30 Towards a new anti-capitalist party in France
n January this year, the vast majority
of the delegates at the 17th national
congress of the LCR have approved a
new political perspective: the building
of a broad anti-capitalist party. This decision is a direct result of the political situation since the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as President. There are three main reasons: • the extremely aggressive attacks of
French government and bosses against workers' rights; • the failure of the traditional left: • the new role occupied bv the radical
Left as a whole ¡fieally by Olivier Besancenot and the LCR. Sarkozy's electoral victory of can be mainly explained by his ability to convince people from working class and lower middle class that he really cares about their problems and his ability to convince people with a far right background that it was more efficient for them to vote for him rather than for the Front National. That's why during the presidential campaign his central slogan was "work more, earn more". It was a false claim but many people only heard "earn more"
The most astonishing thing was his success when he endorsed many of the themes that were usually those of the Front National, especially about immigration and "law and order". About a million of Jean-Marie Le Pen's former Francois Duval (LCR National Leadership) voters shifted towards a vote in favour of Sarkozy. In return, repression against illegal immigrants has worsened and a lot of drastic new security laws have been passed. Promises addressed to racists and chauvinists have been kept. But promises addressed to popular layers of society have been broken while there have been a lot of very hard attacks: no increase of wages while prices are increasing Sarkozy and friends POLICE
FRANCE every month, fiscal gifts for the rich and corporations, as well as new measures against social legislation.
Sarkozy's problem was to change his electoral victory into a social one. He found that it was not so easy. In November 2007, a new "reform" —or more precisely a counter reform—of the retirement pension system of railways workers, tube and buses drivers caused the most important strike of railway workers ever. Of course, the main elements of the reforms have been implemented. But, in May 2007, nobody would have forecast such a struggle. In fact the government seems to be stronger than it really is. Its politics can only cause more and more anger and many people are still willing to put up a fight. That is the first reason in favour of a new anti-capitalist party: people really need a party which stands up for their demands as faithfully as the right wing parties are true to bosses. And that's the second reason-the traditional left can't be that party.
The election of Nicolas Sarkozy was less a victory of the right wing parties than a defeat of Ségolène Royal and the Socialist Party. Neither the SP nor its candidate, nor its allies, the Communist Party and the Greens, have been able to convince people that electing them would change anything in their day-to-day life.
After the election, the situation of the traditional Left became even worse: challenged by the measures passed by the government, they have been unable to be a genuine opposition. During the strikes in November 2007, they were unable to be a leadership of the movement. The reason for that is obvious: they criticised the form of the measures and reforms: but they agreed with their substance. This situation has two consequences: a deepening crisis of the SP and increasing need and space for a new independent representation of the working class and social movements.
For the LCR, the perspective of a
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IMMIC FRANCE new party is not completely new. The first debates about it started fifteen years ago, after the fall of the Berlin wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of Stalinism and the intensification of the neo-liberal offensive in the framework of capitalist and corporate globalisation. An additional step was overcome in 1995. with the increasing electoral results of the far left and its significant influence during the big strikes in November and December 1995.
What is now needed is a party able to help the convergence of resistance and struggle. It needs to be able to build a generalised movement to change the relationship of forces and force the government and bosses to step back. Our understanding is that this kind of party must be a useful tool for organising fight and preparing a radical and/or revolutionary change of society.
Will it be a "revolutionary party" according to the traditional meaning of this word? What we intend to build is a party for class struggle, an independent party of the working class, a party mainly focused on mobilisation rather than elections, a party for radical and/or revolutionary changes in society and for new politics committed to satisfy social needs rather than private profits- -an anti-capitalist party. Most probably many issues related to strategy will remain open. One issue has to be clarified at the beginning of the process: the kind of relationship this party will have with the neo-liberal so called Socialist Party and its allies. The political basis of this party has to be an agreement about a programme of social emergency measures and a clear break with all neo-liberal parties, even those which define themselves as left-wing. socialist or social-democratic parties. The Brazilian and Italian experiences show how important it is to build on an open but clear basis.
That clarification was precisely the one that was lacking in 2007 during the debates with the Communist Party and various anti-liberal "collectives" in order to discover if a common candidate was possible for the presidential election. After the success of Olivier Besancenot, both in elections and in the aftermath of the elections, especially during the railway workers' strike, we had a major opportunity not only to strengthen the LCR but, also, to give a broader and more ambitious answer to the crisis of the Left. So, in June 2007, the National Leadership of the LCR decided to raise the issue of a new party. In August, during the LCR Summer School, Olivier Besancenot invited everyone who is interested to join what will be a "constituent process"
During the autumn, in many towns across the country, public meetings were organised to discuss this project. Meanwhile members of the LCR were
debating it as the main point on the agenda of the congress. The first balance sheet of these meetings is good. Many people seemed to be interested and found that a new radical left party is a "good idea". Some problems have still to be addressed and solved. Many people consider a new party favourably; but are they ready to be personally involved? Some others think that an honest party with genuine left ideas will be sufficient. Olivier Besancenot SE
Our project is a little more than that: perhaps not a "Marxist revolutionary" party but, at least, a radical anticapitalist one. Many people are interested at the moment but no other national political movement or party backs our project. So, we have been led to the idea that the beginning of the process will not be a debate or a negotiation with national political "partners" exist but a process "from below". Of course, we hope that people or political currents, especially among trade-unionists
31 or activists of the social movements and individuals or tendencies from communist. socialist or anti-liberal background will be convinced by the first results achieved.
