All over the world, the far right comes to power through an alliance with the right and part of the business community
To win back the blue-collar vote, the left needs to make a strong case for reindustrialisation, and breaking with the great blindness of the 1990s and 2000s in favour of a factory-free economy. We need to radically transform the production model to make it environmentally sustainable. The same applies to agriculture and food. To respond to the mobilisation of farmers who are demanding to be able to make a living from their work, we need to attack the profit margins of agricultural giants instead of, as the French government has done, calling into question the environmental transition of the agricultural model.
A critical assessment of public services needs to be done. Austerity measures have considerably weakened the quality of care in public schools and hospitals. All those who can afford it are turning to the private sector. This pauperisation of public services is fuelling the “tax bowl”. The middle classes feel they are having to bleed to pay for public services from which they no longer benefit, while at the same time the richest pay no more tax.
Huh. A tribune by Sophie Binet (general secretary of the CGT, one of the biggest French trade union, and major player in the june elections as well as the protests last year) in the Guardian?
Certainly wasn’t on my bingo card today.