Editorial

As sure as the thaw, as is the tradition in Quebec, each spring brings us some new conference or meeting heralding some kind of new left alternative. This year again, at the end of May, a high mass was celebrated in Montreal bringing together hundreds of the faithful in hopes of uniting “the political left and progressive forces” in preparation for the next electoral rendez-vous.

The May 28th issue of La Presse headlined: “The left is preparing for battle” quoting one of the organizer's declaration at the meeting.

For the first time, all the left wing political organizations were present, they did not quarrel, but rather spoke of common points, of common major orientations and of political platforms to eventually elaborate.

The organizing committee of the meeting could with some reason be quite happy with the turn of events. Just about every reformist racket in Quebec was present at the meeting: The Rassemblement pour l'Alternative politique, The Parti de la democratie socialiste, the Stalinists of the Quebec Communist Party and the Marxist Leninist Party, the Bloc Pot, the Greens, and the anarcho-pacifists of SalAmi, rubbed elbows with the unions, the Christian left, and the Monde Diplomatique groupies, as well as many of the poverty pimps of the community network establishment. All these “progressives” were as happy as pigs in a poke, agreeing on a whole series of fundamentally backward political positions. While advocating the struggle against “the common enemies that are neo-liberalism and big capital”, all the participants deplored the fact that "the Parti Quebecois has veered to the right and that the Liberal Party has made a conservative turn". The question of the hour, then, is what needs to be done to “fill the enormous void on the left” (promoting the usual, lousy windbags' promise of a “humane” capitalism).

Leopold Lauzon, the omnipresent left commentator of the francophone ruling class media, noting that Europe was led by left-wing governments, made a point of encouraging the troops:

If it's possible over there, we can do it here too!

But what are the accomplishments of this European left that could satisfy our local expectations? The hard facts are that in Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy, reformist governments (social democratic, ex-Stalinists, Labour, Greens... often with the support of Trotskyists) were elected on the promise of fighting poverty and unemployment. But they have only been a tool of capitalism's rule, of which they are but its left cover. This capitalist left has been able to legislate attacks against the working class of a much greater magnitude than the right-wing administrations had ever been able to impose in the preceding years. And that's exactly the historical role of the capitalist left - having the workers swallow what the right wing couldn't.

And just what, exactly, does this future local Union of the left want to serve us in such generous portions? The menu is identical because the “chef” is the same: nationalism, electoralism, class collaboration, identity politics, illusions in citizenship, and ultimately the march towards war...

Workers have nothing to gain by supporting a new reformist party and nothing to expect from a left-wing government. We must refuse all forms of support, even critical, to this kind of initiative. For the working class, these are the worst of politics. The whole history of the 20th century is proof of that. For those of us who really want to get rid of capitalism, for those who want to escape the sinister “roman noir” of modern social decay, hope lies under another banner - the banner of the international working class. We must pursue our autonomous, difficult, and resolute march through the pitfalls and traps that the bourgeoisie constantly sets for us. Against the electoralist illusions and reformist alternatives, we oppose and uphold the necessity of workers revolution. Against capitalism, we struggle for international communism. There is no other way!