No bourgeois government can be good for the workers!

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Lutte Ouvrière workplace newsletter
September 2, 2024

Will it be Bernard Cazeneuve, Xavier Bertrand or Macron’s surprise choice? After 50 days without a government and after slamming the door in the face of a NFP (New Popular Front) government led by Lucie Castets, Macron is apparently about to decide. But it won’t be the end to the political crisis.

Macron’s problem is not so much to find a Prime Minister as to find a majority that will obey him and won’t be overturned by the opposition. How can he lure some Socialists away from the NFP and, at the same time, gain the support of the right to form a majority? And if he does obtain such a majority, how long will it last? The problem is far from being solved and is even turning into a farce.

It’s not really a very complicated problem. It’s not about ending the war in Ukraine or Gaza, or saving the planet from global warming or a financial crisis! It’s about forming a coalition government, something that depends solely on the politicians themselves and which is common practice in many countries.

What makes right-wing politicians different from Macron or Hollande? Many have been in government together or have passed things along to the next, with one starting a reform and a successor endorsing or extending it. This is what happened with the successive retirement pension reforms, made worse in turn by the right and by the left.

In actual fact, all parties, including Unsubmissive France (LFI) and the National Rally (RN) are already involved in running the state. They share responsibility, some at the head of government, some at the head of regions, departments or major towns. And they’re all busy being loyal managers of the interests of the bourgeois class that dominates society.

They are only truly opposed in their relentless struggle for power. They’re all obsessed with their own political careers. The party leaders want to take Macron’s place while those lower down the ladder don’t really want to board a sinking ship.

For them to continue their political squabbles isn’t good for the bourgeoisie’s affairs. The current political crisis is destabilizing an already explosive economic and social situation. The bottom line is that the political class set up by the bourgeoisie is a bunch of small-minded, inconsequential politicians that can’t even manage their own system. But the workers really shouldn’t worry about all that!

The working class shouldn’t choose a side in any government combination. Whether that combination is to the left, the center, the right or the far right, the government will attack workers as and when big business demands during this crisis of capitalism.

Hidden behind the political play-acting and the differences that all political parties cultivate, we find the same anti-worker policies. Hidden behind every political stable, we find workers’ past, present and future enemies. And it will always be this way because you cannot serve the bourgeoisie and its system without being a ruthless enemy of the working class.

The Macronists, the right and the far right show their acceptance of this by adopting the employers’ propaganda. Yet again, there’s a chorus of how a minimum wage at 1600 € will endanger the economy. They believe that money must pile up in the coffers of the big bosses, even if it means keeping wages down, condemning workers to extreme poverty and sacrificing public services and the environment.

The left stands out because of the promises it makes to workers. But as soon as they get into power, they’ll break them, under pressure from the bosses. In the end, it’s always, over and over, the major company owners, with their fortune and their privileges, that come out stronger in the midst of growing poverty and chaos.

As long as we leave politics in the hands of the bourgeoisie’s politicians, workers’ interests will be trampled on and society oppressed for a handful of privileged people.

Only a government composed of workers, continually controlled by all workers, would be on the side of those who are exploited. Such a government could only emerge from the struggle against the big bourgeoisie and its state apparatus, from a massive and conscious mobilization by workers intent on taking their future into their own hands.

Nathalie Arthaud