Jean-Paul Batisse | Pole of Communist Revival in France (PRCF)
Dear friends and comrades,
First of all, the Pole for a Communist Renaissance in France would like to thank you for your invitation to this new summit of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform. Our presence is an opportunity to reaffirm, if any were still needed, the determined and active commitment of the PRCF in the fight not only against US hegemony—the most powerful and dangerous imperialism in the world that wreaks havoc from the Baltic Sea to the Korean peninsula—but also against European imperialism under the impetus of revanchist capitalist Germany and, of course, of French imperialism, which is weakening, but will not go without a fight, particularly in Africa.
From this point of view, the elections in France in 2027, presidential and then legislative, may represent a central turning point in the choice of the two antagonistic paths available to French workers. On the one hand, the definitive “leap into European federalism” and the disastrous march to war to which banker Macron, during his two terms in office, has contributed exponentially, in the wake of his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande—a Europeanist and Atlanticist headlong rush anchoring France to the EU-NATO bloc that impoverishes workers, destroys democratic freedoms, social achievements and public services, jettisons the one, indivisible and secular Republic in favour of a “Girondin pact” serving regionalist separatists in Corsica or overseas (regions exploited and impoverished by the oligarchy in power in France), dislocates sovereign peoples and national independence within what the former Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, calls “the European Empire”.
The latter is based above all on the war economy, which the EU and NATO encourage by requiring the oligarchies of the EU member countries—with France leading the pack—to devote 5% of their wealth to the constitution of a “Europe of Defence”, in order to prepare for nuclear war against the Russian Federation. There is thus a real drain on workers, who have been subjected since the Barre government of 1976 to a continuous austerity cure on the part of right-wing and so-called “left” governments, which have betrayed the working class ever since the first presidency of François Mitterrand. In short, we are simply looking at the disappearance of France as an independent country, but also as a people of the Enlightenment fighting fanaticism—and even creeping fascism that has been on the rise since at least the fall of the USSR—that the workers—in complete disarray—are confronted with.
This disarray is reflected in the search for an alternative that the misnamed “National Rally” claims to represent. Frankly xenophobic and heirs to the Pétainist and fascistic right, the far right party deceives the workers by making people believe that it is patriotic and proletarian. Far from it! Indeed, not only does the movement of Marine Le Pen (who is steeped in corruption) and Jordan Bardella (who is flirting with the MEDEF and the reactionary aristocracy) not want to leave the euro and the EU (and not even the Schengen area which allows “total freedom of movement”, including that of workers of all origins subjected to a frightening and capitalist competition that drives down wages and working conditions), but in addition it has removed the exit from NATO from its agenda! Even worse, it supports the Israeli fascist theocracy in its genocidal enterprise against the Palestinians; it does not oppose the establishment of the war economy that arms the pro-Nazi regime in Kiev and it applauds the wars of the fascistic Trumps against Iran and Lebanon, as well as the genocidal asphyxiation of socialist Cuba. These days, it is prepared to ally with the pseudo-“republican” right, with whom they share the same hatred of against foreign workers, muslims, immigrants, communist and progressive militants, combative trade unionists, etc.
Unfortunately, this “brown wave” benefits from the contradictions and betrayals of the so-called “left” forces. Leaving aside Raphaël Glucksmann’s Place Publique movement, the so-called “Socialist” Party and the “Greens”, all of them anti-communist, pro-EU and pro-NATO forces that do not hesitate to approve, like the far right, the war economy encouraged by the EU and the most anti-communist resolutions adopted by the so-called “European Parliament”. Let us instead consider the forces claiming to represent the working classes:
· The national trade union confederations? They have turned down a strategy of confrontation in the name of “sympathetic unionism” (promoted by the counter-“reformist” CFDT) and rallied to the warmongering “sacred union” against Russia and the People’s Republic of China, even if in some local or departmental branches as well as some federations such as those of the Chemical Industry or Energy, anger is growing against this line of compromise with the oligarchic forces.
