[Marxism] French elections

[Greg Dunkel <gdunkel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have been following the presidential elections in France closely, reading the 
web sites of the left-wing candidates and trying to figure out the context, the 
impact, the significance of these elections for progressives in the United 
States.

In this post, I am going to try to sum up the issues and events since the last 
French election in 2002 that will have an impact on this one.  The next post, I 
hope to complete tomorrow, will focus on what the major left-wing parties in 
France are saying about these issues.

Elections in France have two rounds.  The first in which a number of candidates 
compete and voters are expected to express their political and social 
preferences, as the French say "vote their hearts." The second in which the two 
(rarely three) top contenders in the first round run, and the winner is elected 
to office.

France has the most powerful left-wing movement in the major developed 
countries, when it unites;  a politically conscious and combative working 
class, whose impact is sometimes defused because it is split into competing 
political camps; a large and volatile oppressed community, whose roots mainly 
lie in immigration from former French colonies in North & West Africa. 

When the left works together, it can win significant victories.  In 2005, when 
the European bourgeoisie wanted to push through a constitution that severely 
limited the democratic rights of workers, the French left coalesced, drew on 
the organizational muscle of the French Communist Party (PCF), and defeated the 
bourgeoisie in its electoral arena.

A few months later in 2005, the suburbs -- the banlieues  where the French 
warehouse their oppressed communities -- exploded in 6-weeks of protests 
against the racist exclusion of minorities from jobs, education and 
opportunities.  March and April 2006 saw massive protests involving students 
and unions which forced the government to withdraw a new program of subminimum 
wages for youth.

France also has the most powerful right-wing movement in Europe, split into 
several currents, ranging from the fascist right through the governing right, 
shading off to the center right.  The fascist right is organized around the 
National Front (FN), headed by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who boasts of having been an 
intelligence officer in the Algerian war.  While he denies having the blood of 
victims his unit tortured on his hands, reports in the French press in 2002, 
when he was in the second round of the presidential election, made it clear he 
was and is a liar.  He does indeed have blood on his hands.

Currently, Le Pen, who is again running for president, ranks fourth in the 
polls. The fascist right in France generally does better in the actual votes 
than it does in the polls.

Even though the base of the FN is in the south of France, centered around the 
port of Marseilles, the dockworkers union recently shut this port -- the third 
largest in Europe -- down for 16 days over a dispute about who would represent 
the port workers in a new terminal near Marseilles.  It wasn't until the 
economy of southern France was on the verge of shutting down due to the lack of 
gasoline, that the bosses blinked and gave in.  They were bitter about the 
union going to the wall for just 5 jobs, but for the union it was a principled 
struggle, one that they won.

Even though the election is Sunday, April 22, the most recent poll shows that 
nearly 20% of French voters have not made up their minds.  Another factor in 
the uncertainty surrounding this election is the large number of new voters 
from the banlieues.

Besides Le Pen, the other three leading candidates are:  
    -- Nicolas Sarkozy of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the 
right-wing party currently running the government, who was Justice minister in 
2005 and made his mark by his racist and insulting remarks about the 
protesters; he is obviously maneuvering with at least the base of the FN, if 
not some of its leadership;

    -- Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party (PS) is a social democrat and an 
apologist and promoter of French imperialism;

    -- François Bayrou of the Union for French Democracy (UDF) is trying to 
position himself as bridging the left, or at least the Socialist Party, and the 
right;  the UDF is very small, with only one cabinet member who is actually 
supporting Sarkozy, but he is doing surprisingly well in the polls and has a 
chance of coming in second.

I wrote about a very important protest that shows the continuing significance 
of the struggle of the oppressed nationalities and its impact on the election 
in the April 8 edition of Workers World. 
(http://www.workers.org/2007/world/paris-0412/index.html)   I want to extend 
that analysis in looking at what the PCF, Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), 
Workers Struggle (LO) and Jose Bové had to say about it  and what they have to 
say about the struggle of the oppressed.

But that is for another post.





________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism