https://socialistaction.org/2017/06/08/french-election-results-no-choice-for-workers/
French election results: No choice for workers
/ 2 days ago
June 2017 French protestCHRIS HUTCHINSON interviews JEAN ROCH-FORT
Emmanuel Macron, a French banker and longtime establishment politician,
emerged victorious on a “third party” ticket in this year’s French
elections. His victory follows the breakdown of the traditional center
left and right capitalist parties through major corruption scandals.
The candidate of the Republicans, a center right-wing party, Nathan
Fillon, was particularly ridiculed for his outrageous nepotism and
boldfaced lies. Candidate Marie Le Pen, of the far-right National Front
(FN), lost decisively in the run-off election. While significant numbers
of workers voted for Le Pen, it is also true that they voted in
substantial numbers for other candidates like reformist Jean-Luc
Melenchon of the Left Front.
In general, the contradiction and surge of support for non-traditional
parties in this year’s election highlights the anger of the working
class with the continued capitalist austerity assault. The introduction
of the “Loi Travail” was a major attack on French workers in 2016. The
labor law was a tool to benefit the corporations and their shareholders
by hamstringing the unions and allowing the bosses to more easily fire
workers, lower wages, and attack collective bargaining to increase
ruling-class profits.
In opposition, over a million workers and youth poured on to the streets
on the night of March 31, 2016. The occupation of public squares during
the “Nuit Debout” movement failed to stop the labor law but certainly
played a role in shaking up this year’s election. A French trade
unionist and activist in the New Anti-Capitalist Party, Jean Roch-Fort
had this to say about the electoral race:
JFR: What stands out is how poorly elected Macron was. First, without
even taking into account the part of the population that doesn’t have
French citizenship, you have less than 67 million people composing the
French population. 18.5% are under the age to vote, 10.5 % are
disenfranchised. Among the voters, 18% of the population abstained, 4.5%
left a blank vote, and the spoiled ballots reached a historic high of 1.6%.
Of the 31% of French people who voted for Macron, around half did it
just to oppose Le Pen. So, you have around 18% of the population that
supports Macron, which is a very low percentage for someone who’s just
been elected.
Significant minorities of the working class voted both for Le Pen but
also for Melenchon [in the first electoral round], who defended a kind
of reformist outlook. And between the two rounds of the presidential
election, we could see a sizeable portion of youth and workers who said,
“We want neither Le Pen nor Macron.” You had spontaneous high school
demonstrations under that slogan, and several trade unions—for example,
the national CGT federation of chemical industries—officially took that
stand.
A large number of workers so despised the previous government and
Macron, who was one of the main architects of the Loi Travail, that they
were immune to the pressure to vote for Macron at all costs. This was a
much weaker outlook than in 2002, when Jacques Chirac and Le Pen’s
father were the two standing in the second round of the presidential
election.
There is a significant minority that has been electorally won to the FN,
but they are far from all being fascists: it is all the treasons of the
traditional left that has enabled the FN to pose an “anti-system” force.
The hatred for austerity and the traditional political forces is running
deep, and that’s what makes the situation unstable. Even Macron has
temporarily succeeded in presenting himself in the eyes of a mainly
middle-class audience as the new kid on the block, capable of waging a
new politics.
CH: In the U.S., we’ve seen those sympathetic with the far right
emboldened following the election of Trump. Covered widely on social
media, the recent murder in Portland, Ore., of two men and serious
injury of a third for defending a Muslim woman against harassment is
clear indication of a small but growing far-right trend. The U.S. media
portrayed le Pen and Trump as having similar Islamophobic and
anti-immigrant views. Did this election see a rise in popularity of the
far right? Has the far-right movement gained influence and been
emboldened? How can we stop them?
JFR: “The FN has had a difficult time. They prepared this election
campaign for a long time, and they draw a negative balance sheet of it.
Their leadership doesn’t agree on how to proceed now. They are having a
difficult strategic debate. The FN is the result of an institutional
strategy of sectors that come from the fascist tradition; they try to
seize power basically through elections, but even now the ruling class
doesn’t want the FN to rule, they don’t need them to rule.
There is pressure on them to alter their program to make it acceptable
for the French bourgeoisie. A part of the FN leadership wants to adapt
and drop the slogan of opposing the euro currency, while a part wants a
hardening of the “anti-EU” profile of the FN. For now, they are not in a
good position.
But the main danger is not the temporary success of the FN to this or
that election. The problem is that the policies waged by all the
successive governments for decades have paved the way for a
reinforcement of their ideas. The best way to fight the FN is not to
vote for the ones who pave the way for them but to overthrow them and
capitalism altogether!
CH: The New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) got on the ballot and put
forward an independent socialist option to the ruling elite and
reformist parties but did not make it out of the first round of voting.
The goal was not solely to get elected but rather to put forward a
program for workers to take on the capitalists. Jean reflected on the
impact of the NPA campaign:
JFR: Philippe Poutou made a kind of breakthrough when he quite
explicitly attacked Fillon and Le Pen in the main TV debate. He attacked
them for being capitalist politicians and lackeys of the status quo. He
denounced the financial scandals they are involved in, and other
candidates did not dare to do this.
Poutou denounced Le Pen for refusing to go to the judge that summoned
her because she had misappropriated money from the European parliament.
Poutou said that while le Pen could use her parliamentary immunity, when
workers face repression, they don’t have immunity.
The NPA campaign put to the fore the division between the bourgeoisie
and the workers right in the middle of a somewhat “polite” and dull
debate. After that debate, he was viewed with sympathy by lots of
workers. In the campaign he appeared like an average worker that is not
a politician. But I think the NPA campaign might have done a better job
of promoting current social struggles, struggles that didn’t stop
despite the electoral period.
CH: Jean, what are the NPA’s plans after the elections? How do you see
the anti-capitalist movement going forward?
JRF: As the elections were coming to a close, a very original initiative
took place, the Social Front, with the active participation of a handful
of revolutionary militants.
Several trade unions and militant collectives organized a demonstration
on the day before the elections and another one the first day after
Macron was elected. Some 3000 people showed up at the first demo and
almost 10,000 at the second one, despite the fact that not a single
naitonal trade union or political leadership has supported this effort,
and despite the state of emergency.
It was possible because during the Loi Travail movement, different
militant sectors from different traditions learned to work together. And
also because a process of differentiation inside the labor movement is
under way, with trade-unions especially breaking.
The Social Front aims at regrouping the militants who want to fight the
government and who want to regroup the struggles. And now, in part
thanks to the formation of this front, there is a big debate in the
trade-union movement about a key question: should we discuss with and
meet the new president as if it were possible to negotiate with your
class enemy or should we at once organize the resistance?
The Social Front organized another demo, this time in front of the
parliament, the day after the general elections. If this initiative is a
success, we hope to pressure the labor leaders to call for a national
strike quickly, because Macron has already stated that he will destroy
the Labor Laws without even consulting the parliament.
Photo: Workers in Paris protest the Loi Travail in May 2016. Thomas
Samson / Agence France-Presse
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June 8, 2017 in Europe, International. Tags: France
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