May 6, 2024 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) in France, translated from French
Occupations of university campuses have multiplied in recent weeks, in the United States and now in France, as at Sciences Po and many other universities, to denounce the ongoing massacre in Gaza. Everywhere, young people are pitching tents, occupying campuses and demonstrating in solidarity with the Palestinian people. These demonstrations are worrying governments, who fear that they will be faced with a vast youth movement, as during the Vietnam War.
Silence, we slaughter!
A smear campaign has been launched to accuse students of anti-Semitism. This slander is systematically used, including against Jewish peace associations which also denounce the dirty war waged by Netanyahu. This just goes to show how absurd it is, at a time when the [extreme right-wing] Rassemblement National candidate, Jordan Bardella, is championing the fight against anti-Semitism! That young people should denounce the death of over 35,000 men, women and children, the massacre that continues and the discovery of mass graves under hospitals, is quite normal. There’s nothing anti-Semitic about denouncing it! Young people are also worried about the future that the war-mongers are preparing for the people of the world, including Israelis: that of an endless war, for the greater profit of arms dealers and to defend the interests of Western imperialism in the Middle East. Because capitalism means war, with the blood of peoples, above all the Palestinian people, but also the Ukrainians and many other populations around the world.
They’re waging a social war against us… Let’s fight back!
The government would like to silence us about the genocide underway in Gaza, but also about all the social attacks it is implementing. From the “rabbit tax” [a tax on people who fail to show up for a doctor appointment no matter what the reason] to social tracking in schools and the collapse of public services, it misses no opportunity to make our lives miserable. The latest is his attack on HLM (affordable housing) tenants. He claims to be solving the public housing shortage by evicting families who exceed the income ceiling. This is not going to help the 2.4 million requests for HLM and help the 330,000 homeless people. Attacking the poor, who are too rich for the government’s liking – that’s what it’s all about! All this to better pamper the towns that don’t want to build social housing and the owners of the three million empty dwellings that should be used.
Housing, jobs, wages, nothing’s going right. We’d have plenty of reasons to pitch tents everywhere, too, to denounce it! And above all, we’d have plenty of reasons to fight back, to go on strike, and to stop running this country for the profits of a small minority of exploiters. That’s what the workers at MA France, an automotive subcontractor for Stellantis, have decided to do. They’ve been on strike since April 16 against the threat of their workplace closing. While CEO Carlos Tavares makes 100,000 euros [about 100,000 dollars] a day, he and the shareholders of Stellantis would like to deprive 280 employees and 140 temporary workers of their jobs.
In the European elections, the NPA-Révolutionnaires [New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries] is presenting a slate of 81 workers and young people to put forward this program of struggle. We’ve been told often enough during the health crisis: we’re the front line! We are the ones who make society run. Our interests won’t be defended in any parliamentary jousting match; we’re the only ones who can do that through our mobilizations. We’re the ones who work, we’re the ones who decide! So on June 9, vote for the slate led by Selma Labib and Gaël Quirante.
