WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, Mouette Enragée #40 - Urban guard, surveillance cameras (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 When the scattered remnants of social democracy persist in paving the

way for reaction. ---- In France, historic social democracy has
degenerated into a liberal-authoritarian hybrid of which Macronism is
one of its most accomplished creations(1). This can be seen as the
culmination of a long process of which Marx, as early as the German
Unification Congress in 1875, had provided a detailed critique(2).
Ironically, the expulsion a few years earlier from the ranks of the
First International by this same Marx and his allies of
anti-authoritarians who supported strikes and social struggles foresaw
the misguided paths that would follow: the vote for war credits on the
eve of the First World War, colonialism, class collaboration, reformism,
centralism, authoritarianism...

Closer to home, in the 5th constituency of Pas-de-Calais, the 2024
legislative elections produced a far-right party as the winner against a
coalition of the left. As everywhere else, the instrumentalization of
fear and incantations to exorcise "the fascist danger" were the
essential driving forces of a campaign that ended with the victory of
the reactionary candidate...

Mobilizing emotions, especially the worst of them all: fear, is first of
all a way of stooping to playing the game of those one claims to be
fighting; secondly, it paralyzes and disarms all initiative; and
finally, it perpetuates the illusion that, after decades of relentless
anti-worker policies, the parliamentary left still has any legitimacy to
speak and act on behalf of the exploited.

Here we can see the full weight of the defeats accumulated over many
years on the morale and self-confidence of workers; Therein lies the
sole reason why a certain number of them still persist in casting a
ballot...

A Diffuse, Intimate, and Ordinary Control

In the 1920s, Bordiga asserted that fascism would realize the program of
social democracy(4). History does not repeat itself, and historical
fascism is a thing of the past. At the heart of the old historical
center of capitalism, more contemporary and sophisticated forms of
indoctrination have since emerged, which must be considered in their
immediate temporality and environment. And above all, in light of the
changes in the relations of production and their induced effects on
society as a whole.

They consist of the diffusion of a multitude of practices of
surveillance, control, and modeling of conduct and behavior from the
site of exploitation to the public space and the domestic sphere. A
process of individualization specific to the civilization of capital,
amplified by the changes of the late 1970s: deindustrialization,
restructuring, the development of services...

 From our consumption to our travels, from our communications to our
professional practices, from our tastes to our state of health, nothing
in our daily behavior escapes the surveillance and conditioning to which
each of us consents and contributes with varying degrees of foresight
and goodwill.

This mobilization to reinstate the conditions of our own alienation is
the primary disposition of the social and political demobilization that
characterizes the period we are living through. This is what singularly
separates us from the era of historical fascism—an era of social
effervescence and mass mobilization, if ever there was one—despite the
fear of moving closer to it that some seem to harbor(5).

New actors, new markets, new mechanisms have emerged. They have
supported and encouraged the reactionary policies of the left-wing and
right-wing parties that have successively led the state and local
governments, thus amending the terrain on which the groups that are
inaccurately described as populist now thrive.

To illustrate this point, we will highlight two issues on which the
local left-wing government has donned the garb of reaction,
demonstrating, if need be, that it is more concerned with its own
survival than with profoundly disrupting social relations...

Social Democratic Porosity to Reactionary Obsessions

Initially opposed to the installation of video surveillance cameras, the
mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer has since changed his mind. Concerned, he
claims, about the "tranquility" of his constituents and willing to offer
them "a pleasant living environment," he did not hesitate to scatter
more than a hundred of them throughout the city's streets, and he does
not seem inclined to stop there... Equating the well-being of a
population with its video surveillance is a mental laziness that is no
longer surprising to observe these days among politicians labeled as
left-wing. The spread of this epidemic of cameras is, moreover,
encouraged by the state itself. The allocation of financial aid offers
municipalities the opportunity to equip themselves at low cost and to
demonstrate that they are acting for the peace of mind of their citizens.

For several years, the local left, concerned by the constant rise in
electoral results of the far right, has embraced its anxieties and
frustrations, legitimized its rhetoric, and anticipated its practices.
It is nothing out of the ordinary: at times when history forces choices
to be made, social democracy systematically sides with the bourgeois
order, fighting the emancipation of workers and the colonized(6).

