The class struggles which forced the French government to retreat on the new contract of first employment (CPE - Contrat Première Embauche) are a welcome development. These struggles, which are discussed in depth in texts in this edition, indicate the working class is beginning to fight back against the attacks of the capitalist class. A positive aspect of the fight against the CPE was that the students were able to develop and extend their struggle outside the stranglehold of the French CP and the left capitalist parties, and outside the trade unions. This may be an indication that grip of the parties of the capitalist left, such as the Stalinists and Trotskyists is weakening. These struggles come at a time when there are indications of a return to struggle outside the trade unions in other countries also. In Britain the strike at Gate Gourmet and the Belfast Post workers strike are examples of this. Although these struggles cannot be compared to the more massive upheavals of 1968 they occur in an entirely different historical context, one in which the dead ends of 1968 have been exposed and revolutionary perspectives could open up. These struggles and others in Europe and the peripheral countries do indicate a more general resistance to the capitalist attacks than we have seen for many years. They also indicate that the capitalist class is attacking on a global front. This creates resistance which, though often simultaneous, is not coordinated or politically conscious. The increasing globalisation of capitalist production is, however, laying the basis for a coordinated global fight-back but the nationalism of the trade unions and the parties of capitalism’s left wing always undermine this. This is discussed further in the article on the car workers struggle in this edition. What is desperately needed to take these struggles forward is an international political organisation to fight to unite the struggles and give them an anti-capitalist orientation.

Human rights, democracy, profits

The struggles in France were defensive struggles against the attempts of the bourgeois class to reduce the cost of labour power by making it easier to hire and fire workers under 26 years old. This was an attempt to increase profits and is an indication of the real concerns of the bourgeoisie worldwide. The bourgeoisie do not care about human rights or democracy as they pretend. See the article on British state terror in this edition. What concerns them is the extraction of surplus labour from the working class. Anything which is a means to this end is quite acceptable to them. When they launch wars for strategic resources such as oil and gas or for control of strategic areas of the world, the atrocities which inevitably result are of little interest to them. The admission that US soldiers have been massacring Iraqi civilians time and again is only the latest illustration of this. Previously the system of kidnapping suspects and taking them to other countries for torture, the so-called “rendition” was exposed. Before that barbaric torture by the coalition in its prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan came to light. The fact that people are held in prisons with their genitals wired to the national grid is of no interest to the bourgeoisie. What is of interest to them is that the oil keeps flowing and the working class keeps working.

The truth about the bourgeoisie’s pretended love of human rights also applies to their pretended love of democracy. In fact the bourgeois class has fought against democracy for the majority of the period in which it has held power. From the start it only intended to apply its rights and its democracy to members of property owning classes. The architects of the US constitution, who themselves owned many slaves, were not prepared to extend “liberty” let alone democracy to their slaves. Nor were their European counterparts prepared to extend the franchise to the working class. It was only when they realised they could control the outcome of elections that they did this. This is discussed further in the polemic on the “parliamentary road to socialism” in this edition. The hypocrisy of our rulers professed love of democracy is revealed in developments in Iraq and Palestine both of which are discussed in articles in this edition. Developments in these countries show that when the bourgeoisie fails to control the democratic process and get the right people elected they reject the outcome. The talk by the US Vice President of a “soft coup” to remove the Hamas government in Palestine and the US arming of Fatah recall the coup organised by the CIA in Iran in 1953 when they overthrew the elected government of Mossadegh. This was the coup which put the Shah in power and allowed the US to gain 40% of Iranian oil concessions. Sometimes they favour dictatorship, sometimes they favour democracy, but these forms of organising political power are only the camouflage behind which the bourgeoisie pursue their real interests. These interests are the exploitation of the working class and the generation of profit.