Statement by the Coordination des Groupes Anarchistes (CGA). On June 19th there will be major protests against Macron’s labor market reforms.

Originally published by Coordination des Groupes Anarchistes (CGA). Translated by Enough is Enough.

Note: Enough is Enough is not organizing any of these events, we are publishing this text for people across the US and Europe to be able to see what is going on and for documentation only.

Emmanuel Macron has just been elected with 66.1% of the votes. But this figure, which may seem high, masks another reality. More than 16 million registrants refused to give legitimacy to the two candidates of the second round by blank or invalid votes or abstaining. Abstention has even reached a record level since 1969 (25.38%, or 12.1 million people). And this while the stake was to block the Front National, that the mass media and a large part of the political chessboard relayed the directive to vote against Marine Le Pen.

If one adds the 3 million adults who are not registered on the electoral lists to the 16 million, the 20.7 million votes gathered by Macron do not weigh very heavy. Especially since a part of his electorate, estimated at more than 40%, voted without adhering to his project but indeed against Marine Le Pen.

As anti-electoralists, we welcome the growing distrust of a system that does not represent us; The refusal of much to give legitimacy to the new president actually weakens his status.

But we also know that, if allowed to do so, the governing politicians do not embarrass themselves with legitimacy to carry out their projects of social breach. Our anti-electoralist position has as a corollary the need to invest in the social field, to struggle here and now to defend and conquer new rights and to work for a self-managing and anti-capitalist project. Mistrust of capitalists and politicians must be concretized in practice by social struggles.

And there is a real urgency to do so. Macron’s win of the presidential elections is the assurance of the amplification of austerity policies, including the definitive breakdown of labor laws (protecting workers rights, tranlator), the disruption of public services, the uberization of society , Poor housing, worsening security policies, pursuing anti-immigrant policies, disregarding environmental issues, strengthening patriarchy, and so on. It is also, without a doubt, continuing to provide the soil on which the National Front flourishes and, more generally, the racist and xenophobic poison that will gain more heads.

To the values ​​of competition among all, of competitiveness, patriotism and sacred union, oppose a culture of class values. From Mélenchon to Le Pen, we are penniless with the nation, the country, the general interest, the common good. The capitalists and the states that support them do not have the same interests as us! It is them against us, us against them, when they win, we lose and vice versa.

The elections maintain precisely the myth of the equality of all citizens in the polling booth, erase and annihilate class resistance. The real stakes, even in the short term, are not in the support of this or that politician during the next legislative elections. On the contrary, it is the preparation of a large-scale social response. For this we must, it seems to us, reinforce the resisting organizations of our class, first of all the trade unions and the resisting collectives. We know that it will take an effort and that it is easier to await political promises of easy victories, but they will only lead us to powerlessness and social setbacks. We are more and more numerous and no longer let ourselves duped, so let us organize to put the counter-offensive into practice!

On 15 May 2017,

CGA External Relations

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