Undoubtedly nervous about its popularity with the exploited, the
municipal team was keen to assure them of its goodwill. It thus
addressed a "Hats off to the workers of Capécure" while expressing its
"Solidarity with the workers of the former Continentale convicted" by
the courts for their actions in defense of employment (7). In a city
that remains a working-class city, where 40% of the poorest are under
30, annihilating the vote of the exploited would prove fatal (8).
However, it is likely that it will take a little more than fine words
for the ruling socialists to defuse the danger threatening them...

Especially since declarations of solidarity are barely made before they
vanish, contradicted in fact and practice. In Capécure, a privileged
site of class conflict, the local authorities are, as everywhere else,
at the beck and call of the bourgeoisie. And there is no doubt that the
actions carried out on the ground during certain days of mobilization
against pension cuts have worried and upset the city. Nevertheless, a
"video surveillance network" will be duly set up "at strategic points,
at entrances, and on roundabouts" of the industrial zone.

And as if that weren't enough, the "Terminus" project, funded largely
with British money, will strengthen the video surveillance arsenal even
in the neighboring coastal communities. The tragedy experienced by
millions of women, men, and children forced into exile around the world
is proving to be a lucrative source of income for fearmongers and
security industry billionaires.

The "urban guard," it had to be dared...

To avoid giving the impression of bowing to the obsessive neuroses of
the far right, the local authorities perhaps presume to get away with a
semantic pirouette(9). Refusing to establish a municipal police force,
the left will finance an "urban guard." For some time now, around ten
individuals, trained in six months and sworn in, have been working in
"150 areas of expertise," including "the identification of substandard
housing and potential squats."(10).

The national police force is no longer sufficient, according to the
left. It is taken up by "the migration crisis" and "unauthorized car
gatherings." Invoking a few classic scapegoat figures such as the
"immigrant" or the "unseemly youth" is both a convenient and petty
cop-out. This is evidence of an unhealthy opportunism that encourages
and reinforces obscurantist regressions and prepares the ground for even
worse renunciations.
--------
(1) F. Hollande's seven-year term served as a springboard for a whole
host of shameful or fully avowed reactionaries: Valls, Macron, Collomb,
and their ilk, who have done nothing but continue the reactionary
policies initiated by their predecessors: immigration laws, labor laws,
police repression, etc.
(2) Critique of the Gotha Program. K. Marx. Social Editions. 2008. The
controversy will continue, pitting Rosa Luxemburg against Eduard
Bernstein's revisionism, then Lenin and Bolshevization, anticipating the
ruptures that would be precipitated by the First World War and the
Russian, German, and Hungarian revolutions...
(3) A pertinent intervention, if ever there was one, by historian
Christian Ingrao on the subject: "I'm sorry, but maybe we're going to
have to stop with the 'antis'; anti-fascism has never prevented anything
from happening, and that's not at all what's going to prevent Ms. Le Pen
from winning elections one day or another. Anti-totalitarianism has
served no purpose (...) The whole ideology behind Western political
thought, which insists that we use the past to learn lessons for the
future... we have to stop!" » In: "Does Totalitarianism Remain a
Relevant Reading of History?", available online.
(4) Amadeo Bordiga, Defeat and the Dark Years. A. Peregalli & S.
Saggioro. 2016. Even if it needs to be recontextualized, Bordiga's
analysis remains entirely relevant: "It is the left, and first and
foremost, social democracy, which paves the way for fascism, lulling the
working masses into sleep with slogans such as the 'defense of
democratic freedoms' and the 'democratic state' which would be 'at the
service of the entire people'."
(5) It is a fact that the comparison between the current period and
those of the 1930s in Europe provides inspiration to many editorialists...
(6) One could draw up a non-exhaustive and quite eloquent gallery of
portraits of social democrats: Friedrich Ebert, Gustave Noske, Marcel
Déat, Jules Moch, François Mitterrand...
(7) Les échos du Boulonnais. December 2024.
(8) Employees and workers occupy the first place in the 2024 INSEE
census. Sources:
https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/2011101?geo=COM-62160#chiffre-cle-6
(9) The far right is calling for the creation of a municipal police
force composed of around fifty members.
(10) These officers are sworn in, meaning they have taken an oath. They
can draw up reports that can be used as evidence and give rise to
criminal prosecution. Swearing-in, as defined in Article L. 412-18 of
the Municipal Code, does not confer any specific powers. General or
special powers are derived from specific texts. It is possible to
distinguish between statutory and functional swearing-in. Indeed, some
employment categories require prior swearing-in and approval (municipal
police officer and rural warden) to perform their duties.

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