#1 summer 2016 A new generation rises up Reemplazar por France: The "Nuit Debout" at a crossroads archivo de Tapa Bernie Sanders and the Left DOSSIER: RIGHT TURN IN SYRIZA AND PODEMOS: THE WOMEN'S LIBERATION IN LATIN AMERICA ONLY "CHANGE" POSSIBLE? TIMES OF GLOBAL CRISIS LEFT 2 | VOICE Index Dossier 3 16 36 eDITORIAL The Soft Coup in Brazil and South Palestine: Ethnic Cleansing America’s Right Turn Interview with Ilan Pappé Eduardo Molina 4 19 38 France: The “Nuit Débout” at a crossroads Brazil: A Right-Wing Coup, the Failure of the PT and Women’s Emancipation in Times of Global Crisis Juan Chingo and Emmanuel Barot the Coming Storm Andrea D’Atri and Laura Lif Leandro Lanfredi and Tatiana Cozzarelli 7 22 41 Bernie and the Indignation of the Youth Argentina’s CEOcracy and New Tests for the Left "Equality in Law Does not Mean Equality in Life” Juan Andrés Gallardo and Celeste Murillo Matías Maiello Interview with a trans health worker from Brazil 10 26 43 Sanders, a Third Party, or a Working Class Party? Syriza and Podemos: The only “change” possible? An Independent, Anti-Capitalist Campaign in Robert Belano Josefina Martínez and Diego Lotito Mexico City Oscar Fernández 13 29 45 A Year After the Baltimore Rebellion Economy: The Long Depression and the Future of Inheritance and Situation Tracy Kwon, Juan Cruz Ferre and Julia Wallace Capitalism Interview with a New Generation of Interview with Marxist economist Michael Roberts Revolutionary Marxists in China 32 Cuba after Obama: Closer to Capitalism? Claudia Cinatti STAFF EDITORIAL BOARD Rachel Sohl, Leo Broun, Moisés Delgado. Robert Belano, Tatiana Cozzarelli, Juan Cruz Ferre, DESIGN Tracy Kwon, Julia Wallace, Ian Steinman. Gonzalo Bar, Gloria Grinberg, Martín Cozzarini, Natalia Rizzo, Rodrigo Aranibar. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Gloria Grinberg, Sara Jayne, Eduardo Molina, Valeria Cover Illustration: Natalia Rizzo Molina, Alejandra Ríos, Sean Robertson. TRANSLATORS LAYOUT Tatiana Cozzarelli, Juan Cruz Ferre, Tracy Kwon, Gonzalo Bar Ivan Matewan, Sean Robertson, Emma Vignola. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Pavi Jaisankar, Paula Bach, Mike McGuire, www.leftvoice.org Jonathan Estey, Esteban Mercatante, Helen Park, [email protected] LEFT VOICE Summer 2016 | 3 Editorial World capitalism is knee-deep in mud since 2008, with no pros- capitalist system— it is rotten to the core. pects of exiting the swamp any time soon. Despite hefty economic In these pages, we present an account from the frontlines of the stimulus and billionaire bailouts, global markets cannot escape their fight against labor precaritization in France and discuss the strate- fragile instability. The ruling class is everywhere attempting to make gy needed to win. We consider the tasks of the left amidst a gener- us pay for their crisis, through austerity, cutbacks, layoffs, repres- alized right turn in South America and a new soft coup in Brazil. sion, deportations, and imperialist wars. We attempt a balance sheet on the uprisings in Baltimore, a year Neither neoliberal nor social democratic governments have after the killing of Freddie Gray. We look at the roots behind Bernie been able to offer a way out of the crisis at hand. In both the U.S. Sanders’s meteoric rise and debate with the left organizations which and Europe, the establishment parties who governed for decades today find hope in Sanders. We examine the new reformist phenom- are being undermined by their roles in the expanding crisis, while ena of Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain and their prospects new political phenomena on the left and right have quickly gained for achieving reform. These are just a few of the questions we take ground. The extreme right has made serious inroads in Austria, Ger- up in our first printed issue of Left Voice. many, France, the U.S. and elsewhere by channeling class anger This magazine and our ongoing Left Voice website are part of the away from the ruling class and toward most precarious sectors of La Izquierda Diario international news network, launched first in the working class—refugees and immigrants. 2014 in Argentina, and now with editions in Chile, Mexico, Spain, But despite all obstacles, a new generation is rising up and resist- Germany, France, Brazil, Uruguay and Bolivia. Together, the net- ing their attacks. Massive mobilizations and occupations led by an work has over 200,000 weekly readers. Our outlets in Argentina, increasingly radicalized youth have shaken Paris and other cities Brazil, and France are the most widely read left news sites in their across France demanding an end to Hollande’s labor reforms. In respective countries. A project of the Trotskyist Fraction - Fourth Brazil, over 100 high schools have been occupied by students who International, we are supported by revolutionary socialists in 13 are fighting cutbacks and protesting dire conditions. In the U.S., a countries. new generation of Black youth has taken to the streets to fight for We invite you to join us in this project and we welcome discussion their lives and their own vision of liberation and radical change. on the ideas presented in this magazine. Opportunities for a new Left Voice aims to amplify the struggles of these and other hero- anticapitalist left in the U.S. and around the world are emerging. It ic youth and working class fighters and to tell the truth about the is our duty to seize these opportunities. History is ours. Photo: María Paula Avila/EnfoqueRojo. 