PARIS, April 6 — Hunger, poverty and unemployment are the lot of millions in France — and the upcoming presidential elections won’t change a damn thing.

According to an April 3 opinion poll, Socialist candidate François Hollande will beat right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round of presidential elections on May 6 by a 54% to 46% vote.

On April 4, Hollande announced that in his first 50 days in office he would: freeze gas prices for three months, allow people who had worked continually for 41 years to retire at age 60 and raise the back-to-school allowance by 25%.

Over the summer, he pledges to put a surtax on banks and oil companies, a 75% tax rate for incomes over 1 million euros (US$1.3 million) and reinstate the inheritance tax on big fortunes.

And in the fall he promises measures to stop profit-boosting through layoffs and downsizing, and to introduce worker participation on big-company boards of directors, rent control and to create 150,000 jobs.

Sound too good to be true? It is!

Hollande simultaneously announced that: “We’ll need all forces for the country’s recovery. That’s why, the day after the presidential election, I’ll meet with the top 40 companies on the Paris stock exchange, even if many of their directors didn’t vote for me. I’ll tell them: ‘You’re the spearhead of the French economy. We need you, and you need the government. We have to take up the challenge of France’s recovery together.’”

That means the Socialists will run France with and for the capitalists, as they have always done. Hollande will take orders from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a November 28 report, the OECD called for a third austerity plan to cut 8 billion euros (US$10.5 billion) from the government budget, on top of preceding plans which cut 19 billion (US$25 billion).

Conservative French journalist Anne-Elisabeth Moutet told BBC Radio 4 that Hollande “will have to have sort of more wide-ranging cuts. Half the people in his immediate entourage already acknowledge this. They will not say this in public, but his economic policy is not going to be very different from Sarkozy.”

On April 10, 2010, the IMF reported that past “successful” budgetary adjustments have taken seven years on average. It wants the current austerity programs to continue at least that long.

So the Socialists are only going to worsen conditions for the working class, the hungry and the jobless, a racist move since a disproportionate number are of Arab or African origin. Considering who the Socialists are, that’s no surprise. In his 2010 doctoral thesis on the party, Socialist Party analyst Thierry Barboni indicated that:

     • In 2000, 88% of the members on the party’s National Council were elected officials. Not one member was a worker. Thirty-four percent were executives and academics, 36% worked in intermediate occupations (such as health care professionals) and 12% were top civil servants;

     • The party organization in the 10th arrondissement of Paris reflected the party membership generally: in 2006, 69% were middle-ranking and top executives;

     • He who pays the piper calls the tune. In 2006, 25% of party finances came from dues paid by elected officials, and 38% from state financing controlled by the central party apparatus.

It doesn’t matter who’s elected, Sarkozy or Hollande. Either way, another austerity plan is in the works. Conditions will worsen for:

     • The 8.2 million people (13.5% of the population) living below the poverty line, on less than 950 euros (US$1,244) a month. (French statistical bureau report, 3/2012);

     • The 4.9 million jobless (17.3% of the working population) (Unemployment office report, March 2012);

     • The 3.7 to 7.1 million people (6.0% to 11.5% of the population) who are malnourished, of whom 10% have symptoms of scurvy, 25% suffer from hypertension, and 56% are overweight or obese. (Brest symposium, 12/2007)

Here in France, and around the world, dreams of voting to reform capitalism are exactly that — dreams. The only way to eliminate the poverty, hunger and unemployment caused by capitalism is to organize a revolutionary communist party to overthrow it.

BARCELONA, SPAIN, March 31 — This week, thousands of workers and youth squared off against a mass of cops in the center of this city during a nation-wide general strike protesting austerity measures that is impoverishing millions. The general unemployment rate is 25%; for youth it’s 50%.

Demonstrators dragged dumpsters into the middle of main avenues and set them on fire to block police vehicles from passing. They threw cans, bottles and debris at the cops, the elite Mossos D’Esqudra, who were dressed like storm troopers with large black helmets and visors, all black clothes with no identification.

The Mossos, carrying batons, shot tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters. The streets were filled with gas and smoke from the tear gas and burning dumpsters. The cops used armored vans to attempt to push the dumpsters to the side to enable police cars to pass. When eight police vans fled the scene, the crowd cheered.

Workers in Spain are suffering from the same worldwide capitalist economic crisis afflicting their brothers and sisters across Europe — declining wages and pensions, mass unemployment and cuts in benefits. The bosses’ government is trying to shift the burden of the crisis onto workers’ backs in an attempt to maintain profits. Only destroying that capitalist system will bring any relief to the working class that creates these profits sucked out of their labors.

Imperialist nations — notably the U.S., Russia, China, and members of the European Union — need two things when they go to war: a public pretext and a real reason.  The one is never the same as the other.  When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan shortly after 9/11, the pretext was to chase Al Qaeda out of the country and defeat the U.S.-created Taliban, who were shielding the formerly U.S.-backed Bin Laden and his followers.

