France's leftists launch New Anti-Capitalist Party

[struggle4progress]

Source: France 24

... Olivier Besancenot, a postman who ran as presidential candidate in 2002 and 2007 of the Communist Revolutionary League (LCR), a tiny Trotskyist group born during the May 1968 uprising .... is now one of the most popular politicians in France .... Besancenot has seized the moment to dissolve the .. LCR and on Friday he launched a New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) ...

Besancenot, 34, is a gifted orator who is as comfortable extolling Che Guevara as denouncing President Nicolas Sarkozy. He scored more than 4 percent in his two presidential bids -- an impressive score for the tiny LCR ...

A recent poll by Ifop found that the NPA, the Communist Party and other far-left groups together could score as much as 15 percent in European parliamentary elections due in June ...




Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20090206-france-leftists-launch-new-anti-capitalist-party-besancenot-npa

[Blue_Tires]

1. maybe he could come up with another name than "Anti-Capitalist"??

that's all some people will focus on

[Wapsie B]

3. Yeah the term kills it even before they get off the ground.

No one there must be a marketing expert.

[Peace Patriot]

10. "Marketing" is a capitalist thing. Truth is not.

Sounds like the French want some truth. Maybe our people do, too. I mean, why do you think they fast-tracked e-voting machines all over the U.S., run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by far rightwing corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls? The "marketing" is failing.

And if we had caught on to 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting in time, they had the "Patriot Act," detention centers and a Blackwater mercenary army to back it up. They fooled me. I thought the "Help America Vote for Bush Act" (e-voting boondoggle, passed in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution--Oct '02) was about continuing the Forever War. But it was about this Financial 9/11 they were planning. The Forever War--while not exactly a ruse--was only a secondary purpose (a way of keeping the war profiteers and the financial dragons allied).

Our people are not stupid, nor uninformed. The great majority were against the Iraq War way back at the beginning (nearly 60% opposed, all polls, Feb. 03). But they are slower to catch on to the economic aspects of corpo/fascist rule, because they have been so heavily "marketed" (brainwashed, given false narratives, made to feel powerless and helpless, distracted, "divided and conquered"). They have NO IDEA how SPECIAL they are, as the potentially most powerful progressive force on earth, nor how much trouble has been taken to disempower them. We are the wage slaves and cannon fodder of the Evil Empire. We live in its dark heart. Yet we have tenacious democratic traditions--ideas that cannot be killed. And, if we ever rise up and assert ourselves, the "one and only, universal" Church of the Corporation is kaput. It is already running on fumes. It has looted us one last time, hoping to smash our democratic spirit into the dust.

The thing about "marketing" is that you can't cage the human mind forever. It will rebel.

We should beware of assuming what the American people want to hear. The "anti-capitalist party" might be far more resonant here than we can guess from the false narratives and false picture of the American people that we get from the corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies. In the lead-up to the Iraq War, were you aware that MOST Americans opposed it? I wasn't. I thought my fellow and sister Americans had gone nuts, goose-stepping to Bush--or rather, I wanted to know if they had. It didn't feel right, so I spent a lot of time diggng out poll information, etc. Lo and behold, most Americans not only opposed the Iraq War, they also opposed every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic--way up in the 60% to 90% range! (--90% on the deficit, and over 90% on desire for transparent vote counting).

I don't know if they're ready to chuck capitalism, but I would suggest that we pay close attention to what is happening in South America, which is way, way ahead of the French on rejecting predatory capitalism and replacing it with human decency.

[gtar100]

19. ! Post K&R

Well if I could I would. I didn't know the numbers were that high either. I thought me and my friends were in a bubble, the ones who opposed all the *ush crap. We are overwhelmed by marketing and propaganda through the media. That in itself shows the terror of the other side against a force they know they can't stop if only we could organize and assert our will. But if only...

[Better Believe It]

13. Not in France where we've had mass socialist and communist parties.

[Joe Chi Minh]

20. Completely wrong. You must live in a fantasy world, or some kind of alternative reality.

Most of the public today everywhere HATES capitalism.

This depression confirms our worst fears about the monstrous ethical deficit at the very (black heart) of capitalism; at least on the neo-liberal trajectory it's been on for the best part of the last three decades. Don't you think most of the world would choose to live in Denmark, if they could? Or another Scandinavian country. The US would be very low on the list.

