A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #351 - After the elections, time for action! - Social front against fascism and capital (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

What conclusions can be drawn from the sequence which has just ended 
with the announcement of the surprise results of the second round of the 
early legislative elections? The National Rally, although it did not 
succeed in its bet, is firmly established in a large part of the 
territory. The left-wing political parties can finally agree on a 
program of minimal social reforms... and above all without the 
commitment of the social movement today it is the extreme right which 
would be in power. We must now strike while the iron is hot and impose, 
through the struggle and the streets, the social reforms essential to 
definitively rid ourselves of the extreme right and its capitalist 
allies and finally impose socialism.

If we can only be relieved that the National Rally did not manage to 
have a majority of seats in the National Assembly following this "poker 
move" dissolution of Emmanuel Macron, we must be aware that we have only 
gained a respite. If the extreme right is not in the majority at the 
polls, its ideas and the vision of the world it carries tend to impose 
itself. The "defeat" of the RN, relative to the initial forecasts and 
projections, is paid at the price of an increase in the number of its 
deputies of more than 60%!... we have seen a more bitter defeat.

The RN is now the most represented party in the National Assembly (and 
will receive the public funding that goes with it), it collected more 
than ten and a half million votes, more than 33% of the votes cast, in 
the first round of elections. legislative. The high scores of the RN do 
not yet allow it to access Matignon, and in this we can be relieved and 
in the first place for racialized people and for gender minorities, the 
first victims of the arrival of the extreme right in the power, but also 
for the world of work and our social conquests, but this is only a 
respite, let's keep that in mind. The RN has conquered new territories 
and certain departments will only be represented by RN deputies.

A "Victory" with a bitter taste
Without illusion and by pure tactical choice we had called on those of 
our class who were able to do so - because a significant part of the 
working classes do not legally have this right - to vote clearly for the 
candidates ·es New Popular Front. Without illusion because this alliance 
pushed from the evening of Sunday June 9, and the following days, by 
demonstrators who came spontaneously to take to the streets to call for 
a gathering of left-wing forces has only electoral significance .

The NFP program (not to mention the next betrayals which are sure to 
occur) of social-democratic and Keynesian inspiration does not carry the 
anti-capitalist, internationalist and self-managing revolutionary break, 
the only lasting alternative to liberal-authoritarian capitalism that 
the "left" of government" has never radically fought and which 
accommodates perfectly an extreme right that is hard on the weak and 
soft on the powerful. If we did not participate in the movements 
celebrating the "victory" of the NFP which were expressed on Sunday July 
7 among certain people on the left, it is therefore not out of cynicism 
but rather out of political analysis of the situation.

The "dam", if it worked again this time, was much more complicated and 
fragile to implement, and it is not certain that the next time this dam 
will hold. At the national level the RN and its ideas continue to 
spread, even if we saw during this blitzkrieg that "demonization" is 
only a word for communicators, and that in fact it is still a rancid 
party fueled by racism and hatred of others under the guise of 
rediscovering a "France of yesteryear" which is only a postcard France.

A surge of racist proposals and acts
The unbridled racism whose expression suddenly accelerated on the 
evening of June 9 and throughout the legislative campaign will not 
disappear overnight. Furthermore, the relative "success" of the NFP was 
essentially built in urban centers where the "dam" still holds while the 
"rural areas in decline", marked by a feeling of "collective 
downgrading" and a sharp decline in public services, vote very strongly 
in favor of the RN. For their part, the working-class neighborhoods and 
their inhabitants, who are the first targets of the reactionaries, also 
remain on the fringes of institutional policy, combining higher rates of 
poverty and unemployment, a lower level of qualifications and 
over-occupancy of housing. three times higher than the metropolitan average.