4 | FRANCE General Strike or Occupy? A Movement at a Crossroads Juan Chingo & Emmanuel Barot Translation: Ivan Matewan On March 9, 2016 students and workers in France took to the streets to protest pro-busi- ness labor reforms proposed by Hollande’s government. Since then, numerous univer- sities and high schools have been on strike, uniting their forces in coordinated nation- Illustration: Dienteleche. al strikes. Protests and street demonstra- tions in March and April brought together tens of thousands of youth across the coun- try. On March 31, workers joined the youth in growing movement. Throughout April, the first is directly related to the need for youth what was one of the largest demonstrations in movement has been stuck in strategic limbo. and working-class movements to strengthen recent years, with more than 1.2 million peo- School vacation have emptied the country’s their self-organization to overcome the obsta- ple in the streets. Those who refused to clear high schools and universities. No major sec- cles to a general strike. The second is whether the streets afterwards have been occupying tor of the working class has yet entered the or not the imagination and practices associ- the Place de la République in Paris ever since struggle yet. Nevertheless, at the time of writ- ated with the occupation of public squares as and became known as Nuit Debout (Night, ing, a national day of interprofessional (multi- they currently exist in France will encourage Standing Up). Hundreds, even thousands of industry) strike action is planned for April this strike dynamic. If the goal of a victori- people can be seen at the square daily, debat- 28, which will define the next stage of the ous May ‘68 – and not of a poly-classist 1789 ing politics and the movement’s way forward. mobilization. – has significance today, it can be found in This day of massive strike action did not, Two distinct yet inseparable questions have the need to “block everything,” i.e., to para- however, mark a clear turning point in the become important in the past few weeks. The lyze production in both the private and public LEFT VOICE Summer 2016 | 5 sectors. If the occupation of public squares May 1968. François Hollande’s former electorate. They develops in this sense, the government will be After May 13, 1968 and the largest general believe that the existing order of things can be rapidly confronted with its downfall. strike ever known in Western European his- improved, but not through the state of emer- tory put the working class back in the spot- gency, pro-business labor reforms, truncheons Class Struggle in 20th Century France light, the past reared its ugly head. Like the or tear gas. Many teachers, middle managers, Whether in 1848, 1871, 1936, or 1968, Matignon Agreements, the Grenelle Agree- and middle-class professionals belong to this France has been the country in which, as ments signed by trade-union bureaucrats category and find themselves without political Marx was fond of saying, class struggle gets demonstrated once again the extent to which representation. to the bottom of things. France has a long counterrevolutionary political and union The third element is the generation of rebel- history of mass movements capable of put- leadership can undermine a revolutionary lious workers formed in the struggles of the ting the capitalist system in jeopardy. How- dynamic. first decade of the 21st Century. This tradition ever this history is peppered with the same was revived recently by workers of Air France system’s counterrevolutionary abilities, espe- If Working-Class Rebellion and Student and Goodyear. Alongside them are the unem- cially when the proper tools, perspectives and Radicalism Join Forces... ployed and ultra-precarious workers who confidence are lacking to turn mass revolt May 1968 in France inaugurated a decade- refuse to yield to the demands of capital or into revolution. Today we can draw impor- long period of upsurge in class struggle. This their own trade unions. tant lessons from the experiences of 1936 and period was characterized by numerous strikes, There is also a fourth potentially explosive 1968 in France. factory occupations and workers taking bosses element: the youth of the banlieues. They The year 1936 is associated with not only the hostage, in what would later become known as struggle daily against the neo-colonial rac- major protests that took place and the spread “boss-nappings.” There was growing working- ism that is so inherent to the French Repub- of factory occupations throughout the coun- class rebellion which made the self-organiza- lic plays a key role.