Hitler Deja Vu? French Fascists Growing Amid Bosses’ Crisis

PARIS, October 27 — Vicious racism remains the hallmark of the National Front. The party’s candidate for the municipal election in Rethel, in the Ardennes, published a picture on her Facebook page comparing justice minister Christiane Taubira, a black woman, to a monkey, calling her a “savage.”
But this disgusting racism — which has always been used by the bosses to divide the working class — has not turned off many voters from the fascist party. The National Front won a recent by-election in Brignoles, in southern France, confirming the growing strength of the fascist party under Marine Le Pen, who succeeded her father as party leader in 2011.
Le Pen presents herself as the “French Reagan” and attacks “big government.” In 2012, she won 18% of the vote, the party’s best score ever in a presidential election.
It is becoming increasingly possible that the French fascists will be voted into national government legally, as has happened in governing coalitions since 2000 in Austria, Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands.
Fascist Party Growing Fastest
Le Pen has continually repeated the slogan “the National Front, the biggest party in France.” It appears to be becoming an electoral reality. In one opinion poll on voter intentions for the May 2014 European Parliament elections, the National Front won 24 percent of the vote. The right-wing UMP won 22 percent and the Socialist Party 19 percent. The Left Front, a coalition of the Party of the Left and the French “Communist” Party, won 10 percent and the Trotskyites 2%.
The National Front is the only party whose projected share of the vote is growing significantly. Support for the governing Socialist Party is collapsing; 50 percent of factory voters say they’ll vote for the National Front.
There is a widespread racist anti-immigrant movement in France, being pushed by the National Front and supported by many leaders of other parties. It blames immigrant workers — not capitalism — for the mass unemployment.
While the National Front is attracting millions of voters (over 6 million in the 2012 presidential elections), its membership remains relatively small, claiming 65,000 in 2013. The National Front is having a hard time finding enough candidates for the municipal elections. In a time of high unemployment (5,473,000 unemployed, a 19.3% unemployment rate in September), the chance of a job as city councillor will attract opportunists who in turn will boost the party’s ranks. The resulting dynamic could make party membership shoot up.
The three right-wing parties that support French “democracy” are credited with 33% of the vote. If nothing changes between now and the 2017 presidential elections, they will need to form a coalition with the National Front in order to form a governing majority — and support for this from right-wing UMP leaders is growing.
Fascists on Campus
Fascist organizations are now attempting to penetrate campuses nationwide. In early October, the National Front leafleted the university in Le Mans. Action française universitaire, a fascist youth group, pastes up posters at the University of Bordeaux.
 Action française universitaire proclaims on the front page of its newspaper that “the leftists now know that it’s a life-and-death fight if we catch them.” On June 5, Clément Méric, a member of Action antifasciste, was beaten to death in a clash with fascist youth in Paris. In one week in October, two Paris members of UNEF (a student union aligned with the Socialist Party”) were assaulted and threatened with rape by a fascist. In World War II, France succumbed to Hitler in six weeks, especially due to support for Nazi racist policies.
While there have been many militant actions and strikes by workers in France, including anti-fascist demonstrations, the absence of a real communist party pointing the way to smashing the fascists is evident. In World War II, communists led the Resistance movement against the Nazis. But since then the betrayal of the old communist movement, which collaborated with capitalists, has been devastating for workers here.
Only a revolutionary communist party can lead workers away from fascism. Until that happens, workers will continue to suffer the evils of capitalism. Fascism is the tool that the bosses turn to when they can’t solve their capitalist crisis. This underscores the need for a communist solution.