Macron out, prepare the general strike to win demands! Article by International Workers League

The International Workers League (IWL) has released a compelling article by Michaël Lenoir on France's current political and social turmoil. Dive into this insightful analysis now with Caliber.Az.

Almost two months after the July 7 vote, Macron has finally appointed a new Prime Minister. This decision confirms Macron’s total disregard for the results of the second round of the early legislative elections. Not only does Michel Barnier offer him every guarantee to continue the same authoritarian policies of austerity and social destruction, but his anti-immigration stance is a boon to the National Rally (Rassemblement National or RN). We are now going to see the continuation of Macron’s policies but under the control of the RN!

On August 26, Macron had already officially rejected the appointment of Lucie Castets, proposed as prime minister by the New Popular Front (Nouveau Front Populaire or NFP). Since then, the consultations have multiplied, but the seat of the is teetering in uncertainty, without an alternative solution. In recent days, the two most cited contenders, Bernard Cazeneuve (former minister of Hollande, right of the Socialist Party (PS)) and Xavier Bertrand (Les Republicains, LR), seemed certain to be ousted by a vote of no confidence in the Assembly, which was voted for in both cases by the NFP and the RN. Proposed by Alexis Kohler, Secretary General of the Elysée, was the figure of Michel Barnier, who comes from the classic right LR. But he, unlike Xavier Bertrand, is less odious to Marine Le Pen. Most of the RN seem to believe that Barnier “respects the RN” and does not treat its elected officials “like victims of the plague ”. Contrary to what the RN had announced, in case of a nomination within the NFP, Cazeneuve or X. Bertrand, they will not immediately opt for automatic censure and “will wait for the general policy statement to position itsel”. This was interpreted by Macron as a green light from the RN for the appointment of Barnier.

The tacit coalition of Macron – LR – RN

Barnier is an experienced right-wing politician. Parliamentarian and four-time minister, he has adopted the following reactionary positions during his career: he opposed the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1981, but also much more recently. He has also been against giving government assistance to the poor and unemployed, along with Wauquiez. And with respect to immigration, particularly for the 2021 LR primaries, he called for a “moratorium” on immigration, the restoration of double criminality, and the tightening of restrictions on family reunification.

An important feature of Barnier is that he is a major figure in the EU, to which he has devoted much of his political career. During his time as an EU politician, he built and reinforced its neoliberal structures as Commissioner for Regional Policy from 1999 to 2004, then as Commissioner for Internal Market and Services from 2010 to 2014, before being appointed EU chief Brexit negotiator. He is therefore at the heart of the EU’s neoliberal and anti-people mechanisms. The only point where he went so far as to contradict EU policy was precisely on the migration issue, where he made common cause with Hungarian president Viktor Orbán to flout the Union’s rules on human rights in order to create a migration shield in France.

The choice of such a profile as prime minister amounts to Macron offering a hand to the RN, at least to avoid censure in the Assembly and to maintain the chances for a certain amount of stability. At the same time, this choice guarantees the continuity of policies that have been followed since 2017. The choice of Barnier is the expression of an unspoken coalition between Macron, LR and RN. A far-right bloc has thus been formed, whose programmatic differences are fading more and more, and whose common ground is the continuation of the anti-social offensive, the increase of hostility towards immigrants, not to mention the maintenance of a militarist and colonialist policy.

Probably very soon we will have to fight against new anti-immigration measures, as well as against the austerity policy desired by Barnier. In addition, we will have to fight against the EU fiscal adjustment plan, and for the military budget to be transferred to public services, etc. Undoubtedly, the Macronist authoritarianism and repression – which so cruelly hit the yellow vests, the youth of the suburbs, etc. – will only worsen under such a government. The same goes for colonialist brutality: solidarity with Kanaky will keep us busy! – This government, an enemy of the workers, of youth, of migrants, and of colonized peoples, must be fought now in the streets!

This de facto political bloc has allowed the RN to access power, for the moment indirectly. For a presidential camp that emphasized the “republican front” against the far right, it is particularly shameful! But this is not surprising if we understand that Macron dissolved the Assembly to place RN in government!

This “democracy” is a farce! Big capital is behind Macron!

Let us briefly summarize the political-institutional situation we find ourselves in. Macron has chosen as Prime Minister a politician from a political force which, with its 47 deputies and its 5.41% of the votes obtained in the second round of the legislative elections, is the fourth bloc in the Assembly. Macron made this decision because the third force, the RN and its “ciottist” allies, did not seem immediately hostile to him. And furthermore, the Elysée had the firm will to follow at all costs the general policy followed by the presidential camp, which was disavowed in the streets and at the ballot boxes, and which now represents only the second bloc. He also wants to avoid appointing as head of government the person proposed by the NFP, the first bloc of the Chamber of Deputies. In many bourgeois democracies, the election would have fallen first to the strongest political bloc, not the fourth. According to a poll published by BFMTV on September 6, 74% of the French believe that Macron has not respected the results of the July 7 legislative elections. 55% agree with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who claims that Emmanuel Macron has “officially denied the results of the legislative elections” and that “he has stolen the elections from the French”.

