April 6, 2026 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French
The mere fact that a Black man, Bally Bagayoko, was elected mayor of Saint-Denis—a city of over 100,000 residents and one of the poorest in France (with 37% of its residents living below the poverty line)—was enough to have far-right media spew their racist filth in unison. “Family of great apes,” “dominant male,” “primitive tribe”: they aren’t talking about immigrants or their French descendants, it’s their reactionary fantasies of world domination they are putting forward.
The capitalist “elite” – the real scum…
Talk-show “philosophers” and self-proclaimed “journalists” think of themselves as “rebels,” but they have never been anything other than the lackeys of the rich. On CNews, they are the useful idiots and spokespersons for the “good French.” In exchange for their good and loyal services, they receive their share of what is extorted from us through capitalist exploitation. These pathetic figures actually express the fear of their class and those they represent: the bourgeoisie (capitalists).
In the not-so-distant past, a majority of the capitalist class called itself liberal, well-mannered, and tolerant; like Macron on his campaign trail in the spring of 2017. But for over a decade now, successive crises (climate, economic, ecological, resource-related, etc.) have darkened the horizon. They’ve shown their true colors; much like Macron, who, once elected, turned out to be brutal, an admirer of Pétain (the head of the French government that collaborated with the Nazis, 1940-1944), and a fan of racist jokes. Anything that denounces oppression is denigrated under the label of “woke,” while the failed writer Renaud Camus and his theory of the “Great Replacement” are adored by a growing faction of the ruling classes.
… and Trump is their prophet
In the United States, the Elon Musks and Peter Thiels, fundamentalist Catholic billionaires and tech moguls, propelled Trump to power with the mission of reaffirming, by any means, the global hegemony of American imperialism.
Hence the bombings on Iran, which now target not only military bases, but also hospitals, bridges, power plants… Trump has promised to “send them back to the Stone Age.” There he is, the caveman, the man hungry for domination!
He and the billionaires he represents fully intend to make us pay for their wars by driving up the prices of oil and gas, the raw materials for most industrial products, not to mention the fuel our cars use.
The unity of the global working class: the way forward
To achieve this, they must reinforce racism anyway they can. It translates to raids carried out by ICE, Trump’s militarized immigration police, in the United States. Here in France, it’s the hunt for undocumented workers, colleagues of ours without whom the economy couldn’t run, but whom the cops force to hide in the shadows so that bosses may exploit them more easily. It’s also the venomous campaign that pretends to unmask “terrorists” among those who support the Palestinian people.
Fortunately, many of us refuse to fall into the trap of racist division, whose ultimate goal is to prevent us, workers, from uniting our forces. Near the end of March, hundreds of thousands marched against racism in Britain, while across the pond 8 million demonstrated against Trump. On April 4 in Saint-Denis, thousands of us said no to racism. These demonstrations show that the solution lies in collective action.
We can only protect ourselves from crises by making those responsible, the capitalists, pay. There will be no effective remedy against inflation without strikes for higher wages. Every increase in the price of diesel, rent, or food must be reflected in our wages and pensions! Victorious, we will in turn push back against racism. We will restore full meaning to the old slogan “Workers of all countries, unite!”