The U.S. ruling class and its government tried to use this pretext to win over the working class, and particularly the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. The rulers knew it would be much harder to sell the real reason for the war: to protect the projected TAPI gas pipeline originating in Turkmenistan and passing through Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.  All wars in the Middle East — large and small, direct or by proxy — represent efforts by rival imperialists to secure control over energy sources, mainly oil and natural gas.

More than a decade later, energy remains a big part of the reason for the capitalists’ sustained war. Oil and gas will compel the U.S. to continue to occupy Afghanistan even after most combat personnel are removed to face more pressing wars for profit elsewhere. But since the 2001 invasion, the rulers have found another reason to stay, besides energy: Afghanistan is rich with all sorts of hard-to-find minerals. 

Shortly after the invasion, geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey, a science organization under the Department of the Interior, were sent to Afghanistan to survey the area and determine where mineral reserves were located and in what amounts.Under direct protection of armed Marines, these geologists have discovered fabulous stores of wealth scattered around the country, including of dozens of heavy metals and rare earth elements. 

While few people outside the scientific community have heard of these minerals, they are critical components of lasers, airplanes, batteries, and computers, among many other technological products.  Many of these minerals have no known substitutes.  (See “Afghanistan’s Buried Riches,” Scientific American, October 2011.)

The pretext given by the U.S. government for its systematic search for these minerals is to “generate wealth to raise the people of Afghanistan out of poverty and reduce their need to produce opium, the source of heroin.” (Afghanistan and Pakistan, together known as the Golden Crescent, produce more opium/heroin than all the countries of the so-called Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia.)

In reality, however, the people who live in regions rich in natural resources will be sacrificed by the millions as rival imperialists fight to control this wealth. To supplement their guns and bombs, the capitalists buy off and corrupt local rulers at the expense of these nations’ workers. 

Until workers of all nations unite to cast off our imperialist oppressors and the capitalist system that spawns this murderous rivalry, this cycle of death and misery will continue. The Progressive Labor Party alone has the potential to forge such unity among the world’s workers and put an end to capitalism’s deadly rule.

Second part of the Hunger Games book review

In Catching Fire, the second book of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins expands her criticism of capitalism and hints at more collective solutions to the problems faced by workers. 

As our heroine, Katniss tours the Districts after the Hunger Games end, the government expects her to play the role of a star-crossed lover. However, Katniss discovers signs of both increasing fascism and increasing rebellion. While her District suffers extreme poverty, starvation and dangerous working conditions in the mines, others are policed by terrorizing Peacekeepers who shoot first and ask questions later. Katniss witnesses this first hand in the agricultural District 11, where workers are mainly black and have begun to defy the Capitol.

Frightened by what she has seen, Katniss wants to run away to the wilderness. She is surprised to discover that they are inspired and want to stay and fight. Katniss shares their rebellious spirit but is afraid to risk the lives of her friends, sister and mother.

Before Katniss can put a plan in place, Panem’s rulers organize a new special Hunger Games event, pitting former winners against each other to provide an excuse to kill off Katniss and other possible symbols of fight-back. Katniss plans to sacrifice her life in the “games” to protect her friend Peeta who she believes will be a more eloquent voice of the rebellion. Other tributes act more collectively, pulling Katniss into an alliance that is more successful than she and Peeta could be alone. By the end of the games, Katniss has begun to realize that the rebellion is more organized and well-developed than she had guessed and that she is expected to be a part of it. 

Catching Fire shows even more of the horrors of the fascist society of its world than Hunger Games did. It also hints at the power of the collective and the possibility of a workers’ revolution. Its parallels to the current capitalist crises are so clear that all the mainstream reviewers comment on them. But Suzanne Collins is certainly not a communist, and her books do not offer a communist interpretation of our world. 

The fantasy genre allows the books to distance themselves from the real problems of today. Although there are clear parallels, it is possible to read the books as imaginings about the future, not a real commentary on today. There is almost no analysis of why the government of Panem is so cruel; it is just taken as a given.

While there is some collective and rebellious activity in Catching Fire, the reader sees everything from Katniss’s perspective and Katniss has a very limited view. She herself is never really won to work collectively except when it benefits her and those she loves. Her instinct is always to escape or to defend her loved ones, not to organize or fight the system. Others try to change her mind, but mostly the rebellions go on around her, supposedly inspired by her actions in the first book, but never letting her in on plans. She is seen as somehow too emotional or independent to participate in a collective plan. 

If PLP were leading the rebellion against Panem, she would not be an unwitting symbol but would be learning to analyze the political situation and lead class struggle. 

It’s no accident that these books do not provide a communist solution. They would not be taught in hundreds of schools or be made into blockbuster movies if they did. Their criticism of fascism does resonate with many workers, which makes them important for us to read and discuss. As communists, we must teach young fans of the books the lessons the books do not touch: the laws of capitalism and the need for collective struggle and revolution.