Mediaboss Marketing

As I write, Labour seems set for electoral victory and yet its professed policies and publicity are so anodyne as to have us wondering whether its next government will be socialist or embrace social democracy. Possibly Starmer and Reeves are unsure practical governance being dependent on the size of its majority. They have been wise enough not to reveal much of their political souls and their core instincts, if they have any. So, it may be revealing to review what their Spads will have been reading recently.

The grumpy grandpa of American politics wrote a book last year which proved to be a bestseller and still features prominently on display in the remaining bookshops we have left. No doubt Bernie Sanders will be happy that the free market has yielded him voluminous sales, albeit aided by the odd Guardian interview. Its title, Its OK to be Angry about Capitalism:, tells you all you need to know that wealth is stacked disproportionately in the coffers of the few, that the alleviation of undefined poverty requires redistribution of wealth, that common assets such as water and land justify common ownership, for equity, and that all this presents problems that are historically compounding and urgent. It presents a world of unfair and pre-revolutionary economics, and is essentially a simplistic summary of Thomas Pikettys dense, turgid, intellectual nonsense, concluding theoretically without evidence that the world will create more wealth if it curbs free market capitalism.

He wants increased taxes on companies that use automation and robotics to cut costs and employment. That would only displace innovation and manufacturing elsewhere, compounding the problem it attempts to delay. Worries about technology are understandable but economic history has repeatedly taught us that when industries decline and/or evolve in the face of technological advance, employment opportunities also evolve. The wonderful efficiency of the free market means that it sorts this change out quicker and less painfully than could any government.

There is an issue on which I find myself agreeing with Uncle Bernie that lack of local news can cause people to overuse social media and lead them to fake news and conspiracy theories. His prescription is, of course, grants for local media. Notwithstanding that tax breaks are usually more benign than tax handouts, lowering inefficient distortions in economic behaviour and reducing fraud, I am not sure that this would work anyway. Obtaining news from social media is not going to be prevented. Better to regulate its publication than subsidise its failing participants.

Socialism, like its ugly big sister Communism, is a failed ideology

Senator Sanders, like our own Magic Grandpa, Jeremy Corbyn, is an old fashioned socialist. Just as when ones undergraduate offspring surprise you with some newly learnt certainties about politics and culture, you listen and wonder whether they have actually thought it through. Socialism, like its ugly big sister Communism, is a failed ideology. There have been something like 80 socialist governments in democracies since the 1920s and every one has left power with weaker economies than before. For me, that is failure. To a socialist that may be the wrong criteria, of course. Success may be measured by the distribution, by progress to the mirage of equality as an endpoint, (or equity like economic justice, something which sounds benign but is in practice brutal). Thing is, such principles transposed into policies rarely deliver the services that a nation and its communities need and often weaken them completely. The nearest thing we have ever had to pure socialism in Britain is the NHS, a federal bureaucratic behemoth that consistently delivers mediocre healthcare outcomes.

Less cuddly in terms of popularity, but just as old and opinionated is the economist Joseph Stiglitz. His latest is The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society (very witty, as opposed to Friedmans Road to Serfdom), and seeks to reclaim the concept of freedom for liberals and progressives, claiming it is more complex and nuanced than how most of the Right understand it. We follow the arguments of a cleverer mind here, but I doubt whether, if liberals start to use freedom, we would actually be allowed some.

Stiglitz rails against American gun ownership, which is fine. The US is a very strange country in that regard, with widespread freedom of gun ownership leading to restrictions in daily life for everyone else. Conversely, I suppose it is like our fox hunting prohibitions. I have no wish to hunt but dont see why there should be a law preventing people doing so but that is me thinking about freedom in the old way. Stiglitz argues that the state should define what is good for us in terms of freedom by cost benefit analysis, whereby restrictions on individual behaviour are weighed against the greater freedom of overall societal benefit, such as better healthcare outcomes or an increasing GDP. He is no socialist as an economist he understands that it does not work but he is a thinker who has moved to the Left over time and this may prove to be more influential than if he was spouting the usual tax-the-rich and curb-the-corporations argument. He wants to redirect freedom from being an individual right to one that can be weaponized by government to justify its interventions.

