Global Left Midweek – February 12, 2025

The fierce urgency of Now

Portside
Printer friendly  
Zapiro / Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
  1. A Warning from France
  2. Panamanians Reject White House Threats
  3. International Reports
  4. Justice for Jani Silva
  5. Video: Perspective on Congo Crisis
  6. Canada: “Hit Back Hard!”
  7. Die Linke Rebounds 
  8. Māori Turn Their Backs
  9. Social Movements and Imperialism: Think Piece
  10. Bello on Francisco Nemenzo

 

__________
A Warning from France

Roger Martelli / Regards (Paris)

[Translated by Portside. Lire le texte original ici]

The summit of France Insoumise [January 31-February 2] has gone haywire. While the world is entering a new era, in the wake of arrogant Trumpism, the leaders of the Insoumise are broadcasting images that put the Socialists and the [far right] Rassemblement National on the same level. Some are even claiming that the time has come for “class against class”.

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)

They bring to mind the disastrous political line that governed the Communist world between 1929 and 1934, which led to the isolation of the Communists and was fortunately abandoned in the summer of 1934. In 1935, based on the French example, the “class against class” strategy was definitively abandoned in favor of the “popular front” strategy.

From 1921 to 1943, the Communist Party was a member of the Communist International, led by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Around 1927-1928, when the Communist world was entirely dominated by Stalin, a new political line took shape in Moscow. The capitalist world, Russian leaders explained, had entered a “third period”. After the revolutionary wave that followed 1917 and the stabilization of 1924-1927, [they argued] came a time of crises, the “fascization” of the regime and new revolutionary perspectives. This implied that Communists must renounce compromise, legalism and parliamentarianism: the time had come for direct and decisive confrontation, “class against class”.

In that tense moment, where the fear of war reached a level of paroxysm, the question of alliances seemed no longer relevant. Blocs were facing each other; on one side the bourgeoisie and its imperialism, on the other the proletariat backed by its “Soviet homeland.” There are no longer any half-measures in the face of a bourgeois bloc where the right wing and the left wing merge, where fascism and socialism are so close together that the “social-fascists” of the Socialist International would henceforth be vilified. In fact, it was the socialists who were considered the most dangerous, as they prevented radicalized workers from joining the Communist ranks...

For good or ill, the French Communist Party embraced this line, which led to unprecedented state repression. Under the erratic impulse of Moscow, the French Communist leadership was streamlined and purified. On the ground, mass political strikes and violent street occupation (“for an eye, both eyes, for a tooth, the whole mouth”) were the recommended forms of militant mobilization. “In the present situation of the workers' movement, of the fascist development of the government and reformist organizations, of the transition to open fascist dictatorship, we must pose proletarian solutions, give the mass anti-fascist movement a class character, and the only way to do this is to propagate the essential ideas of proletarian democracy among the masses” (Raymond Barbé, before the Political Bureau, February 13, 1930).

The new line proved disastrous. On a European scale, reaction gained momentum everywhere, authoritarian regimes took hold in the East, Nazism prevailed in Germany, and the workers' movement was crushed in Austria. In France, although the Left won the 1932 legislative elections by a wide margin, it was divided: the Radicals hesitated between loyalty to the Cartel des gauches and alliances with the Right, while the Socialists were bewildered by the scale of the economic and political crisis. As for the PCF, which had made it through the first round of legislative elections in 1928 (11.3% of votes cast), it was barely above 8% in 1932 (10 deputies versus 26 in 1924). Its attempts at mobilization all failed, one after the other, and these failures accentuated its isolation. The icing on the cake was that on February 6, 1934, the Republic was once again directly threatened by pressure from an extreme right that drew its resources from the 19th-century tradition of the “leagues” of the 19th century [anti-parliamentarian movements], but which furiously evoked the disturbing examples of neighbouring Italy and Germany.

