In the face of the global economic crisis, right-wing and far-right parties are making headway in the democratic countries of the West. And in France, the electoral victory in the European elections of Ms. Lepen’s so-called far-right party, the rassemblement national, has prompted a lightning decision by the fast-losing Macron clan to dissolve the assembly and call new elections in the coming weeks. It’s another poker game, but one that has the petit bourgeois shaking in their boots, as they wave the black rag of fascism in front of the media!

Where will voters go to lose themselves between the fascism of the Lepen clan, backed by Mr. Bolloré’s multinational corporation, which is buying up TV and radio channels and famous publishing houses; in the middle, the Macron clan, now worn down by its accelerated attacks on public institutions (education, health) and its motley foreign policy; and on the left side, a hodgepodge of so-called leftist parties under the Popular Front label, with Mr. Mélenchon’s party accused of anti-Semitism because of its anti-Zionism and authoritarianism marked by vigorous cleansing of troublesome militants. And above all, which camp will the financiers choose? Ms. Binet’s CGT is also getting involved, calling above all not to vote for the RN, knowing that some of its militants are in favor of it! As for the instability of the French government, it is not in itself an impossibility of governing. The example of Belgium, which remained without a government for two years, is indisputable proof of this.

In response to this troubled and troubling situation orchestrated from all sides, we quote the text of our current which, in June 1926, presented a platform to the 5th Congress of the PCF, a party in the process of Stalinization, which addressed French questions in its third part. The year was 1926, and France was facing an upsurge of right-wing and extreme right-wing forces. History doesn’t repeat itself, but the means used by the ruling classes are the same!

The parliamentary political system is a perfectly capitalist system, corresponding more closely to the interests of the big bourgeoisie than to those of any other class or social stratum (...) The schema representing the parliamentary struggle between the Bloc National and the Cartel des Gauches [an electoral coalition] as the conflict for power between the big bourgeoisie and the middle classes is false, since the latter are incapable of possessing an independent political regime, and Parliament is not, for Marxist critics, the place where different classes lose or gain power, but on the contrary the proper organ for the exercise and defense of the power of the capitalist bourgeoisie. The political phenomenon of the parliamentary free play of democratic and radical parties does not correspond to a kind of political abdication by the capitalist class, but rather to a particular phase and pace of its action against the proletarian class and the revolutionary danger. In this phase, the main weapon of this struggle is the subordination of working-class ideology to formulas and organizations that are the original product of petty-bourgeois circles, but in reality correspond to the aims and maneuvering of the ruling capitalist class, firmly installed not only in a parliamentary majority, but at the head of the entire state machine. This method is not the bourgeoisie’s only method of struggle, and it is very possible that as the economic crisis deepens, and an employers’ offensive takes shape, there will be a complete change of program in the political sphere.

And on the subject of fascism: What is essential is to understand that the fascist plan is first and foremost a plan against the proletariat and socialist revolution, and that it is therefore up to the workers to pre-empt or repel its attack. It’s a misconception to see fascism as a crusade against bourgeois democracy, the parliamentary state, the petty-bourgeois strata and their politicians and parties at the helm of power. The false schema of the French situation and its perspective consists in the ‘holy war’ that would be unleashed against the fascist ‘danger’ by ‘democracy’ and its latest dummy, the Bloc des Gauches, by mobilizing the forces of the state against the first ‘illegal’ fascist forces. According to this idea, the proletariat should only sound the alarm, take the ‘initiative’ – there’s a buzzword for it – in this anti-fascist struggle, fight with others to defend the advantages of a ‘left’ government, considering the bankruptcy of fascism in France as its victorious goal, reserving other actions and conquests for himself only as a second act of the struggle, as the effect of a supposed strategy that would make him reveal to his anti-fascist allies – but let’s be clear, only after the fact – the ulterior motive of conquering power for himself, the claim to his dictatorship.

Things are very different. If fascism threatens us closely in France, it will be because the proletarian revolution will threaten bourgeois France, which is right-wing and democratic at the same time. At that moment, the middle classes will undoubtedly play a role, but in the sense that they will side with whichever of the two enemy classes proves stronger and more capable of defeating and reorganizing social life according to its historical program. Defending the status quo, or expressing negative anti-fascism instead of positive anti-capitalism, on the pretext of popularizing the proletarian party before – before what? – the proletarian party, are simply reactionary in such a decisive situation.

And again: Both the democratic and fascist tactics of capitalism have a common goal: to avoid by any means the general, unique action of the working class on all the questions raised by the situation: for in this case, the defensive weapons of the bourgeois state may prove insufficient. Single action by the working class means not the commonplace of a bloc of different political organizations and movements with a mixed and fictitious central leadership, but the entry into struggle of the proletariat in all towns and villages, without exceptions of categories and trades: this movement can win only if we succeed in animating it with a single, precise program under the leadership of a true revolutionary party.

To achieve this capitalist result, the Bloc des Gauches is making legislative arrangements to attenuate the impression produced on the masses by the episodes and sharp turns of the crisis, and with the help of the Socialist Party and the reformist C.G.T. it is doing what it can to localize and isolate the conflicts raised by proletarian demands.

Nothing more to say!