Left regroupment fails "acid test"
The second Convention for a Progressive Alternative (CAP) failed to recognise the importance of the massive social movement sweeping France.
Christian Piquet reports. ONE YEAR AFTER ITS FOUNDATION, THE Convention pour une alternative progressiste (CAP) met in Lyon on 9-10 December for its second national hearings. CAP was a unique kind of organisation, made up of organisations (Citizen's Alternative (Alternative citoyenne), ADS, the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), the dissident Communist current Refondations, Futurs), local groups of activists, personalities, and individual, "non-organised" militants. They came together in the local and regional assemblies of CAP to explore and develop the Progressive Alternative. This meeting in Lyon, then, was the occasion to draw a balance sheet of our common activity, set some new perspectives, and to approve a common manifesto.
At the start of the meeting, the LCR and others argued that we should not limit ourselves to one session, because so many CAP militants were absorbed elsewhere, because of their role in the social movement. This proposition was rejected. Which created the risk that the hearings would prove to be a false representation of the reality of the regroupment project on the French left. And that we would be out of step with the political situation in the country.
Our fears were quickly confirmed. The assembly approved a declaration of general support to the social movement, but it was only after much debate, and a card vote, that we could include the demand "for a rapid reduction in the working week to 32 hours, without loss of purchasing-power"
My feeling of dislocation from the actual political situation was deepened by the incessant debate on "Europe" and "Maastricht". All the assembly could do was condemn "the forced march" towards the single currency. But this is surely the time to denounce the convergence criteria of the Maastricht Treaty, which forms the heart of the Europe-wide process of "liberalisation" and social regression.
The LCR argued that "the bulding of CAP is very different from region to region. The organisation is still only embryonic in a number of important départements. In this period of confusion, CAP has not been able to build significant bridges towards militant sectors of the social movement, or towards young people. The search for recomposition on the left continues to manifest itself in a range of different organisational frameworks... For all these reasons, CAP should not at this time transfer itself into a new political formation, into which the various components would dissolve temselves. Going too fast, proclaiming a new political movement, abandoning the consensus-based decision-makıng process, none of this would change any of the above-mentioned problems. Such a move would be largely artificial. As a result, it would carry within itself the risk of splits, and the wasting of those advances we have already made." THIS ADVICE WAS NOT HEEDED. A FEW minutes before the end of the assembly, an amendment to the motion on procedure fixed that, from now on, those organisations which do not dissolve temselves can only be considered as "associated" with CAP, rather than integral components. Such organisations, including, of course, the LCR, will no longer be represented on the CAP executive committee. With one stroke of a pen, the assembly has liquidated the pluralism which was a fundamental part of CAP.
You can understand the motivation of those who supported the amendment, even if you disagree. But nothing changes the hard fact But nothino chanood tha hard fort that the group of people who identify with the new conception of CAP is smaller than before the meeting: ADS, Charles Fitterman and his supporters, a few personalities, and a few local groups. The LCR and Citizen's Alternative would have Pretered to keep the initial
, while Futurs suspended their participation in CAP after the presidential elections, demanding clarification of CAP's direction at this meeting. CHEMINESS® UPPE
POUR NOEL RETIRE TOM CADERO, EMPOSSI
Unfortunately, it is clear that CAP no longer represents a lever for the emergence of a new political force to the left of the Communist and Socialist Parties. SO WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR CAP? The representative of Convergence écologie solidarité (formerly part of Génération écologie) effectively argued for a "reformist alliance for sustainable development and citizenship". There are plenty of temptations which could pull CAP away from its original project, and transform it into just one more of the little boats accompanying the Socialist Party towards some kind of "alternative"
The dilapidation of this unique experience of co-operation on the radical left does not disprove the absolute imperative of building a political alternative to the Socialist and Communist parties, corresponding to the needs of the social struggle. Debate and action towards such a goal can and will continue! * Reprinted from Rouge, 14 December 1995
January 1996 9
* France