T.O. 87: DSA Discussion – LCIP Conference – Bank Turmoil – Afghan Women – US-NATO War – France Strikes

THE ORGANIZER Newsletter

Issue No. 87 – March 20, 2023

http://www.socialistorganizer.org

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(Thousands take to the streets in Washington, DC on March 18 to stop the war)

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Why DSA Ranks Should Participate in the May 13 National LCIP Conference for an Independent Working-Class Political Party – Editorial

• May 13 LCIP National Conference Agenda – Pre-Register Today!

• Why Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank Went Bankrupt?

• March 8: International Women’s Day in Afghanistan (Part 1)

• AFGHANISTAN (Part 2): “Women Want Freedom, Jobs and Education”: Interview with Hasina Sadet

• RUSSIA: “In the Army, Religious Icons Replace Shells and Boots

• U.S.-NATO WAR: The Art of Doublespeak

• FRANCE: Who Is Leading the Country to Chaos? Macron and the Fifth Republic!

They and Their Pension Reform and Anti-Worker Policies Must Go!

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Why DSA Ranks Should Participate in the May 13 National LCIP Conference for an Independent Working-Class Political Party

Editorial

Last January, six caucuses in Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) held a joint online forum to address the growing crisis in DSA. The representatives of the caucuses were asked to comment on DSA’s electoral strategy, with a focus on the strategy of the “dirty break” [1] with the Democratic Party.

Participating caucuses were Tempest Collective, Bread and Roses, Reform and Revolution, DC Emerge (NY), Red Star (SF), and Marxist Unity Group.

We have transcribed the forum, which was open to the public, and excerpted key passages which, in our view, shed light on the main points made by the presenters. We include our assessment of the arguments put forth.

On Working-Class Self-Emancipation

All representatives from their caucuses, or presenters, appeared to concur with the forum convener when he stated:

“We all know that political independence from the ruling class and the formation of the working class as a class for itself through a political party would be necessary in achieving a fundamental socialist transformation of society.

“This question is: What is the best strategy to build towards working class political independence? Does this mean that we work towards building a new political party? How do we build class independence while avoiding the twin pitfalls of marginalization and cooptation?”

All caucus representatives seemed to agree, as well, with the view that “working-class self-emancipation is going to come from the working class, not from any other social force.”

Another presenter chimed in on a similar note:

“Our primary goal is to facilitate the self-activation of the working class … We are helping workers organize for power on their own behalf and developing a layer of Marxist leadership who can pull workers into motion along the lines of class struggle.”

Another presenter followed suit:

“There’s a lack of a mass working-class political party, and that means it’s much harder for the working class to act as a cohesive, coherent, independent social force.”

Yet another presenter noted:

“[I]f we want to have a fighting labor movement, a militant labor movement, it can’t just happen from people doing things on the ground. It has to be tied to independent working-class politics and an independent working-class political expression.”

And yet another presenter stressed the same point:

“The new union organizing, but also the successes of the reform efforts in the UAW and Teamsters, reflect an awakening of a new generation that’s searching for an alternative to capitalism. This marks a step in the process of the working class finding its way towards the necessary political party and leadership that is required to take on the billionaire class, which is running the planet into the ground, into disaster. And fundamentally, not just the billionaire class, but the system of capitalism.”

All these statements point to a common goal: working-class political independence from the capitalist class and the formation of the working class as a class for itself.

A Partial Assessment of the Roots of DSA’s Crisis …

Marxism, however, is the fusion of theory and practice, or Praxis. Ideas can sound great on paper or in speeches, but if and how they are implemented in the class struggle is another matter. It is precisely over the implementation of DSA’s strategy in the electoral arena that turmoil has surfaced among the DSA membership.

“In the view of our caucus,” stated one of the presenters, “DSA entered a period of stagnation, internal disputes and crises when Biden became president and when the Democrats won the 2020 elections.

“Instead of building towards an independent working class, mass force, DSA is too often trailing liberals, both in political ideology and in organization. DSA’S political leadership focuses on building a reformist force that does not challenge capitalism beyond socialist rhetoric.

“DSA members want to fight back, want political independence from the Democratic Party, and they want a rupture with capitalism,” stated one of the presenters. “A growing number of members within DSA are looking for an alternative to the opportunism that is dominating over DSA in its leadership in relation to its elected officials. They are looking for an alternative to this increasingly failed approach.”