If you must read economics from a left-wing perspective, the only truly great thinker was the late David Graeber Keynes was a centrist and he was an anthropologist best on history, not analysis. His Debt: The First 5,000 Years is amazingly insightful. (Debt is money. Money is debt. Metal is money and might be debt. Debts are units of trust and, therefore, so is money).

I can think of only two successful peacetime governments, Attlees and Thatchers

There are less damaging alternatives to socialism for those who are centre left: Social or Christian Democracy, the Third Way of Blair and Clinton. Liberalism has been the most successful because it is the most adaptable and permeable. Freedom used to be a concept beloved by Liberals in the C19th and Stiglitz is likely to find eager ears amongst them to reclaim the word. Electorally the Liberal Partys performance since the rise of Labour has been lamentable, but ambitious liberals became Tory Wets or formed Labours right and have effectively ruled the country continually since the Suez Crisis, Thatcher apart. When party activists complain that their senior MPs are not properly Conservative or socialist, they are largely right. With a First Past the Post electoral system that encourages two large parties it is inevitable that they are both umbrella coalitions and so liberals rise to the foreground and govern us. This does not guarantee effective government, of course. For that, a government needs to define its aims and timescales in a handful of points and be unswerving in delivering them. The constant buffeting of national affairs and media pressure, as well as the enthusiasm or not of the civil service, means it is easy to be distracted.

I can think of only two successful peacetime governments, Attlees and Thatchers. They imposed their personalities and policies upon the machinery of administration and were ideologically inspired. The rest was well meaning muddle, often damaging and partly corrected later. Our likely fate in the next Parliament is more muddle, with demands for more tax from those who cant contemplate cutting state spending and most of everyone else trying to deceive you as to what freedom means.

More:
Its OK to be angry about socialism | Johnny Leavesley - The Critic

LONDON Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his ruling Conservative Party warn voters that if Labour wins the coming election, Britain will become a one-party socialist state.

Might sound scary. But where are the socialists?

Labour leader Keir Starmer effectively announced to the country on Thursday that the old Labour Party in Britain is gone.

Out: free college tuition.

Stories to keep you informed

In: wealth creation.

With relentless, years-long focus, working through complex, interlocking, often secretive committees, Starmer has effectively purged his party of the hard left, denying them not only places on the ballot in Britains July 4 elections but also membership in the organization.

On Thursday, Starmer released his partys manifesto all parties in Britain call their platform a manifesto and it was miles away from election pledges of just five years ago.

Welcome to a changed Labour Party, as Starmer referred to it a dozen times in a speech in Manchester launching the manifesto.

Some critics call Starmer relentless and ruthless when observing his attempt to reinvent Labour. Others use words like boring or dull. His own PR team pushes the line that he is no-drama Starmer. (Which isnt quite as catchy as no-drama Obama.)

Starmer is not running a flashy campaign. No jazz hands here. And thats deliberate. If youre 20 points up in the polls, no need to spook the voters, said Luke Tryl, director of More in Common, a British think tank.

Highlighting the top promises, Starmer stressed that Labour would be a security-focused party, guarding the borders and the economy, and putting more police on the streets to crack down on petty crime and antisocial behavior like public drinking and drug-taking.

The manifesto describes plans to boost wealth by streamlining rules, working closely with businesses and putting taxpayer money such as a $9 billion National Wealth Fund into partnerships with key industries to de-risk private investment.

Starmer vowed not to raise income taxes, national insurance taxes or value-added taxes for the regular folk. But he said closing tax-avoidance loopholes and new taxes on things like private school fees could bring in more than $10 billion.

He repeatedly used the term working people, not the workers that his predecessors referenced.

Wealth creation is our number one priority; growth is our core business, he pledged.

Already some of Labours traditional backers, such as the unions, have expressed concern that the manifesto is too much boardroom, too little factory floor.

Sunak, who has promised $22 billion in tax cuts if the Conservatives win the election, responded to the Labour manifesto by posting, If you think theyll win, start saving. He claimed that Labours promises would mean the highest taxes in history.

A heckler briefly interrupted Starmers speech on Thursday, accusing the Labour leader of pitching the same old Tory policies and letting young people down.

Starmer declared, We gave up being a party of protest five years ago. We want to be a party of power, as the protester was removed by security.

In the last general election in 2019, then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn whose deputy listed his favorite book as Karl Marxs Das Kapital promised free at-home personal care for the elderly, including shopping and tidying up. Corbyn said his party would nationalize the railways, the utilities, the mail service, water companies and broadband internet.

Corbyn lost in a landslide to the Brexiteer Boris Johnson. Starmer concluded that Labour must return to the center and especially must purge the party of the stain of antisemitism created when pro-Palestinian voices crossed the line into anti-Israel, anti-Jewish hate.

Corbyn wasnt just muffled, he was pushed out of the party by Starmer and his centrist allies. Corbyn will now run for his old seat in Parliament as an independent.

Starmer has detoxified the Labour brand, focused on national security, where there were concerns about Corbyn, and hes seen to be fiscally responsible, said Tryl, of the More in Common think tank. Hes trying to convince soft Tories, Look, its okay if you vote for the Labour Party, we wont do anything to upend things.

Starmer is following the path of Tony Blair, the last winning Labour leader, who led his party to an unprecedented three terms and served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007. Blair positioned his party as New Labour, a more centrist movement that felt similar to the moderate, triangulating Democrats under Blairs ally President Bill Clinton.

Afterward, Blair became an object of derision on the Labours hard left, which resented him for drawing Britain into the long war in Iraq and excoriated his supporters as Blairites and revanchists.

Early in this election campaign, Starmer surprised some voters when he declared himself still a socialist. (As a young man, Starmer served as the editor of a Trotskyite magazine called Socialist Alternatives.)

I would describe myself as a socialist. I describe myself as a progressive. Id describe myself as somebody who always puts the country first and party second, he said.

His deputy Rachel Reeves wasnt so comfortable with that. Asked whether she, too, was a socialist, she called herself a social democrat instead.

Martin Baxter, chief executive of Electoral Calculus, a political consulting firm, said Starmer may have been trying to shore up his left-wing base with that line, or he might believe that he is a socialist, but that can mean different things to different people.

Socialist is not a word that all colleagues would use to describe Starmer these days. Does Keir Starmer know what a socialist is? asked the Socialist Worker newspaper in a headline.

Conservatives say Starmer is hiding his true agenda.

In his speech Thursday, Starmer didnt stress nationalization of any industries.

Instead, he said the government would create the Great British Energy company, which would be a publicly owned utility producing cleaner, greener power, one of several competitors. He didnt say anything about taking over the railways, but the manifesto does say, We will put passengers at the heart of the service by reforming the railways and bringing them into public ownership. We will do this as contracts with existing operators expire or are broken through a failure to deliver, without costing taxpayers a penny in compensation.

Both Sunak and Starmer faced interviews Wednesday night. Sky Newss Beth Rigby kicked off her grilling of Starmer this way: You told the country Jeremy Corbyn would make a great prime minister. You then expelled him from Labour. You campaigned for a second E.U. referendum. Now you dont talk about the E.U. And you dumped all the left-wing policies. Your short political career is a catalogue actually of broken promises and changed positions.

Starmer responded that he had responsibly put the party back on track after the 2019 election. When you lose that badly, you dont look to voters and say, What on earth do you think you were doing? You look at your party and say, We have to change.

Baxter noted that Starmer looks sensible and hes not off-putting to many people, but his support isnt deep. Its driven by an anti-Conservative feeling.

So far, Labours large lead in voter intent surveys appears to be more of a case of the Conservatives on course to lose the election than Labour winning it.

Nonetheless, support for Labour is broad and consistent. Labour is polling ahead of Conservative in every age group under 70, and it has been 20 points up for some time. When Blair swept to power in 1997 with a landslide, Labour was only 13 percentage points ahead in the polls.

Follow this link:
U.K.'s Keir Starmer tones down the socialism in 'changed Labour Party' - The Washington Post

On Saturday the Socialist Equality Party campaigned in Holborn and St Pancras with a stall on Camden Road. Tom Scripps, 28, is challenging Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and is the only candidate advancing asocialist programmefor workers and young people againstcapitalism and war.

Hundreds of copies of the SEPelection manifesto were distributed outside Sainsburys and near Aldi on Camden High Street. The SEP is fielding Scripps in London and 25-year-old Darren Paxton in Inverness to build a socialist anti-war movement based on the international working class.

The SEPs election statement alerts the working class to NATOplans to escalate their proxy-war in Ukraine into a direct military confrontation with Russia: The SEP is using this election to break the conspiracy of silence maintained by the capitalist media, the major parties, the trade unions and what passes for the left over the acute dangers facing the working class. We intend to build a socialist alternative.

Loading Tweet ...

Dozens of workers, youth and retireesstopped and spoke with SEP campaigners. The stall, with its large placards denouncing Labours support for the Gaza genocide and NATOs proxy-war in Ukraine, attracted interest throughout the day, despite heavy rain at times.

Mali, a self-employed worker, pointed to the SEPs election manifesto and said, The first thing I agreed with when I saw you was no to the Gaza war and build an anti-war movement. That is why I am supporting Tom. I dont know his background, but I believe in those words. I believe in justice in the world, and peace in the world.

The people who are dying in Gaza and Ukraine are the same people. The Americans are pushing the western countries into war. I agree there is a connection to the war in Gaza and Ukraine.

Mali has attended all the mass protests in London against Israels slaughter in Gaza. He linked Britains support for genocide to thecriminalisation of protest and free speech: Democratic rights includes the right to say what you want. These protests are not antisemitic as they are saying. If you look at many of the normal Israeli peopleIm not talking about the Netanyahu government, but the peoplethey are against the war. They dont want anything to do with genocide.

I agree that Starmer is just as much a war criminal. I dont know any more of any difference between the Labour and Conservative parties.

Mali took some of the manifestos to share with his family and friends.

A young workertoldSEP campaigners, I have been to all the marches on Gaza, and I was shocked, shocked when Keir Starmer, my MP, agreed that Israel had the right to stop Palestinians receiving water and food. Starmer is a lawyer and knows human rights, and he has broken humanitarian rights so much.

He led what was in effect a coup against Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour Party yet Corbyn being nice is also his biggest downfall. He would not fight them.

I work seven days a week with only a morning off. I am for the whole political set-up to be swept away and replaced with a socialist society where what is needed is given. I am interested in this campaign.

Hawie, a musician from Camden, took a copy of the SEPs election manifesto and told an SEP volunteer: I havent heard that take before, about the mobilisation toward war with Russia. Im following lefty discussion all over the place, on Twitter, YouTube discussion, I havent heard anything like that before.

There seems to be a lot of talk around allowing Ukraine to strike territory inside Russia, and possibly other countries such as Poland, so everythings moving toward escalation. Ill have a look at your website certainly. I wasnt planning to vote Labour, and I was thinking that Feinstein was a good alternative, but maybe Ill think again.

Hawiehad supported Corbyn as leader of the Labour Partyin 2015: I was pleased that someone seemed to be steering the Labour Party back in the direction worthy of its name, closer to its origins coming out of the labour movement. He described Starmers Stalinist tactics in purging thousands of left-wing members from the party. But he was also critical of Corbyn for leaning into that and refusing to challenge his attackers. He should never have given in to the Labour Party.

The campaign team encountered widespread opposition to the Gaza genocide, but there was little awareness of NATOs push for direct military confrontation against Russia. Several young people expressed surprise at the Zelensky regimes imprisonment of our comrade, the Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk for opposing the war.

I thought Zelensky was in favour ofdemocracy, a youth said in surprise, after an SEP member explained his role incancelling elections, arresting youth for resisting the draft, imprisoning left-wing opponents, banning strikes and promoting fascist wartime leaders such as Stepan Bandera, who played a leading role in the Holocaust.

He took a leaflet and expressedsupport for Bogdans struggle for the unity of Russian and Ukrainian workers against the war.

Outside Aldi, an SEP member was confronted by an angry member of the public who mistook us for the Labour Party. He demanded to know why Labour had supported members of Ukrainesfascist Azov battalion being invited into the UK parliament.

An SEP campaigner quickly explained our opposition to the Labour Party, but said he was right to be alarmed over Labourspromotion of fascists. He took a manifesto and said he would read it with interest.

Outside Sainsburys the SEP encountered volunteers campaigning for Independent Andrew Feinstein and handing out flyers. One of their campaign managers approached us and accused the SEP of splitting the left vote before walking off.

Feinsteins election flyer and website does not mention the word socialist, while the Gaza genocide is referencedjust once, as a call for divestment by Camden Council.

While Feinstein is runningas an Independent, he represents the Collective group formed last month by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn and self-billed as the first organised mass movement of the left outside ofthe Labour Party.

Until recently a member of the Labour Party,Feinsteinholds up as his model Corbyns leadership of the Labour Party and bases his programme on the five demands of Corbyns Peace and Justice Project: a pay rise for all, green new deal with public ownership, housing for all, tax the rich to save the NHS and welcome refugees in a world free from war.

Election leaflets produced by Feinstein in the constituency promote a crass anti-political party localism and municipal politics, with statements such as, An Independent candidate serves only local people, not political party agendas and I want Camden to thrive again.

Such a perspective conceals the implications of imperialist genocide and war, austerity and the rise of the far-rightprocesses rooted in the breakdown of world capitalism, radicalising millions of workers and young people around the world and demanding a political solution fought for by a socialist party.

LikeCorbyns election platform in neighbouring Islington North, Feinsteins campaign is calibrated to appeal to popular hostility toward Labours right-wing programme, while blocking a socialist and revolutionary challenge to capitalism by the working class.

His sole reference to Starmer is not that he supports genocide and should be tried as a war criminal, but that he views residents as a stepping stone to power. Feinstein concludes, We deserve an MP who is active locally and shares our moral values.

The SEP is intervening in the British general elections to politically educate the working class and youth in the struggle against war and for socialism, in direct opposition to the pro-capitalist politics of Andrew Feinstein and the Corbynite left. We urge workers and youth everywhere to read our election manifesto andjoin the SEPs campaign.

WSWS Review

What is the pseudo-left?

This review examines the response of pseudo-left political tendencies internationally to the major world political events of the past decade.

Follow this link:
Socialist Equality Party election campaign wins support in Holborn and St Pancras, London - WSWS

A fight for black priorities is playing out right here in New York with national implications.

As socialist Squad Rep. Jamaal Bowman tries to fend off a Democratic challenger in the June 25 primary, its become clear he is increasingly out of step with his black constituents in The Bronx and Westchester.

I know because Ive asked them.

My group, the National Black Empowerment Action Fund, recently commissioned a poll of hundreds of black residents in Bowmans district.

We found a huge divide between those voters concerns and Bowmans priorities in Congress.

When asked about the issues they care about most, black voters primarily pointed to quality of life jobs and economic development (27%), crime and public safety (25%), inflation and the cost of living (18%) and housing (16%).

Meanwhile, in his public statements Bowman appears squarely focused on the conflict in Gaza, even though only 3% of black people in the district cite that as a leading concern.

As a 20-year veteran of black politics in America, Ive seen time and time again a general misunderstanding of what black voters want: quality public education for our kids, secure neighborhoods free of guns and gangs, investment in our communities and access to the American dream.

Taken together, in todays polarized, politicized environment, the average black voters stance might be defined as moderate putting safe streets, good schools and good jobs first.

Socialism and extremism dont make the cut. Black people arent socialists. Full stop.

And thats exactly why, if Bowmans challenge is any bellwether, he and his allies in the so-called Squad may be falling out of favor, fast, in black communities.

Whats more, our poll confirmed that the more that black voters learned about their congressmans extreme record on their most important issues, the further out of favor he fell.

It revealed two important facts: One, Bowman is not focused on the common-sense problems his black constituents care about and, two, his extreme record in Congress has not been presented adequately to the black community.

We are having this exact conversation across The Bronx and Westchester and in majority-black districts across the country.

Our poll found that jobs, affordability and the economy were the top issues for black families in the district, parts of which are well-off while some have been sorely underserved.

Given that, Bowmans constituents were shocked to learn he voted against an economic development bill prioritized by black congressional leaders and President Biden that steered jobs, investments and federal dollars to our communities.

Public safety was among the most important issues, and portions of the district have a persistent crime problem.

Yet Bowman doesnt just want to defund the police. Hes a member of the radical Democratic Socialists of America, which advocates for eliminating policing altogether.

Nearly all those we spoke to want a representative focused on safe neighborhoods. Residents agreed that public safety is the bedrock of a thriving black community and were troubled about Bowmans lack of commitment to solving the problem.

Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!

Bowmans district has no shortage of struggling district schools, and its charter schools have long waitlists.

Black constituents want the ability to choose the best public-school option for their kids, so youd think their congressman himself a former educator would support parent choice in education.

But no: Hes railed against charter schools and alternative public-school options for his entire political career, placing him distinctly at odds with local parents.

Taken together, dissatisfaction with his representation on these issues point to real trouble not just for Bowman, but the Squad as a whole, who share his radical, out-of-the-mainstream positions.

And, despite what Squad members like Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) constantly assert, their challenge comes not from white voters, shadowy conservatives or nefarious actors, but from right here in the heart of the black community.

Recently, I attended a forum with Rep. Bowman in White Plains hosted by local NAACP chapters.

The audience was respectful, but the community response to what they heard seemed tepid.

For every question, the congressman didnt talk about his record or propose fixes, but reflexively pointed to racism as the culprit for every problem.

I know full well that this country has a long way to go on racial issues. Its why Ive founded multiple organizations dedicated to black empowerment.

But I also know this: If you are sent to Congress to represent us, you must focus on and clearly work to solve the problems we care about.

Black voters are getting tired of the rhetoric.

Its time our representatives put our priorities first, not an extremist agenda that fails to solve any problems.

If they dont, the consequences may be theirs to bear.

Darius Jones is the co-founder of the National Black Empowerment Action Fund.

See original here:
Black voters at odds with Jamaal Bowman could help sink him - New York Post

Today, hundreds of thousands of people will march against the far right in cities across France, after President Emmanuel Macron reacted to far-right parties gains in the June 9 European elections by dissolving the French parliament and calling snap elections for June 30 and July 7. There is mounting concern among workers and youth over the growth of the neofascist National Rally (RN).

Immediately after the election was announced, Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, announced the creation of a New Popular Front. This is a political trap for those seeking to halt the rise of the far right and police-state militarism. It aims to block a struggle for socialism by subordinating workers to a debilitating alliance with parties of capitalist government like the bourgeois Socialist Party (PS), the Stalinist French Communist Party (PCF) and the Greens. These corrupt parties can only lead their followers to disaster.

Speaking of his alliance with the PS and PCF, Mlenchon said on June 10:

We spoke today to confront the countrys historic situation after the results of the European elections and the dissolution of the National Assembly. We call for the constitution of a new popular front gathering in an unprecedented form all the humanist, trade union, nongovernmental and citizens left forces.

For the first time since the fall of the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime in 1944, the far right is poised to form a government in France. It is moving ever closer to power, moreover, as the NATO powers back genocide in Gaza and unleash their first war against Russia since the Nazi war of annihilation against the Soviet Union.

Macron has called these elections with the first round just before and the second round just after the July 4 snap elections in Britain, and before a July 9 NATO war summit in Washington. This summit will discuss plans by Macron and other officials to escalate the NATO war with Russia in Ukraine. These plans are opposed by 70 percent of the population in France and 80 percent in Germany. Macron aims to use the snap elections to prepare the ruling establishment to wage war on working class opposition at home so it can wage imperialist war abroad.

Mlenchon pledges that his Popular Front coalition will now advance a program that makes a clean break, listing measures to be taken during the first 100 days of the Popular Front government. He adds, Our goal is to govern to respond to democratic, ecological and social emergencies and for peace.

But Mlenchons Popular Front is not a force for peace and democracy. Its perspective is a government standing on capitalist property relations, defending the interests of French imperialism. It ties workers and youth to the pro-austerity PS, which supports war with Russia under the guise of aid to Ukraine, and whose record of back-channel ties to the far right dates to its foundation in 1971 by the former Nazi-collaborationist Franois Mitterrand.

The term Popular Front is associated with the worst betrayals of the working class. In the 1930s, it supported Stalinist slanders against Trotsky in the Moscow Trials and blocked a struggle of the working class for power and for socialism during the 1936 French general strike. The liberal and social-democratic parliamentarians of the French Popular Front ultimately in their majority voted dictatorial powers to Vichy leader Philippe Ptain in 1940.

The first challenge in fighting the resurgence of the far right is to explain how it came to pass. How is it that, in what was long considered one of Europes most left-wing countries, in which a mass movement of armed resistance to Vichy developed in the working class, that the political heirs of Vichy are poised to take power?

It is not that mass fascist paramilitary organizations like the Nazi Brown Shirts or the French Milice have emerged. But unlike fascist leaders of Hitlers era, who had to fight mass communist parties in the working class, the far right today does not need such militias to grow. It gains strength firstly from the imperialist bourgeoisies relentless pursuit of war, austerity, and social inequality, to which the neofascists give the most determined expression.

Moreover, the neofascists feed off the bitterness and confusion produced among workers and middle-class people by decades of betrayals by social democracy, Stalinism and descendants of renegades from Trotskyism.

Mlenchons claim that his Popular Fronts policies are new is perhaps his greatest lie of all: It is repeating what Mlenchon has done for a half-century.

He began in Pierre Lamberts Organisation communiste internationaliste (OCI) as the OCI broke with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the leadership of the world Trotskyist movement. The OCI rejected Trotskyism to instead support the Union of the Left between the PCF and the PS. Mlenchon himself joined the PS in 1976.

After Mitterrand took power in 1981 and swiftly abandoned his election promises and instead imposed austerity, Mlenchon became a senator. He worked closely with Mitterrand as the PS government joined the US-led war in Iraq in 1990-1991 and helped form the pro-business European Union. After Mitterrand died, Mlenchon was a PS minister in the 1997-2002 pro-austerity Plural Left government.

In the 21st century, after the disintegration of the PCFs mass working class base amid the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union, he became a leading promoter of the populist theories of middle-class anti-Marxists. In his 2014 The Era of the People, he wrote that the people takes the place that the revolutionary working class once occupied in the politics of the left. Calling to get beyond socialism, he advocated a peoples revolution, stressing it is not the old socialist revolution.

These anti-worker, anti-socialist and anti-Trotskyist arguments must be rejected. Threats of war and neofascist rule irrefutably show that capitalism is in a mortal crisis. The way forward is for the European and international working class to revive its connections to the heritage of the October Revolution. Workers must take control of world economy and industry from the war-mad capitalist aristocracy before it mounts a military escalation that could trigger a nuclear conflagration.

The far rights rise indicates not the impossibility, but the urgency of the struggle for socialism. Trotsky made this point about the danger of the growth of support for fascism in the mass peasantry of France in the 1930s.

In Whither France, as he fought to found the Fourth International against the Popular Front between Stalinists, social democrats and liberals, he wrote:

It is false, thrice false, to affirm that the present petty bourgeoisie is not going to the working-class parties because it fears extreme measures. Quite the contrary. The lower petty bourgeoisie, its great masses, only see in the working-class parties parliamentary machines. They do not believe in their strength, nor in their capacity to struggle, nor in their readiness this time to conduct the struggle to the end.

Todays rising far-right vote, mainly among rural workers and workers in areas deindustrialized by successive PS governments, does not mean these workers oppose class struggle. Many have joined explosive movements like the 2018-2019 yellow vest protests against social inequality. However, they can only be won from the far right based on a determined, Trotskyist struggle against NATO, Macron and the corrupt bureaucracies of todays Popular Front.

The Parti de lgalit socialiste (PES), the French section of the ICFI, advocates the broadest protests and strikes against fascism and imperialist war. Military escalation and austerity will bring Macron and NATO into collision with the workers in France and internationally. But to prosecute this struggle, it is necessary to build rank-and-file organizations of struggle in the working class, opposing fascism and war in an international movement for socialism.

The World Socialist Web Site is the voice of the working class and the leadership of the international socialist movement. We rely entirely on the support of our readers. Please donate today!

See original here:
After Macron's snap election call, which way forward against neofascism and war? - WSWS