· The French Communist Party? Since the abandonment of the dictatorship of the proletariat 50 years ago at the 22nd Congress in 1976—before the abandonment of Marxism-Leninism in 1979 and democratic centralism in 1994—successive leaderships have gone for an electoral strategy of subordination to “social democracy” and “Eurocommunism”, leading to their militant, political, ideological and electoral collapse. And; on the occasion of the 40th congress of the PCF in July 2026, the line carried by Fabien Roussel of submission to the EU, of presenting at all costs a presidential candidate despite the party’s abysmal scores, of renouncing Marxism-Leninism, of affirming that Russia is a threat—with the PCF deputies voting, on 30 November 2022, a pro-EU, pro-NATO and pro-Ukraine resolution!—etc., is confirmed, despite a fall in the number of real militants and increasing financial losses…
· La France Insoumise (France Unbowed)? At the moment, this party is the only one able to counter-balance the extreme right arithmetically, and it has courageously asserted the defence of Gaza and the Palestinian people. But we should not have any illusions about Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s lyrical flights of fancy: the calls for peace, ecological planning or even the Sixth Republic, while certainly welcome, do not mask a Euro-compatible turn that breaks with the 2017 line which proposed the alternative: “the EU: change it or leave it!” Even worse: by demanding the independence of the French territories overseas—whereas Lenin accepted the right to separation while specifying that the Bolsheviks are in principle against separatism—by considering that Russia is the aggressor and not NATO in the context of the war in Ukraine, by refusing to radically confront the EU (not to mention consider leaving it altogether), by letting its leftist supporters attack the Marseillaise and the national flag shamefully associated with the far right, Mélenchon is playing into the hands of the latter and actually strengthening it. And if Jean-Luc Mélenchon can hope to reach the second round of the presidential election, it is to be feared that he will be beaten, or even crushed, by the reactionary and fascistic right.
Yet, behind this bleak picture, there is much to expect from French workers who, in their majority, no longer want the euro, the EU, NATO and capitalism. It should be pointed out, in this regard, that most workers choose to abstain at general elections and that, on 29 May 2005, 80% of workers and young people, as well as 2/3 of employees, rejected the disastrous “European Constitution”. This historic vote was the starting point of the offensive of the Euro-Atlantic oligarchy, which has never gotten over this humiliation and decided to impose, at all costs and increasingly by ferociously repressing popular anger, as during the yellow vest insurrection in 2018-2019 or the mass strikes against the pensions counter-reform in 2023. Frightened and rightly feeling betrayed by the trade union confederations and the so-called “left” forces, more and more workers have taken refuge in abstention and, unfortunately for some, in voting for the deceptive Rassemblement National.
This is why the Pole for a Communist Renaissance in France affirms the vital urgency of a progressive Frexit, that is to say the exit from the euro, the EU, NATO—all of them weapons and institutions in the service of capitalism—and, of course, capitalism, that pushes for war, feeds fascism and imperialism and destroys both the Earth and workers themselves. To achieve this, we call for the constitution of a red and national, patriotic and anti-fascist, popular and anti-capitalist, peaceful and anti-imperialist, republican and democratic, ecological and anti-exterminist alternative. It is the only way to put an end to the deadly dynamic that plays into the hands of the imperialist forces in France—on the offensive to preserve Françafrique, the colonial structures of the overseas territories of France—which stir up xenophobic and racialist hatred the march towards war and neofascism feeds on, while threatening to dislocate France as an independent country and a sovereign people.
The PRCF, with its updated program, its assertive and increasingly popular political line, the strength of its theoretical analysis, its media and its propaganda materials, its selfless and determined militants, its disciplined and organized workers of all ages (young, senior and retired), will continue to carry this alternative line and, for the latter to triumph, to work for the reconstruction of the indispensable tools for victory: the rebirth of a frankly communist and therefore Marxist-Leninist party; the reassertion of a combative, class-based and mass trade unionism; the indispensable reconstruction of an international communist movement to confront US imperialism and its proxies. At the same time, the PRCF will continue to contribute to the development and action of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform, whose useful and fruitful role no longer needs to be demonstrated.