A similar critique can be found in other statements:

“[We must] put anti-imperialism on the political agenda and build public opposition to U.S. Imperialism’s global strategy, including its proxy war in Ukraine, over which DSA members in Congress have shamefully capitulated to the military-industrial complex.”

Similarly:

“[W]orking-class leadership is seriously lacking, including in DSA. Four DSA members in Congress have supported the policy of Biden and U.S. imperialism in this proxy war in Ukraine, which is disgraceful.”

And still along these same lines:

“DSA has suffered since the Democrats came to power in 2021. DSA signaled that it would not be part of the Biden Coalition when it didn’t endorse him in 2020. But many of our elected members in Congress have basically openly announced that they’ve entered into an alliance with Biden and the Democratic Party leadership.

“DSA members of Congress have voted for, at this point, $23 billion in arms – all for U.S. imperialist policy, for the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine. This is a capitulation to militarism, to imperialism.

“Compulsory votes against military spending used to be basic principles of the socialist movement, but now we see DSA being dragged into support for the U.S. global strategy in spite of the organization’s formal positions.”

These various statements by DSA caucus spokespersons all point to one conclusion, in our view: Working people and all the oppressed need their own political party – an independent working-class party, a Labor Party rooted in the unions and the communities of the oppressed. That is the way you build class independence.

An Insufficient Balance Sheet of the Crisis in DSA

DSA caucus members who participated in this forum will not be able to draw a correct balance sheet of the crisis in DSA unless they understand that breaking with the Democratic Party means that you must stop supporting Democrats at all levels of political office, and that you must stop running your own candidates within the Democratic Party. 

This is not a tactical question. It is a principled question for any and all who claim to be socialists and are fighting for the independence of the working class and its organizations.

What one caucus presenter noted below is no doubt true for all the dissident caucuses in DSA:

“There isn’t a shared strategy within our caucus regarding electoral strategy or tactics, regarding the ‘dirty break,’ which is the subject of today’s discussion. Some people kind of fall on the clean break aspect and some people fall more toward some aspect of the dirty break. These are tactical differences.”

Again, the differences are not tactical. From the moment DSA supported Bernie Sanders for president within the confines of the Democratic Party primary in 2020, it forfeited its claim to champion independent, working-class politics. All caucuses in DSA were firmly behind Bernie for President.

There are basic principles in the struggle for independent working-class politics and the struggle for socialism: True socialists don’t cross the class line and vote for funding for imperialist wars. Socialists don’t cross the class line by supporting or running candidates in one of the bosses’ parties.

You cannot have an independent working-class party if you don’t have a clean break. All you do is create disillusionment among your ranks and supporters. 

LCIP Offers a Way Forward: Principled Politics Without Marginalization and Cooptation

The convener of the forum asked a question in his introduction that has been raised repeatedly by socialists over the past 100-plus years. He asked

“How do we build class independence while avoiding the twin pitfalls of marginalization and cooptation?”

Regarding the issue of marginalization, this can be avoided even within a winner-takes-all electoral system that all but prevents third parties from sinking roots.

Labor and Community for an Independent Party (LCIP) offers a way forward on this question. It calls for building broad-based labor-community coalitions at the local level that bring together trade unionists and community activists to fight police violence and for living wages – and to fund housing, healthcare, education, and social services. 

These local coalitions, in turn would run candidates on a local level who are supported by, and accountable to, the labor-community coalitions, which are the building blocks of the new party in formation.

LCIP also calls on the labor movement – with its 13-million members – to break with the Democrats and become a key player building a working-class party. Creating a labor party advocacy current in the trade unions would, in turn, bolster the labor-community coalitions and create a groundswell of support that could then move on to the state level … and upward.

DSAers could help build these labor-community coalitions from the bottom-up. And they could help build support for Black organizations such as Ujima Peoples Progress Party (UPP), which is working steadfastly to build a Black-led independent working-class party in the state of Maryland. The fight for the labor party, in our view, must at all times be linked to the fight for an independent Black working-class party.

Concerning the issue of cooptation, this is the almost inevitable outcome when socialists or “progressives” choose to run for office in the Democratic Party. Cooptation is not just a concern with regard to third parties, it is part and parcel of functioning within the “big tent” of the Democratic Party. 