[defendandprotect]

5. America doesn't even have a LABOR party--!!! That's how frightened we are---!!!

[Dr. Strange]

31. Actually...

http://www.thelaborparty.org/

[jkappy]

7. he ain't running in provincial US n/t

[dflprincess]

2. How about the "We're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" party?

We really need on here.

[Joe Chi Minh]

24. No. Don't mince words. That's the beauty and great appeal of this party's name.

[defendandprotect]

4. The name is correct . . . make no mistake about that -- !!!

Those who have awakened to corrupt capitalism understand the need for economic

democracy. Capitalism has been bailed out yet again at $8.5 TRILLION FOR THIS ROUND.

$8.5 TRILLION ---

Yet, this new economic crisis is creating more homeless, more improverished children --

and the GOP are fighting the stimulus which is less than $1 trillion!!!

Good for the French!!!

[cobalt1999]

6. Not sure what he can do while staying within the EU framework.

If he thinks dropping out of the EU will help, he's crazy.

[Joe Chi Minh]

21. Don't you worry about that! The EU changes its rules to meet evolvng circumstances.

Even the very recent small victory of our workers' wild-cat strike against imported foreign labour has led to it, already.

[vinylsolution]

8. The French always get off their butts....

... and do something.

While apathy triumphs again and again in America. *sigh*

[Joanne98]

9. Good.

[anonymous171]

11. Reactionary parties scare me. But then again, so do a majority of Capitalists.

[tomp]

18. define reactionary. nt

[w4rma]

28. Reactionary parties *oppose* progress and want to return to the "past". This party isn't one. (nt)

[anonymous171]

29. Reactionary parties exist solely to *oppose* anything.

Anti-capitalists are the same as anti-communists.

[tomp]

30. that's roughly how i understand the term as well.

reactionary means "counter-progressive", working for return to an inferior past state.

[IndianaGreen]

12. Background article on Besancenot that I posted in Editorials on Wednesday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x422380

[unkachuck]

14. K&R....n/t

[xchrom]

15. recommend

[originalpckelly]

16. To raise funds Besancenot will be selling Che Guevara T-shirts at his rallies.

:rofl:

The T-shirts will NOT include a list of the people who were ordered executed summarily by Guevara.

"But wasn't he executed by with the help of the CIA?"

"Yes, Bobby, but that doesn't mean the CIA is worse, it just means they're just as bad."

"Oh, OK."

[Joe Chi Minh]

22. No. It means the CIA are worse. What have you got between your ears?

Guevara was reacting to the mass murder by inches of the poor all over the world under the aegis of the CIA.

[MellowDem]

25. Selling shirts!?....

But isn't that.... CAPITALIST!!???OMGZ11!!!

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Anti-Libertarian probably would work better. More focused.

[Joe Chi Minh]

23. There's little distinction betwen them now. What do you have in mind.

Your country's capitalists would have "drowned your government in the bath tub" (except for directing continuing taxes on the poorer folk to the coffers of their rich friends), and privatised social security as a prelude to abolishing it. Isn't that libertarian enough for you?

[LeftishBrit]

27. Libertarianism is not really a feature of French politics.

Even conservative governments there are far more centrally directive, and far more committed to welfare state policies, than American Republicans and many American Democrats. Sarkozy is to the right of the last two conservative presidents, but no 'pure' RW-libertarian. And France has frequently had Socialist prime ministers from various factions within the party. So I'd say this new party is considerably to the left of 'anti-libertarian'!

[MellowDem]

26. Anti-capitalism is a tired philosophy...

Capitalism has always and will always continue to exist in humanity. It's not some evil creation, it's as natural as sex. People will continue to do it, whether you want them to or not. But just like sex, there are more responsible ways of doing it, for sure. And what's worst is that these parties only pop up when things are going bad. It makes the American people look either very lazy or very smart that they don't get worked into a tizzy every time there is a recession. It's a natural part of the business cycle that there will be ups and downs. This one will not last forever. We should do what we can to best regulate the markets fairly and efficiently, but to get rid of the markets because there are such things as recession is stupid (and impossible).

I would REALLY like to see what system this party would put in place, and how it would not use capitalism. And I would really like to hear how France could have got to where it was today without capitalism. It's such a stupid and tired argument.