Storming the Bastille

ORIGINAL FRENCH ARTICLE: Bastille (Chronique du front)
by Maurice Ulrich

l'Humanite in English
March 14, 2012

http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article1992

Translated Wednesday 14 March 2012, by Henry Crapo and
reviewed by Isabelle Métral

"We are going to create a material force from our ideas." It
was on the TV channel France 5, day before yesterday, on
quoting none other than Karl Marx, that Jean-Luc Melenchon
summed up the ambition of the Front de gauche in marching
next Sunday from the Place de la Nation to the Place de la
Bastille. It is a march and an event far from ordinary. A
citizens' uprising that is making plenty of noise.

Last week, when the Front de gauche passed the symbolic
hurdle of 10 percent in polls for first round of the
presidential election, it was clearly understood to be a
turning point. Another poll revealed, in passing, that, for
nearly half of those polled, Jean-Luc Mélenchon was the
candidate with the most dynamic campaign. A "breakthrough",
for the news service Agence France presse.

From a commentator in the newspaper Le Monde, we find this
analogy with a race horse: "He prefers to keep up a fast
pace, which permits him to stretch out his legs, to let his
power be felt, in order to work his way up in the pack, to
reach the winners' positions, even to finish in third place
... "

And on France 5 again, this commentary: "He is a candidate
in fine shape" who shies away from no obstacle, "no matter
how high the bar." But putting polls and commentaries aside,
the candidate himself noted with humor, "Since last week
there are people who treat me with more respect and
courtesy." This said, he added quickly that this
breakthrough was first of all thanks to the thousands of men
and women who have set to work for the Front de gauche.

Because it's truly a new kind of campaign. You don't hear,
in the meetings, shouts of "Mélenchon president", but rather
"Résistance". Resistance, a word to which should be added
"reconquest" and "conquest". It remains to find the rhyme.
Reconquest, because this campaign has already given rise, in
a very visible way, to the return to the political stage by
masses of ordinary people and by the working class. The
battle 'with axe in hand" waged against Le Pen now prevents
the Front national from usurping and perverting the voice of
those classes.

But what's more, where would they be without the Front de
gauche: those questions of guaranteed minimum wage (SMIC),
of precarious living conditions, of the battle against the
forces of finance? "Every time we pull the debate to the
left," notes Pierre Laurent, national secretary of the
French Communist Party (PCF), "the campaign themes of the
right fall back".

And Jean-Luc Mélenchon on France 5, "François Hollande
discovered at Bourget that finance was his enemy, but it was
'faceless'. Now, he has found their addresses ...".

Clichés nevertheless have a long life. Last week there was
still one commentator, with a long way to catch up, who
could still evoke the "anti-European-Union" position of
Jean-Luc Mélenchon! Just who are the anti-Europeans? Those
who want a socially planned Europe, based on cooperation,
facing up to the dictatorship of the financial markets,
providing themselves with the means for true economic
growth, - or those who have knocked strikers to their knees,
who swear only by the banks, unrestrained competition
between peoples and nations, who speculate on insolvency
when they are not working to create hatred of others.

"The left in Europe is watching us," said Pierre Laurent, in
Rouen.

Sunday it will not only be the left in Europe who will be
watching what takes place at the Bastille.

=====

In a similar vein, an interview of Jean-Luc Mélenchon by a
group of student journalists at l'Humanité.
http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article1993

=====

Translator's Note:

As translator, I find it advisable to include some general
remarks, to append to this lovely article by Maurice Ulrich,
concerning the campaign of the Front de gauche in the French
presidential election. It is difficult to lay my hands on an
article that conveys enough of the general picture for a
readership in other countries where not much will have been
published about what is taking place here. So I add this
summary of events, with links to material that will surely
be of interest to those with some command of the French
language. I hope that readers of this note will profit from
the occasion to become aware of this party, its program, and
its candidate. It is rare indeed to see such a progressive
and articulate politician arrive on center stage.
Personally, I have seen such a popular movement only once
before, during the successful battle for the "Non" in the
2005 referendum over the proposed European constitution.

The 2012 French presidential election proceeds in two parts,
on 22 April and 6 May, the latter stage being a run-off
election between the two candidates with the most votes on
22 April. This year's election seemed to be heading for a
"second tour" between the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP)
and the candidate of the Socialist Party (PS), François
Hollande, the latter being ahead in the polls. But the
political climate has been enlivened by the advance of the
candidate of the Front de gauche, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who
has taken the offensive, first, against the candidate of the
extreme right-wing Front national, Marine Le Pen, daughter
of the former leader of that pro-fascist fringe. Their
recent confrontation is visible in this video. This week
Jean-Luc Mélenchon passed the symbolic bar of 10% in
expected vote, advancing steadily from a position in fifth
place, and a majority of French voters find that he has
waged the most dynamic campaign.

A dramatic résumé of the program of the Front de gauche is
to be seen and heard on the recording of the television
program Des paroles et des actes, broadcast on January 12 by
the national channel FR2.
http://www.placeaupeuple2012.fr/jean-luc-melenchon-dans-lemission-des-paroles-des-actes-sur-france-2/ 
The candidate Mélenchon is questioned for 2 hours 20 minutes
by a panel of journalists and experts, including a former
chief executive of the construction materials industry,
Saint-Gobain [1]. In brief, the party program includes: an
increase in the minimum wage, illegalization of financially-
motivated layoffs and plant closings, giving priority to the
creation of workers' cooperatives, new taxation levels and a
lid on high salaries, taxation of incomes hidden in
financial paradises, the convocation of a constituent
assembly for passage, under a new constitution, to the 6th
Republic, a referendum on the treaty for European Union, and
total opposition to the politics of "austerity" promoted by
Sarkozy-Merkel, managed by the European Commission and the
International Monetary Fund. Instead, the Front de gauche
plans the move toward a society based on solidarity and
cooperation, both within the nation and throughout Europe.

Meetings of the Front de gauche are heavily attended; 4,500
in the industrial center of Besançon, 10.000 in Villeurbanne
(Lyon), 10,000 in Montpellier, standing room only in Rouen,
8,000 in Clermont-Ferrand...

The campaign headquarters is established in a shoe factory
in the working-class suburb of Les Lilas, in a building
known as l'Usine.

The web site for the campaign and the candidate's blog carry
an enormous amount of information about the program, the
issues, the campaign. http://www.placeaupeuple2012.fr/
http://www.jean-luc-melenchon.fr/  The vidéothèque is
particularly rich, with the vast majority of his public
appearances recorded and fully available. Addresses to
rallies in major cities, interviews on radio and television,
debates with various groups.
http://www.placeaupeuple2012.fr/category/la-videotheque/

This Sunday March 18 the Front de gauche will hold a major
rally in the streets of Paris, marching from the Place de la
Nation to the Place de la Bastille, on the anniversary of
the Commune de Paris (1871), also on the official launching
of the presidential campaign, when the final candidatures
are legally determined.

[1] No English translation available at present.

==========

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