On October 7, the association ESCP stands received the deputy of France Insoumise and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Fakir, François Ruffin. He explained to the students his vision of the recovery plan, the environmental issue in the era of globalization and his feelings about the current political situation.
The recovery plan presented last September displays high ecological ambitions. Are the proposed measures sufficient to achieve these objectives? François Ruffin deplores “sprinkling” measures which treat the consequences and not the real causes of the ecological problem. It therefore seems urgent to him to resort to a managed economy as American President Roosevelt was able to do in the 1930s in the United States; that is to say, it is necessary to channel capital, energy, know-how and labor towards key sectors such as agriculture, energy and transport. For the MP, we are in climate war. More than an ecological transition, it is an ecological shock that is required.
In his eyes, the beast to be slain is free trade, whose invisible hand combined with the omnipotence of private actors is leading us to disaster. For example, he refuses to believe that the reduction in corporate taxes will lead to the massive relocation of production units, even for strategic industries since the economic question still takes precedence over the environmental emergency. The MP is thus indignant at having been one of the few to oppose the reintroduction of neonicotinoids in the Assembly.
Reverse the trend and put ecology ahead of the economy
Businesses seem to be the keystone of the success of this ecological shock. However, as François Ruffin points out, these are under the yoke of shareholders whom he considers greedy and all-powerful, thus comparing them to absolute monarchs as the socialist Jean Jaurès did before him. It calls on the one hand to reform the mode of corporate governance by integrating employees, consumers, NGOs into decision-making processes and on the other hand to strengthen the authority of the State vis-à-vis multinationals. He is scandalized indeed to see the State enforcing strict health measures without being able to stand up to large global companies.
Start this wave of change
How can we begin this wave of change? The answer is simple for the MP: we must give ourselves the means. As attached to the environmental cause as to the social cause, he recalls with emotion one of the greatest achievements of the Republic: the national security plan which allowed a large majority of retired people to escape poverty, thus bringing the poverty rate of older people below the national poverty rate. From family solidarity, even suffered, retirement has become national and social solidarity for the good of the greatest number. Such a change could also be made to finance young people’s studies; it would no longer be the family that would pay school fees, but society as a whole, as with pensions. Leaders still need to aspire to change.
The deputy admits to having a role more spiritual than decision-making, more representative than determining in decisions, nevertheless aware of his importance in the hearts of the people who support him. He thus summarizes his feelings with the thought of the Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci “pessimism of lucidity, optimism of will”: pessimistic, because he recognizes that the ambient political apathy is the main cause of inertia of the French model in terms of environmental and social, just like the omnipotence of finance over our leaders.
Globalization is ultimately at the heart of the problem for the MP, because it is a machine for dumping social, environmental, fiscal, but also democratic. Decisions supposed to be taken freely by citizens are thus imposed by the law of competition, the reinstatement of neonicotinoids is a blatant demonstration of this. A return to protectionism therefore appears essential to put an end to this tyranny of the market.
What can we expect from the political future of our country?
With pragmatism, the deputy recalls the thought of Lenin who affirmed that a “ pre-revolutionary situation breaks out when those at the top can no longer, those at the bottom want more and those in the middle topple with those at the bottom. » Far from wanting to predict a revolution, and even less to instigate one, François Ruffin deeply believes in the strength of the masses. The yellow vest movement is a real revelation and a renewal of hope. Indeed, thanks to this movement, “ the silent became talkative, the resigned began to hope, the invisible became hyper visible with yellow vests on the roundabouts. » The emancipation of populations from the dominant ideology is the first step to winning the battle of ideas, the social battle. However, such changes could only be made over the long term, over the course of several decades, ultimately with wear and tear.
However, time is not the only obstacle to the political evolution of our country. Indeed, if popular pressure is essential for change, it is not sufficient and must be combined with political representativeness. For example, it is the conjunction of the streets and the ballot boxes that allowed the Popular Front to establish the 40-hour week and paid vacations in the 1930s. There is also the problem of the great class division. The MP thus believes that the mission of the left is to bring together the working classes and the middle classes around the desire to break the uncontrollable oligarchy which only serves the interests of the market.
Article written by the Tribunes ESCP association
