You are here
Home ›Presidential Election in France
This article was written by a French sympathiser of the communist left before the outcome of the second round of voting in the Presidential election but the eventual winner was already virtually known: François Hollande, the social democratic candidate.
Elections:
For Workers – A Rotten Terrain!
For the Bourgeoisie – The Best Way to get their Agents to Power!
Elections are the bourgeoisie’s favourite terrain. Here they have delicately manoeuvred for 150 years in France as elsewhere in the big democratic powers. Elections are thus not the terrain where the working class can assert its right to life and a decent existence. The working class does not choose its exploiters!
Every five years the President of the French Republic is elected by universal suffrage. This election took place in a deafening media barrage. This year ten candidates were on the list with representatives from the extreme left of the Trotskyist Lutte Ouvriere (Workers’ Struggle) with Nathalie Artaud to the extreme right of the National Front of Marine Le Pen via Jean-Luc Mélanchon of the Left Front (a coalition of parties including the old Communist Party). There was also Nicholas Sarkozy, candidate of the tradition conservative right and François Hollande for the social democrats.
Whatever the result of the ballot the designated candidate will wisely settle down to the task of defending the interests of the bourgeoisie and capital. The ruling class knows that its economic and political system is in great difficulty with an unprecedented economic crisis that is far from over and the effects of which only reveal themselves more clearly with every day that passes: mass unemployment, hunger and growing poverty throughout the world. It knows especially that is has to strongly attack the working class in the months and years ahead.
In this framework the ruling class has already played its cards well in this election. How has it been able to do this?
The electoral barrage has been exceptional. It has been able to mobilise the energies of a great number of workers who abstain on principle because they no longer have confidence in democracy and its leaders who were seen as corrupt and because they did not defend their real interests.
For thirty years it (abstention) never failed to progress, At the last elections for parliament in 2007 (39.6% in the first round), local elections of 2008 35.5% in the first round), the European in 2009 (59.4% ), the regional of 2010 (53.6 in the first round) or the cantonal (56% in both rounds) the record was surpassed every time.
Only the Presidential election has escaped this tendency: where even here abstention had also increased in the course of the previous 20 years it fell again in 2007 to a level close to that registered in the first two decades of the Fifth Republic: 16.2%.
We have to go back to 1988 to find a rate of abstention lower than that of the first round this year, 2012 where it was 20.5%. In 1995 and 2002 it was 21% and 28.4% respectively. The bourgeoisie has thus succeeded in getting the workers to the ballot box even though they well know that the economic situation after the elections will prove to be catastrophic. They have gone to the ballot with no illusions but they have gone and that is already a victory for the ruling class.
These very good results for the ruling class don’t stop there. Very likely François Hollande will emerge the winner of the second round. Thus they will be able to benefit from the left in power to pass the inevitable austerity measures which will make them appear “rosy”[1] the better to make workers accept them. Traditionally it is the bourgeois left that has taken on the business of hitting the working class.
This manoeuvre is completed by the saving of the Communist Party through the creation of the Left Front which can thus check, at least for a bit. Its constant loss of popularity and voters since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. It has been well-known that in every country where there used to be strong Communist Parties their disappearance has been inescapable. In France its almost total disappearance from the political scene was a real source of weakness for bourgeois mystifications. In the next Assembly the Left Front will, in all logic, have some deputies following the parliamentary elections to be held in June. By using radical words they can take aim at the Socialist party in the factories and on council estates in order to make “left” austerity acceptable.
At the same time Lutte Ouvrière has adopted more “left” language. In the course of recent elections this group often adopted a trades union and moralist language against “naughty” capitalists. In 2012 it became more radical: it clearly appealed for class struggle and for a third “social” round which must take place in the factories.
And to complete the picture the National Front reinforced its appeal amongst certain sectors of the unemployed and casual part-time workers with the idea that it is foreigners who are taking their jobs. If democracy doesn’t work in the future or finds itself in difficulties the ruling class is ready to play with anti-fascist ideology.
What will remain of all this electoral noise once the lights on the electoral platforms have been extinguished? What will remain when on the combatants in this scene have once again returned to their anti-working class roles?
With its procession of unemployed and poor the economic crisis is going to continue to play havoc. In France, as in other European countries, not to speak of the undeveloped countries there are reductions in wages, pensions, less social security, less educational provision and public services and less care for a lot more which we will have to wait longer to get. That’s what’s in store for the working class.
