Leaflet produced by the GRI for demonstrations in France on 10 and 18 September.

According to the likes of Macron, Bayrou⁽¹⁾, and co., we can no longer afford a decent pension and the time to enjoy it, or proper healthcare, a good education, and even less compensation in the event of unemployment...

Despite the fact that our living and working conditions have been deteriorating for years and that we have no control whatsoever over political and economic decisions, it is up to us to pay — THEIR debt. They demand that we work for less pay, less healthcare… simply put less time to live with dignity.

Bayrou’s departure in no way means that the promised austerity will be called into question.

Since the announcement of the vote of confidence, the pretenders to his post have been jostling with each other, competing in demagogy and multiplying their promises, each announcing their solution for the public debt. Unsurprisingly, the far-right is targeting immigrants, the eternal scapegoat to lead workers’ anger astray, the European Union, their go-to platitude, and the “assisted” (benefit claimants). In other words, they promise war on the most vulnerable, on the immigrants, on the poorest…

The left (both radical and soft, only really distinguished by their tone) is proposing once again, for the umpteenth time — which begs the question of why they didn’t do it when they were in charge⁽²⁾ — to make the rich pay. (Tax the rich! Tax the rich!)

They all wish to make us believe that all that needs to be done is to replace those at the reins of the state and this time, pinky promise, they will make the state and capital serve the people. This despite decades of governments of all political tendencies across the world demonstrating the opposite. The deception still works.

The essential function of the state is to guarantee the reproduction of capital, no matter the particular government. The state is not an instrument that can be used in this or that way. It is fundamentally tied to capital, whose laws apply to everyone. It is not men that control capital but the other way around!

To tackle the structural crisis facing capitalism, capitalists around the world are trying to restore the profitability of capital by intensifying labour and cutting social spending. The competition between the bourgeoisies of each country is becoming fiercer. They compete with each other for strategic resources and for a larger share of the total surplus-value, bringing the world ever closer to a generalised conflict. They are preparing for this conflict: they are increasing military budgets, opening new weapons factories, and are conducting recruitment campaigns for their armies. In France, the government has warned hospitals to be ready for war.⁽³⁾ In due course, they will deploy the ideologies needed to enlist us in one camp or another. Defence of democracy, of the weakest, of the oppressed country against the aggressor country. The only victim in imperialist conflicts, and all conflicts are imperialist at this stage of capitalism, is the proletariat.

To defend ourselves, we cannot count on the trade unions or the institutional parties, which have sufficiently demonstrated over the years that they are the docile allies of capital. We must put an end to fragmented strikes, scattered strike days, leisurely stroll protests, pacifism, and legalism. We must reconnect with our class methods. We must organise ourselves independently in assemblies and committees; we must broaden and generalise the struggle. There is no alternative, no shortcut, to stop the barbarism that capitalism promises us.

The bourgeoisie prepares for war, let’s prepare the revolution!

Notes:

(1) Now former Prime Minister of France.

(1) In contrast to these mystifiers, we do not struggle for a diminished gap between rich and poor, for a more humane capital, but for a society without wage labour, without classes, without states.

(2) lecanardenchaine.fr