On June 20, let’s show our anger
June 14, 2021, Editorial of the Workplace Newsletters of the Etincelle fraction of the NPA, Translated from French
In the middle of the election campaign for the regional elections, the bosses are continuing to announce their layoff plans, while, on the government side, they are beginning to bring out their plans to attack pensions. On the political front, far-right speeches are becoming commonplace, taken up in large part by the entire range of politicians, banking on prejudice to win votes.
But last Saturday, at the call of several collectives and political and trade union organizations, thousands of people marched all over France to denounce the rise of far-right ideas. Next Saturday, June 19, will be a day of demonstrations for a ban on layoffs, against job cuts and unemployment insurance reform.
An overwhelming crisis
For most of us, the concerns of the moment have more to do with unemployment and poverty, which are getting worse, than with the electoral promises (never kept) of all the politicians who solicit our votes. Every week, new layoff plans are announced, but during this time, the bosses of the CAC 40 (French stock market) distribute billions of dividends so their shareholders have record profits, and the billionaires see their fortunes grow. The government’s reform of unemployment insurance will further deteriorate the situation of the most vulnerable. The former prime minister, Édouard Philippe, is once again claiming that the retirement age will have to be raised by two years, while Macron is waffling on the electoral opportunity to announce it right away.
Reactionary ideas to try to divide the workers
The situation is dramatic for the working classes. We have recently witnessed a resurgence of reactionary ideas; these ideas emerged from the far right, and have been adopted by part of the political classes on both the right and left. Even Fabien Roussel, PCF (French Communist Party) candidate for the 2022 presidential elections, proposed on the set of CNEWS that rejected asylum seekers who do not accept to “go home” of their own free will, should be deported.
There is a reason for this nauseating propaganda to be flourishing: it is a deadly poison for workers, and for the youth. Its only purpose is to divide us – by pointing to the workers next door, not to the bosses and shareholders, who are responsible for increasing unemployment. The politicians who make these claims want above all to attack workers, women and the poorest, rather than the rich.
Marine Le Pen’s RN (National Rally; far-right political party) dreams only of managing the affairs of the bourgeoisie; today in the local regions, and tomorrow on a national scale. The RN has grown over the last few decades because of policies of both the left and the right in power, and the social regressions they have strategized for.
Both the bosses and the government oppose our struggles
In the face of all this, we must defend our rights and freedoms inch by inch. We must demand a better system of entry for all undocumented migrants and the right to unconditional asylum, better unemployment compensation, a ban on layoffs and the sharing of work among all.
There will be no “barrier against the extreme right” (their slogan) in the next elections from the politicians who have opened the door to it. The only way to really fight these ideas is to fight with all workers and youth, French or immigrants, all united, to make Macron and the bosses back down.
Let’s participate in large numbers in the June 19 demonstration in Paris against layoffs and unemployment.
And on June 20, in the first round of regional and departmental elections, let’s make our voices heard, the voices of working people, by voting for the only lists of candidates who carry our interests, and affirm revolutionary perspectives: those of Lutte ouvrière.
