Recent elections in France and subsequent struggles have exposed the vaccum at the centre of French politics and created an opening for a new broad anti-capitalist party, argues MURRAY SMITH*
The presidential elections in May and June of this year brought into sharp focus the underlying trends in French politics.
The first-round elimination of Socialist Party candidate Lionel Jospin as well as the collapse of the Communist Party vote dramatically illustrated a deep disaffection with the outgoing left government.
Less spectacular but just as real was the fall in support for the traditional right. The far-right National Front made a comeback, proving its capacity to attract disillusioned voters of both left and right.
Last but not least the far left won three million votes (10 per cent).
In spite of the shock of Le Pen's result, what occurred was not a move to the right but a polarisation and a weakening of the centre.
Legislative elections in June then muddied the political waters somewhat, producing a large number of seats for the right but a politically unimpressive victory. Significantly, many traditional left voters
... A broad front in defence of jobs and public services is now needed to make Chirac's and Raffarin's worst fears come true. ••• who had voted for Chirac in May to stop Le Pen, did not vote for the left in June.
Now, however, after the traditional summer pause in French political life, it is dear that all the underlying trends are still very much present. The new government has been put together by a president who got less than 20 per cent of the votes in the first round, and won on the second with votes from the left.
Its social base is in fact quite narrow. The first sign that Chirac himself recognised this was his nomination of the centre-right Jean-Pierre Raffarin as prime minister, rather than the hard right Nicolas Sarkozy,
Certainly the government would like to carry out much of the ambitious neoliberal programme of the MEDEF, the highly vociferous employers' organisation. What is more open to doubt is its ability to do so.
So far it has moved cautiously on the economic and social front, seeking consultation with union leaders and even attracting complaints from the MEDEF. Chirac and Raffarin are haunted by the memory of November-December 1995, when an ill-advised offensive by Chirac's then prime minister Alain juppe provoked a massive strike movement.
Furthermore, the global economic cli mate and falling stock markets do not create the best environment for such policies as privatisation and the introduction of private pension funds.
The stock market slide has dimmed the prospect of rich pickings from privatisation for investors. Semi-privatised France Telecom, with debts of 70 billion euro, is clinically bankrupt.
The really big target for privatisation, the state electricity company EDF, has just launched a stiff internal austerity programme. Preparing for privatisation, EDF heavily overspent and got into debt acquiring subsidiaries abroad. The company also got its fingers burned from its involvement in Argentina and to a lesser extent Brazil.
The traditional left is still trying to recover from its election defeats. The Socialist Party is in the throes of a debate between those who want the party to be openly Blairite and those on the divided left of the party who want it to try and win back its working class electors by adopting a more radiLCR's main spokeperson Alain Krivine, lies in offering a political perspective to 'the tens of thousands of people (who) are waiting for this party, in the unions, the associative milieux, in the CP, the SP and the Greens'.
Is a sign of the potential audience that exists in the Communist
Warty, the daily Le Monde described LCR presidential candidate Olivier Besancenot as the 'star' of the party's annual Fete de 'Humanite on September 14-15.
The opportunity to create a new party comes against a background of struggle. A new wave of the movement of the 'sans papiers' - illegal immigrants demanding work and residence papers - led to occupations of churches and a demonstration of 10,000 in Paris on September 7. •••
Many other sectors are likely to move into action over the coming months as resistance mounts to the widespread lay offs being announced. A demonstration on October 3 in defence of the status of EDF employees has the potential to draw in other workers and broaden out into a generalised defence of public services
The ongoing crisis in the health service is so acute that even the Raffarin government has had to increase health spending and promise to take on tens of thousands more health workers.
A broad front in defence of jobs and public services, against privatisation, cuts in public spending and private pension funds is now needed to make Chirac's and Raffarin's worst fears come true.
Faced with inaction from the main union confederations it is up to the left and the radical wing of the trade unior : movement to organise it. At the same time they will be faced with the responsibility of building a broad movement against Bush's coming war on Iraq.
It is in the heat of the struggles against neo-liberalism and imperialist war that the elements of a new anti-capitalist political force can come together. * Murray Smith is the former editor of Frontline, journal of the International Socialist Movement platform in the Scottish Socialist Party. He is now resident in Paris and a member of the LCR (Revolutionary Communist League) ** Workers' Fight (Lutte Ouvriere) is the • LCR's main rival in the far left. Its work is concentrated on its weekly factory bulletin routine. It denounces the anti-globalisation and social movements as 'petty bourgeois.
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