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France: Accepting the Electoral Terrain for or against the Far right? The Fight against "Fascism"? Or the Terrain of Class Struggle and the Defense of Proletarian Interests?
We publish here the statement of the International Communist Party [1], whose publication in France is Le Prolétaire, following President Macron’s surprise dissolution of parliament after the extreme-right’s electoral victory in the European elections. The new elections to be held very soon, on June 30 and July 7, appear to pave the way for a government formed by Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement national. Immediately, all left-wing forces created a "new popular front" with explicit references to 1936 and the pre-war period. We shall come back to the significance and political consequences of this dissolution for the position of French capital on the imperialist stage. Does it weaken the battle for European leadership waged by French capital in recent months, and carried forward by Macron, in the face of the march towards generalized imperialist war? Of course, a Rassemblement National government, or even a "popular front" government, would be just as keen to defend the interests of French imperialism. But will it have the same capacity to do so?
On the other hand, there can be no doubts on a national level, i.e. when it comes to the proletariat. The attacks will redouble whether the government is far-right, center-right Macronist – not very likely – or eventually left-wing. Proletarians have much to lose by siding with one camp or another. In particular, the trap of the "anti-fascist" struggle is likely not only to bring a large proportion of the 50% of abstainers, most of whom are workers and salaried, back into the electoral field, but above all to block any inclination and dynamic of struggle on the terrain of the defense of proletarian interests. Therein lies the trap. To what extent will it attract the most militant forces of the proletariat, the same ones tasked with drawing the entire working class behind them? That is what is at stake right now. That is why we are adopting the ICP leaflet as our own, despite our political disagreements.
ICP leaflet: With the "Rassemblement national"’s Electoral Success and New elections, It’s not an Electoral Popular Front that Can Oppose Bourgeois Attacks, but the Anti-Capitalist Class Struggle!
In the wake of the RN’s electoral success [2] and the government list’s bad result in the European elections, Macron has decided to dissolve parliament and call for early legislative elections. The campaign will be waged in the name of rejecting ’extremes’ and defending the "values of the Republic". On the left, the parties that had been at each other’s throats the day before were back together in the blink of an eye, not only to defend their seats in parliament, but also to oppose the threat of the far right and defend "democracy". They chose the name "Front Populaire" to baptize this alliance, not only because the appellation "Union de la Gauche" would have been too reminiscent of the Left’s action in the service of the bourgeois order, but above all because it evoked vague memories of the anti-fascist struggle of the thirties – whereas the Front Populaire had essentially served to contain the gigantic strike wave of 1936.
This new Front Populaire saw the implicit or explicit rallying of most trade unions (CGT, CFDT, Solidaires, FSU, UNSA) and so-called ’leftist’ groups.
Once again, as has been the case for decades, a supposed fascist danger embodied by the FN [former Front National] or its current heir the RN, is being stirred up to mobilize the population in general and proletarians in particular in support of the established order and the institutions of the bourgeois republic allegedly under threat.
The RN is undoubtedly a fundamentally reactionary and anti-proletarian political force, despite its demagogic propaganda, and its coming to power could only be synonymous with redoubled capitalist attacks. But we all know that these attacks did not wait for the RN’s victory: following in the footsteps of the Hollande government, the Macron government has continued over the years to multiply anti-worker measures (most recently, the law toughening measures against the unemployed) and step up repression against the most diverse social struggles and protests. Its immigration law was even voted for by the RN at the end of last year! The rise of the extreme right in France and elsewhere in Europe reflects capitalism’s need to increase exploitation, oppression and repression, including by modifying existing political balances. It does not herald the arrival of a form of fascism, as democracy allows this deterioration in the economic and social conditions of proletarians, while diverting the inevitable discontent towards the harmless electoral terrain.
An electoral victory for the left-wing reformist parties, which have always been the zealous servants of capitalism, with the support of the unions that have sabotaged all the major struggles of recent years, would be incapable of leading to any opposition to the capitalist attacks.
Whatever the outcome of the forthcoming elections [3], proletarians can only rely on their own strength, on their own struggles to defend themselves: that’s what they need to prepare for, without letting themselves be fooled by the illusionists of a new Popular Front as reprehensible as the old one.
Down with the bourgeois Republic and all its institutions!
For the union of proletarians of every nationality, age and sex, unemployed or working!
For the resumption of independent class struggle against capitalism and imperialism!
For international communist revolution!
[translated in English by the IGCL]
