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April 23 2007
In France, we have an election for president May 6 pitting a Bush clone named Sarkozy versus a so-called socialist womyn, Segolene Royal. Awful--Sarkozy opposes Turkey's entrance into the European Union just because Turkey is Muslim and refers to oppressed nationalities in France as "scum," as when they rebelled in 2005 and showed the imperialist countries their revolutionary future. Even worse, Sarkozy is pro-Bush and gets away with in it a country that a poll says 75% want to distance from U.$. foreign policy.(1)
It's enough to give a weak endorsement to Royal. The problem is the xenophobic labor aristocracy of France. It voted Le Pen into the second round in 2002 and then it trashed the European Union constitution despite the advice of all European imperialists supposedly socialist or not. Now Royal continues the same politics, detached from European imperialism and pandering to a French labor aristocracy as if French imperialism were independent and standing against both the EU and U.$. imperialism. Royal sees a "multipolar" world as does Russia and China.(2)
MIM has some limited tactical unity with the labor aristocracy of Europe, because U.$. imperialism is the principal enemy and the European labor aristocracy sometimes acts as if it were threatened by U.$. unilateralism, the irrational fear that the biggest pig at the trough won't share with the smaller ones. The European labor aristocracy often does useful work against U.$. racism and chauvinism, and helps out on the Mumia case for example.
In Italy, a U.$. soldier went on trial in absentia April 17 for killing an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq.(3) 26 CIA agents are also being pursued by Italian courts for abducting Italian citizens that the Bush administration deemed dangerous.(4) It was not a matter of the CIA abducting or assassinating an Italian imperialist, but the intelligence agent's death at a checkpoint where U.S. soldiers were expecting him has to have the Italian labor aristocracy thinking.
We appreciated Chirac's bashing the United $tates and Eastern Europe for the Iraq War. Chirac even rightfully told the East European lackeys of U.$. imperialism to "shut up."(5) Chirac was from the right-wing party of France, but he spoke for the labor aristocracy seeing independent interests apart from U.$. imperialism. Chirac managed to get the idiots in U.$. Congress to call for "freedom fries"--the stupid renaming of "French fries."
Those are the only circumstances that it is possible to work with a labor aristocracy--when it feels threatened by another imperialism that is not its own. Sarkozy has none of that:
"He urges young people to embrace Martin Luther King Jr. as a role model. He is a devotee of Hollywood movies, and his favorite author is Ernest Hemingway. He wrote a book preaching the gospel of the American work ethic to a nation that clings to a 35-hour workweek."(6)By voting down the EU the French labor aristocracy cleared the way for Sarkozy. With Merkel in Germany, if Sarkozy wins, it will fall to Italy and Spain to continue speaking for the anti-Amerikan European labor aristocracy. The plus side of a Sarkozy victory is that it will dispel any myth of there being much difference between French imperialism and U.$. imperialism. Sarkozy is winning with U.$.-style ideology.
There was a time when Chirac was the far right-wing man of France. His predecessor Mitterand was a so-called socialist, who increased investment in apartheid-era South Africa and turned out to have won prizes from Nazi occupiers in World War II. Now even Chirac's supporter say Chirac became "Mitterand by other means."(7) For MIM, that is a very good way to explain that imperialism is a system and it does not matter too much which individual rules it. Amerikans are predicting an improvement in relations with the United $tates, no matter which candidate wins. That is another reason we can only have a feeble preference for Royal.
In 1968, the French petty-bourgeoisie-to-be successfully revolted for a double digit raise and then promptly voted in the most conservative candidates. In 1968 and 1972, Richard Nixon ran on "law and order" to oppose the Black rebellions shaking U.$. cities. The same thing is happening in France with Sarkozy opposing the rebellion of oppressed nationalities in 2005. If Sarkozy wins, the French labor aristocracy will prove similar to the U.$. one, yet again. The only reason Royal will have a chance in the upcoming election is that the labor aristocracy in France can also be anti-Amerikan, unlike the labor aristocracy in the united $tates.
Notes:
1. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2007/04/19/2003357322
2. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/22/ap3639034.html
3. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17397926.htm
4. http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/19/Worldandnation/Court_to_review_indic.shtml
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/opinion/22judt.html?em&ex=1177387200&en=8d98e3f0f560957f&ei=5087%0A
6. "French Front-Runner's Style Is All-American," By MOLLY MOORE and JOHN WARD ANDERSON,
The Washington Post, April 20, 2007. http://www.nysun.com/article/52937
7. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/22/AR2007042201165.html
In addition to the fallout in Italy over the killing of an intelligence agent and the kidnapping of an Italian by the CIA, a German is also suing over CIA kidnappings called "renditions" to secret prisons.
We are learning that in response the CIA Director Hayden is politically posturing.(1) We again take this as an indication of a fracturing in U.$. foreign policy.
The renditions policy started under Clinton and Hayden pointed that out. In addition, he is differentiating himself from the Department of Defense (DoD). It seems that we are supposed to notice that Guantanamo Bay has more prisoners while CIA claims to have kidnapped fewer than 100 people. There seems to be a jealous tussle between CIA and DoD about who gets to do the juicy kidnapping work and secret wars in Third World countries. MIM would not be surprised to see the Justice Department's FBI step up to the plate for some of the action too. The imperialist media put it this way: "Rockefeller's spokeswoman, Wendy Morigi, said he has not been convinced that the CIA prisons produce better intelligence than the FBI and military systems."(2) Thus Rockefeller does not oppose secret renditions in principle. It appears that other agencies just do a better job of it.
Hayden says that his dedicated service people are making Amerikans and Europeans safer and that politicians in Europe and four senators in charge of staying informed on CIA activities are now in denial about what they previously knew. So he is deftly steering as a hawk-patriot while posing as the reasonable dove compared with the DoD people. What can we say--the differences between DoD and CIA probably are more interesting than those between the Democrats and Republicans after all.
On the whole, these are good times for the paranoia bureaucracy. Jobs keep getting added to Department of Homeland Security and DoD.
Note:
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601550.html
2. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/24/national/w103112D62.DTL&type=politics