This new situation is not only the result of Macron’s psychology. Certainly, his arrogance and his systematic denial of reality make him a madman. But his actions are nourished by the authoritarian traits of the Fifth Republic, a “democracy” of the rich that is increasingly turning out to be a farce. Beyond the Fifth Republic, the real power in this society is that of big capital.

If, according to the big capitalists, the existing politicians no longer do their job properly, the billionaires and the CAC 40 bosses will find replacements. From this point of view, we have recently witnessed a double phenomenon. On the one hand, there is the possibility of Macron’s departure from the presidency, mentioned in particular after Edouard Philippe’s candidacy for the next presidential election, which is no longer taboo. On the other hand, Medef was quick to demand the maintenance of pro-business policies and warmly thanked Bruno Le Maire for his action in Bercy.

Expelling Macron is an elementary democratic necessity and is a barrier that must be broken urgently!

No confidence in the institutions nor in the NFP!

The current situation is also a consequence of the decisions taken by the majority political and trade union leaderships of the social movement. Their permanent tendency to want to solve the crisis and social polarization by institutional means – and in particular the so-called “republican front” – does not stop the far right. Rather, it only changes the modalities of its rise: with the leader of the political bloc that is put in power, the program applied will be the one accepted by the RN.

The NFP will be able to vote as many motions of censure (votes of no confidence) as it wishes, but the real judge of the policy followed by Barnier’s government will be the RN. To defeat the new attacks from power and, a fortiori, to obtain measures favorable to the workers and the popular classes and democratic advances, only the streets and the popular struggle can change the situation.

We should not trust the leaders and parliamentarians of the NFP. A fraction of this coalition seems determined to challenge Macron’s anti-democratic election and called for demonstrations this Saturday, which is correct. We will have to observe the impact of this mobilization, which will not end there. But apart from the LFI and some others who want to combine parliamentary censure, institutional struggle, and street mobilization for Macron’s removal, the rest of the NFP, with the PS at the head, seems to want to just lead a strictly parliamentary dispute against Macron’s coup.

Organize from the ground up!

The working class, the poor, and youth have the urgent need to organize from the base to win all our objectives, with a politics of class independence in the face of all bourgeois ways and means. The dynamics of such an organization would also go beyond a mobilization to overthrow Macron and respect the results of the elections. To move in this direction, we can draw on recent experiences.

History never serves the same dish twice, but the experience of a popular movement democratically controlled from below can build especially on the achievements of the yellow vests. Such a movement, self-organized and based on class independence, would certainly benefit from the association of local citizens’ assemblies and those based in workplaces. All forces, political or otherwise, claiming to represent popular interests, particularly those constituting the NFP, must be accountable to them.

But it is not enough to make demands. To win, a movement for a general strike must also be prepared.

Prepare the general strike!

Last year we lived through a long wave of struggle against Macron’s pension reform. In the end it could only be imposed through article 49.3, repression, and the rotten strategy of single days of action to which the trade union leadership remains attached. Neither the NFP nor LFI question this strategy.

Today, this question remains relevant. But let’s face it: if our class enemies do not fear the “days of action” and the Republic-Nation union marches, they are always worried about one specter: that of a social explosion. What frightens the propertied class is the idea that the country could be paralyzed, that the economy could be blocked and with it the profit machine. Therefore, an ongoing general strike is necessary.

Achieving such a strike implies fighting, from inside and outside the unions, against the policy of collaboration led by the confederal leadership, which, whatever its rhetoric, leads us from defeat to defeat. Putting self-imposed limits on the struggle will only guarantee its failure. It has now become clear that the strategy of relying on elections to change the situation – as union leaders have often suggested – clashes with both the institutions and the Elysian monarch. We must therefore find alternative means via an uncompromising class struggle. It is a question of bringing together all those who want to build a real strike movement – which is not opposed to other forms of action – to blockade the country. There is no lack of demands, as the social and political attacks and setbacks have been enormous in the last decades. But what follows should be at the heart of the struggle we are building:

Out with Macron!

Down with colonialism! 

Solidarity with the Kanak people!

Let’s organize to prepare the general strike:

- For the withdrawal of the pension reform!

- For the increase of the SMIC and social minimums.

- No to the increase of military spending and the deficit adjustment plan imposed by the EU 

- More resources to save our public services strangled by austerity: health, education, transport.