“The emancipation of the working class must be the act of the workers themselves”
By The Commune
The presidential and legislative elections in France are a reflection of the political chaos that is sweeping Europe: the bourgeoisie clings to its positions and makes its greatest efforts to hold on, but nothing will ever be the same again. The economic, political and social crisis has been deepening since 2009 while the pandemic and the war in Ukraine causes a global destabilization unprecedented since the Second World War.
An unprecedented election under the Fifth Republic
Record abstention
Abstention in presidential elections since 1974 reached a record level this year: 34.25% of the electorate abstained in the second round. It tends to be even higher for legislative elections. While it does not surpass the record of the 2017 runoff (61.6%), it is still massive: 57.3% of the roll! 7 out of 10 young people are abstaining and also 2 out of 3 workers and employees. In short, a large majority of young people and front-line workers.
As proof, the abstention rates in the working class cities show the following: Roubaix (8th circ.) 67.5%, Venissieux 65.5%, Forbach 65.5%, Longwy 64.1%, Tourcoing 63.2%, Corbeil-Essonnes 62.2%, Colmar 61.4%, Vitry-sur-Seine 60%, Sarreguemines 59. 7%, Mantes-La-Jolie 59.5%, Vaulx-en-Velin 59.4%, Henin-Beaumont 58.4%, Lente 58.3%… Thus, the vast majority (479 elected out of 577, or 83%) of legislators represent only between 20% and 30% of the electoral roll.
Finally, 60% of legislators are “executives and higher intellectual professions”, representing only 9.5% of the population. On the other hand, 5.4% of the legislators are workers and employees, representing 28.2% of the population. Finally, the feminization of Congress is decreasing: 37.3% of Congress people are women. In short, an assembly totally disconnected from society!
A very poorly elected president, a relative majority and poorly elected opponents
In the end, there is a very badly elected President of the Republic (38.5% of the electorate), the second worst elected President of the Fifth Republic, only after Georges Pompidou in June 1969. A President who, for the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, does not have a majority to approve his program! Far from the 289 votes needed to have a majority, Macron’s party, now called Renaissance (sic) has only 168 officials. And only with the 48 officiaks of MoDem[1] and independents (Bayrou) and the 28 of Horizons and related (Edouard Philippe) it reaches the figure of 244 officials… far from the 306 officials LaREM[2] of 2017 to which should be added the 42 of MoDem. Macron’s main accomplices, Richard Ferrand, Christophe Castaner and Jean-Michel Blanquer, were rejected and defeated in the legislatures by those who are still going to vote.
It is a defeat without precedent for Macron, who finds himself without a majority to implement his social austerity program!
But what is there to say about the best known legislators, opponents of Macron, except that they are also very badly elected, with very high abstention rates: Marine Le Pen (RN), elected in Hénin-Beaumont with 58.4% abstention; Fabien Roussel (PCF-NUPES) elected in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux with 60. 5% abstention rate; Eric Coquerel (LFI-NUPES) elected in Épinay-sur-Seine, Saint-Denis Sud, Saint-Ouen with 62.2% abstention rate; Olivier Faure (PS-NUPES), elected in Seine-et-Marne (77), with 61.3% abstention rate!
The 2017 process culminated: the PS and LR hens finished being fleeced!
The pillar parties of the Fifth Republic, the PS and LR[3], respectively 1.3% and 3.4% of the electoral roll for the presidential elections, are on their way out. The bourgeoisie made Macron its champion and transferred its votes, previously given sometimes to the PS and sometimes to the RPR and then to the UMP (predecessor of the LR), to the Together coalition[4]. Swept to the right by Macron and to the extreme right by Le Pen and Zemmour, LR retains a political role in the short term: that of kingmaker or, more precisely, of majority-maker at the service of Macron. This subordination can only lead to a definitive political erasure in favor of Macron, Le Pen and other Zemmour.
The PS, after having suffered a first bloodletting in 2017 in favor of Macron and LaREM, suffered a new hemorrhage in 2022, this time to the benefit of LFI[5] of Mélenchon. With the illusion of the useful vote and the illusion of the left vote, Mélenchon takes revenge, becomes a majority… in the PS! Given the magnitude of the electoral strike in cities and working class neighborhoods, Mélenchon collected above all the votes of the most militant and activist sectors (political, trade union, social) as well as, by rejection of Macron, those part of the petty bourgeoisie in a phase of degradation. Of course, a large part of the voters of Mélenchon gave his program a political content that does not exist, that of a break with capitalism. LFI is what remains of the left wing of the PS in an ecologized and bohemianized version.
The Third and Fourth Republic to the rescue of the dying Fifth
To keep their spots, everyone is ready for anything! TheREM, like the PS before it, lets the RN grow because with such a challenger… it is assured of victory. Even to the point of not having voting slogans during the NUPES[6]/RN[7] duels.
Some are so thirsty for power that they even imagine themselves becoming Macron’s prime minister: with his nationalist discourse, Mélenchon assured on all microphones that on international issues the Macron-Mélenchon executive couple would speak in unison… On Macron’s trip to Ukraine on June 16 he said, “as he is abroad, in a war zone, I suggest that we avoid controversy”.
To obtain the presidency of the Finance Committee, Mélenchon’s right-hand man, Eric Coquerel, declared, “we shouldn’t control or conduct any sort of individual witch-hunt…”
Some have protested against the two vice-presidents of RN elected with the votes of the presidential majority: but the vice-presidents of the NUPES could only be elected with those same votes! They share the table, the napkins and the dish towels!
