fwd from Marxmail... NY Times, April 17, 2002 Trotskyist on a First-Name Basis to France
By SUZANNE DALEY PARIS, April 16 - Vendors selling "workers unite" pamphlets and books with titles like "Being a Bolshevik after the Bolsheviks" lined the long walk from the subway station to the auditorium where the presidential candidate known simply as Arlette was about to speak. Waiting for a crowd of more than 5,000 to settle into their seats, Arlette, whose last name is Laguiller, was amiably taking questions from the news media. In another setting, she would pass as someone's down-to-earth granny. Her hair is short. She wears sensible, lace-up shoes and sometimes looks remarkably vulnerable. She is not, however, to be underestimated. This year, she has turned out to be a surprisingly sharp thorn in the side of the left-wing political establishment. Polls show that this retired, Trotskyist typist may get as much as 10 percent of the votes in the first round of the presidential elections set for Sunday. That could mean third or fourth place in a field of 16 candidates - ahead of both the candidates for the Communist Party and the Greens, the two left-wing parties that have been junior partners in the ruling government coalition for the last five years. The likely winners of the Sunday vote, President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, are expected to garner just 18 to 22 percent each. Ms. Laguiller, 62, has run for the French presidency four times before, but never gotten more than 5.3 percent of the vote. Her recent success sometimes seems to overwhelm her. When she finally took the stage here recently the crowd roared and roared, waving huge red banners. "Stop, stop," she said after a few minutes. "You are going to make me cry." Her pitch does not vary much. Her key positions include blocking profits and raising salaries, reserving public funds for public services and banning lay-offs. "Most of the candidates are socially and politically in the camp of the bourgeoisie," she says. "They are competing only to better the affairs of the bosses, the managers, the businessmen and the bankers. "Me, I am from the workers' camp. It is their interest - moral, material and social - that I want to defend." full: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/17/international/europe/17FRAN.html ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international "They are all Enron, we are all Argentina" --WEF protesters. ---- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
