A-Infos (en) France, Mouette Enragée #40 - Urban guard, surveillance cameras (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

When the scattered remnants of social democracy persist in paving the 
way for reaction. ---- In France, historic social democracy has 
degenerated into a liberal-authoritarian hybrid of which Macronism is 
one of its most accomplished creations(1). This can be seen as the 
culmination of a long process of which Marx, as early as the German 
Unification Congress in 1875, had provided a detailed critique(2). 
Ironically, the expulsion a few years earlier from the ranks of the 
First International by this same Marx and his allies of 
anti-authoritarians who supported strikes and social struggles foresaw 
the misguided paths that would follow: the vote for war credits on the 
eve of the First World War, colonialism, class collaboration, reformism, 
centralism, authoritarianism...

Closer to home, in the 5th constituency of Pas-de-Calais, the 2024 
legislative elections produced a far-right party as the winner against a 
coalition of the left. As everywhere else, the instrumentalization of 
fear and incantations to exorcise "the fascist danger" were the 
essential driving forces of a campaign that ended with the victory of 
the reactionary candidate...

Mobilizing emotions, especially the worst of them all: fear, is first of 
all a way of stooping to playing the game of those one claims to be 
fighting; secondly, it paralyzes and disarms all initiative; and 
finally, it perpetuates the illusion that, after decades of relentless 
anti-worker policies, the parliamentary left still has any legitimacy to 
speak and act on behalf of the exploited.

Here we can see the full weight of the defeats accumulated over many 
years on the morale and self-confidence of workers; Therein lies the 
sole reason why a certain number of them still persist in casting a 
ballot...

A Diffuse, Intimate, and Ordinary Control

In the 1920s, Bordiga asserted that fascism would realize the program of 
social democracy(4). History does not repeat itself, and historical 
fascism is a thing of the past. At the heart of the old historical 
center of capitalism, more contemporary and sophisticated forms of 
indoctrination have since emerged, which must be considered in their 
immediate temporality and environment. And above all, in light of the 
changes in the relations of production and their induced effects on 
society as a whole.

They consist of the diffusion of a multitude of practices of 
surveillance, control, and modeling of conduct and behavior from the 
site of exploitation to the public space and the domestic sphere. A 
process of individualization specific to the civilization of capital, 
amplified by the changes of the late 1970s: deindustrialization, 
restructuring, the development of services...

From our consumption to our travels, from our communications to our 
professional practices, from our tastes to our state of health, nothing 
in our daily behavior escapes the surveillance and conditioning to which 
each of us consents and contributes with varying degrees of foresight 
and goodwill.

This mobilization to reinstate the conditions of our own alienation is 
the primary disposition of the social and political demobilization that 
characterizes the period we are living through. This is what singularly 
separates us from the era of historical fascism—an era of social 
effervescence and mass mobilization, if ever there was one—despite the 
fear of moving closer to it that some seem to harbor(5).

New actors, new markets, new mechanisms have emerged. They have 
supported and encouraged the reactionary policies of the left-wing and 
right-wing parties that have successively led the state and local 
governments, thus amending the terrain on which the groups that are 
inaccurately described as populist now thrive.

To illustrate this point, we will highlight two issues on which the 
local left-wing government has donned the garb of reaction, 
demonstrating, if need be, that it is more concerned with its own 
survival than with profoundly disrupting social relations...

Social Democratic Porosity to Reactionary Obsessions

Initially opposed to the installation of video surveillance cameras, the 
mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer has since changed his mind. Concerned, he 
claims, about the "tranquility" of his constituents and willing to offer 
them "a pleasant living environment," he did not hesitate to scatter 
more than a hundred of them throughout the city's streets, and he does 
not seem inclined to stop there... Equating the well-being of a 
population with its video surveillance is a mental laziness that is no 
longer surprising to observe these days among politicians labeled as 
left-wing. The spread of this epidemic of cameras is, moreover, 
encouraged by the state itself. The allocation of financial aid offers 
municipalities the opportunity to equip themselves at low cost and to 
demonstrate that they are acting for the peace of mind of their citizens.

For several years, the local left, concerned by the constant rise in 
electoral results of the far right, has embraced its anxieties and 
frustrations, legitimized its rhetoric, and anticipated its practices. 
It is nothing out of the ordinary: at times when history forces choices 
to be made, social democracy systematically sides with the bourgeois 
order, fighting the emancipation of workers and the colonized(6).

