It wasn't just the rain that disrupted the start of the Olympic Games, drenching the costly opening ceremony. On the rail network, part of the train traffic and therefore passengers were halted, following what the Ministry of Transport called a "sabotage operation".

On the night of Thursday July 25 to Friday July 26, signal boxes at three SNCF sites were set on fire and signal cables cut. A fourth site was targeted, but the arrival of railway workers carrying out maintenance operations during the night scared off the saboteurs. The location of the targeted sites testifies to a precise knowledge of the rail network's hotspots. These operations were carried out in a well-prepared and coordinated manner, and were certainly implemented by the same organization.

Was it the "ultra-left", to use the term favored by journalists and police to designate the anarchist movement and the Black Blocs? An e-mail sent to several media outlets and denouncing the Olympics as a state-led operation to brainwash people claimed responsibility for the sabotage. However, according to the police themselves, there is no evidence of “ultra-left” activism behind the sabotage.

Could it have been committed by members of the far right? Many of them have the technical knowledge needed for this kind of operation. Their close links with the police and the army could have provided them with the necessary means of organization and networks. And we're in a context where, having felt "robbed of their victory" in the legislative elections, some on the far right may want to make their presence felt in another way.

Regardless of who carried out the acts of sabotage, they caused a lot of inconvenience to passengers, including workers going on vacation, and created an additional workload for the railway workers who had to repair the damage. And who does this really benefit anyway when the real problem today is the sabotage of the economy on a much larger scale due to the domination of the capitalist class?

Valeo's bosses have just announced the closure of three of their plants and are about to deprive several hundred workers of their jobs in order to increase the dividends paid to shareholders. The state is sacrificing hospitals, nursing homes, education, transport and housing so that it can devote an ever-increasing share of public money to enriching a minority of bourgeois dynasties, such as the Arnault, Mulliez, Dassault and Bouygues families. This is the sabotage that is ruining society and plunging it into chaos, with consequences far more serious than a temporary breakdown in the rail network!

The simple fact that we can't say why and by whom this damage was done shows that nothing good can come of it for workers. Who are the police and SNCF management going to blame now? Are they going to attack railway workers and activists who challenge their policies, on the pretext that sabotage requires a good knowledge of the rail network? Such actions have always been used in the past by governments to justify arbitrary measures and the strengthening of repressive laws.

In November 2008, the destruction of railway infrastructure led to the so-called “Tarnac affair”. The right-wing government at the time, led by Sarkozy, had fabricated an alleged ultra-left plot which led to the arrest of several people who were finally acquitted after ten years of legal proceedings.

Workers are the only ones who can offer humanity a future free from crisis and war. They are the only ones who can expropriate the capitalists, put an end to their domination over society and build a rational economic organization enabling workers to truly make a living.

“Bread and circuses – that's what is needed to keep the people happy", said the dignitaries of the Roman Empire. Their cynical contempt was no different from that of today's world leaders, gathered on the banks of the Seine for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. But in the past, this has never protected the ruling classes from revolts and revolutions. The same will be true in the future!

Nathalie Arthaud