France – La Cause du Peuple: October 24 and the Struggle Against the Party of Order

We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Cause du Peuple on October 28.

Saturday, October 24, marked Act II of the October movement, which began on October 17 in the wake of the nationwide uprising by high school students. After a day of mobilization as massive as Act I, but stifled by the State’s security apparatus, the bourgeoisie is attempting to sap the movement’s momentum by confining it to more “traditional” forms of social protest. Nothing could be further from the truth, for the crisis remains as intractable as ever.

It must be said that the regime had gone all out to prevent the second act of this mobilization at all costs. For a week, Lecornu and his Obersturmführer Laurent Nuñez did nothing but announce that the gates of Hell would be opened against the masses on the October 24. Throughout the week leading up to this Act II, we were subjected to an atmosphere of a slide toward dictatorship that speaks volumes about the state of the process of reactionary consolidation in our country, which is only accelerating.

First, the government clearly targeted the freedom of assembly and protest. On the verge of declaring a state of emergency, but lacking troops, Macron did not hesitate to bypass the bourgeois democratic framework during a crisis meeting convened ahead of October 24, as well as through the various measures announced by the Prime Minister. This crisis committee, which has become a regular feature at both the Élysée and Matignon since the COVID pandemic, set the tone for the final, agonizing months of Macron’s second term. The chief lackey of the reactionary bourgeoisie took it upon himself to hand out praise and blame among the masses, arguing that only intermediary bodies, such as unions, were legitimate in organizing a protest, while his henchmen began a barrage of repressive measures – which, as we know, are exceptions that have now become the rule.

The imposition of curfews in city centers with helicopter patrols, notably in Paris, bans on gatherings of more than five people in most city centers of major metropolitan areas and medium-sized cities, primarily in northern France, and bans on demonstrations in two entire departments – Côte-d’Or and Meurthe-et-Moselle – the map of these restrictions, some of which are still in effect in no fewer than 13 cities at the time of this writing, should alarm all defenders of democratic rights.

At the same time, the French State has reopened the judicial slaughterhouses for the rebellious proletarian youth. We saw the full effectiveness of these during the Great Uprisings of June 2023. In numerous court holding cells, we have seen young people crammed together like cattle in deplorable conditions, much to the delight of the reactionary mob, which did not fail to rejoice at seeing the proletarian youth crushed by State torture. Over the past week, disproportionate sentences have been hastily handed down to the unfortunate individuals appearing before the court. The summary hearings have been a factory churning out detention orders, regardless of the severity of the charges. As in 2023, the bourgeois justice system is attempting to make an example of them and to terrorize anyone who might consider rising up again. It was the acts of looting that were judged most severely, far more so than the confrontations with the police militia. This is hardly surprising, since, as we explained in a previous article, attacks on private property are the capital crime for the bourgeoisie, far more so than any minor injuries their lackeys might have sustained in the line of duty. “This is undoubtedly the most repressive week in the history of the Fifth Republic,” according to Romain Boulet, co-president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Adap).

The Bonapartist temptation is becoming increasingly evident within the ranks of the reactionary bourgeoisie, which has been in control of this country for nearly 10 years. The restrictive measures are accompanied by new laws that curtail civil liberties, laws that would result in economic sanctions against any other power hostile to the imperialist West. On Tuesday, the Senate significantly toughened the “rioter-pays” bill, aimed at collectively punishing those involved in the uprising. Even someone innocent of any vandalism could face punishment: “A person who participates in a gathering is presumed responsible for the damage caused,” boasts the sycophant Lecornu. “An indispensable bill” which is condemned by non-governmental human rights organizations such as Amnesty, but the regime has no time for such considerations. Worse still, an amendment dear to Macron, which was proposed a few days before October 24, has been added: the suspension of social media platforms, the facilitation of censorship, and pressure on independent media deemed to be “calling for insurrection or disturbances of public order.” A vague definition that will undoubtedly be used first and foremost against anything that is not directly subject to the State: independent journalists, activist groups, unions, and recalcitrant political organizations—all would see their freedom of expression placed under the strict control of a neurotic and paranoid regime. In the wake of October 17, 112 posts were removed by major platforms (Meta, Snapchat, TikTok) at the government’s request. According to the platforms, this content could have reached more than 2 million people. A regime founded on a military coupⁱ and a Republic born from the flames of a Revolutionⁱⁱ will now crack down on any call for systemic change.

A clear objective: to strike terror into the hearts of the masses, a true follow-up to the tactic of traumatizing the people with batons, tear gas, and rubber bullets. Whatever Nuñez may say, the day was not without “abuses.” In Clermont-Ferrand and Toulouse, two young people lost their hands. In Reims, a young man was wounded by a crowd-control grenade, the same type of weapon that had torn off a high school student’s hand in Lille, while the commander of the uniformed attack dogs looked on indifferently. In Poitiers, someone was hit in the eye, while in Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe), a young man was struck by a gendarmerie vehicle on the night of October 20-21. And that’s not even counting the numerous unprovoked charges and tear gas attacks in cities across the country, as well as the law enforcement’s clear complicity with the fascist militias that sought to assist in the beating of protesters. Over the past month, more than 10,000 people have been arrested. That is the equivalent of a year’s worth of repression against the Yellow Vests movement. This is unprecedented since the end of World War II and the end of the Algerian Revolution.

This last point is particularly important, even if it is not new. The emergence of fascists in the current struggle directly supports State repression. Presenting themselves as “defenders” of small business owners, those with the blood of the victims of the October 23 Trappes attack on their hands are nothing more than the regime’s lapdogs, regardless of what their pseudo-anti-establishment rhetoric may claim. This is merely the practical expression of a tendency among a section of the masses, primarily within the petty bourgeoisie, to align themselves with the reactionary regime. The State needs to bring these tendencies within the masses under its control, for it is the State that ultimately decides who unleashes the reactionary onslaught and with what intensity.

The bourgeoisie’s plan is clear: the situation must remain stable, so the democratic framework must be locked down to serve the restructuring process. When the head of the executive branch asserts in the aftermath of October 17 that the urgent priority is not to take to the streets, and that “It is not normal that, six months before a presidential election, our country should be in such a state of turmoil,” he is expressing the anxiety of a class on the ropes that would have preferred to quietly go about its business without the masses meddling in its plans. The response, then, is to accelerate, accelerate, without looking back and without thinking about the long term, using the chaos to radicalize the reactionary shift.

The atmosphere of self-congratulation that prevailed in the statements made by the government and its media lackeys on Monday, October 26, reveals just how deeply concerned they are: Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon clearly sets out the regime’s perspective in the face of the struggling masses: “With this foresight and the mobilization of 70,000 law enforcement officers throughout France, the State has gained the upper hand.” This is the central issue of our time: whether the masses or the bourgeois State, regardless of its form of government, will prevail. This is why the regime places such emphasis on ensuring the smooth conduct of the presidential election. We must understand that the Macron government has only about six months left before handing over power to new rulers in May 2027, but that these elections serve only as a pseudo-democratic legitimization so that the process of restructuring imperialism, the old society, and the old State, whose most visible aspect is the ongoing reactionary shift, may continue, ensuring the election of the only true party that matters to the ruling class: the Party of Order, whatever its name may be.

This Party of Order has no label of its own, and its rhetoric is that of all the major factions of the bourgeoisie’s single party. From the RN to the LR, including the PS and Place Publique, each party now places at the heart of its electoral strategy its ability to keep things in order and ensure that the masses remain as calm as possible, primarily through the most brutal and widespread repression. La France Insoumise, caught between the streets and the Party of Order, will have no other way to ensure its survival as a political apparatus than to embrace the “republican order” if it does not simply want to be dissolved by the regime. This dissolution is a very real threat. If Daladier’s Third Republic was able to dissolve the PCF in 1939, despite the power of its organizational apparatus and the depth of its mass base, Macron’s Fifth Republic will, in theory, have no trouble repeating the operation against a political movement that does not even have a quarter of the presence enjoyed by the pre-war PCF. In any case, the Party of Order, which will take power in May 2027, will build on all the preparatory work carried out by Macron’s administration and previous administrations over the past nearly 20 years.

But these plans are running up against the will of the masses, who once again mobilized en masse on October 24. The massive marches in cities where demonstrations were authorized, not to mention the numerous protests where such “gatherings” were arbitrarily banned but took place nonetheless, as evidenced by the heroic outbursts of anger in Limoges, Lyon, and many others show that the masses have not had their final say, and that they will not yield to pressure until justice has been served.

The situation will never return to the way it was before. No matter what insulting half-measures Matignon throws out for some distant future, the masses are determined not to back down, forcing the bourgeoisie to accelerate its perpetual headlong rush, which only serves to create the conditions for the revolutionary maturation of the era. The movement will run out of steam sooner or later, but since the underlying causes remain unresolved, this will add a few more minutes of pressure to the pressure cooker that France has been since 1848. A new skirmish will inevitably arise, and it will be far more powerful than the events of October 17.

Now more than ever, we have a duty to defend the democratic rights that our class has won throughout our history. We can no longer stand idly by in the face of attempts to outright suppress our most basic democratic rights. We can no longer remain passive in the face of the systematic deployment of the bourgeoisie’s political police against our class, just as we cannot do so in the face of the constant violation of our fundamental rights. This is a decisive moment: either we build the necessary alliances for this defense, or the State will crush us one by one and silence us. This struggle is essential to counter the process of reactionary consolidation.

October 24 marks a continuation of the consolidation of the two nations present in the country: the bourgeois nation, with its cops armed to the teeth, its so-called militiamen sent down to defend private property with knives in hand, and its snitch platforms serving the State; and the proletarian nation, which since the October 17 has unleashed its anger and built bridges, as have not been seen in decades, between different sectors of the struggle, against the bourgeoisie’s plans to corporatize the people. Only one of these two nations has a future – the proletarian nation – and it is determined to ensure that bourgeois “normality,” far more violent than any smashed storefront, never resumes its course.

iThe Fifth Republic was born out of the Algiers coup in May 1958, which enabled De Gaulle to become President of the Council and to draft a new Constitution that drastically strengthened presidential powers.

iiA reference to the French Revolution of August 10, 1792, which cemented the bourgeois Republic at the expense of the constitutional monarchy and paved the way for the rule of the Committee of Public Safety. We refer to this date because it marks the beginning of the true revolutionary mass movement in France and the most progressive phase ever reached by the French bourgeoisie, in contrast to July 14, 1789, which was a maneuver by the bourgeoisie seeking to negotiate with the royal authorities.