Why Voting for Le Pen makes Sense for the Left

Jean Luc Mélanchon, the primus inter pares of the French Left, has urged his followers not to vote for Marine Le Pen; but he pointedly failed to endorse Emmanuel Macron. This strikes me as a self-indulgent stance. As best I can assess the electoral breakdown, an abstention (on the left) is tantamount to a vote for Macron. The left should not engage in electoral pieties; it should ask itself squarely whether, from its point of view, a vote for Le Pen or for Macron is the better net bottom line. In my view, a vote for Le Pen is the better of a bad choice.

While Marine Le Pen may stand for some points of view which are unacceptable to the Left her election, if nothing else, will usher in a period of political flexibility; and that, in itself, is a good thing because it is departure from the status quo and offers opportunities to bend things one way or another.

A re-elected Marcon will serve only to further entrench the trans-national rule of banks and corporations, further encasing in concrete the Economy of Moloch, which sacrifices all other social good on the altar of the Four Trades.

A little bit of hisotrical perspective is called for. An article in Le Monde Diplomatique entitled Une Capitalisme Hors de Control -Les Chantiers de la Démolition Sociale, Serge Halimi noted that, at a meeting of the OCDE, it was recomended "repenser toute la gamme de politiques economiques et sociales pour favoriser l'adaption aux modes de production de d'echange qui se font jour." [to rethink the whole range of economic and social policies in order to promote an adaptation to emerging modes of production and exchange.] OCDE called for "le démantelement du salair minimum, une flexibilité généralisé du travial et la mise a l'encan du secteur publique.... Pour obtenir un ajustement donné des salaires, il faudra un ninveau pluse élevé de chomage conjoncturel..." etc. etc. [the dismantling of the minimum wage, general labor flexibility and the auctioning off of the public sector.... To obtain a given wage adjustment, a higher level of cyclical unemployment will be needed..." etc., etc.].

The article was published in July 1994.

What the article proves is that the Capitalisme Hors de Control is very much in control and that it will relentlessly pursue its so-called Four Freedoms to the very bitter end and to the complete destruction of any humane concept of society. Don't be misled by the attractive "multi-cultural" ipod-hip façade. The Shadows behind the Global Economy don't give a rat's ass about any of that. All that goodfeel is simply what U.S. Marines called pogey bait. ... candy for children and whores.

Macron is simply the latest puppet to work for a program long since conceived and which has never diverged an inch. The only difference between 1994 and 2022 is that the "government interfaces" (sub nom “member nation states”) have become far more adept and Orwellian at manipulating public opinion and censoring contrary views in the name of Factual-Truth and “Liberal Democratic Values.”

As Halimi wrote "Un reve comme celui-la, ça se prépare. C'est purtant cette stratégie défaitiste que les gouvernments occidentau apellent a poursuivre ... [et] que chacun doit répéter sous peine d'etre taxé de 'demagogie' our de 'populisme'." [A dream like this requires preparation. It is this defeatist strategy that Western governments call for to pursue ... [and] that everyone must repeat or else be accused of 'demagogy' or 'populism'."]

Halimi deserved the prophet award for 1994

This god-forsaken system, pushed primarily by the United States, has led us to the brink of catastrophe. Make no mistake, The Shadows are quite willing to destroy the working class, in order to destroy Russia, in order to entrench their savage free trade regime in an even more repressive and inescapable way.

I acknowledge that Le Pen's programme is unacceptably weak on environmental issues. She also speaks insufficiently about economic injustice in Africa which is the root cause of emigration from that continent. Nevertheless, a vote for Macron is the worst thing anyone on the Left could wish for. Far better a vote for someone who will reverse or simply confuse course, because any course is better than the one we are on.