(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #237 - Bourgeoisie in power: The government of employers (fr, pt)

Since his election, the socialist majority leads an equally favorable to employers than 
its predecessors right policy. No wonder what they are all part of the same class, the 
bourgeoisie. It is not the color of candidates who can turn the tide but the 
implementation of popular power. ---- What is the difference between the PS and the UMP? 
Answer: the nature of election promises. In January 2012 the candidate Hollande declared 
that his " real enemy [was] the finance. " He added that he had the frame and remove the 
bonus stock options. This electoral output is comprehensible only through the usual 
communication strategies to gain power. Chirac was the "social fracture", Sarkozy promised 
to be the "president of purchasing power." But behind the electoral verve hides reality 
more down-to-earth policies in the service of the capitalists and richer by their 
strongest allies, the bourgeois politicians.

Policy to serve patrons

The first two years of the Socialist quinquennium have been a succession of facts 
employers and capitalists gifts. In October 2012 the government shrank the movement of 
"pigeons" patterns start-up, protesting against the taxation of their gains. Amount of the 
gift? Approximately 750 million euros. In December 2012, following the report of Louis 
Gallois (who receives an annual salary of EUR 2 million), the government implements the 
competitive employment tax credit (CICE) equivalent to new exemptions from social security 
contributions for businesses and aims to "reduce the cost of labor". Amount: 13 billion 
for 2013 and $ 20 billion for 2014. This gift does not prevent Auchan, which affects 120 
million euros on behalf of CICE, dismiss 300 people. In spring 2013, the government 
endorsed the national interprofessional agreement (Ani) legalizing employer racketeering 
and facilitates layoffs. Results? At Renault, the wage freeze for three years, an increase 
in working hours without compensation and the destruction of 7,500 jobs by 2016. Minister 
welcomes French bosses Montebourg and speaks of "mutual concessions".

The capitalists have the power

Last measurement to date: the famous pact responsibility. Government pledges EUR 30 
billion exemption for companies in exchange for job creation. This device is based on the 
"Confidence Pact" proposed by the MEDEF in November 2014 calls for new tax exemptions 
against the creation of a million jobs. These are just the most prominent of a policy to 
serve patrons examples. Because there was also, in the context of the case of pensions, 
the lengthening of the contribution period for employee-es in September 2013 or the VAT 
increase (defended by the MEDEF) in January 2014. Pact responsibility proposed by Holland 
is therefore not a turning point in its policy but continuity. And continuity goes well 
beyond the five-year period since socialist is also in the policies of previous 
governments lines. This continuity is the same policy: that of capitalism.

One could argue that employers are more aggressive against a socialist government against 
a UMP government and nearly 80% of business leaders voted for Sarkozy in 2012. What we can 
respond that this is where friction between different factions within the same social 
class. The bourgeoisie, even if it shares a common set of interests, is not a united class 
and there is competition within it. Similarly, the electoral game needed to differentiate 
itself from its electoral opponents to be elected. But behind the pretense of logic is the 
same: to maintain the power of the same social class which includes, in their different 
positions within it, politicians and bosses.

The inbreeding between employers and politicians is mainly due to the fact, among other 
things, they have been trained in the same schools: ENA, Polytechnique, etc.. Most 
professional trajectories show continuous shuttling between the private sector and jobs in 
the public sector (ministries, senior positions, large public companies, etc..). This 
collusion goes far beyond an occasional complicity. It is structural and it is on this 
that the power of the capitalists is based. No wonder that right-wing politicians as 
"left" lead the same policy by using the same deceptive language "cost of labor", "burdens 
on business", "competitiveness", "European law" etc.. All terms using a more prosaic 
reality: the continuous enrichment of the same class of wealthy based on the work of 
millions of wage-es and precarious. If the unemployed are less compensated es or the 
Renault employees work harder for less money is not under an abstract economic rule or 
alleged best interest but only to fund the train grandiloquent and luxurious life of a 
handful of individuals.

For popular power

Political power has not been contaminated or submitted by the economic power of the 
bosses. It is the same power available in a multitude of institutions and adorned with the 
same economic or legal language (language that claims to universality to mask the special 
interests that are expressed).

The challenge is not to "take the institutions." Defend this perspective is to be based on 
the idea that these institutions are empty shells that you fill with blue, pink or green 
or elections. Nothing is further from the truth. These institutions are the product of 
capitalist domination and constitute an element of stability.

The challenge in today's struggles is the construction and development of power-cons in 
our places of work, study, life, based on class solidarity and are able to tackle the 
power of the capitalists, bosses, and lay the foundations of popular power.