It should be noted that if the vote in working-class neighborhoods leans 
more towards left-wing parties, it is mainly marked by a very strong 
abstention, a sign of disinvestment in the political sphere even if the 
mobilizations in support of Gaza and the Palestinian cause promote a 
repoliticization of neighborhoods. These territories, the "declining 
countryside" and working-class neighborhoods, which the far right likes 
to oppose for electoral and racist purposes, suffer from the same social 
ills as a result of forty years of liberalism and systematic destruction 
of public services and solidarity. . Today, political and trade union 
organizations are hardly established in these areas and struggle to make 
themselves heard. Resentment towards the "elites", the "center", "urban 
dwellers" or others, if it is built on social causes, is often expressed 
either by deserting the political sphere, or by fueling a vote 
supposedly "against the system" but in fact xenophobic and antisocial.

Social and geographical divides
The popular momentum, not massive but real, generated by the NFP must 
today be focused on building a strong and offensive social movement. The 
institutional situation which gives no winner among the three blocs, 
left, far right and presidential ("ultraliberal and illiberal extreme 
center") is today conducive to a relaunch of collective struggles on our 
own slogans and , for the first time in years, in an offensive and no 
longer defensive logic: reduction in working hours, increase in paid 
leave, increase in wages and social minimums, right to housing (truly 
enforceable), taxation of high incomes and dividends, free public 
transport, 100% organic and local in school canteens now free, social 
food security... without immediately going as far as the complete 
socialization of the means of production (although), there is no 
shortage of demands for our class.

Historically we have only conquered what we fought for, including in 
1936. The sequence which opens offers us the opportunity for a great 
"swing to the left". Faced with a disavowed center and an extreme right 
which has not been able to hide its true face for long, we must uphold 
the values of class solidarity, progressive and inclusive in the face of 
the reactionary camp. And it is first and foremost within the unions 
that we can lead this fight, hence the importance of getting involved in 
the union and making class demands in the face of capitalist interests.

For communism and self-management
If the RN vote is marked by adherence to racist ideas, we must not 
essentialize the voters seduced by these ideas. They are only expressing 
systemic racism which is primarily promoted by the State and the 
capitalist system that the far right exploits for partisan purposes. To 
this "ethnoracial" reading of social relations, which is that of RN 
voters, we must oppose our classist and united reading grid. This 
discourse which is less and less carried by our organizations in 
territories where we are more and more absent... and where the RN, 
despite its militant weakness, is present. The decline of these ideas, 
which will not happen overnight, cannot be done without pointing the 
finger at the main producers of this racism: namely the State as well as 
the bourgeoisie on a national and international level through their 
interests. imperialists.

Now we get organized
In this period, it is for us, libertarian communist activists, to act 
within our counter-powers and to be driving forces in the future 
construction of social movements, because without collective struggles, 
there is no no revolutionary and self-managing alternative possible. 
Nothing has been gained except a time of respite, so as political 
activists we must invite the struggle, of course, but also reinvest the 
political, union and social terrain: call to reinvest the tools of mass 
politicization that are unions, political organizations and 
associations, (re-)making links and (re-)weaving social bonds. At the 
union level this means investing in local unions and creating everywhere 
It is possible to have local VISAs (Vigilances and Antifascist Union 
Initiatives) to carry out antifascist work on the ground.

At the social and local level this work will be essential in the period 
to come and it must be done in conjunction with anti-racist, feminist, 
LGBTI and internationalist organizations and struggles. Finally, rural 
areas and their demands must not be ignored. Environmentalist struggles 
and against large useless projects, places of politicization and meeting 
between different social universes must also be prioritized in the 
period to come. We are perhaps at a moment of revolutionary, 
anti-capitalist and self-management rupture. Exasperation against this 
system will only increase, but can give various directions: a 
conservative and fascist reaction or the aspiration for revolutionary 
change which would involve socialization and self-management. Nothing is 
written in advance, but our concrete actions must be aimed at building a 
strong, offensive social movement independent of political calendars.

David (UCL Savoies)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Front-social-contre-le-fascisme-et-le-capita
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