With the European elections approaching, we keep being told there are only two choices: punish Macron by voting for any party that might finish first, in front of the president’s party, you know who we mean; or hold our noses and vote for Macron’s list for fear of Le Pen. We are asked to make an impossible choice… same as every election! Punishing Macron for his policy, we’ve been doing that for over six months, on roundabouts, tolls, and every Saturday in the streets with the yellow jackets, and this is a lot more effective than a puny little piece of paper put in the ballot box. So, if on Sunday we make it to a polling station, let’s use this opportunity to express what we think, to clearly express the anger of the working class.
A xenophobic show in Milan
The far right is holding its high mass in Milan, around Salvini and Le Pen, who feel the wind in their sails. Their common program: to target the immigrants and the most precarious, to better divide and attack all workers. Too bad that one of their own, member of FPO and Austrian vice-Chancellor, Strache, just got caught with his hands in the cookie jar. He was trading procurement contracts for payoffs. These politicians look just like any other as soon as they get into power…
Macron the “progressive”
Against the far right, Nathalie Loiseau and Macron are presenting themselves as the “progressive”, defenders of the European union against nationalism, which leads to war. But it is hard to make us forget the class war that these so-called progressives are waging against workers and the poor.
Public servants know this well. Their wages keep being frozen, the lack of resources is permanent, with massive job cuts, budget cuts, and a plan to generalise precarious contacts. This is why emergency departments are on strike, in Paris hospitals and elsewhere in the country. It is also against the lack of resources in schools, and against education minister Blanquer’s reform, that many teachers have been mobilised.
Macron’s policy can be summarised as: everything for the rich and the large corporations. Those, from Ford to PSA, from Carrefour to Auchan, have free hands to destroy jobs by closing plants and shops.
Long live internationalism!
The Europe of Macron and Merkel has closed borders, with barbed wires, checkpoints, sea and ground patrols. It is a Europe that hinders the work of humanitarian boats. These border closures cause thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean Sea every year. People are left to die simply because they want to escape from misery. This Europe is not so different from Marine Le Pen’s Europe.
And those who accuse Europe of being responsible for all our problems, to hide the French bosses’ responsibility for decreasing standard of living and increasing unemployment, serve the rich as much as Macron.
Borders will not protect workers. Workers will protect themselves by joining their forces together, across borders, against the exploiters.
The fight against Macron happens in the streets
We cannot change the balance of power with the ballot box. Only through our mobilisations, especially if they become widespread, will we be able to beat the policy of Macron and of those who dream of taking his place. The elections on the 26th will not change the life of the workers, the unemployed, and the retired.
But these elections can be an opportunity to express that we are fed up with low wages, unemployment and poverty, by voting for the only list that is clearly on the side of workers, revolutionary and internationalist: the Lutte Ouvrière list led by Nathalie Arthaud and Jean-Pierre Mercier. They are supported by the New Anticapitalist Party of Olivier Besancenot and Philippe Poutou.
On May 26th, vote Lutte Ouvrière!
