Disaster in France-What Must Be Done Now
The French presidential election's first round today produced a catastrophic result for the traditional parties of the Left. Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin got fewer than 16% of the vote, 1.5 points less than the fascistic nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen and 4 points behind Chirac. Eliminated from the May 5 runoff ballot (only the top two from the first round stay on the ballot), Jospin announced his withdrawal from political life. The French Communist Party's leader, Robert Hue, got a minuscule 3.5%, a fitting reward for his consistent support for Jospin's centrist policies throughout the five-year rule of the Gauche Plurielle cabinet. In contrast, the three Trotskyist candidates got more than 11% of the vote-about 6.5% for Arlette Laguiller (Lutte Ouvrière), 4.5% for Olivier Bésancenot (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire) and 0.5% for Daniel Gluckstein (Parti des Travailleurs). The other two major leftist candidates, Noel Mamere (Verts) and Jean-Pierre Chévenement (Mouvement des Citoyens) each got slightly more than 5%, while Christiane Taubira (Radicaux de Gauche) less than 2%. The lesson of this electoral disaster is clear--the immediate need for the broadest United Front of the Left on the basis of a militant, aggressive program. There must be no rallying behind Chirac to block Le Pen. That would be like supporting Hindenburg to block Hitler. The alternative is union behind a write-in candidate for the second round, whether or not French electoral law permits such votes to be counted. The indicated, indeed the only thinkable, candidate is José Bové, who is not only a principled, militant, totally independent leftist, but also, and by far, the most popular political figure in France. Bové might well win a majority on May 5, and in any case would be positioned to lead a united Left to victory over the discredited Chiraquiens in the June parliamentary elections and thus force the resignation of Chirac (whatever happens, Le Pen will certainly not be elected on May 5). But there is no time at all for delay. The French Left must pick itself up off the floor and get back in the ring within the next two or three days. Victory is more than possible, but not if *anyone's* sectarian posing gets in the way. Shane Mage Thunderbolt steers all things. Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64
Re: Disaster in France-What Must Be Done Now
Let us hope that this is a wake up call not only to the French Left but to the entire World Left. Let us hope that this is the last nail on the coffin of the Third Way. Let us hope that our French friends can stop Le Pen. Sabri French Police Fire Tear Gas at Anti-Le Pen Protest Sun Apr 21,10:15 PM ET By Catherine Bremer PARIS (Reuters) - French police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Paris early on Monday as thousands protested against the shock triumph of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of presidential elections. A Reuters correspondent said police with riot shields drove back a crowd of hundreds of demonstrators and fired tear gas after small groups of protesters began throwing metal barriers in the historic Place de la Concorde. Witnesses said protesters wearing crash helmets smashed the front windows of the famous Parisian restaurant, Maxim's. Others climbed up scaffolding outside the Hotel Crillon overlooking the cobble-stoned Place de la Concorde, the city's smartest hotel often used to host visiting foreign leaders. Earlier police said there had been isolated cases of vandalism but no major disturbances and no arrests. Street marches which earlier had swelled to an estimated 10,000 people were beginning to wind down, witnesses said. Marchers also massed in Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Grenoble and Strasbourg, where about 4,000 demonstrators shouted Le Pen, you're finished. The French are on the streets and Fascism shall not pass. Le Pen, the 73-year-old leader of the anti-immigrant, anti-Europe National Front party, pushed Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin into third place in the contest. Jospin announced on Sunday that he would quit politics after the May 5 runoff round, which polling institutes now forecast Chirac, a conservative, will win by a landslide. Several of the demonstrations played on corruption allegations that have swirled around Chirac. Vote sleaze, not fascist, protestors shouted in the northern city of Lille. Le Pen, who once called the Holocaust a detail of history, played down some of his more extreme rhetoric during the campaign, which he focused on law and order in a response to widespread public concern over rising crime. He dismissed the fascist label some of his opponents have given him in remarks on French television. I have nothing to do with fascism, Le Pen said. Fascism is protesting the result of a vote violently in the street.