As DSAers so aptly recognize, the Democratic Party is inherently the party of the capitalist ruling class which must at all costs preserve its privileges and control of society. There can be no illusions that there is even a modicum of space when issues of any import arise for the Democrats.

Such is the example of the full-court press made by the Democratic Party leadership to stamp out the challenge in the 28th Congressional District of South Texas by the liberal Democrat immigrant rights / pro-choice / pro-healthcare attorney Jessica Cisneros against the Democratic Party deputy whip U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar – even though Cuellar ran on his record against immigrant rights and has voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act and the PRO Act.

And need we recall the dirty tricks played by the DNC to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the Democratic Party’s nomination in 2020.

To conclude: DSAers could be instrumental in developing an independent working-class party given their strong ties to the reform movements in the unions and to the new organizing drives by the predominantly youth organizers. They could help advance the discussion within the house of labor about the need for the labor movement to break with the Democrats.

There is no time to lose taking steps in this direction. Participation by DSAers in the May 13 LCIP National Conference would be one such step forward.

Contact Us!

To get a better understanding of LCIP and its goals, we refer our readers to the article in this issue on the LCIP National Conference that will take place at Compton College (in the Los Angeles area) on Saturday, May 13. Please visit their website (www.lcipcommittee.org) and pre-register for the conference at organize@lcipcommittee.org.

To help promote the fight for independent working-class politics within the overall struggle for socialism – both at home and abroad – we also invite our readers to contact Socialist Organizer at socialistorganizer.org.

Endnotes

[1 The term “dirty break” was made popular by DSA members. It’s a pipedream. It calls for the DSA to build support inside the Democratic Party for a militant platform with the aim of obtaining such a critical mass that the DNC leadership will be forced to expel them. Once expelled, and strengthened numerically, the DSAers and former Democrats would then have a base strong enough to launch an independent working-class party. 

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May 13 LCIP National Conference Agenda – Pre-Register Today!

Labor and Community for an Independent Party (LCIP) is holding a national conference on Saturday, May 13, 2023 in-person and with online (Zoom) attendance options. Join us for the day, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific Time, at Compton College in the City of Compton (Los Angeles area in Southern California) or via livestream.

For Saturday, Saturday, May 13, 2023, we have confirmed an amazing group of panelists/speakers. The conversation and networking will be off-the-chain. You don’t want to miss this!

PLEASE PRE-REGISTER TODAY at organize@lcipcommittee.org

Following is the conference agenda. Titles are listed for id. Only.

OPENING SESSION

• Facilitator: Coral Wheeler

• Connie White, LA LCIP

• Jim Lafferty, Executive Director emeritus, Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild

• Jonathan Martin, Progressive Party Builders

1st PANEL

“The Importance of Building Independent Black Political Power within the U.S. Working-Class Labor Party Movement”

• Facilitator: Lisa Knox, immigration attorney, Bay Area LCIP

• Nnambi Lumumba, Co-convenor, Ujima Peoples Progress Party

• Khalid Raheem, Chair, New Afrikan Independence Party

• Shafeah M’Balia, Black Workers For Justice

2nd PANEL

“The U.S. Labor Movement and the Fight for Independent Working-Class Politics”

• Facilitator: Millie Phillips

• David Van Deusen, President, Vermont AFL-CIO

• Desiree Rojas, Chair, Sacramento chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA)

• Diamonte Brown, President, Baltimore Teachers Union

• Ron Kaminkow, General Secretary, Railway Workers United

3rd PANEL

Immigrant rights and the Fight for Papers For All

• Facilitator: Desiree Rojas, Chair, Sacramento LCLAA

• Lisa Knox, Immigration attorney, Bay Area LCIP

• Luis Angel Reyes Zavalza, immigration attorney, San Francisco

• Esperanza Cuautle, Papeles Para Todos (Papers for All)

• Guillermo, Hunger striker at Mesa Verde ICE Detention Center

CLOSING SESSION / PLENARY: Next Steps

• Facilitator: Connie White, LA LCIP

• Alan Benjamin, Past Executive Board member, San Francisco Labor Council 

• Nnamdi Lumumba, Co-Convenor, Ujima Peoples Progress Party

• Lisa Knox, immigration attorney, Bay Area LCIP

CLOSING WORDS by Connie White

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Why Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank Went Bankrupt?

