English

Create a revolutionary current in the Left Front

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:53:49 +0200

Article published first in Worker’s Liberty
http://www.workersliberty.org/

By Le Militant, a socialist journal
In Le Militant, we said in June 2011 that Jean-Luc Mélenchon could come out in the lead in the first round. Not because of our illusions, or enthusiasm, but by cold analysis, which is this: the relations between classes.
We are keeping a cool head: whether it will succeed or not, the movement aims to undo Sarkozy and confront the regime of the 5th Republic and the boss class. We are aiming for that confrontation. If Mélenchon is in the lead then the confrontation will come faster and stronger, and if not it will still advance. In any case, we must organise. In the Left Front in particular, the question is posed of the organisation of the thousands who are mobilised.
That is why Le Militant is taking part actively in the campaign for a Mélenchon vote, and is raising the need for a democratic government which repudiates the so-called “public” debt and breaks with the 5th Republic.
What is at stake in this election for millions of workers is kicking out Sarkozy, while the candidate that the media presents as the only one capable of achieving this, François Hollande, does nothing to lead a mobilisation with a programme which responds to the needs of the working population.
The media and the political establishment want give the impression that:
• Hollande is the only one who can beat Sarkozy, with votes from the centre;
• François Bayrou, candidate of the “centrist” Democratic Movement, with his electoral capital is important and must be addressed;
• that abstention will remain at a high level because working-class and poor voters do not know who to vote for;
• that blue collar workers who are victims of the crisis can only vote for the National Front.
That is why the campaign by the Left Front and Mélenchon has usefully confronted Le Pen and put her on the defensive, and shown that there is nothing inevitable about leaving the political space open to her, by exposing her chauvinistic and racist demagogy.
By building a dynamic campaign that directly challenges Sarkozy, the president for the rich, Mélenchon has created an enthusiasm responding to the needs of the millions of workers who have suffered successive defeats since 2002, notably in the strikes of 2003 and 2010, giving a political opening to the majority rejection of the European Constitutional Treaty in 2005. This did not signify a nationalist rejection, but a refusal of the constitutional freedom given to bosses and to the markets to do what they wanted without social restraint.
An anecdote: at the start of the electoral campaign, the leaflets distributed by the PS were blue, the colour that Sarkozy’s UMP uses a lot. Now, PS leaflets are red — the same colour the Left Front uses.
Mass rallies at Bastille on 18 March (120,000 people), at Toulouse (70,000 people), Lille, and Marseille (100,000) have expressed the need for a clearly left-wing campaign to beat Sarkozy. Activists at these rallies will not be satisfied just with voting but want to mobilise beyond the ballot box to stop cuts and impose measures which favour the working population.
Beyond the presidential election, the left as a whole must fight to win a large parliamentary majority, in which the Left Front has substantial weight.
There too, nothing is inevitable. If Hollande is elected, he will want to limit the influence of the Left Front by asserting PS supremacy in the future parliamentary majority, or by looking for alliances with the centre, or by trying to buy the entry of Left Front ministers into his own government.
For now, given that Hollande intends to apply a programme of managing the debt crisis, there can be no question of entering such a government. That would certainly be the first key test of the longevity of the Left Front after the elections.
In any case, with the debt crisis and the “deficits”, and the predictable policy of Hollande for managing the crisis in the same way as Zapatero (Spain) or Papandreou (Greece), social tension will not let up. There is no possible half-way choice: either managing the debt at the expense of the workers and those relying on the welfare state, by means of privatisations, sackings and cutting wages, or the reconstruction of public services and worker’ rights through measures aimed against capitalists. Either ratification of the Sarkozy-Merkel treaty, or repudiation of the debt: no half measures are possible!
Furthermore it is important to note that this is the first time that a left-wing electoral campaign has put the need to finish with the 5th Republic front-and-centre, and the need to return to a real parliamentary regime by calling a constituent assembly. This radical democratic demand is very bad news for all institutions created over the last thirty years through decentralisation and regionalisation, likewise for all the European institutions which are European in name only and which are all political tools for the exclusive benefit of capitalists and bankers.
For the Left Front to play a useful role in the coming period, it needs to orient its programme in a clearly anti-capitalist direction. It is the responsibility of all those who support anti-capitalism and real socialism to work to this end.
This is why Le Militant is proposing to all to create a revolutionary current within the Left Front, pushing for the adoption of an adequate programme to meet the crisis of the capitalists and aid the political and social mobilisation at all levels.
2012 has not yet finished surprising us!

