Worker and Trade Unionist Timothée Esprit Faces Attacks from Employer

For more than three years, revolutionary worker and CGT trade unionist Timothée Esprit has been subjected to continuous harassment by his employer, the Toray Company, for opposing the right to resistance of the Palestinian people, according to a recent article by La Cause du Peuple.

Timothée Esprit is a very active union representative, and regularly visits his colleagues and leads several strikes, fostering a fighting spirit within the factory in which he works.

So far there has been two attempts by the management to fire Timothée. The second attempt is still ongoing as La Cause du Peuple (LCDP) writes: “In parallel, the company Toray has appealed to the Constitutional Council with a Priority Question of Constitutionality (QPC), in order to lift his protected employee status, as a member of a Joint Permanent Negotiation and Interpretation Commission (CPPNI).[…]” LCDP explains that behind this new attack, the very principle of protection of the union representativesis threatened!

During the hearing, around sixty people gathered to support Timothée Esprit, the right of Palestinians to resist, and trade union freedoms. Among those present were members of the FNIC-CGT trade union, as well as young revolutionary activists and representatives of the Anti-Imperialist League (AIL).

Timothée Esprit reiterates in his statement following the hearing that behind this opposition lies the antagonism between labor and capital, saying:“The employer’s objective was to destroy me individually […] but where he erred was that he was confronted by a collective, namely the collective of the working class.”