Officially, the Communist International was sticking to its “class against class” line. But Moscow was worried about European developments. At the head of the International, under the impetus of Bulgarian George Dimitrov, part of the leadership expressed doubts about the viability of the strategy in place. In Paris, Maurice Thorez, uncomfortable with a line of closure that he accepted but which did not correspond to the slightly more open culture of the “united front”, closely followed what was simmering in Moscow. In the spring, he picked up on the first signals from the international center. In June, the CP signed a Unity of Action Pact with yesterday's “social fascists”. In the autumn, a further step was taken in the direction of the Radicals. The “Popular Front” was now underway, and in 1935 became an official line for the entire Communist movement. In the early 1930s, the International's reference model was the German Communist Party, whose tough proletarian stance was readily contrasted with the perceived below-the-surface opportunism of the French party; in 1935, the PCF became the substitute model.

The effects of this unexpected turning point are well known. In early 1936, the Rassemblement Populaire program was signed by around a hundred political, social and cultural organizations. In 1936, the left-wing alliance won the legislative elections. The PCF, which had spectacularly consolidated its municipal communism in 1935, exceeded 15% and increased its number of deputies by seven in the 1936 legislative elections. The left had found its colors again, the red joined the tricolor, the Front Populaire won, the Socialist Léon Blum became head of government, the ballot box and the strike imposed major social measures, and the figure of the worker became central to the French social landscape. Between 1934 and 1936, the division of the left gave way to a coming together, under the auspices of anti-fascism, but around a slogan that suggested a much broader ambition: “bread, peace, freedom”.

__________
Panamanians Reject White House Threats

Pablo Meriguet / Peoples Dispatch (New Delhi)

One of the most important actors in the protests against Rubio’s visit was SUNTRACS (Unified National Union of Workers of the Construction and Similar Industries), an organization with more than 40,000 members. Its leader, Saúl Méndez, declared that Trump “is declaring war on the Panamanian people.” 

__________
International Reports

__________
Justice for Jani Silva

Lital Khaikin / rabble.ca (Toronto)

Why would criminal organizations and paramilitaries be so threatened by an outspoken campesina? Silva has long campaigned for rainforest conservation and the protection of water and biodiversity in the Bajo Putumayo, resisting mining and oil exploitation, deforestation, illicit coca cultivation, and militarization. In short, Silva’s activism threatens a panoply of powerful interests in the region. 

__________
Video: Perspective on Congo Crisis

Selaelo Makhwidiri and Shomari Muakndjwa / Salaamedia (Johannesburg)

Around 3,000 people have been killed in clashes between M23 rebels and government forces, and thousands more have been displaced after the worst escalation of fighting in more than a decade.

__________
Canada: “Hit Back Hard!”

__________
Die Linke Rebounds

Loren Balhorn / Jacobin 

Years of decline in opinion polls for the party have been halted and support for Die Linke has risen again, to slide past the five per cent hurdle required for Bundestag representation. Now facing an existential federal election, Die Linke has gone back to basics with a manifesto promising “democratic socialism”: taxing the rich to support the working class through rent caps and energy subsidies.

__________
Māori Turn Their Backs

Eva Corlett / The Guardian (London)

Political leaders gathered at the Waitangi treaty grounds in New Zealand’s far north to celebrate Waitangi Day, which marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840. Hundreds of protesters from the Toitū te Tiriti movement, which led the largest ever protest over Māori rights in 2024, departed the grounds as the government delegation arrived.

__________
Social Movements and Imperialism: Think Piece

Iqra Anugrah / Transnational Institute (Amsterdam)

Understanding the nature of imperialism today and the creative ways through which social movements and popular resistance push back against it is pivotal to making sense of the ravages of contemporary global capitalism and authoritarianism and offering alternative solutions. 

__________
Bello on Dodong Nemenzo 

Walden Bello / Rappler (Manila)

Written at various points in his lifelong engagement with politics as a man of the Left, Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo made sure to bring them together in one volume before he passed on, doing one last favor for activists who derived inspiration from him and biographers and historians seeking to piece together his life story.