10.06.2009

No breakthrough for NPA

PCF crisis opens way for a genuinely revolutionary challenge, writes Jean-Michel Edwin

The Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (new anti-capitalist party) narrowly failed to make a breakthrough in the European Union elections in France, polling fractionally under 5%. It was beaten by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Front de Gauche - an alliance of the ex-Parti Socialiste left represented by Mélenchon, the Parti Communiste Français and others - which won 6% and saw five MEPs elected.

Speaking after the results were announced on June 9, NPA executive committee member Jean-François Grond stated that one of the most important questions posed by the European elections was that in the midst of a global crisis of capitalism forms of opposition should arise, in the shape of anti-capitalist parties and elected representatives from different parts of Europe. Such representatives had indeed been elected in Ireland, Denmark and Portugal. As for the NPA, it was deprived of the MEP to which its score of 4.9% ought to have entitled it, “thanks to the electoral system the UMP and the Socialist Party had conceived together in 2004”.

The NPA’s “one million votes” (it actually polled 857,864), just four months after the party was formed, provides a solid basis for advance, concluded comrade Grond. Now it is necessary to return to “national realities”.

The campaign in France was strangely muted, with almost no public debate, and unsurprisingly there was a record level of abstention. Everything has been done to reduce the importance of Europe in the eyes of the population - and not only by Sarkozy and the right wing. After the European constitution had been massively rejected in the 2005 referendum, the Socialist Party, Greens and liberal Mouvement Démocrate (MoDem) had nevertheless embraced exactly what voters had rejected in the shape of the Lisbon treaty. As comrade Grond put it, “Whatever you vote, yes or no, whoever you vote for, left or right, we will do what we decide, whether you like it or not.” It is not surprising, therefore, especially in view of the economic crisis, that the abstention rate soared to 60%. It was even higher amongst young people (perhaps 80% in the 18-25-year-old bracket) and amongst workers.

Another factor in the low turnout was the defusing of the mood of mass protest after March 19, when more than three million people answered the trade unions’ call to demonstrate against the government’s anti-working class policies. The unions failed to build upon this - for example, by calling another mass action for May 1. But the government is preparing to unleash another round of job cuts, with 600,000 more redundancies looming, and more cuts in social and public services. Opposition to this has for the moment been reduced to isolated and somewhat desperate acts of resistance.

In this context, the NPA’s result - following a campaign fought under the slogan, “We won’t pay for their crisis” - was satisfactory despite the failure to make a breakthrough. The economic crisis is continuing to make its effects felt and the NPA will be part of the fightback.

However, while the NPA is very active and always supports working class struggles, this is insufficient. As one NPA member wondered, “What solution are we proposing? A general strike to get rid of Sarkozy - of course I agree with that. But what then?” The question of programme should certainly be raised with renewed vigour - we need to convince NPA comrades that the building of a disciplined communist organisation based on Marxism is an urgent priority.

In addition to the NPA and Front de Gauche, Lutte Ouvrière stood its own list and got 200,947 votes (1.2%). Added together, the NPA and LO vote represents a considerable advance over the 2004 EU elections, when the common list run by LO and the former Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (the main component and driving force behind the NPA) won only 440,134 votes. In 2009, however, the combined votes of the NPA and LO exceeded those of the Front de Gauche  (which achieved 1,058,450 votes) by a few hundred. This represents yet another setback for the PCF, which obtained 1,009,976 votes when it stood alone in 2004.

While the Parti Socialiste saw its vote slashed to 16.5%, disillusioned PS voters certainly did not flock to senator Mélenchon’s banner. While some no doubt switched to the NPA and Daniel Cohn-Bendit’s Greens, standing as Europe Ecologie (who finished in third place, just behind the PS with 16.3%), most stayed at home.

Yet the Front de Gauche ran a very active and radical-sounding campaign, which featured millions of red posters calling for “Unity in struggles and elections” and proposing to “face the crisis” by implementing “changes” (which ones?) in both Europe and France. The FG disappointed its own Eurosceptic minority by steering clear of the sort of anti-EU chauvinism favoured by the left-nationalist Parti Ouvrier Indépendent and the various far-right groups - not least the Front National, which won 6.3%. The FG preferred to promote its own variety of Euro-reformism as a ‘responsible governmental party’ aiming to become the PS’s junior partner.

The Front de Gauche’s superficial left campaign certainly succeeded in depriving the NPA of thousands of votes and saved PCF general secretary Marie-Georges Buffet the embarrassment of an even worse result. But the fact that the PCF did not stand under its own name is certain to provide encouragement for its liquidationists - even though the ‘broader’ FG hardly looks like a viable replacement.

But the PCF’s continuing crisis leaves the way open for a genuinely revolutionary challenge. The NPA has already made its impact on the working class movement in France. It must now step up the campaign for the unity of anti-capitalists and revolutionaries - but on the solid, principled basis that only Marxism can provide.