What conclusions can be drawn from the sequence which has just ended
with the announcement of the surprise results of the second round of theearly legislative elections? The National Rally, although it did not
succeed in its bet, is firmly established in a large part of the
territory. The left-wing political parties can finally agree on a
program of minimal social reforms... and above all without the
commitment of the social movement today it is the extreme right which
would be in power. We must now strike while the iron is hot and impose,
through the struggle and the streets, the social reforms essential to
definitively rid ourselves of the extreme right and its capitalist
allies and finally impose socialism.
If we can only be relieved that the National Rally did not manage to
have a majority of seats in the National Assembly following this "poker
move" dissolution of Emmanuel Macron, we must be aware that we have only
gained a respite. If the extreme right is not in the majority at the
polls, its ideas and the vision of the world it carries tend to impose
itself. The "defeat" of the RN, relative to the initial forecasts and
projections, is paid at the price of an increase in the number of its
deputies of more than 60%!... we have seen a more bitter defeat.
The RN is now the most represented party in the National Assembly (and
will receive the public funding that goes with it), it collected more
than ten and a half million votes, more than 33% of the votes cast, in
the first round of elections. legislative. The high scores of the RN do
not yet allow it to access Matignon, and in this we can be relieved and
in the first place for racialized people and for gender minorities, the
first victims of the arrival of the extreme right in the power, but also
for the world of work and our social conquests, but this is only a
respite, let's keep that in mind. The RN has conquered new territories
and certain departments will only be represented by RN deputies.
A "Victory" with a bitter taste
Without illusion and by pure tactical choice we had called on those of
our class who were able to do so - because a significant part of the
working classes do not legally have this right - to vote clearly for the
candidates ·es New Popular Front. Without illusion because this alliance
pushed from the evening of Sunday June 9, and the following days, by
demonstrators who came spontaneously to take to the streets to call for
a gathering of left-wing forces has only electoral significance .
The NFP program (not to mention the next betrayals which are sure to
occur) of social-democratic and Keynesian inspiration does not carry the
anti-capitalist, internationalist and self-managing revolutionary break,
the only lasting alternative to liberal-authoritarian capitalism that
the "left" of government" has never radically fought and which
accommodates perfectly an extreme right that is hard on the weak and
soft on the powerful. If we did not participate in the movements
celebrating the "victory" of the NFP which were expressed on Sunday July
7 among certain people on the left, it is therefore not out of cynicism
but rather out of political analysis of the situation.
The "dam", if it worked again this time, was much more complicated and
fragile to implement, and it is not certain that the next time this dam
will hold. At the national level the RN and its ideas continue to
spread, even if we saw during this blitzkrieg that "demonization" is
only a word for communicators, and that in fact it is still a rancid
party fueled by racism and hatred of others under the guise of
rediscovering a "France of yesteryear" which is only a postcard France.
A surge of racist proposals and acts
The unbridled racism whose expression suddenly accelerated on the
evening of June 9 and throughout the legislative campaign will not
disappear overnight. Furthermore, the relative "success" of the NFP was
essentially built in urban centers where the "dam" still holds while the
"rural areas in decline", marked by a feeling of "collective
downgrading" and a sharp decline in public services, vote very strongly
in favor of the RN. For their part, the working-class neighborhoods and
their inhabitants, who are the first targets of the reactionaries, also
remain on the fringes of institutional policy, combining higher rates of
poverty and unemployment, a lower level of qualifications and
over-occupancy of housing. three times higher than the metropolitan average.
It should be noted that if the vote in working-class neighborhoods leans
more towards left-wing parties, it is mainly marked by a very strong
abstention, a sign of disinvestment in the political sphere even if the
mobilizations in support of Gaza and the Palestinian cause promote a
repoliticization of neighborhoods. These territories, the "declining
countryside" and working-class neighborhoods, which the far right likes
to oppose for electoral and racist purposes, suffer from the same social
ills as a result of forty years of liberalism and systematic destruction
of public services and solidarity. . Today, political and trade union
organizations are hardly established in these areas and struggle to make
themselves heard. Resentment towards the "elites", the "center", "urban
dwellers" or others, if it is built on social causes, is often expressed
either by deserting the political sphere, or by fueling a vote
supposedly "against the system" but in fact xenophobic and antisocial.
Social and geographical divides
The popular momentum, not massive but real, generated by the NFP must
today be focused on building a strong and offensive social movement. The
institutional situation which gives no winner among the three blocs,
left, far right and presidential ("ultraliberal and illiberal extreme
center") is today conducive to a relaunch of collective struggles on our
own slogans and , for the first time in years, in an offensive and no
longer defensive logic: reduction in working hours, increase in paid
leave, increase in wages and social minimums, right to housing (truly
enforceable), taxation of high incomes and dividends, free public
transport, 100% organic and local in school canteens now free, social
food security... without immediately going as far as the complete
socialization of the means of production (although), there is no
shortage of demands for our class.
Historically we have only conquered what we fought for, including in
1936. The sequence which opens offers us the opportunity for a great
"swing to the left". Faced with a disavowed center and an extreme right
which has not been able to hide its true face for long, we must uphold
the values of class solidarity, progressive and inclusive in the face of
the reactionary camp. And it is first and foremost within the unions
that we can lead this fight, hence the importance of getting involved in
the union and making class demands in the face of capitalist interests.
For communism and self-management
If the RN vote is marked by adherence to racist ideas, we must not
essentialize the voters seduced by these ideas. They are only expressing
systemic racism which is primarily promoted by the State and the
capitalist system that the far right exploits for partisan purposes. To
this "ethnoracial" reading of social relations, which is that of RN
voters, we must oppose our classist and united reading grid. This
discourse which is less and less carried by our organizations in
territories where we are more and more absent... and where the RN,
despite its militant weakness, is present. The decline of these ideas,
which will not happen overnight, cannot be done without pointing the
finger at the main producers of this racism: namely the State as well as
the bourgeoisie on a national and international level through their
interests. imperialists.
Now we get organized
In this period, it is for us, libertarian communist activists, to act
within our counter-powers and to be driving forces in the future
construction of social movements, because without collective struggles,
there is no no revolutionary and self-managing alternative possible.
Nothing has been gained except a time of respite, so as political
activists we must invite the struggle, of course, but also reinvest the
political, union and social terrain: call to reinvest the tools of mass
politicization that are unions, political organizations and
associations, (re-)making links and (re-)weaving social bonds. At the
union level this means investing in local unions and creating everywhere
It is possible to have local VISAs (Vigilances and Antifascist Union
Initiatives) to carry out antifascist work on the ground.
At the social and local level this work will be essential in the period
to come and it must be done in conjunction with anti-racist, feminist,
LGBTI and internationalist organizations and struggles. Finally, rural
areas and their demands must not be ignored. Environmentalist struggles
and against large useless projects, places of politicization and meeting
between different social universes must also be prioritized in the
period to come. We are perhaps at a moment of revolutionary,
anti-capitalist and self-management rupture. Exasperation against this
system will only increase, but can give various directions: a
conservative and fascist reaction or the aspiration for revolutionary
change which would involve socialization and self-management. Nothing is
written in advance, but our concrete actions must be aimed at building a
strong, offensive social movement independent of political calendars.
David (UCL Savoies)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Front-social-contre-le-fascisme-et-le-capita
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