A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #365 - Spotlight - Zucman Tax: Bourgeois Separatism Exposed (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

1,800 wealthy business owners siphon billions in public subsidies and 
practice tax evasion, while their supporters refuse any debate about 
aligning their taxes with the rest of the population. In short, 
separatism of the privileged. ---- Two events marked the same date this 
summer, July 8th: on the one hand, the Duplomb law was promoted to meet 
the profit demands of agribusiness at the expense of life and 
sustainable agriculture; on the other, a Senate report was published to 
shed light on the cost of public aid to big business - the conservative 
estimate is EUR210 billion per year in public subsidies to companies and 
their shareholders!

Two seemingly different events, but in both cases, the law of profit, 
the supreme capitalist virtue, is brought into the spotlight in the most 
blatant way. A few days later, on July 15, François Bayrou, then still 
Prime Minister, presented his budget austerity plan for 2026.

Enough is enough.
This plan demands a drastic EUR44 billion cut to public finances. The 
austerity ambitions of the French government were no secret, but the 
degree of violence against the majority of the population-those who have 
only their labor to live on-is extreme. The government's arrogance even 
extends to insult and contempt, declaring that workers don't work hard 
enough to justify eliminating two public holidays.

Appointed, dismissed, reappointed... Lecornu remains the faithful 
executor of an inflexible neoliberal policy.

RED PHOTO LIBRARY/MARTIN NODA/HANS LUCAS
Meanwhile, the petition to repeal the Duplomb law is breaking records, 
with over two million signatures in just a few days on the Senate 
website, "unprecedented." This initiative may have fueled another: calls 
to block everything on September 10.

While the Solidaires trade union and some CGT unions called for 
September 10, the inter-union call only mentioned September 18 and then 
October 2.

One of the striking developments since this summer, despite the 
limitations of the various initiatives, is that they have ultimately 
given resonance to a basic idea of justice: that the bourgeoisie should 
pay its dues! Certainly, this is not the end of capitalism, but with the 
"Zucman tax," the public debate shifted for several weeks to a 
protest-oriented angle directly targeting capitalists.

The Zucman tax or the Socialist Party moment?
Let's be frank: business leaders, their allies in power, the far right, 
and their mouthpieces hated this sequence of events. But business 
leaders weren't fooled: they reacted within the framework of the power 
dynamic inherent in the class struggle, notably with the announcement of 
their major rally (ultimately postponed due to the charade of Lecornu's 
resignation). The government, with its Macronist and Republican 
components, is beating the drums of the red menace, which threatens to 
bring down the country's economy. The far right is starting 
counter-fires, including one launched by Bolloré's fascist-leaning media 
sphere, which is circulating a reactionary petition on "rejecting 
immigration" that has "gathered" over 1 million signatures... including 
bots and unverified email addresses. The strong resonance within society 
of this notion of "taxing the rich" cannot be dismissed out of hand by 
revolutionaries.

Even if, with the Zucman tax and the supposed suspension of the pension 
reform, the Socialist Party finds an unexpected platform, bolstering its 
electoral ambitions... and its "balance of power" in the negotiations 
for a non-censorship of the new government.

It should be remembered that taxation leaves the State as the arbiter of 
its use. Under the current government or that of the far right, nothing 
will prevent, even if such a measure is implemented, the funds collected 
from being redirected to subsidies for businesses, arms dealers, or 
other capitalists.

Bourgeois democracy, a field of ruins
What does this scene tell us? It involves taxing less than 0.003% of the 
population, the wealthiest, and merely aligning them with the same tax 
level as the rest of the population.

A rising star, Gabriel Zucman is putting forward a not-so-revolutionary 
proposal: asking the ultra-rich to pay the same taxes as everyone else.

SUPERPANTON
For capitalists, that's already too much! Even suggesting the idea is a 
challenge to the ideological hegemony they impose; implementing it would 
be even worse! This clearly demonstrates that this capitalist hegemony 
can crack and reveal cracks. The bourgeoisie no longer wants to be 
burdened by representative democracy to consolidate its power.

The far right is openly endorsed by these capitalists in order to 
maintain and expand their privileges by destroying the few remaining 
checks and balances.

The current institutional deadlock could offer the far right easy access 
to power. However, the parliamentary charade orchestrated by the 
government highlights, by contrast, the centrality of the struggles. 
Even Elisabeth Borne's self-serving talk of suspending retirement at 64 
demonstrates the continued public pressure to abolish such an injustice.

Not content with paying nothing, capitalists also benefit from billions 
of euros in corporate subsidies.

JPROMANI
What response from our side?
Many envisioned September 10th as a new impetus for the Yellow Vests; 
the reality is quite different. The general assemblies preparing for the 
movement indicated a very different dynamic. Despite this, we can only 
regret that the inter-union alliance called for a different date. Yet 
the equation seems clear: calls from the inter-union alliance are 
insufficient, as are calls from outside the alliance. How can we 
establish a balance of power against the capitalists?

Hiding behind accusations of betrayal by "union bureaucracies" to feign 
radicalism offers no answer, only self-satisfaction. What mobilizing 
power does this discourse bring? Isn't there, first and foremost, a 
problem of grassroots mobilization, on the ground, in companies and 
services? A concern linked to union deserts? A difficulty in organizing 
employee meetings, whether they are called general assemblies or not?

It is the self-organization of workers that is at the heart of the 
analysis and the stakes of action for our class.

In practical terms, simply noting the absence of general assemblies and 
their widespread disengagement is pointless if it doesn't lead to 
tireless, daily efforts to find ways to prepare for them. We must 
maintain the very purpose of union, community, and political engagement 
everywhere, and this is a daily task. There are many obstacles, but it 
is essential to equipping ourselves with the tools to combat 
exploitation and the misery it engenders.

One might think that spontaneous action from who-knows-where will do the 
work; but it is undeniably safer, even if more difficult, to prepare and 
create the conditions for the self-organization of our social class, 
while also waging a multifaceted counter-offensive of ideas that break 
with capitalism.

UCL Nantes

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Taxe-Zucman-Le-separatisme-des-bourgeois-au-grand-jour
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