Silicon Valley Bank, which specializes in financing new start-ups, and then the Signature Bank, which specializes in the speculative sector of the crypto-currencies, went bankrupt. Rumors that they could no longer cash out their customers’ deposits led customers to try to withdraw their funds … which the banks were no longer able to do.

Why the panic in the “financial markets”?

This is the biggest bank failure since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which caused the crisis of 2008. Moreover, hundreds of banks may collapse for the same reasons. According to the Financial Times (March 14), the banking system “is more fragile than we think.” Why? Because “the market value of the assets of the U.S. banking system is $2 trillion lower than the book value of its assets suggests.”

What does this gibberish mean? It means that in the broken capitalist system, the astronomical sums of money owned by finance capital are largely fictitious capital, which does not correspond to any produced goods, but to pure speculation. It can collapse at any moment.

How did the Biden administration react?

Panicked by the fear of contagion, Joe Biden decided to “take the necessary measures.” He promised huge sums to guarantee investors’ deposits. As usual, when it comes to saving the fortunes of capitalists, money is always found.

Does this concern the working class?

Yes, directly, because whether it is the losses incurred by the capitalists or the billions that Biden will draw from them to compensate for these losses, it is the workers who will pay. They will pay by the capitalists’ looting of the budgets of public services and by worsening their conditions of exploitation. This is the logic of the capitalist system based on private ownership of the means of production.

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(March 8 in Ghazni Province, 650 women organize the public reading of books in defiance of the authorities.)

March 8: International Women’s Day in Afghanistan (Part 1)

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, protests against Taliban policies multiplied. Publicly or clandestinely, women demanded the release of detained protesters and the reopening of schools, universities, and workplaces from which the Taliban regime (reinstated in August 2021 by the U.S. administration) has expelled them.

The Spontaneous Afghan Women’s Movement held clandestine meetings. Participants denounced the hypocrisy of the “international community” for abandoning Afghan women.

Women and girls in the Malestan district, Ghazni province, organized a public book reading in protest against the closure of all schools. More than 650 people participated [see photo], 90% of whom were women and girls.

In Kabul, women took to the streets against the misogynistic policies of the Taliban, chanting “Bread, Jobs, Freedom” and “Women, Education, Freedom!” They condemned the weekly aid of $40 million granted by the “international community” to prop up the Taliban regime.

In Balkh province, male students of languages and literature at the university boycotted classes to protest against the banishment of their female classmates. They handed an open letter to the president of the university.

In Kabul, dozens of female students gathered on March 6, the first day of the academic year, in front of the closed doors of the university. They called on students and faculty to join their protest and boycott the university. The Taliban dispersed the girls by beating them and threatening them with weapons.

—   From our correspondents

Join the International Committee to Defend Afghan Women: defendafghanwomen.org

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(POID rally in Paris on March 11; Hasina Sadet was one of the speakers)

AFGHANISTAN (Part 2)

“Women Want Freedom, Jobs and Education”: Interview with Hasina Sadet

[Note: Hasina Sadet, an activist of the Left Radical of Afghanistan (LRA), spoke at the meeting of the POID’s Working Women’s Committee on March 11 in Paris [see article below]. She spoke about the situation of Afghan women since the U.S. administration organized the return to power of the fundamentalist Taliban religious militia in August 2021. The following interview was published in issue no. 382 of Workers Tribune (France).]

Question : Tell us about the situation of women in Afghanistan.

Afghan women are living as if they were in jail. They have no basic rights. They are living in darkness. They are fully controlled by the government. For the most part, they are living below the poverty line. They have no jobs. Most families have no men who can go to work. Women are now banned from the workplaces, which means that they have no means to bring food home.

One of the Taliban officials stated on TV that women are only good for work at home and to take care of the children. We must remember that under the 20-year U.S-NATO military occupation of Afghanistan (2001 to 2021), the puppet government didn’t do anything to improve the condition of Afghan women. The few women ministers in the government were mere figureheads.

Question: Can you give more examples of the violence against women?

One of the major problems is forced marriages. In some provinces, the Taliban go house to house gathering information about young women, divorced women, or widows. After that, they marry them by force to Taliban members.