Certain members of the ruling class have not been unmoved by what is happening internationally:
Yet, perhaps the most important point to have emerged is that the crisis is subject to growing political risks. The fall of the Dutch government and the victory of François Hollande in the first round of the French presidential election demonstrate this point. The street might overwhelm the establishment. The fear of just this might cause yet another self-fulfilling prophecy of crisis. Even France might be dragged in. Then the game might be up.
Martin Wolf – commentator of the Financial Times on April 25 in Le Monde 2 May 2012
[1] A pun on the symbol of the French Socialist Party, the red rose.
Revolutionary Perspectives #61
Start here...
- Navigating the Basics
- Platform
- For Communism
- Introduction to Our History
- CWO Social Media
- IWG Social Media
- Klasbatalo Social Media
- Italian Communist Left
- Russian Communist Left
The Internationalist Communist Tendency consists of (unsurprisingly!) not-for-profit organisations. We have no so-called “professional revolutionaries”, nor paid officials. Our sole funding comes from the subscriptions and donations of members and supporters. Anyone wishing to donate can now do so safely using the Paypal buttons below.
ICT publications are not copyrighted and we only ask that those who reproduce them acknowledge the original source (author and website leftcom.org). Purchasing any of the publications listed (see catalogue) can be done in two ways:
- By emailing us at uk@leftcom.org, us@leftcom.org or ca@leftcom.org and asking for our banking details
- By donating the cost of the publications required via Paypal using the “Donate” buttons
The CWO also offers subscriptions to Revolutionary Perspectives (3 issues) and Aurora (at least 4 issues):
- UK £15 (€18)
- Europe £20 (€24)
- World £25 (€30, $30)
Take out a supporter’s sub by adding £10 (€12) to each sum. This will give you priority mailings of Aurora and other free pamphlets as they are produced.
ICT sections
Basics
- Bourgeois revolution
- Competition and monopoly
- Core and peripheral countries
- Crisis
- Decadence
- Democracy and dictatorship
- Exploitation and accumulation
- Factory and territory groups
- Financialization
- Globalization
- Historical materialism
- Imperialism
- Our Intervention
- Party and class
- Proletarian revolution
- Seigniorage
- Social classes
- Socialism and communism
- State
- State capitalism
- War economics
Facts
- Activities
- Arms
- Automotive industry
- Books, art and culture
- Commerce
- Communications
- Conflicts
- Contracts and wages
- Corporate trends
- Criminal activities
- Disasters
- Discriminations
- Discussions
- Drugs and dependencies
- Economic policies
- Education and youth
- Elections and polls
- Energy, oil and fuels
- Environment and resources
- Financial market
- Food
- Health and social assistance
- Housing
- Information and media
- International relations
- Law
- Migrations
- Pensions and benefits
- Philosophy and religion
- Repression and control
- Science and technics
- Social unrest
- Terrorist outrages
- Transports
- Unemployment and precarity
- Workers' conditions and struggles
History
- 01. Prehistory
- 02. Ancient History
- 03. Middle Ages
- 04. Modern History
- 1800: Industrial Revolution
- 1900s
- 1910s
- 1911-12: Turko-Italian War for Libya
- 1912: Intransigent Revolutionary Fraction of the PSI
- 1912: Republic of China
- 1913: Fordism (assembly line)
- 1914-18: World War I
- 1917: Russian Revolution
- 1918: Abstentionist Communist Fraction of the PSI
- 1918: German Revolution
- 1919-20: Biennio Rosso in Italy
- 1919-43: Third International
- 1919: Hungarian Revolution
- 1930s
- 1931: Japan occupies Manchuria
- 1933-43: New Deal
- 1933-45: Nazism
- 1934: Long March of Chinese communists
- 1934: Miners' uprising in Asturias
- 1934: Workers' uprising in "Red Vienna"
- 1935-36: Italian Army Invades Ethiopia
- 1936-38: Great Purge
- 1936-39: Spanish Civil War
- 1937: International Bureau of Fractions of the Communist Left
- 1938: Fourth International
- 1940s
- 1960s
- 1980s
- 1979-89: Soviet war in Afghanistan
