PARIS, March 6 — The fascist National Front (FN) is continuing its seemingly irresistible rise to power and now may very well be the biggest party in France as the March 22 first round of departmental elections approaches.
Bosses’ Racist Agenda
Unemployment and racism are two of the major factors the FN is using in attempting to influence workers to vote for the fascists. The FN claims immigrants “are responsible for unemployment” because they are supposedly “willing to work for lower wages,” hiding the fact that it is capitalism’s “boom-and-bust” system of depressions and recessions that actually throws workers on the streets.
There were 5,879,000 jobless workers in France in December 2014 in a labor force of 28.6 million — an official unemployment rate of 20.6 percent, including over two million unemployed youth. According to a November OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) report, unemployment will continue to increase here.
The FN’s racist anti-immigrant appeal to the working class says that “immigration is used by the plutocrats and the big bosses to lower wages and welfare rights for French workers.” It would cut “legal” immigration by 95 percent and outlaw “demonstrations by undocumented workers or those in support of undocumented workers.” It would force employers and jobs agencies to always favor French citizens in hiring. Unemployed “foreigners” would be deported and child welfare would be reserved for “French children” only.
In addition to its racist anti-immigrant, anti-worker stance, the FN’s program includes preparing French rulers for future imperialist wars. It wants France to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which would enable France to freely jockey for position among its inter-imperialist rivals. It wants to boost military spending by 25 percent and increase the size of the armed forces by 500 percent. The FN also wants to roll back decentralization of government and reinforce the power of the central government while imposing a wage freeze on all government workers. It plans to hold a referendum on re-introducing the death penalty.
This is the “visible” part of the FN’s program. It gives an idea of all the measures the FN might take but is currently keeping secret.
In the March 22 elections for departmental counselors the FN is fielding candidates in 1909 of the 2054 cantons (election districts), more than any other party. The FN also leads in fielding candidates in all of the cantons of a department, giving the FN a much denser net over the whole of France.
IFOP (French Institute of Public Opinion) polls show the FN as the probable leading party, ahead of the right-wing UMP, the Socialists and the Left Front (which includes the phony “left” French “Communist” Party). Since fewer than half the registered voters are expected to vote, it would increase the proportion of the FN vote even more, because the fascist supporters are more motivated to go to the polls.
This means that in the second round of the elections, on March 29, there would be a run-off between the FN and either the Sarkozy-led right-wing UMP or the Socialists. No matter which party wins in elections, all serve the bosses. The Socialists present a greater threat to workers, for they aim to exploit workers’ aspirations for equality and use it to pacify workers into accepting crumbs. (“There is still racism but at least the socialists are in power.”) There is only one way to end racism once and for all: communism. Fascism cannot be defeated at the ballot box, but only through armed revolution by masses of workers.
The FN will likely become a powerful minority in practically all the departmental councils and may win outright control in some. These councils are responsible for the building, maintenance and equipping of junior high schools and managing the non-teaching staff. They’re also responsible for child protection, aid to families facing financial problems, aid to the handicapped, aid to the elderly and other welfare programs. They also run the libraries, museums and archives in the département.
The FN will use these elections as a springboard for the 2017 presidential elections. It will employ the power and patronage it gains to create an even more powerful fascist movement, either by winning the presidency outright or at least obtaining key ministerial positions in a coalition government with the right-wing UMP. Shades of Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany!
French Socialists = Social Fascists
As CHALLENGE has reported, the Socialists have pursued the same racist anti-worker policies as the UMP, while the French “Communist” Party has degenerated into an electoral machine whose only purpose is to guarantee a job for its elected officials. An IFOP opinion poll shows 50 percent of blue-collar workers and 41 percent of white-collar workers intending to vote FN, far more than the figures for the Socialists and the UMP combined. Thus the working class — the only class that can block the FN fascists in their electoral bid for state power — is demobilized.
The FN’s rise resembles in many respects the seizure of power by Hitler’s Nazis in 1930s Germany. The last election in the Weimar Republic showed the Nazi Party leading with 40 percent of the vote and the rest divided between the Social Democrat and Communist parties. The president of the Republic then appointed Hitler as Chancellor. The Nazis immediately began instituting anti-worker laws, thus “legislating” fascism, followed by open fascist terror which established fascism outright.
The FN’s road to power appears to be following that scenario, using unemployment and racism much as the Nazis did. Only communists can smash fascism, as demonstrated by the then-red Soviet Union’s defeat of the Nazis. The absence of true communist leadership of the working class in France is the missing ingredient to combat the FN, the Socialists, and all other ruling-class parties. We call on CHALLENGE readers and friends of PLP in France and worldwide to guarantee that such leadership emerges.