Undoubtedly nervous about its popularity with the exploited, the 
municipal team was keen to assure them of its goodwill. It thus 
addressed a "Hats off to the workers of Capécure" while expressing its 
"Solidarity with the workers of the former Continentale convicted" by 
the courts for their actions in defense of employment (7). In a city 
that remains a working-class city, where 40% of the poorest are under 
30, annihilating the vote of the exploited would prove fatal (8). 
However, it is likely that it will take a little more than fine words 
for the ruling socialists to defuse the danger threatening them...

Especially since declarations of solidarity are barely made before they 
vanish, contradicted in fact and practice. In Capécure, a privileged 
site of class conflict, the local authorities are, as everywhere else, 
at the beck and call of the bourgeoisie. And there is no doubt that the 
actions carried out on the ground during certain days of mobilization 
against pension cuts have worried and upset the city. Nevertheless, a 
"video surveillance network" will be duly set up "at strategic points, 
at entrances, and on roundabouts" of the industrial zone.

And as if that weren't enough, the "Terminus" project, funded largely 
with British money, will strengthen the video surveillance arsenal even 
in the neighboring coastal communities. The tragedy experienced by 
millions of women, men, and children forced into exile around the world 
is proving to be a lucrative source of income for fearmongers and 
security industry billionaires.

The "urban guard," it had to be dared...

To avoid giving the impression of bowing to the obsessive neuroses of 
the far right, the local authorities perhaps presume to get away with a 
semantic pirouette(9). Refusing to establish a municipal police force, 
the left will finance an "urban guard." For some time now, around ten 
individuals, trained in six months and sworn in, have been working in 
"150 areas of expertise," including "the identification of substandard 
housing and potential squats."(10).

The national police force is no longer sufficient, according to the 
left. It is taken up by "the migration crisis" and "unauthorized car 
gatherings." Invoking a few classic scapegoat figures such as the 
"immigrant" or the "unseemly youth" is both a convenient and petty 
cop-out. This is evidence of an unhealthy opportunism that encourages 
and reinforces obscurantist regressions and prepares the ground for even 
worse renunciations.
--------
(1) F. Hollande's seven-year term served as a springboard for a whole 
host of shameful or fully avowed reactionaries: Valls, Macron, Collomb, 
and their ilk, who have done nothing but continue the reactionary 
policies initiated by their predecessors: immigration laws, labor laws, 
police repression, etc.
(2) Critique of the Gotha Program. K. Marx. Social Editions. 2008. The 
controversy will continue, pitting Rosa Luxemburg against Eduard 
Bernstein's revisionism, then Lenin and Bolshevization, anticipating the 
ruptures that would be precipitated by the First World War and the 
Russian, German, and Hungarian revolutions...
(3) A pertinent intervention, if ever there was one, by historian 
Christian Ingrao on the subject: "I'm sorry, but maybe we're going to 
have to stop with the 'antis'; anti-fascism has never prevented anything 
from happening, and that's not at all what's going to prevent Ms. Le Pen 
from winning elections one day or another. Anti-totalitarianism has 
served no purpose (...) The whole ideology behind Western political 
thought, which insists that we use the past to learn lessons for the 
future... we have to stop!" » In: "Does Totalitarianism Remain a 
Relevant Reading of History?", available online.
(4) Amadeo Bordiga, Defeat and the Dark Years. A. Peregalli & S. 
Saggioro. 2016. Even if it needs to be recontextualized, Bordiga's 
analysis remains entirely relevant: "It is the left, and first and 
foremost, social democracy, which paves the way for fascism, lulling the 
working masses into sleep with slogans such as the 'defense of 
democratic freedoms' and the 'democratic state' which would be 'at the 
service of the entire people'."
(5) It is a fact that the comparison between the current period and 
those of the 1930s in Europe provides inspiration to many editorialists...
(6) One could draw up a non-exhaustive and quite eloquent gallery of 
portraits of social democrats: Friedrich Ebert, Gustave Noske, Marcel 
Déat, Jules Moch, François Mitterrand...
(7) Les échos du Boulonnais. December 2024.
(8) Employees and workers occupy the first place in the 2024 INSEE 
census. Sources: 
https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/2011101?geo=COM-62160#chiffre-cle-6
(9) The far right is calling for the creation of a municipal police 
force composed of around fifty members.
(10) These officers are sworn in, meaning they have taken an oath. They 
can draw up reports that can be used as evidence and give rise to 
criminal prosecution. Swearing-in, as defined in Article L. 412-18 of 
the Municipal Code, does not confer any specific powers. General or 
special powers are derived from specific texts. It is possible to 
distinguish between statutory and functional swearing-in. Indeed, some 
employment categories require prior swearing-in and approval (municipal 
police officer and rural warden) to perform their duties.

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