- 1980-88: Iran-Iraq War
- 1982: First Lebanon War
- 1982: Sabra and Chatila
- 1986: Chernobyl disaster
- 1987-93: First Intifada
- 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
- 1979-90: Thatcher Government
- 1980: Strikes in Poland
- 1982: Falklands War
- 1983: Foundation of IBRP
- 1984-85: UK Miners' Strike
- 1987: Perestroika
- 1989: Tiananmen Square Protests
- 1990s
- 1991: Breakup of Yugoslavia
- 1991: Dissolution of Soviet Union
- 1991: First Gulf War
- 1992-95: UN intervention in Somalia
- 1994-96: First Chechen War
- 1994: Genocide in Rwanda
- 1999-2000: Second Chechen War
- 1999: Introduction of euro
- 1999: Kosovo War
- 1999: WTO conference in Seattle
- 1995: NATO Bombing in Bosnia
- 2000s
- 2000: Second intifada
- 2001: September 11 attacks
- 2001: Piqueteros Movement in Argentina
- 2001: War in Afghanistan
- 2001: G8 Summit in Genoa
- 2003: Second Gulf War
- 2004: Asian Tsunami
- 2004: Madrid train bombings
- 2005: Banlieue riots in France
- 2005: Hurricane Katrina
- 2005: London bombings
- 2006: Anti-CPE movement in France
- 2006: Comuna de Oaxaca
- 2006: Second Lebanon War
- 2007: Subprime Crisis
- 2008: Onda movement in Italy
- 2008: War in Georgia
- 2008: Riots in Greece
- 2008: Pomigliano Struggle
- 2008: Global Crisis
- 2008: Automotive Crisis
- 2009: Post-election crisis in Iran
- 2009: Israel-Gaza conflict
- 2020s
- 1920s
- 1921-28: New Economic Policy
- 1921: Communist Party of Italy
- 1921: Kronstadt Rebellion
- 1922-45: Fascism
- 1922-52: Stalin is General Secretary of PCUS
- 1925-27: Canton and Shanghai revolt
- 1925: Comitato d'Intesa
- 1926: General strike in Britain
- 1926: Lyons Congress of PCd’I
- 1927: Vienna revolt
- 1928: First five-year plan
- 1928: Left Fraction of the PCd'I
- 1929: Great Depression
- 1950s
- 1970s
- 1969-80: Anni di piombo in Italy
- 1971: End of the Bretton Woods System
- 1971: Microprocessor
- 1973: Pinochet's military junta in Chile
- 1975: Toyotism (just-in-time)
- 1977-81: International Conferences Convoked by PCInt
- 1977: '77 movement
- 1978: Economic Reforms in China
- 1978: Islamic Revolution in Iran
- 1978: South Lebanon conflict
- 2010s
- 2010: Greek debt crisis
- 2011: War in Libya
- 2011: Indignados and Occupy movements
- 2011: Sovereign debt crisis
- 2011: Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster in Japan
- 2011: Uprising in Maghreb
- 2014: Euromaidan
- 2016: Brexit Referendum
- 2017: Catalan Referendum
- 2019: Maquiladoras Struggle
- 2010: Student Protests in UK and Italy
- 2011: War in Syria
- 2013: Black Lives Matter Movement
- 2014: Military Intervention Against ISIS
- 2015: Refugee Crisis
- 2018: Haft Tappeh Struggle
- 2018: Climate Movement
People
- Amadeo Bordiga
- Anton Pannekoek
- Antonio Gramsci
- Arrigo Cervetto
- Bruno Fortichiari
- Bruno Maffi
- Celso Beltrami
- Davide Casartelli
- Errico Malatesta
- Fabio Damen
- Fausto Atti
- Franco Migliaccio
- Franz Mehring
- Friedrich Engels
- Giorgio Paolucci
- Guido Torricelli
- Heinz Langerhans
- Helmut Wagner
- Henryk Grossmann
- Karl Korsch
- Karl Liebknecht
- Karl Marx
- Leon Trotsky
- Lorenzo Procopio
- Mario Acquaviva
- Mauro jr. Stefanini
- Michail Bakunin
- Onorato Damen
- Ottorino Perrone (Vercesi)
- Paul Mattick
- Rosa Luxemburg
- Vladimir Lenin
Politics
- Anarchism
- Anti-Americanism
- Anti-Globalization Movement
- Antifascism and United Front
- Antiracism
- Armed Struggle
- Autonomism and Workerism
- Base Unionism
- Bordigism
- Communist Left Inspired
- Cooperativism and autogestion
- DeLeonism
- Environmentalism
- Fascism
- Feminism
- German-Dutch Communist Left
- Gramscism
- ICC and French Communist Left
- Islamism
- Italian Communist Left
- Leninism
- Liberism
- Luxemburgism
- Maoism
- Marxism
- National Liberation Movements
- Nationalism
- No War But The Class War
- PCInt-ICT
- Pacifism
- Parliamentary Center-Right
- Parliamentary Left and Reformism
- Peasant movement
- Revolutionary Unionism
- Russian Communist Left
- Situationism
- Stalinism
- Statism and Keynesism
- Student Movement
- Titoism
- Trotskyism
- Unionism
Regions
User login
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.