Another issue to be thought about is the kind of international relationship the
However the main question is this some people are ready to "build but they want to build something really different, something that will be their own party, not just a new, enlarged LCR. So, we have to create mutual confidence, to raise the political issues that have to be raised, to propose our politics and, at the same time, to allow people with different political backgrounds- or without any political background —to get involved in the process and to control it.
By the way, one of the major consequences of a successful process will be the dissolution of the LCR which is now a forty year-old revolutionary organisation. The LCR national congress has now adopted an appeal. In some towns or workplaces-and in some universities- local appeals have been written and committees for a new party have been created, with LCR and nonLCR members. There are also many common united slates for the March councils elections. The next step will be a national assembly of these committees in June or September to check the progress of the process and decide the agenda. include the date of the congress for the foundation of the party.
Anyhow, everybody is conscious it's an ambitious but uncomfortable, difficult road. But it's a very exciting experience...
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SOCIALIST RESISTANCE www.socialistresistance.org Resistancewhat is it?
Socialist Resistance is a magazine
produced by a group of
people who are convinced that
capitalism is a system that offers most of humanity a future of war, environmental catastrophe and poverty. We used to produce a monthly paper called Socialist Resistance but we shut it down so that its resources could be used to allow Respect Renewal to have a paper. We have now decided to launch a quarterly magazine We are Marxists because we can see that human society is divided into conflicting social classes. We take the side of the working class, the poor and the oppressed in Britain and internationally. Our political activity has the aim of putting society under the democratic political and economic control of working class people. They are the majority of the population. Political control in Britain today is in the hands of tiny numbers of politicians and business people who make the decisions that affect all our lives. They are much more concerned with profit than human need. We are revolutionary socialists because it is clear from history that social classes only give up power when they have been overthrown by a revolution. Some of us are in the International Socialist Group which is the section of the Fourth International in Britain but many of us are not. We are keen that our magazine is seen as a space in which a spectrum of Marxists, socialists and environmentalists from all sorts of backgrounds can collaborate both in the practical sphere and in working out the ideas needed to change the world. New class struggle parties Supporters of Socialist Resistance argue that the Labour Party has become so right wing that, even though millions of workers still support it, the big job for socialists in Britain is to help create a new anti-capitalist party that supports workers' struggles, defends asylum seekers, women's rights and opposes imperialist wars. We are working hard to make sure that Respect Renewal is a success because we think that it is an important step along this road Our supporters in Scotland are in the Scottish Socialist Party for exactly the same reasons. We are in favour of rebuilding democracy in the trade unions and the fighting strength of the labour movement. Socialist Resistance members are active in their workplaces and trade unions fighting to defend and extend workers'h jobs and conditions through mass action. We are also active in trying to building fighting democratic broad lefts within our unions. Socialist Resistance stands in opposition to racism and Islamophobia and to the oppression of women, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people and disabled people. We believe that the most effective way to fight these forms of discrimination is through the coming together of those who directly experience them. Ecosocialism Revolutionary socialists have always been in favour of the development of the economy, on a global and national basis, to meet the needs of humanity. But that doesn't mean we favour the production of an increasing number of commodities of any type whatsoever. Much of what is produced under capitalism is socially useless, and either redundant or directly harmful. some products - like cars - harm the environment directly; others are useless and just use up huge amounts of the planet's resources. Our critique of the so-called 'commodity spectacle' does not mean we are against all further economic development, especially in the third world. Neither does it mean that decisive new inventions in the future should not be applied, and the level of technology should remain stagnant. New development and production can be planned and go ahead if it meets human needs and is not environmentally destructive. we are the only Marxist organization in Britain that calls itself ecosocialist. We know that the ruling class will look for solutions to the environmental disaster that capitalism has created but they will try and make the poor, the working class and the developing world pay. They will also carry on destroying the environment as a result of their need to make profits. It is the people who are young today who will have to live with the consequences of this capitalist created disaster. We therefore want the working class to develop their own solutions. Young people will have a big part to play in this fight. Why we produce a magazine From our political practice we have learned that it is necessary for Marxists to produce their own distinctive publication. We write for and sell Respect's newspaper. But there will be occasions when we will disagree with some of Respect's tactics or policies By producing our own magazine we are able to argue our positions more fully and clarify what we think. It also allows us to explore history and ideas in more depth than a newspaper does. Having our own magazine is also important for us because along with our books, leaflets and meetings It allows us to organise independently around things that we think are important. If you want to support a magazine that is socialist, revolutionary, ecologist, feminist and anti-imperialist join us in trying to change the world.