The first round of parliamentary elections in France saw Marine Le Pen’s far right RN taking the largest vote, at 33.2%, ahead of the New Popular Front on 28% and President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble alliance on 22.4%. Below we carry a brief commentary from Gauche Révolutionnaire (CWI in France) on the results and what workers and youth need to do now to stop the RN and also the policies of Macron.
Socialistworld.net
Bardella and Le Pen are not on our side! No to racism and division!
To stop the RN, Macron and the capitalists: young people and workers, let’s unite and mobilise!
President Macron has created an even more explosive situation. The far right National Rally party (RN, Rassemblement National) is well ahead in the first round of the parliamentary elections. There is the possibility of a RN government on Sunday 7 July, the day of the second round.
Macron, with his policies for the bosses, systematically destroyed public services and allowed the capitalists to line their pockets by keeping wages far too low in the face of rising prices. So, he created the breeding ground of precariousness and anger that laid the basis for the rise of the far right.
Many young people and many workers strengthened the vote on the left for the candidates of the New Popular Front, often having previously voted for La France Insoumise (LFI), to say no to Bardella and Le Pen, the RN leaders, but also against Macron and his policies. But it was not enough.
A significant part of the middle class, but also of workers and young people, voted for Bardella and RN to inflict a defeat on Macron. Added to that is racist propaganda, which was at the heart of this campaign, as it is at the heart of the policies of Macron, minister of the interior, Darmanin, and in the media. And faced with the deterioration in our living conditions, racism has taken hold among a whole section of the population as a response to the current crisis. But those who are responsible for the turmoil and deterioration in living conditions are Macron and the capitalists, not foreigners!
No Macron-Bardella government! Let’s massively mobilise in the streets now!
Young people and workers have no common interest with Bardella and Le Pen. No votes from our camp should go to the National Rally and its allies. Its policies are on the right, in line with those of the capitalists and with Macron: not attacking the ultra-rich and the bosses who will be able to increase their profits, reduce public services, and inflict privatisation, strong authoritarianism and policies that are racist, sexist and discriminatory in society.
We know it and we feel it, the situation is tense. We must organise! An electoral victory will not be enough. It is through our struggles in workplaces, in neighbourhoods, and with everyone together in the streets, that the real barrier to the RN will be created! And it’s necessary to get organised from now!
Since Sunday 30 June, small gatherings have taken place. All the young people who have been mobilising for weeks against the war in Gaza and for three weeks against the RN must step up their mobilisation in the streets.
Gauche Révolutionnaire (GR – the CWI in France) will be present! Trade unions, left parties and associations must call for mass mobilisations throughout this week. We need demonstrations but we must go further!
Faced with the threat of a RN government that will carry out even more brutal attacks against all workers, let’s discuss the organisation of strikes in our workplaces and unions!
- No votes of workers and young people for the RN!
- Against the RN, for a massive vote for the New Popular Front candidates!
- For a programme of struggle by workers and young people!
In reality, Macron and Le Pen are not opponents but walk hand in hand for the interests of the capitalists and against the interests of workers and young people and the majority of the population. There will not be a significant improvement in our living and working conditions without workers getting involved and organising independently of the parties that manage affairs for the capitalists.
We fight for the unity of all those, young people and workers, who reject the RN and Macron. To be strong, let’s come together around workers’ demands such as:
- an increase in the minimum wage,
- the total nationalisation of energy to stop the rise in prices,
- for the repeal of racist laws, against discrimination
A real government serving workers and young people should take such measures because it is not a question of putting back the likes of Edouard Philippe (one of Macron’s prime ministers) or Hollande (the former ‘Socialist’ President) into government to again suffer their anti-social policies which are the breeding ground for the RN.
We need a common front on a clear basis; the only way of strengthening our camp. That is what will allow us to be stronger to remove Bardella and Macron and engage in a decisive battle against the capitalist system which is at the root of inequality, poverty and exploitation. Because to put an end to the threat of the RN and pro-capitalist policies, we must fight against their entire system. Gauche Révolutionnaire fights for a socialist society, the only society capable of putting an end to exploitation, racism and wars.