The hijab is obligatory. Even their children can’t go out without the hijab. Women are not allowed to go outside without a maharam [adult male family member]. If they do so, the driver and the family members can be punished. Since the Taliban returned, divorce is not legal, so divorced women are now in danger. Divorce papers are no longer accepted by the Taliban.

Women are excluded from schools and universities – in fact, from all education. They are banned from working in the public or private sectors or in NGOs. They are banned from sports or even walking in public spaces.

In most cases, women are not allowed to go to medical clinics. The Taliban have banned pharmacies from selling condoms or other forms of contraception.

Last week, three members of the Taliban in the province of Zabul entered a home in which a mother was living with her two daughters. They raped the two girls in front of the mother. All the world is silent about this violence. It’s not just one case; this is repeated every day in Afghanistan.

Question : What kinds of repression are women facing in Afghanistan?

Women are living in fear. But they are still going out into the streets to protest. The Taliban regime orders their arrests, and they are sent to jail. The media, under pressure from the regime, do not cover these protests. The Taliban regime also arrests, jails, and beats up their husbands, fathers, and brothers, to get them to put pressure on their wives and daughters so that they don’t go out to raise their voices.

We don’t have news from our comrades who engaged in this struggle. They are living in a very difficult situation.

Question: What are the demands of women in Afghanistan?

Right now, the Afghan women want three things: freedom, work, and education. In some parts of Afghanistan, schools and universities reopened on March 6, many young women were stopped from entering the schools. They sat on the streets and opened their books and started crying out of deep anger; it was like hell for them. Taliban militia came and dispersed the women. The Taliban are afraid of women gathering.

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RUSSIA

“In the Army, Religious Icons Replace Shells and Boots

Parents of mobilized soldiers from the Moscow region addressed Putin and Shugu (Minister of Defense) on March 11 in a collective video titled, “Our mobilized husbands, brothers, sons are being sent into battle as cannon fodder.”

In the Kursk region, families of mobilized soldiers did the same, as men are sent to the front lines without equipment and sometimes without ammunition: “We ask Putin and the Ministry of Defense to look into this situation and help our husbands to return to where they should be,” that is, out of the combat zones.

Unable to provide its own soldiers with weapons, ammunition, food and housing, Putin’s regime instead distributes religious icons to the young and old who are sent to their deaths. A soldier’s wife testifies: “It’s a real nightmare! My husband was mobilized two weeks ago. The ammunition has still not been distributed. This is the only thing that could save his life, not icons and prayers.”

An activist comments:

“As in the First World War, in the Russian army icons replaced shells and boots. But no priest or prayer helped the monarchy to win the war it had started. Nor did they save the millions of men sent to the slaughterhouse. Nothing protects against bullets better than to put an end to war. For that, the solution lies in the hands of those who are being forced to the battlefront today.”

• From our correspondents

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U.S.-NATO War: The Art of Doublespeak

On February 17 in Madrid, Ione Belara, secretary general of Podemos, presided over a “peace conference” with the Spanish Communist Party (PCE), La France Insoumise (France Unbowed, or LFI), Syriza (Greece), and Die Linke (Germany), among others.

The final appeal adopted by the gathering, signed by Ione Belara and numerous personalities – including including LFI Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Manon Aubry and Manuel Bompard – calls for “an immediate ceasefire” and supports “negotiations for a total and lasting peace.”

The statement adds:

“We urge governments and the media to put aside all bellicose language and to promote and strengthen dialogue on this basis. Escalation will only lead to more bloodshed.”

Ione Belara is also one of the two Podemos ministers in the government of the “socialist” Pedro Sanchez, which includes two PCE ministers. This is a government that “last October announced its decision to increase military spending by more than 2 billion euros in 2023,” or more than 25% more than in 2023 (The Objective, March 13).

As in all NATO countries, this increase does not include the Sanchez government’s arms shipments to Ukraine, including the famous German Leopard tanks. And, like Macron in France, Sanchez intends to make the workers pay for all this: On March 10, he signed an agreement with Podemos and the PCE to impose a new pension counter-reform.

