Socialist Action /July 1999
'We are learning French'
Revolutionary Marxists won seats in the European parliament for the first
time in the recent Euro elections. The bloc of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire
and Lutte Ouvrière got 5.2 percent of the French vote, representing
almost a million voters. That entitled them to five seats, three of which
went to LO and two the LCR.
The slate was headed by Alain Krivine for the LCR, and Arlette Laguiller
for LO. Arlette won 5 percent of the vote in the French presidential elections
in 1995. The 1995 vote already sent a shock through the French parliamentary
left, indicating that a sizable section of the electorate was getting fed
up with the opportunism of the traditional working-class parties.
In important working class centers, the vote for the LO-LCR bloc was
larger than the general average-approaching 10 percent in some areas of
the so-called "Red Belt," the industrial suburbs of Paris. The
vote for the revolutionary bloc came close to that of the Communist Party,
which continued to decline, and surpassed it in some important areas.
In an interview in the LCR newspaper, Rouge, Alain Krivine summed up
the results of the election campaign: "This is the first time that
we have waged a campaign on such a scale and with such a response. This
experience taught us a lot, notably how to talk to millions of people via
TV and to tens of thousands of people at rallies. The campaign's credibility
was a tool for our activists in talking to their fellow workers.
"The whole Ligue mobilized, not only to organize joint rallies with
Arlette, but also in canvassing. During these few months, many people discovered
the Ligue, and a lot of new branches were formed in the provinces. The general
impression created was that the Ligue can now be an actor in large-scale
politics."
Almost a million people voted for a revolutionary program that focused
on defense of undocumented workers, equal rights for all, and the environment,
as well as economic demands-such as a reduction in the workweek toward 30
hours with no cut in pay.
The vote the revolutionists received clearly reflects the major social
struggles that have taken place in France in recent years, in particular
the mass strikes of 1995, including the first strikes in the recent period
that have been fought for increasing the benefits of workers instead of
simply defending past gains from a general capitalist offensive.
In his interview in Rouge, Krivine stressed that the revolutionists would
use the European parliament as a forum for these and other social struggles.
With this vote, France has become the example for a political counterattack
against the capitalist offensive, just as in the past it became an example
for a social counterattack.
After 1995, for example, when German workers went on strike, they raised
the slogan, "We are learning French." After these elections, hopefully,
"learning French" will also mean voting for a revolutionary working-class
program and building revolutionary socialist parties that can consistently
fight for the interests of working people.
Clinton's new Medicare fraud
President Clinton's first foray into social policy came in 1992 with
his highly touted pledge to provide health care coverage to all Americans.
The 37 million Americans who were without it, Clinton promised, would receive
quality care to rival any nation on earth.
Eight years later, over 42 million are without health care, and Clinton
has to his credit the most massive cuts in Medicare coverage for the elderly
in U.S. history. During the same period the cost of health care has risen
5 percent annually while the cost of prescription drugs has galloped at
an 11 percent annual rate.
On June 27, the Clinton administration announced its intentions to introduce
new cuts in Medicare while at the same time, and in apparent contradiction,
spending an additional $795 billion over the next 15 years to provide partial
payments for prescription drugs to Medicare recipients. Currently no such
benefits exist.
Clinton's still vaguely defined proposal begins by charging recipients
a $24 monthly drug premium on top of the current standard monthly charge
of $45. The $24 would rise to $44 over an estimated six years, while the
standard premium is expected to rise to over $100.
The initial maximum government annual payment for prescription drugs
(at retail prices!) would begin in the year 2002 at $1000 and rise to a
maximum of $2400 over the same period.
Clinton's specialists announced that the current $100 fixed annual deductible
for medical payments would be automatically increased yearly based on increases
in the Consumer Price Index.
Initially designed to avert a Medicare collapse, Clinton's proposals
were based on securing deep cost reductions for expensive procedures from
HMOs. A few days later, however, the July 2 New York Times reported, "HMO's
will increase Medicare premiums or cut benefits for most of their six million
elderly subscribers next year because they consider the federal payments
they receive inadequate."
The Times continued, "The decisions seem to undercut a crucial part
of Mr. Clinton's Medicare proposal, which depends on competition among
HMO's to make the whole program more efficient."
Looting the taxpayer-financed Medicare system as well as Social Security
in an attempt to buttress capitalist profit rates in the private industrial
sector is the real reason for the Medicare "crisis."
Socialist Action /July 1999 |