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Revolution/IMT France: The banker wins - Now 'Rebellious France' must mobilise!
Thoughts on the french election results from the french section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). See link for full article.
It was definitely the right call from the majority of Melenchons movement not to support a vote for the "lesser evil", who is in fact a very "big evil", a representative of the very forces of capitalism and austerity that have created the crisis that gave rise to Le Pen and other far right populists, and only promises more of the same.
As Melenchon pointed out after the elections, Le Pen in fact came third after the abstainees and blank voters in the election, and still lost - and now the movement of resistance can continue to be built without being tarnished by having backed the banker, who will now proceed to attack labour rights and the working class with extreme brutality.
Originally Posted by Revolution/IMT France
Photo: Mutualité-FrançaiseThe most chaotic presidential election of the Fifth Republic has just resulted in the election of a new head of state. At the end of the first round, the winner of the second was already known. Millions of left-wing voters reluctantly voted for Macron to defeat Marine Le Pen.
It must be said that none of the leaders of the left or the trade union leaders offered them a concrete alternative in terms of what to do faced with two right-wing candidates. Most of the left leaders simply called on the electorate to vote for En Marche's candidate, Macron! But he is not in a strong position, as his 20.7 million votes do not represent a homogenous bloc of support for his policies. Those who voted for Fillon, Macron, Hamon, and Mélenchon in the first round, and then went on to vote Macron in the second, round are a mix of left and right, devoid of clear class lines.
http://www.marxist.com/france-the-ba...t-mobilise.htm
Last edited by Sentinel; 9th May 2017 at 00:23.
I am a communist, love from top to toe. Love to the child that is born, love to the progressing light. -- Nazim HikmetFarewell comrade Edward Clark, aka redstar2000 (1942-2011). RevLeft will never forget you.
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I was actually absolutely shocked that Melenchon didn't offer some token support to Macron. Colour me surprised it turned out he isn't a sell out like some others. Still, the vote between a neoliberalist and a fascist would be a tough one.
Modern democracy is nothing but the freedom to preach whatever is to the advantage of the bourgeoisie - Lenin
Indeed. Well, he has his background in a 'deep entryist' tradition of trotskyism. Who knows, he might have called for a revolution when the capitalists sabotaged the economy afterwards, had he won
On a more serious note though, while he is at least currently a reformist and it is above all the movement behind him that matters, he is a quite interesting person and a brilliant speaker.
Listening to him, one can after a few sentences hear that he thinks dialectically which is pretty cool. This is a rally where he speaks by to huge crowds of tens of thousands, simultaneously by hologram in the cities of Lyon and Paris at the same time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70WorEgphZU
He enters the stage and starts speaking about 20 minutes into the video. English subtitles are available.
I am a communist, love from top to toe. Love to the child that is born, love to the progressing light. -- Nazim HikmetFarewell comrade Edward Clark, aka redstar2000 (1942-2011). RevLeft will never forget you.
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It was a very interesting election that's for sure, particularly the first round. I quite liked that there were three decent(ish) leftist candidates in Nathalie Arthaud, Phillipe Poutou and Melenchon. And I saw an interesting news video on the Guardian about the current protests in Paris where one middle age woman was saying something along the lines of 'they're saying that 60% of people voted for him but 40% of the population either spoiled their ballot or didn't vote at all!'. It's always something I'm annoyed by regarding the reporting of bourgeois elections - that they ignore those who didn't vote or spoiled their ballots in order to create a sense of legitimacy. And this is all going on amidst the general struggle against labour laws.
Modern democracy is nothing but the freedom to preach whatever is to the advantage of the bourgeoisie - Lenin
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The Bullet: Questions and Implications of the French Elections: Mélenchon, La France
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