Despite a new record in voter abstention, the results of the municipal elections’ first round are electrifying the political world. First, because the outcome remains completely uncertain in many major cities. Second, because all the parties want to use this election as a show of strength ahead of the presidential race.
This political posturing to present oneself as the strongest or the most appealing is far removed from the interests of workers, and it is laughable.
Regardless of who ends up running the cities or the country, in the coming months the situation will be more difficult for workers and the residents of working-class neighborhoods. Not only because big business will continue to freeze wages and intensify exploitation, but also because there will be fewer teachers in schools, fewer hospital beds, fewer affordable housing units being built, and less money allocated to public services — because funds are being diverted to increased military budgets.
The new war unleashed by Trump and Netanyahu in the Middle East is, in fact, dragging the world toward a general war and exacerbating the crisis of the capitalist economy by once again driving up the prices of oil and gas — and, indirectly, of all other goods. As in every crisis, the state will come to the rescue of the capitalists, and it will present us with the bill, which we are already paying when we fill up at the gas station.
Above all, there is a growing risk that our own children will be sent to die at war for the interests of Total, Vinci, or Dassault — in the Strait of Hormuz, in Lebanon, in Ukraine, or elsewhere.
Neither right-wing and far-right parties nor the parties of the institutional left can change the catastrophic trajectory of the capitalist system. For they all fall in line behind the policies of big business, which thrives on the exploitation of workers.
While some denounce American imperialism and the spiral of war it has triggered by attacking Iran, all politicians agree with Macron in defending the interests of French imperialism.
All parties agree on increasing the military budget. All approved the deployment of the aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle to the Middle East. All will fall in line behind the Chief of the General Staff, who, at the mayors’ congress last year, urged the population to “accept losing their children” and to “suffer economically.” So how can they claim to protect the people?
There will be no happy future for workers and peoples within the framework of capitalist society. Building a communist, revolutionary and internationalist party is essential to fight and defeat the dictatorship of the rapacious and murderous bourgeoisie.
Such a construction will require that the exploited burst onto the political scene through their mobilizations, their struggles and mass strikes. But we must work to build it starting today, by bringing together workers who realize that their class represents an alternative to the domination of the capitalist class.
This is what Lutte ouvrière is committed to, and this is why there were Lutte ouvrière – Le camp des travailleurs lists in 243 municipalities, fielding 11,000 candidates. These lists received some 79,440 votes, an average of 1.29% of the vote. They secured 24 town councilors, including several auto workers and teachers, a bus driver, a railroad worker, a building superintendent, and a seamstress.
These results are very modest, but our lists expressed a rejection of the parties vying to manage an increasingly unequal, reactionary, and war-mongering capitalist system, and of their representatives.
Our lists affirmed their allegiance to a camp and a perspective: that the working class must reject divisions within its ranks and fight to rebuild society on a collectivist basis. They expressed a refusal to be sacrificed for the profits of capitalists in a new imperialist world war. They represent an encouragement and a rallying point for those who do not accept exploitation, injustice, and the descent into barbarism.
Reviving a party that represents the class interests of workers and is dedicated to the emancipation of all the exploited people on this planet is the only way forward and the true means of regaining confidence. The working class represents an immense force on an international scale. This force is currently unaware of its own power, but it will be irresistible if it organizes and develops a political strategy to transform society from top to bottom!
Nathalie Arthaud