France and the CPE
The mass strikes and demonstrations by students and workers in France against the new labor law that Dominique Villepin rammed through the National Assembly illustrate once again the intense problems that Western capitalism faces over the powerful pressures of neoliberalism.
Villepin has made matters for him worse by committing serious tactical mistakes. Villepin is an appointee who has never been elected to any office, and his incompetence as a politician clearly showed in his handling of this matter. But the reality is that to focus on tactical mistakes is to miss the broader picture. While his interior minister and fellow party member Nikolas Sarkozy may be distancing himself from Villepin's tactics, the overall principles of neoliberalism are embraced by broad sectors of his party and by the leading capitalist interests in France. More importantly, the problem that the opposition Socialist Party faces in France is whether they are capable of offering a truly radical vision that can oppose the enormous market pressures that have led governments throughout Europe, even those supposedly of the "left", to abandon the interests of workers and students in favor of policies of neoliberalism and globalization. Given the history of the Socialist Party when it has been in power in France, this seems unlikely.
The reality is that European social democrats, which includes the French Socialist Party, are caught in a bind of their own. Embracing many of the details of market capitalism, and eschewing class warfare in favor of accommodation with capitalist principles, the French socialists haven't figured out how to ensure a viable economic system that can both guarantee protections of workers and yet still bow to the pressures of the market economy that they are unwilling to seriously challenge. As a result, they pay lip service to the interests of the working class while being unwilling to challenge the immense problems that the market economy poses. Unemployment is held hostage to the power of the global marketplace, and globalization will continue to serve as both a lure and a yoke around the neck of the French people until they are willing to overturn the powerful class interests that rule their country.
Naturally, we should support the efforts of students and workers to protect their rights against a reactionary onslaught such as what Villepin has proposed. But those of us on the left need to accompany our support for these mass demonstrations with radical demands of our own, because it is only by making radical change can the French people--not to mention all other people in the corporate-dominated economies of the West--really resolve the quandary that they face. This can only be solved by overturning corporate power and giving the people democratic, social control over economic resources and the means of production, replacing profit with human needs as the basis of economic activity. And this is something that ultimately cannot just be solved in France, but must take place around the world.
Villepin has made matters for him worse by committing serious tactical mistakes. Villepin is an appointee who has never been elected to any office, and his incompetence as a politician clearly showed in his handling of this matter. But the reality is that to focus on tactical mistakes is to miss the broader picture. While his interior minister and fellow party member Nikolas Sarkozy may be distancing himself from Villepin's tactics, the overall principles of neoliberalism are embraced by broad sectors of his party and by the leading capitalist interests in France. More importantly, the problem that the opposition Socialist Party faces in France is whether they are capable of offering a truly radical vision that can oppose the enormous market pressures that have led governments throughout Europe, even those supposedly of the "left", to abandon the interests of workers and students in favor of policies of neoliberalism and globalization. Given the history of the Socialist Party when it has been in power in France, this seems unlikely.
The reality is that European social democrats, which includes the French Socialist Party, are caught in a bind of their own. Embracing many of the details of market capitalism, and eschewing class warfare in favor of accommodation with capitalist principles, the French socialists haven't figured out how to ensure a viable economic system that can both guarantee protections of workers and yet still bow to the pressures of the market economy that they are unwilling to seriously challenge. As a result, they pay lip service to the interests of the working class while being unwilling to challenge the immense problems that the market economy poses. Unemployment is held hostage to the power of the global marketplace, and globalization will continue to serve as both a lure and a yoke around the neck of the French people until they are willing to overturn the powerful class interests that rule their country.
Naturally, we should support the efforts of students and workers to protect their rights against a reactionary onslaught such as what Villepin has proposed. But those of us on the left need to accompany our support for these mass demonstrations with radical demands of our own, because it is only by making radical change can the French people--not to mention all other people in the corporate-dominated economies of the West--really resolve the quandary that they face. This can only be solved by overturning corporate power and giving the people democratic, social control over economic resources and the means of production, replacing profit with human needs as the basis of economic activity. And this is something that ultimately cannot just be solved in France, but must take place around the world.
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