>The battle of principle however must also be won >against those who distort marxism to argue that >it would be "class teachery" to vote for Chirac >in the present circumstances. > >IMHO of course. > >Chris Burford
It makes no sense to vote for Chirac since his policies as Prime Minister in the past were exactly those that created openings for the far right in the first place. As an aggressive defender of neoliberalism under the rubric of "European unity", he provoked two opposed responses. The socialists and the left challenged the need to enrol France in a race to the bottom. The far right instead proposed that France move in a more nationalist direction, including a ban on immigration. In any case, Chirac's return to power will only boost the ranks of the far left and the far right in much the same way that centrist, do-nothing governments did in Germany in the 1920s. Ultimately, there will be a battle between socialists and fascists just as there was in the past. For success in such a battle, we need to build the ranks of the left while sharpening its understanding of class principles. The same sort of attempts to dull this understanding that took place during the 1920s and 30s are obviously at work today. The Irish Times, December 21, 1995, CITY EDITION Strikes in France expose gulf of incomprehension between rulers and ruled Negotiations will open today in France in an attempt to solve the country's worst social crisis in nearly 30 years. Kathryn Hone in Paris examines the long term implications of a winter of discontent BYLINE: By KATYRYN HONE DATELINE: PARIS FRANCE will not be having a traditional Christmas this year. Those Christmas tills that usually ring throughout December have been largely silent throughout the three weeks of a national upheaval on a scale not seen since May 1968. Everyone is a little poorer. Despite the uneasy social truce as trains return to the rails, everyone is wondering what will happen in the new year, astonished both the French and their European partners, not just because no one saw it coming but also because of the depth of popular feeling it unleashed. France, which seemed sullen but anaesthetised under its new President, Mr Jacques Chirac, suddenly woke up. As many as two million people were motivated to march in the streets of their cities. The "drop that made the vase overflow", as the French say, was the attempt by the Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe in an excess of zeal to introduce several fundamental reforms at the same time. On top of the heaviest rise in indirect taxation for years and a freeze on public service pay, he loaded a "rationalisation" plan for the indebted state railway company, SNCF, an end to civil servants hard-won retirement privileges, and a streamlining of the social security system, imposing limits on health spending. What was new about the strike that followed was that it managed to retain the sympathy of a majority of the public, despite the hardships and loss of income it produced. Deprived of trains, people walked or hitched or cycled to work, but most doggedly maintained that the rail workers and bus drivers were right to protest. Into the breach opened by striking railway workers, postal staff, teachers or electricians surged in a huge wave of general discontent. Its target was not only rejection of the so-called Juppe Plan to reform the health service but a more general rejection of France's elite ruling class. Many political leaders, including Mr Juppe and President Chirac, are the product of the exclusive Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), a training college for senior civil servants and decision-makers. The resulting "enarques" as they are nicknamed, or graduates from other grandes ecoles, make up the bulk of the country's politicians, captains of industry, economic advisers and ministerial cabinets. Such an education tends to produce technocrats more inclined to see politics as economic management than as involving decisions with human dimensions. The sociologist, Mr Edgar Mario pointed out this week that these elites have been trained in compartmentalised thinking which tends to dismiss all aspects that are not quantifiable, such as anguish and human suffering. They are seen as having sold out to what another sociologist and supporter of the strikes. Mr Pierre Bourdieu, described last week as "the new Leviathan" market forces and global competition. While the technocrats in ministerial offices talk about meeting the Maastricht criteria and qualifying for a single currency, down at street level people see nothing but higher taxes, more belt-tightening and the threat of unemployment. "Our problem", one postal worker said this week, "is that for 10 years we have been asked to make sacrifices, but we can no longer see what the object is. There is no light at the end of the tunnel." In response to the anguish of a generation exposed to mass unemployment, homelessness and fear for their children's futures, politicians use economic palliatives, saying that France must become mare competitive. Such words only increase people's anxieties. The republican ideal of the people being served by the elite seems to have been usurped by a breed of calculators who have substituted consumers for citizens. The ponderous state, with its five million public servants, is seen by many ordinary people as a buffer against the outside world following French civilisation to continue undisturbed. Now the state itself seems exposed to the same chill winds of competition, opening the door to privatisations, reductions, lay-offs. POLITICIANS appear helpless in the face of these outside forces. Having denounced the market forces mentality he called Ia pensee unique during his presidential election campaign, Mr Chirac now says there is no alternative to deficit-cutting and balancing the books. The gulf between governors and governed has always existed in France, of course. But "ordinary people" are strikingly under-represented in public life. Newspapers, whose circulations are small in any case, do not carry prominent letters pages. Domestically-produced television drama tends to be glitzy or nostalgic. The millions of people on the poverty line appear on screen only in worthy documentaries or news programmes about social problems. In a country dominated by Cartesian thinking, every aspect of people's lives is dissected, calculated, expressed in figures. A statistic for the number of French people who brush their teeth twice a day or have sex once a month is sure to exist. But what they say, think and feel about daily existence is unfamiliar territory. ANOTHER novelty of the three-week strike was the strength of revolt it revealed in certain regions of France. Because there were no trains to transport protesters, the unions did not focus their mass demonstrations on Paris but encouraged local rallies. The result was unprecedented outpourings of feeling in some cities. Marseilles, the second-biggest French city, expressed all its resentment against decisions imposed from Paris, as well as its despair at the closure of traditional industries, leaving high unemployment and social problems. Toulouse, too, appeared to feel abandoned by the political process, as did Bordeaux, showing its irritation with its absentee landlord, its new mayor, Mr Juppe. It was notable that the most rebellious regions were also those which voted No most strongly in the 1992 referendum on the Maastricht Treaty. These regions cannot foresee their role in a common European future and feel abandoned by the present. The problems raised by the winter of discontent are too complex to be resolved easily. But what seems certain is that unless the government and the European Union find a human dimension, showing compassion as well as competence, whole swathes of the French population will be left to their own devices, with unpredictable consequences for European democracy. -- Louis Proyect, [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 05/02/2002 Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org