The future international

Sun, 1 Apr 2012 17:44:43 +0200

Click on the image to read the new document of the Workers’International Network

The push towards a general strike in France

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:42:16 +0200

The 12th October saw the biggest number of demonstrators on the streets so far, reliably estimated at four million. Strikes are weaker in the public services but are growing elsewhere, worrying the employers in middle-sized and smaller firms, whether they be in the form of frequent stoppages of work starting every day at 12 o'clock in places where there are union branches or whether they be in the form of one-day stoppages in certain firms, or whether they be in the form of "disturbances" linked in to the presence of squads of trade unionists and militants along the main axes of industrial parks or commercial centres.

The rolling general strike is effective in the refineries. We should be clear on this point: the strike in the refinieries, the one started in Marseilles, is a general strike on the march.
This same general strike is pushing forward, finding its way into literally hundreds of engineering, building etc. firms and into the service industries. What defines this as a general strike is its political content. Its actual extent is still weak but it is polarising the political and social life of the country. There is not the same reaction to the strikes at the refineries in the same way as in the strikes by proxy towards the railway workers in 1995 and the teachers in 2003; rather there is a broad solidarity which is expressed in financial support from all parts of France.
Teachers and students are not on strike, but they are considering their position; appeals which are being made to them are for a "prolongable or extendable strike" and these are in themselves counter-productive, because a "prolongable strike " means nothing; the real question is that of a general strike whereas a prolongable strike only makes sense as a means of prolonging a general strike, all the while drawing in from all directions those who is it directed towards, not just for staging some kind of demonstration or other. That is the normal role of the unions.
Activists have entered the strike and have been linking up with cross-union and cross-sector squads which move from one site to the next. What is happening in these mobile squads has a twin effect: on the one hand they meet up with other activists, ordinary employees and often retirees who wish to extend the strike; on the other hand they aid the leaders in placing the responsibility for victory or defeat on the activists there while at the same time exhausting them.

The current situation (24th October 18.00 hrs)

The present situation is dangerous. State power has begun the seizure of refinery workers site by site and will attempt the same with the garbage workers in Marseilles. These seizure orders are close to legal limits and represent serious acts of repression against the youth; one school student lost an eye following 7th October and the events which have unfolded in Lyon, on Bellecourt Square have been described by the media as provocations by delinquents, but have revealed themsleves little by little as witness reports flowing in about the true nature of events; for a whole day, repressive armed groups of state forces boxed the students into the square, gassed them, beat them and arrested them on trumped-up charges of "flagrant public order offences".

It would be sufficient to change the situation if workers and activists in a single refinery or a single petrol station offered energetic resistance to the "forces of order" but this has been prevented for the moment by the absence of a national appeal by the unions for a General Strike and by the culture of a "prolongable strike site by site" which came from the activists of 1995 and 2003.

The next national "Day of Action" has been called for Thursday 28th October although the final vote for the law could well take place on 27th; at the same time the inter-union committee is already appealing for demonstrations on Saturday 5th November; the law would already have been voted in by that time and so would condemn the efforts of the strikers outside to failure.

There are three possible scenarios.
The one worth fighting for is the resurgence of an effective general strike with the occupation of the major places of production. With the exception of certain large factories such as Michelin at Clérmont-Ferrand or the Peugeot factory at Sochaux, this occupation cannot take the old form of of factory occupation used in 1936 or 1968. Instead there must be sieges of the sites and the industrial parks by mass worker squads. However it is essential that within this framework the salaried employees be able to meet and take decisions themselves. The struggle for the general strike must not ignore the instrctions from the unions: on the contrary people must be reminded that the unions must be able to play their role and launch appeals, aid the movement to achieve centralisation against the main target - Sarkozy. A central demonstration in Paris can become a part of the move to reach this centralisation. Active solidarity with the refinery workers is also an essential element in this struggle.

An effective general strike will rapidly raise the question of Sarkozy's departure. The only reason for not being able to kick him out would be the refusal of the union leaders and the left parties to demand it. The removal of the UMP-led parliament will also be posed and has been posed since an anti-democratic vote on 15th September.
One difference with May-June 1968 is that there will be less to fear from elections taking place in an atmosphere of fear although the left is weak; the majority of society supports the present strikes to a greater degree than in May 68. It would open great possiblities.

The second scenario would be a Sarkozy victory. A real victory for him would lead to a demoralised working class and youth as in Britain following the defeat of the miners. It would open the road to a wave of brutal reaction, possibly including fascist elements. But let us say that this is rather improbable in the near future because of the extent and the depth of the movement, although it cannot be completely excluded.

The third scenario is that a general strike will not develop but that the movement will continue and take on forms recalling certain historic precedents such as the wild Italian May of 1969 or the Winter of Discontent in Britain in 1979. It should not be forgotten that both these periods were followed by serious defeats.

In all the various cases, the final balance of forces, victory or defeat, will depend on the political regroupments amongst the combatants, the activists and the strikers and the speed with which an organisation can be formed, independent of present leaderships, which has no other mandate than that which comes from the rank and file and has no other aim than to gain victory.