Not to mention the PCF rooster Roussel, who after declaring that he was more concerned about the chaos in the street than in Parliament speculated that he would be part of a coalition government rather than back down in the face of the clamor in his ranks!
And it all works out!
They are all red handed! In Lutte Ouvrière, which is delighted with its 1% of the votes in 270 districts, i.e. 229,000 votes for 1.64 euros: LO will be subsidized by the State with 375,560 euros in 2023 and every year until 2027… A crumb if compared to the 9. 61 million euros of Juntos, 9.6 of NUPES, 7 of RN, 4 of LR… not counting the public subsidies allocated according to the number of seats and paid to the financing association of each party (each seat means 37,042 euros).
A working class taken by the throat
The Independent Workers Party (POI), support of Mélenchon, vainly put on the cover of its newspaper Mélenchon’s June 12 statement on the NUPES: “Look at the French people with the tranquility of the having accomplished the task and of a radiant perspective ahead of them”… the working class sees no radiant perspective.
While everyone congratulates themselves, the working class can take no more with the rise in prices reaching 5.8% in June (against 5.2% in May). The rise in prices mainly affects energy prices (+27.8% in May)!
This is why strikes for wage increases are multiplying all over France. La Tribune of June 21: “The strike movements is a wave sweeping France”.
In fact, the movements affect all sectors: airports (June 9, Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport personnel; from July 1 and the following days, called by the inter-union of the Paris airports staff), garbage truck drivers of the Paris city hall, SNCF[8] (July 6), RATP[9], Marionnaud perfumery chain (May), energy employees at EDF, RTE, Enedis, TotalEnergies (one-off strikes and national strike), RTE, Enedis, TotalEnergies (one-off strikes and national strike on June 28), Soitec, French manufacturer of semiconductor substrates near Grenoble (June 10), Arco luxury leather goods in Châtellerault, Ratier and Aéro in Figeac (June 20)…
This movement is not isolated in Europe, where strikes are taking place in quick succession: in the United Kingdom there was a very large strike of railway workers, in Belgium at the airports, at Ryanair throughout Europe, to quote a few emblematic examples.
A bright prospect for the unemployed? They are suffering increasingly severe sanctions, as shown by an annual report presented on June 28 by Jean-Louis Walter, the national mediator of Pôle Emploi, responsible for dealing with disputes between the public sector and users: he details the effects of the unemployment insurance reform which has “rigidified practices, locking them in on an even harsher scale and giving new legitimacy to excessive measures”. The mediator notes “the frequent use of half-yearly layoffs and above all [the] definitive abolition of the replacement allowance.” Some decisions are “really disproportionate, both in their severity and in their consequences”, leaving people without benefits or even assistance.
The Party of Order[10]
“We need a solid majority to guarantee order, both outside and within our borders,” threatened Macron on June 14 on the Orly runway.
Thus, the Party of Order is back… The overseas departments and territories (DOM-TOM) are now under control of the Ministry of the Interior. A new law on the police is being prepared. As we recently recalled, the Ministry of the Interior placed an order with the company SOFRAME for 90 armored vehicles entirely dedicated to maintaining order. In France, as elsewhere, defense budgets, both external and internal, are on the rise…
For an emergency plan
Neither the government nor the Parliament represent us! It is a government of criminals and corrupt people: Abad, accused of rape, who has just resigned; Darmanin, accused of rape, who remains Minister of the Interior; Dupont-Moretti, accused of incompatibility of interests, Minister of Justice; Braun-Pivet, the one who covered up the Benalla case[11], elected President of Parliament… Nothing to expect from Macron, his ministers and legislators, except the worst.
“The emancipation of the working class must be the act of the workers themselves” and of course of female workers!
An emergency plan is needed. The one we proposed in December 2020 is in the service of discussing and updating it with the other revolutionary organizations of this country[12].
Here it is. Our main demands (to quote only those against poverty and scarcity) are simple and immediate:
- General increase of 500 euros net in salaries, social benefits and pensions equally for men and women.
- No salaries and pensions below 1,900 euros net.
- Indexation of salaries and pensions according to inflation
- Retirement at age 60, for 37.5 years of contributions and an updated rate of 75%.
- Reduction and freezing of prices of basic necessities
- Abolition of VAT
- Restitution of the Wealth Tax (ISF)
- Unconditional defense of Social Security
[1] Acronym of Movimiento Demócrata, a right-wing party.
[2] República en Marcha, liberal party.
[3] The Republicans, formerly UMP, right-wing party.
[4] Liberal Alliance: LaREM, MoDem, Horizons and others.
[5] La France Insoumise, center-left party.
[6] New Popular Ecologist and Social Union: center-left front (LFI, PC, PS, Greens and others).
[7] National Rally, formerly FN, far-right party, led by Marine Le Pen.
[8] State-owned company of FF.CC.
[9] State-owned subway, bus and tramway company.
[10] The main unifying theme of the sympathizers of the Party of Order, created in 1848 during the Second Republic, was to put an end to the “era of revolutions”. Led by Thiers, Guizot and other supporters of order and security, the Party of Order supported the candidacy of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte before he overturned it during the coup d’état of December 2, 1851.
[11] Macron’s bodyguard charged for illegal repression on May Day.
[12] https://www.lacommune.org/Parti-des-travailleurs/archives/France/Plan-d-urgence-contre-le-chomage-la-pauvrete-et-Macron-i1944.html