From La Forge
Organ of the Communist Party of the Workers of France
April, 1997
It is under this joint slogan that our party, comrades of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP) participated in the demonstration against the congress of the FN at Strasbourg. We reproduce the joint leaflet which was distributed there.
The existence of a racist and fascist party such as the National Front is a reality in French political life today. But it is not necessary to fall into the trap which makes the struggle against Le Pen the principal field of struggle today.
History shows us that fascism has a class character, that it does not appear by chance, but in certain conditions when the bourgeoisie has need of it.
The ever greater exploitation and oppression under which the workers and larger and larger layers of our people suffer are sufficient to demonstrate the ever more reactionary and anti-democratic character of the capitalists and their governments. These policies are dictated by the gravity of the general crisis of the capitalist system.
We do not propose to analyze the reasons for this crisis here. The existence of capitalism and the bourgeoisie are based on the exploitation of the proletariat and the people.
Faced with this ever more ferocious exploitation, the combativity of the workers and the people rises, the fields of confrontation multiply both in the work-places as well as on democratic and cultural questions.
The bourgeoisie will fight to the end to defend its system of exploitation by all means. Therefore, the utilization of a racist and fascist party such as the National Front becomes one of the necessary tools of capital to maintain its domination and its existence. This explains the rise of the National Front.
The National Front needs a popular base to develop. For families, the fear of what will happen the next day, the anxiety of unemployment, above all for the children, provoke reactions of anger and sometimes of individualism to pull through. There xenophobia and racism find a favorable terrain.
By its demagogy and its populism, the National Front speculates on these anxieties and these fears. By means of simplistic slogans, it claims to be able to resolve the crisis and its consequences. In the present environment, Le Pen is able to appear as the candidate of those who are left out. But this candidate is the most extreme one of the capitalist system, its last playing card.
The utilization of the National Front is not the only weapon. Faced with social confrontation, the bourgeoisie also responds by the most thorough fascization of its instrument of domination, the State. These are the measures of reinforcement of the repressive apparatus of the State:
- Special judiciary and police mechanisms are put in place under the guise of the fight against terrorism.
- The Debré [former Prime Minister] laws which keep files on foreigners and encourage their denunciation.
- The reinforcement of the anti-immigrant arsenal by means of the plan on black-market work.
There are numerous "ideological affinities" between the right and the extreme right.
- In 1981 they competed in denouncing immigration and lack of law and order.
- In 1983, in the municipal elections, there was an alliance between the right and the FN.
The parties of the right have served as a springboard for the National Front.
As to the PS [Socialist Party], its taking over of the reins of State, with the participation of ministers of the PCF [French Communist Party] until 1984, contributed to sowing disarray and deceiving the workers. But the austerity plans rapidly cut short its illusory talk of progressive change towards a more just society for the workers.
Further, the PS made a royal gift to the extreme right: the CSI received at Matignon, Fabius at the congress of the SNPMI led by a notorious Petainist [Petain was the head of the puppet Vichy regime during World War II], the rehabilitation of the generals of the OAS [Organization of the Secret Army, fascist organization in France during Algeria's war of independence]...
These policies gave birth to the idea that the right and left are the same thing.
Le Pen profits by proclaiming himself different.
The PCF has participated as well by disarming the working class in the ideological sphere. It has diverted its internationalist consciousness by developing chauvinist ideas. To the words of the bourgeoisie, repeated by the PS, that "It is France that will win," the PCF has responded by "French products" ("with the French" added Le Pen). Today, its slogan has become "the interests of the Nation."
And today, under the guise of the struggle against the National Front, these same political parties, from the RPR [Rally for the Republic, a conservative party] to the PCF, want to lock us up in a republican pact to defend the values of established society. This society is being rejected more and more by the workers, since it is the source of unemployment, lack of security, lack of housing, lack of working papers, lack of a future.
The republican pact does not have the aim of putting into question the capitalist system. In fact, on the level of struggle against the National Front, on the level of a political alternative, it is a dead end. It aims to divert the workers from the terrain of the anti-capitalist struggle.
The struggle against Le Pen and the fascization of the State requires a clear anti-capitalist alternative.
The aggressive and reactionary character of the bourgeoisie does not assert itself only in France. In all countries, in all areas of social life, the states are reinforcing their repressive arsenal. All over, notably in Europe, racist and fascist parties are arising. These developments are inherent in the capitalist system in crisis and are the consequences of the internationalization of capital.
All over the world, the workers are no loner resigned to the inevitability of the crisis. They are refusing more and more to fight each other under the flag of "their bourgeoisie" as part of national and international economic competition. Examples of international solidarity are being built presently.
It is along the concrete road of developing bonds of class solidarity between the workers and peoples of all countries, against the capitalist system which exploits and oppresses them, that we should advance today.
Long live the international solidarity of the peoples!Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
Communist Party of the Workers of France (PCOF)
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP)
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