Translated from french by Walter Held (Germany)

Originaly published by Facts for Working People - USA
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2010/10/push-towards-general-strike-in-france.html

France : explosion of workers and youth

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 07:29:43 +0200

One of the principle features of this era is the increased ease with which capital is sent from one country and one part of the globe to another. This includes both speculative finance capital and direct investment (investment in building new factories). This has resulted in and increased competition between the working class of different countries. The first step in countering this has to be regionally coordinated action against attacks on wages, jobs, etc. Until now, this has been generally lacking, but events in the European Union are now starting to reverse this.
            Greek Crisis
There, a new stage in capitalism’s economic crisis broke out over this last summer as the public debt of Greece was first fully revealed. This led to deep cuts in the Greek state budget and cuts in social services and public sector jobs. The Greek working class responded by massive strikes and protests, but they were unable to prevent these cuts from going through.
            EU-Wide Movement
The crisis in Greece was only a forerunner to a more generalized crisis throughout the EU. As this is the most economically integrated region of the entire world, it would be only natural that a working class movement against capitalism’s attacks would become regionalized here first also. This is what has happened.
May was the month of the greatest protests in Greece. This was followed by a series of strikes in Spain, leading up to the first general strike in Spain in eight years, and similar protests in Italy. German workers also protested Germany’s biggest austerity drive since World War Two after Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet unveiled plans for 80 billion euros ($96 billion) in budget cuts and tax rises over four years.
Then, this fall, the protests mounted, with more actions in Germany as well as in Portugal.
One of the most important features of these developments has been the stirrings of the working class in Eastern Europe. There, workers in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Romania have all struck and protested against planned cuts. The fact that all but one of these protests took place within a day of each other (Sept. 21 and 22) indicates some degree of conscious cross-border coordination. The only exception – Romania – was only five days later (Sept. 27).
            France
However, the real jewel in the crown of this movement has been the massive movement in France. There, Prime Minister Sarkozy has followed a general pattern throughout the EU in seeking to reduce pensions and increase the retirement age. Emboldened by his success in slightly reducing the pension payouts, Sarkozy then announced an increase in the retirement age to 62 from the present 60 and the age for a full pension to 67 from the present 65. Perhaps he also thought he’d sufficiently distracted and confused the French workers and youth by his attacks on Muslim people (banning of the burqa) and his deportation of masses of Romany (“gypsies”). He was mistaken, and the reaction has been one of mass fury.
In the first week of the protests, starting Oct. 11, over 3 million protesters were reported to have come out throughout France. Normally, one might think that young people would not be so involved in a struggle that most directly appears to affect older workers, but the French students understand the situation well, saying that as the retirement age is increased this will mean fewer jobs for them. Refinery workers have struck, and along with strikes and go-slows of truck drivers, this has nearly paralyzed much of France. Flights into and out of Paris’s main airport have been reduced by as much as 50%, for instance. The strikes have spread to practically every sector, including the tourist industry, as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum have been closed due to strikes of the workers at those two locations.
            Sarkozy & European Capitalist Class
Nor is there any sign of the strike weakening. On Tuesday, Oct. 19, it was reported that as many as up to 3 million protesters were out on the streets. (Even the government admitted to slightly over 1 million.) Perhaps seeing himself as a latter day Margaret Thatcher facing down the equivalent of the British coal miners, Sarkozy has insisted that he will not relent. “This reform is essential, France is committed to it,” he said. “It is perfectly normal and natural that it provokes unease and opposition.”
The rest of the European capitalist class is applauding his resolve and seeking to reinforce it. As Jan Kees de Jager, Dutch finance minister, said in regard to austerity measures in the EU: “Some countries are getting cold feet… It’s time to show our citizens we mean business.”
Despite this, there are just a few cracks appearing in the resolve of the Sarkozy regime. The most important is the slight delay in the planned vote in the French Senate on these pension “reforms”. Originally, the vote was set for Tuesday, Oct. 19, but it has been delayed until Friday and could be delayed even further. One reason for this delay is the fact that, as opposed to the Greek protesters, public opinion polls show overwhelming public support in France. The latest poll showed that 71% of the French support the strikers. Despite this, however, if the reforms do come up for a vote, they will almost assuredly pass, since Sarkozy’s party controls the Senate.
The slight weakening in Sarkozy’s resolve has been mirrored with the EU finance ministers as a whole. They had been meeting to agree to rigid controls over the debt limits for any EU country. Such limits imply further austerity programs such as what Sarkozy is attempting to push through. On Tuesday, Oct. 19, however, they agreed to a much more flexible approach, recognizing that resistance from workers appears to be increasingly coordinated and mounting.
            Indefinite General Strike
With such massive numbers, however, it is conceivable that the protesters could physically block access to the French parliament, thus physically prevent the vote from taking place. This, however, would pose a direct challenge to capitalist rule, and the movement must be prepared to carry the movement forward from there.
Along with such a movement could come a generalization of the strike – an indefinite, national general strike. However, as with any such general mass movement, a general strike requires coordination; it requires a general strike committee based on local and regional committees/bodies of struggle. Certain services, including emergency services such as ambulance service, basic food deliveries, etc. The local and regional bodies of struggle would have to be the authority which determined which such services are allowed to continue to function.
Such a body would also be in a position to more consciously and systematically plan and organize an EU-wide, and beyond, struggle against these austerity measures. (Already, the French strikes have spread to French Guiana.) One important aspect of such a struggle would necessarily be to take control over the currency exchanges so that international finance capital cannot cripple the EU economy. In conjunction with this would be the further internationalization of this movement. In China, a strike wave has spread over this year, for instance. This development is important to any workers’ movement anywhere in the world. An EU wide workers movement reaching out to this new and powerful working class would have huge implications.
In this way, the capitalist offensive could be reversed.

Message to AWL conference

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0200

We send our greetings from France at a moment when all is going forward towards a great confrontation between capital and labour.
The government wanted to impose new legislation on pensions, by way of the neutralisation of any social protest thanks to the trade unions leaders.
Given the hard regression this law is going to force on workers, the top union officials can't stop the rejection of it by ordinary workers and union militants.
So, despite the willingness of the leadership to hold back those who oppose this law, step by step, the fight is growing. At the centre of those who wanted to guarantee social peace is the CGT leadership. This bureaucracy wanted to do something like organising a mobilisation not to repeal the law but to gain marginal improvements. This is impossible because the law is too sharp an attack on the living standards of workers, including the change of retirement again from 60 years to 62, the change from 65 to 67 to avoid penalities if you retire without all the years of payment required for a full pension.
Despite the efforts of the unions bureaucracies to hide this reality from workers, to demoralise them by saying it was impossible to gain more, and so on, the call to action by these leaderships were seized by workers and rank-and-file militants as a way to go further and to simply reject that law, not to negotiate some crumbs.
During the period from May to September, the fight in the unions was about accepting the framework of the law or rejecting it without hesitation. Now rejection is a common position for nearly every mobilised worker.
So the question is: how to get the repeal? By being soft with Sarkozy or by an all-out struggle?
The mainstream press tries to hide the reality and the extent of the social mobilisation, but now that young pupils from high schools are incorporated in the struggle with hundreds of schools with strike or blockade, things are turning into a nightmare for Sarkozy: all the layers of the society are entering struggle.
On Monday morning [18 October], there will be no more oil in Roissy Airport to refuel planes. All the refineries in the country are on strike. Marseille is a regional centre for social contest with its refinery and port on strike.
Until next Tuesday (the next day where all the confederations and federations are calling for a new day of action), all conscious workers will act in order not to have "a simple day of action", but a general strike.
We, Militant, as a little group, are nearly alone in saying that the key to victory is to contest the power of Sarkozy too. We link the repeal of the law with the fall of Sarkozy and the dissolution of the Parliament. At the present time, the only other group to say that is Gauche Unitaire, a split from the ex-LCR. We need not to wait until 2012 to be rid of Sarkozy and the UMP majority: workers must act now to do that. As long as Sarkozy and his majority stay in place, even if they bow on the pensions law, they will continue to attack workers' standards of living.
So we say that politics is nurturing the economic struggle. It is not the time to be just revolutionary syndicalists - we must push to the front the question of power, of politics! Who is master in France? Can workers keep their social gains with this government? NO...
The other matter we want to raise with your conference is the question of the international, internationalism, international cooperation and coordination.
Our group decided last year to join the WIN (Workers' International Network) launched by militants from different backgrounds, and some from the CWI or Ted Grant's Militant tradition. People like Farooq Tariq are signatories of the discussion document called "Preparing For Revolution", around which we want to organise not only discussions but also the beginning of regrouping of forces dedicated to the building of a new Workers' International and the new Workers' Parties that the new international working class born out of globalisation needs.
We don't want to proclaim ourselves as the "new and only nucleus" of that future international. We want to be useful to workers seeking a way forward in that direction.
There a lot to discuss about the past, the last century, the balance sheet of Stalinism, the place of the old mass organisations of the workers' movement (unions and traditional working-class parties). The list of matters is long, but we should explore the way to go forward: discussion, actions opening the way to the rebirth of the International in a world where no solution can be found in a national arena.
We wish you a good conference and expect to meet you in the coming events of the class struggle.