The presidential campaign is everywhere you look. Political rallies are becoming more frequent and politicians are announcing their bid for the presidency one after the other. But who is setting the tone? The bosses’ union and big business!

The bosses’ agenda is what keeps coming up in interviews and debates: “There are too many taxes and social contributions”; “To reduce the debt, we need to cut social spending”; “The pension system is unsustainable”, “People need to work more” — all of these ideas are presented as indisputable truths.

Everything is done in order to convince working women and men that they will have to make sacrifices because it’s supposedly impossible to make the bosses of big companies and the wealthy pay. That is, of course, the policy of Macron and his government, but most of the presidential candidates have the same policy as well. We mustn’t fall for this propaganda, the sacrifices must fall on big business and the wealthy instead.

Workers have paid more than enough!

Who pays the most taxes proportionally? Not the billionaires or the shareholders and rich speculators but those who only have their wages, social assistance or pensions to live on and who have to pay VAT on every purchase they make, even when they earn very little!

Who exactly is suffering from increasing costs? It isn’t major corporations because the companies listed on the CAC40 index have announced a 40% increase in profits despite the wars, inflation and international rivalries. On the other hand, costs have skyrocketed for working-class families because the amount spent on rent, electricity, fuel and gasoline keeps going up and wages aren’t keeping pace.

People have to work more, they say? But the bosses of major corporations keep cutting jobs. In the Yvelines region alone, management at Stellantis announced last April that the car assembly plant in Poissy, the last one in the Paris region, will be closing down. And last week, Renault abandoned the investment plan that was supposed to secure a future for the automotive plant in Flins, raising fears that the factory could close down too.

Like the factory workers at Stellantis and Renault, thousands of employees have to fight big business to try and save their jobs which is their only means of making a living. No, big bosses certainly aren’t the “job creators” they claim to be, they are the biggest creators of unemployment.

Profits must go towards jobs, wages and our living conditions

Where else should companies’ profits go, if not to the workers whose labor made them? By using company profits, we can, of course, raise wages and guarantee a net minimum monthly wage of €2,200.

By drawing on profits, it would also be possible, in capitalist corporations like Renault or Stellantis, to distribute the work among all employees and temporary workers - who are currently hired on and then thrown out like Kleenex tissues. It would also be possible to slow down the work pace and reduce working hours. The goal shouldn’t be to make workers work more but to ensure that everyone has a job.

We are told that “social spending” has become unbearable. But that “spending” is nothing but our pensions, our access to healthcare, our children’s education, and the social benefits that allow us to survive in the event of disability, long-term illness, or a serious accident. For employers, these are expenses, but for us, they are our basic rights. These rights aren’t a gift but the product of our labor and true progress would mean increasing them.

When billionaire families and wealthy heirs like the Peugeot, Agnelli, Arnault, Mulliez and Saadé families become even richer from profits, they add billions to the billions they already have and that reinforces the power of the bourgeoisie over the whole society.

Workers should be in charge, not the capitalists!

What does the bourgeoisie do with the power it has thanks to its capital? It turns the economy into a casino, exploits and plunders poor countries all around the world. It’s turning planet Earth into an uninhabitable place where natural disasters are added to wars even though the means to make progress for all of humanity have never been greater.

We mustn’t kid ourselves. It is impossible to conciliate working-class interests with those of the bourgeoisie. If we don’t strike back against the blows inflicted upon us and truly confront the bourgeoisie, working people will never be able to defend their right to a decent life and it will be impossible to secure a future for all of humanity. This is why I am once again running for president. The working class must make itself heard and challenge the capitalists’ right to run society!

Nathalie Arthaud