French Tensions
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Rather than hijacking the ICC event thread: the SWP and the ghosts of ’68 are back:
“France’s government is preparing for war on protesters, and it is also clearing the path for the fascist Rassemblement National (RN) of Marine Le Pen. But if the revolt, started by school students, deepens and broadens, then it can open the way towards revolutionary potential.” (I mean, this has been the SWP view since the dawn of time).
Unusually for a Presidential contender, Melenchon is taking the side of the protestors, and is being targeted by the centre politicians, they really don’t want a run off between him and Le Pen, because they know they’ll all have to pull the rug out and vote Le Pen, and will not be able to use the fascist bogey to marshal their voters again.
Bolsheviki can no more open their mouths without “fascism” coming out than can Born Agains without “Jesus” coming out.
I believe they call this recuperation:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvde8g40xx42o
“”Only authorised union protests will be allowed in French towns and cities on Saturday, President Emmanuel Macron has said, after demonstrations across the country turned violent last weekend.
[…]
“The general recommendation is that there should be no demonstrations. Those who want to continue to demonstrate, when they are trade union organisations, will have alternative routes proposed by the prefects,” the French president announced. “When they’re not union organisations, wherever possible, they’ll be banned.””So, the Unions, which have offices, funds, organisation which can be targeted are being used to control and legitimate protest and keep it within channels. On the one hand, good, as it moves powers to organised workers, but at the expense of the absorbtion of the union bureaucracy into the state. The best clap back is to make these as big and disciplined as possible.
As always, the right-wingers and the left-wing populists are showing their political ignorance, blaming the problems on the foreign workers and calling revolution a revolt, or a muslim socialist revolution. A revolt is not a revolution, and religion and socialism are not compatible. The Leninists called a revolution a workers’ revolt of 1918, which took place in France and later in Germany
50 Years Ago: How Close Was France to a Socialist Revolution?
Here’s another SWP approach to the events in France, from one of their breakaways:
While resisting police brutality is understandable, attacking and looting shops (as eulogised here and exaggerated by the media) seems counter-productive in terms of the movement’s aim (to get reforms to the education system).
The real test of how revolutionary (as opposed to just bolshie) people in France are won’t be a one-day token general strike on 5 November (incidentally, why wait till then and not do it now while the iron is still hot?). It will be the presidential election next May which looks as if it is going to be won by a political descendent of those who supported Vichy France during the last world war (the other France to the insurrectionary tradition Wolff talks about).
Mr Ciudadano Del Mundo. Why do you repeatedly fill up this forum with Left Creep? The ravings of that silly old bastard Wolff should illustrate to you that he is an enemy. His excitement is nothing more than leftist wet dream. Don’t look to him for “lessons”.
The fact is that the troubles in France (i wouldn’t even give credence to the idea that the situation is a revolt never mind a revolution) are increasingly focused on religion. The depressing vista is one of students and looters waving Palestine flags whilst the Tricolor brandishing Le Pen-ists wait in the wings.
Either outcome is disaster. There is not a jot, not a single trace of class consciousness anywhere. It’s just blind nihilism and mindless violence. 68 was also the same old shite. What are you doing on here?This forum is open to any kind of discussion and any kind of ideas and diversity of ideas. It is my personal decision to post whatever I want; that is not your business. The real enemy is the capitalist class
Anti-Fa Farce France. Socialism or your Money back
22 October 2026 cynical but optimistic Capitalism No Comments
The Anti-Fa Farce France: what was it all about?It’s a little too early to make any definitive appreciations of the recent demonstrations and riots which have spread across metropolitan France during the last five or so weeks. During the last five or so weeks. Doubtless, readers of the Socialist Standard blog will have seen the images of massive gangs of young people looting and setting fire to shops and attacking police dressed in riot gear. As is only to be expected, it’s the most violent scenes which have found their way onto the mainstream news; the fire which destroyed the Town Hall of Limoges being a case in point. On the other hand, the media also showed images of the enormous and well-ordered demonstrations by students who were more often than not accompanied by teachers and parents. There were demonstrations in small towns right across France which recalled in many ways the monster manifestations in defence of the retirement pension a few years ago.
https://fearlessmovimientosocialistamundial.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=519&action=edit
This is an article published by the SPGB about prior French Revolts; it has been translated and published on other websites, including Lefwingers.
I have an arsenal of news, articles, pamphlets and documents written by the SPGB, left communists and other organisations. I am subscribed to several newspapers and left-wing groups.
Journalism is not like a horse carriage looking straight toward one road; we must look around in different directions. SPGB members also participate in other forums and publish their views there. I do that too, and I have been kicked out.
We do not kick them out, on the contrary we let them publish their own point of view, and they do not have valid argument to reject the socialist party arguments
The Socialist Party has had open discussions with Nazis and Fascists. The actual problem of our world is capitalism, and it was capitalism too during World War II.
Most members of the World Socialism website on the internet are left-wingers, Leninists, Stalinists, and social democrats
When Alan Johnston was in charge of SOYMB ( Socialism and Your Money Back), he used to publish news and articles almost every day. He used to combine concepts and ideas from different places and groups into one article and inserted Socialist Party concepts into those articles. The SS only published articles once a month. On the internet, I do the same thing
As this article explains, our real enemy is capitalism. It was the real enemy of mankind before, during and after World War 2; it is mankind’s enemy at present. Left-wingers have spent their whole lives blaming the problems on neoliberalism, and now their favourite toy is fascism; they see fascism all over the earth; any movement is fascism, as the right-winger sees any movement as communism. Right-wing populism and fascism are not the problem, and in a society with a long tradition of bourgeois democracy, a personal dictatorship can be established
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