As for the LFI MEPs, in one year they have voted no less than five resolutions in the European Parliament (March 1, April 7, and October 2022, and February 2 and 16 2023) in support of NATO and the war, the last of which “calls once again on the Member States to increase significantly their military support and to accelerate it.”

This is the consummate art of doublespeak. Sundays and holidays for the “ceasefire” and the rest of the week supporting the war in the European Parliament and in the war-mongering governments.

—   Dominique Ferré

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FRANCE

Who Is Leading the Country to Chaos? Macron and the Fifth Republic! They and Their Pension Reform and Anti-Worker Policies Must Go!

Rejected by the vast majority of the people, Macron is holding on to power. He is holding on because a handful of capitalists and speculators need him to destroy our pensions, block our wages, and drive up prices.

Macron is holding on because Biden and NATO need him to extend the war ever further (413 billion euros for the next military financing law). He holds on because the military hierarchy needs him to enroll young people in the compulsory universal national service (SNU). He is holding on because the Fifth Republic is the regime of the permanent coup d’état which allows laws to be passed without a vote of any legislative assembly. And when all this is not enough, Macron unleashes the most brutal repression against the demonstrators who protest against his power grab.

Should we break with Macron or not?

It must also be said that Macron is able to hold on is because those who oppose his policies refuse to break with the Fifth Republic. After macron resorted to Article 49.3 [1] to impose his pension plan, we heard the spokespersons of the NUPES [2] coalition declare that “Macron and Borne are illegitimate” (Ruffin, LFI deputy) or that “the Fifth Republic is in agony” (Éliane Assassi, PCF senator) or that it is necessary to move to “a Sixth Republic” through the election of “a Constituent Assembly” (Jean-Luc Mélenchon). All this is correct.

But then, why don’t the leaders of the NUPES call for a mass mobilization to demand that Macron step down ­ to demand an end to the Fifth Republic now, for the election now of a sovereign Constituent Assembly? Should we accept the reform under the pretext of its “adoption” by Article 49.3?

Millions of people have gone on strike and demonstrated in the streets. Since the coup de force of the 49.3, the Intersyndicale [inter-union federation coordinating committee] has called for a new day of strikes and demonstrations on March 23. Without waiting, spontaneous demonstrations are springing up in every city in the country. In some sectors, the strikes are renewed. In many workplaces, the workers are meeting and taking positions, with their trade union organizations, for “the tous ensemble [everyone on strike in unity], for the general strike until the withdrawal called by the national intersyndicale.” Often, they accompany this position by the setting up of committees of workers’ representatives to prepare the strike at all levels. It is a certainty: The general strike until the withdrawal of the pension “reform” is the way to force the government to back down.

For the workers’ government

The Independent Democratic Workers’ Party fights to put an end to Macron and the Fifth Republic, for the establishment of an authentic workers’ government and democracy.

On March 26, the Independent Democratic Workers’ Party will pay homage to the Paris Commune, at the Wall of the Federated where the last Communards fell. The first workers’ government in history, the Paris Commune, in less than 100 days, laid the foundations of an authentic social and political democracy based on equal rights.

We fight for a workers’ government that will have the audacity to confiscate the hundreds of billions in speculation, the hundreds of billions of the war budget, to allocate them to urgent needs: to hospitals, to schools, to public services, to the general increase of salaries and to the guarantee of pensions for all in the conditions in which they were acquired.

We fight for a workers’ government that will not be afraid to attack the rich in order to allow the poor to escape from the misery into which the government is plunging them ever deeper. We fight for an authentic workers’ government that will be able to establish relations of peace and international solidarity between the workers and peoples of the whole world, breaking with NATO and the European Union, the war machines of the capitalist class.

– To pay homage to the workers’ government of the Paris Commune of 1871;

– To affirm the necessity of workers’ government now, in France and internationally; Let’s meet on March 26 (Meeting at 2:30 p.m., main entrance of the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris – Père-Lachaise metro)

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[1] Translator’s Note: Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, adopted under De Gaulle in 1958, enshrines an “imperial” presidency, also called a “permanent coup d’etat”; that is, it allows the president to rule by decree, bypassing both the National Assembly and the Senate.

[2] Translator’s note: The New Popular, Ecological and Social Union (NUPES) was the electoral coalition for the June 2022 legislative elections headed by Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of France Unbowed. The coalition included France Unbowed, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV).