Originally posted Nov. 21 on Liberation News YouTube channel.
In the wake of the massacres in Paris and Beirut, the racist media coverage combined with the new war drive is already reverberating powerfully throughout France. French President François Hollande has declared three months of emergency (martial) law and has empowered the police to raid houses without warrants. He intends to eviscerate existing protections from state surveillance. French police conducted 168 raids in the first two days after the attacks, while refugees and immigrants, especially Arabs and Muslims, have been viciously attacked by racist groups. Many progressive and workers’ organizations are standing up to onslaught, but Hollande is marshaling the full power of the state in the wake of the massacre.
The development of the last week are in sharp contrast to the leftward political shift in Europe as reflected in the recent victories of left-wing parties and politicians, including Jeremy Corbyn’s rise to leadership in the Labor Party (UK) and the victories of the Socialist Parties of Portugal and Spain. This followed a long period of political reaction that began in the late 1970s and greatly accelerated under Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the United States is drawing to a close.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation Community Forum featured a presentation by Marcel Cartier, a television and radio journalist who worked in Europe from 2011-2015 and is now a member of the PSL in D.C., who discussed the significance of all of these developments and what they mean for the future of the EU, world capitalism and imperialism.
