The political crisis is setting in and the maneuvring continues. Many workers are no longer amused by the spectacle.
With his usual arrogance, Macron considers himself to be above the fray and the political impasse that he himself has provoked. While explaining that no one has won, he claims the right to decide who should be the interim leader.
The left-wing leaders, after having Borne, Darmanin and other Macronists and LR1 party members elected on the pretext of blocking the RN2, are now whining because Macron refuses to declare them the winners. Yesterday’s allies, who claimed they would “change lives”, are now tearing each other apart to find a Prime Minister. On the Macronist side, they are flirting with the right and the PS3, in the name of necessary stability. As for the RN, having dismissed the most openly racist black sheep so that it can show a respectable face, it is ready to govern in the service of the bourgeoisie.
This whole political circus is being performed in the name of “ideals” and “the will of the people” and “democracy”. But this bourgeois democracy is on its last legs, a victim of the crisis and the impasse of the capitalist system.
Where’s the democracy for workers? What do we get to decide? Our working conditions, our wages? Fundamentally, this democracy only serves the exploiters.
Under the 4th and 5th Republics, successive governments, left- and right-wing alike, have orchestrated, on behalf of the largest French capitalist groups, dirty colonial wars, followed by imperialist interventions and support for ruling dictators. This democracy is also that of the repression of strikes and demonstrations, of trigger-happy policemen in working-class neighborhoods.
Despite the irresponsibility of the politicians vying for the Prime Minister's seat, the big bourgeoisie has a well-established state apparatus. Its high-ranking civil servants, courts, police and army are there to defend its social order.
The political leaders may not find a way out of the current political crisis but that won't stop the bourgeoisie from attacking the working class again and again. It’s thanks to this class war that the bourgeoisie is able to reap unprecedented profits despite the crisis into which the economy is sinking.
And things will remain the same if we, the workers, don’t challenge the bourgeoisie’s power and overthrow capitalism.
If society continues to function while politicians squabble, it's because we continue to collect garbage, to produce on assembly lines, to stock supermarket shelves. We continue to juggle to make ends meet, to endure increasingly harsh working conditions, to try and compensate for the lack of resources for hospital care, for transporting passengers on buses and trains. And thanks to our work, the bourgeoisie continues to get richer.
We lack the awareness that our position of strength at the heart of the society enables us to oppose this system of exploitation.
In the past, the labor movement was able to spread this awareness and oppose attempts to divide its forces. It was around a very simple idea, formulated by Karl Marx, that the first communists gathered: “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of all countries, unite!”
This communist, revolutionary and internationalist political consciousness was lost as left-wing parties became integrated into the bourgeois society and its state apparatus. They replaced the class struggle against the capitalists by the ballot paper in favor of a “good” government. They swapped internationalism for nationalism and the illusion that borders could defend workers' interests.
With no prospects, workers were left disoriented, their class strength neutralized. Today, division by racist poison may disarm them even more in the face of their exploiters.
If we don't want to sink lower into crisis and widespread war, we urgently need to rebuild a party that defends not only our immediate interests, but also the goal of putting an end to capitalism. We need a revolutionary communist party, in the way that Marx and generations of activists after him meant.
Nathalie Arthaud
1 LR: Les Républicains.
2 RN: Rassemblement national.
3 PS: Parti socialiste.