Above photo: MP Raphaël Arnault during antifascist mobilization. La France Insoumise/X.
Trade unions and antifascist groups in France are rallying in response to a violent attack by far-right thugs in Paris.
French trade unions and antifascist organizations have launched a wave of mobilizations following a violent assault by far-right groups on young activists on Sunday, February 16. The attack, carried out by around 20 fascist thugs, targeted attendees of a film screening organized by Young Struggle and the Turkish Migrant Workers Cultural Association (ACTIT) in Paris. The assailants beat several audience members and stabbed one of them, a member of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT).
While some attempted to frame the attackers as members of the Turkish neo-fascist Grey Wolves organization, activists on the ground identified markings linked to French far-right groups. They warned that the growing confidence of these factions is happening in parallel with the National Rally’s rise and the mainstreaming of far-right rhetoric by centrist and right-wing parties. A broad coalition of left-wing organizations condemned the attack, noting that it came just as Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau expressed support for xenophobic collectives and ideas, fueling hatred against immigrants, women, LGBTQ+ communities, and left activists.
The normalization of Marine Le Pen and her party as just another political force within the liberal parliamentary system has emboldened fascist groups, giving them a sense of impunity. “The attackers shouted, ‘Paris is Nazi,’” warned France Unbowed MP Raphaël Arnault. “They’re not even hiding anymore. They are galvanized.”
Sunday’s assault is not an isolated incident. Similar attacks have occurred in the same neighborhood in recent years, carrying racist undertones. The rise in far-right violence coincides with the erosion of social protections and workers’ rights under successive governments backed by President Emmanuel Macron. Just as antifascist, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist struggles are deeply interconnected, so too is the reality that calls for social justice are increasingly coming under attack from chauvinist groups—while, as France Unbowed put it, the state remains silently passive and complicit.
Trade unions have echoed these concerns, calling on mainstream politicians to acknowledge the deadly consequences of fascism and take action. “The CGT has been sounding the alarm for a long time: the emboldened far-right is violent—it thrives on the red carpet rolled out for it every day,” the union stated after the attack on its activist. “Despite its attempts to present a sanitized, pacifist image, the far right remains, as ever, intolerant, racist, and offers no future other than repression,” added the trade union confederation Solidaires.
However, workers’ organizations have made it clear that they will not rely on mainstream politicians to resist these violent trends. Instead, they have announced more mobilizations alongside antifascist networks. “We will give them no ground—not in our cities, not in our neighborhoods, not in our workplaces, and not in our struggles,” Solidaires declared.