WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, OCL CA #351 - From March 8th to April 12th, Spring Demonstrations: Heads in the Sand About the "Coming Fascism" (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 From March 8th to April 12th, we experienced a month filled with

reasons for reflection on the period and on ways to counteract "the
coming fascism." First, March 8th, International Women's Day, with calls
for demonstrations throughout France, as every year. This year, as it
progressed, the day became as much anti-fascist as feminist: almost all
of the several hundred organizations and collectives that initiated it
consistently declared that we were on the eve of fascism.
How many of us were there in the streets? From 50,000 to 120,000 in
Paris, according to the police or organizers; 250 to 300,000 throughout
France, according to the most optimistic. Given the current low point in
social movements, it's safe to say it wasn't so bad, and even a little
better than last year... for a ritual feminist demonstration. However,
considering the "blocking the road to fascism" aspect, given the support
and active participation of the institutional left, parties,
associations, unions, and the resources made available by many
municipalities, there is no reason to celebrate or boast of even a
relative success. It would be better to organize rapid departures to
places where the grass is supposedly greener!

When it comes to taking stock, as it is difficult to believe that
fascism could be stemmed with such small numbers, the organizers have
refocused on feminist demands. The anti-fascist aspect was reduced to
having managed to outwit Nemesis and "nous virons" (We Will Live), who
had tried to infiltrate the protests to "provoke the feminist movement
and exploit this struggle to serve their reactionary ideas," Permanent
Revolution tells us. Yet, one might well wonder if a demonstration where
the narrative is how the male fascists' social wing is being pushed back
by the (mainly male) anti-fascist wing is truly feminist. One gets the
impression that, lacking sufficient forces to curb the rise of the far
right, we are playing out a mock battle in a fishbowl. The UCL even
considered that the number of demonstrators on March 8th had "exceeded
expectations"! On March 22, the Solidarity March against Racism took
place with unions and associations against a backdrop of controversy
surrounding a visual depicting Cyril Hanouna distributed by LFI, which
recalled the worst anti-Semitic caricatures, and the odious expulsion of
400 foreign minors from the Gaîté-Lyrique. Organized as part of the
International Day Against Racism and Fascism, it brought together 20,000
demonstrators in Paris, 90,000 throughout France according to the
police, and 100,000 in Paris according to the organizers. The same
observation as for March 8: these figures are derisory if the aim is
truly to "block the road to fascism." But unlike on the 8th, the
triumphalism was more nuanced. The organizers, who were back on their
feet, certainly wanted to justify their success by doubling the number
of signatories to the appeal, but at the grassroots level, there was a
certain disappointment among the protesters and an awareness of their
weakness compared to the gap crossed by the Gaîté-Lyrique incident. The
social composition of the protesters, with the presence of immigrants
and foreign minors, made class issues much more present than on March 8.

April 6, LFI and the Ecologists launched an appeal against the far right
in Paris. LFI is the only party capable of mobilizing crowds in recent
years. But this time, we were far from the 100,000 people gathered
between Bastille and République by Mélenchon during the election
campaign on March 20, 2022! At that time, the issue was simply to
inaugurate a Sixth Republic. Which, we must admit, was of lesser
importance than the stakes proclaimed this year! And yet, this time
there were only 15,000 people at most. Again, this is a bit of a stretch
to claim to stem a fascist tide!

Amid the petty squabbles between the left, the organizers were quick to
castigate the absence of the Socialist Party and the Communist Party,
blaming them for the demonstration's semi-failure. But the main thing is
to maintain morale: they promise, a "human tide" will take to the
streets on May 1st. Proof that for the parties, political stakes are the
most important: Alexis Corbière was booed and accused of treason on the
pretext that he had left LFI.
A positive point is the strong presence of Palestine blocs, which shows
that the mobilization against the massacres in Gaza is involving more
and more people.

On April 12th, we hit rock bottom. No fewer than thirty organizations
called for the defense of the rule of law in all cities of France. From
the CGT to Solidaire, from the Socialist Party to Greenpeace and Cimade,
they were all there to block the path of the rising fascism, or, for
some, the already existing fascism. All the ingredients were there to do
better than the previous week, with the theoretical presence of the
unions, which are currently the only ones who can still hope for massive
street mobilizations.
But in reality, it was a matter of outdoing LFI, which had gone it alone
on the same issue the previous week.
A total fiasco on both counts. Rarely has there been a more resounding
slap in the face; even the press barely dwelled on it, so visible was
the discrediting of the parties! Generally, the protesters are counted
in the hundreds of thousands, even tens of thousands. In the thousands
when it comes to a local struggle. This time, at the call of the entire
social-democratic left across the country, the number of protesters
reached hundreds in a few major cities (barely a thousand in Paris, 400
in Bordeaux, 200 in Nantes, etc.) and dozens in most cities across France!
A resounding flop that had the perverse effect of making the previous
days appear like successes. The irony!

The constant reference to the 1930s and the word "fascism" itself to
designate all the violent episodes that history offers us in order to
maintain the domination of capital risks preventing us from
understanding the new mechanisms being put in place to enslave
individuals and better extract surplus value.
This serves to mask the specificities of each period and the complicity
of those who pretend to oppose it, such as the current "anti-fascists"
who are converting to the war economy and even inventing "war ecology."
May we never know a time when fascism seems more human than the moment
we are living in!

JPD

https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4438
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca