The municipal elections will be held on March 15 and 22. There will be Lutte ouvrière lists of candidates in 240 municipalities, including in the biggest cities in the country, so that workers can express their concerns and anger and put forward a political agenda that corresponds to their interests and to those of society as a whole.
Remaining silent and bereft of the will to react to the capitalists’ blows would be the worst thing to do.
More and more women and men are forced to live on low wages, meager pensions or are discarded and left jobless and become marginalized. Working people are demeaned and trampled on so that the super-rich — the shareholders who never lift a finger while others toil — get richer than ever. This has to change and we must speak out!
Capitalism has given rise to imperialism and fueled multiple wars. Trump, in competition with Xi Jinping but also with European leaders in a struggle to control the world’s natural resources and markets, is pursuing an openly warmongering policy. He is heightening tensions and making wars escalate. Are we going to passively and silently accept that our future depends on the battles that capitalists are leading against each other?
Our cities may see the same fate as Kyiv or Gaza. High schools are already being used as recruitment centers for the army. Car factories are planning to produce kamikaze drones. Our hospitals are supposed to be prepared to bed thousands of wounded war-victims. This is not the world we want to live in and we must say it loud and clear!
We must boldly proclaim, as the communist movement has done in the past, that workers can put an end to the uncontrollable spiral of capitalism, that they can overthrow it and rebuild society on collectivist foundations.
Change won’t come from above. It won’t come from any political leader. They all operate within the framework of capitalism, whether they are on the far-right, right-wing or left-wing. And change obviously doesn’t depend on city councils either, which don’t have the means to compensate for the damage caused by exploiters, job-cutters and warmongers.
It depends on the workers, on their battles and their consciousness, to change the course of things.
Today, the working class is not aware that it has the force to change things. It has been years since there have been any significant collective struggles to keep the bosses in check. For years, workers haven’t been able to unite as a one working class to fight against the dictatorship of big business.
The bourgeoisie and its politicians have taken advantage of this situation to divide and atomize workers. They play on prejudice, racism, nationalism and sexism to crush any idea of a collective uprising. But this will only last so long.
The working class does exist. Millions of workers share the same low wages, working conditions, difficulties in finding affordable housing, healthcare and transportation... In the workplace, they can fully understand the necessary role they play because nothing can be conceived, created or produced without them. They can fully understand how they complement each other and the power of collective action, in other words the strength of their social class.
At the moment, workers respect capitalist ownership. They submit to the dictates of the capitalists even though their wealth comes out of their labor. But when they rise up and become fully aware that they can very well run society themselves, everything can change.
Starting now, we must show that there are women and men who aren’t intimidated by the bourgeoisie and its display of power. That is precisely what the factory workers, home care aides, maintenance and security workers, employees, healthcare workers, postal workers, bus drivers, train workers and teachers who have grouped together on the Lutte ouvrière lists are doing.
They no longer want to leave politics to politicians and local dignitaries. They are running as candidates to defend their interests as workers and oppose the system that is crushing us. They show that they have faith in the working class and that is the best guarantee for the future.
So in the upcoming weeks, join and support the Lutte ouvrière lists. The bonds created will be helpful in the future because it takes more than just anger, we must join together and organize around a working-class policy and party.
We must show that there is a path to follow for all those who don’t want to give up and seek to change society.
Nathalie Arthaud