Résistance: Igniting the flame of the New European Left.

It all started in 2007, on spring day in may. Nicolas Sarkozy was the candidate of reform, the self-proclaimed champion of the "silent majority". The notion of "silent majority" is very interesting, the belief that the majority of population in France are oppressed by a radical fringe of the population, that has pursued to push the public debate to the left. Mr. Sarkozy openly declared war on the "relics" of Mai 68 and on the ideology that has somehow "occupied" the France political scene, that the social state is the "holy grail".
The truth is that, the feeling that something along the path of the 5th Republic went wrong is recurrent in the French common psych. But the to just conner these occurrences to France, would be to forget the larger European image.


If you look throughout European history, it has always been a history of shocks and counter-shocks, of revolution and counter-revolution. The examples are various and diverse from the battle for the soul of Christianity that was embodied by Martin Luther's revolt in the German speaking lands, and from that epicentre flared dissent and civil unrest throughout Europe, to the French Revolution that brought yet another period of dissidence in Europe and social/political and economic transformation. Europe has always been like a schema of unstable dominos on the verge of collapse.
The last time, Europe did experience a vast and divisive period of revolution and counter-revolution was during the period of the 1920s-1930s. For many it was called the "European Civil War", from the physical and officially declared confrontation in Spain (the Spanish Civil War) that opposed the Republicans to the "Falangists" of the reactionary military uprising, to France and the period of relative instability that preceded and precipitated the birth of the "Front Populaire" and which continued during its rule, to Italy and the fight between communist and anarchist fractions and the reactionary/fascist "grouplings". In the 1920s-193's an ideological war took place in Europe, the conclusion of that war was supposed to be World War II and the death of fascism and reactionary ideology in Europe. But this fight prolonged deeper into the 20th Century and was called the "Cold War". Many times we speak of the proxy wars that occurred in South Eastern Asia or in Africa as the main conflicts of the "Cold War", but on a certainly lesser scale but certainly as intense, a continental proxy war did occur in Europe. The dictatorships of Franco, Salazar and of the Colonel Regime in Greece were supported diplomatically, financially and militarily (even) by the Western Bloc, a bit like the support that Ben Ali and Mubarak received before their fall-out. This points to the truth that capitalism does not always go hand in hand with democracy or freedom of speech. The countries such as Spain, Portugal and Italy before them, that did have a significant leftist base, experienced after the fall of their respective dictatorships, "undercover" civil wars. In Italy for example the Christian Democrat Coalition that had tries with the mafia and other organized crime did receive support and backing from the "Free World". But generally socialist/communist parties and anarchist organizations were the target of false flag operations, intimidation and even destructive action. The only reason that, those groups persisted was that their efforts were fuelled by the "Cold War". And then the Berlin Wall was shattered and the leftist heritage of Europe was in disarray and fell into the infernal spiral of outright decadence.
But like a religion that is banned, the belief in a set of values and principals under the ban only amplifies. The ban instead created the ecosystem for a rebirth of the left, but not of the same left, a more divergent and modern ideological purpose was born.


Starting in 1979, and having its nirvana during the 1990s the neo-liberal ideologies, built up through Thatcherism in England and spread like a wild fire throughout the European continent (another example of shock and counter-shock). It deregulated and destroyed the social and economical system that was predominant in Europe... the welfare state. After the fall of the Soviet Bloc, it was almost as if the European left dug their own graves and went for a long hibernation. Some decided to ditch the sinking boat and join the neo-liberal shinning cruiser, other just silenced themselves as if the fatality of reality was a too heavy burden on their shoulders so they collapsed into silence, and some "radicals" didn't shy from the path of truth because of the few walking along it and started the grassroots "résistance" against neo-liberalism and wild gilded age capitalism. At times they might of seemed as if they were peaching the desert, but now with the failing austerity measures, the rising inequality and the destruction of the enlightenment ideals of social justice, from that arid desert land has sprouted a forest of discontent and disobedience.
The last of the resisting domino's to fall was France, in 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy was elected, he was from the 1%, elected by the 1% to protect the interests of the 1%. His administration started little by little dismantling the French welfare state and tearing apart the French social fabric. It resulted in the push the French left needed to harvest the invisible forest of discontent. The champion of this new libertarian Left is Mélenchon, but this libertarian left is not exclusively French. In German parties such as "Die Linke" and in Spain "La Izquierda Unida" have shown the strongest showings since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the "death" of the European left. So is this the "renaissance" of the European Left?(...) Yes, but without a  wakening the revolution of mentalities will never completely be accomplished. Looking at the political environment in Europe, I believe that the new libertarian Left is without doubt on the rise, this being said without power, these fantastic speeches and ideas are but a sermon with nil attendance. So what is the viable option for the "New Left", should it compromise and join the Tony Blair fringe of "fake-leftist" parties, to win over the electorate? Certainly not the true Left should never compromise on it's true and core ideals. The easiest solution is to compromise, but how can you compromise without being compromised? In fact that's an impossibility, we've seen that happen time after time in Spain under Zapatero, in the U.K under Tony Blair and in Germany under Schröder, what was the result of compromising on core values: defeat.
The mission of the "New Left" is to hijack the "mushy" Left movement and bring back the centre of debate to the "real" Left and that is something Mélenchon has done very well during this French presidential election, 2nd ballot or not, his campaign has reignited the flame of the French Left.
And so this is crossroad at which we encounter ourselves now. Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal are drowning in debt, the crisis is far from over. The myth of neo-liberalism is dying in the minds and hearts of the majority of people and so a vacuum is left. This vacuum has to be filed but not by the authoritarian left of the 1960s or the "mushy" left of the 1990s, but a new vibrant left powered by communities and by social activism and not by lobbies or economic interests.
The "Silent majority" is us and this is our "silent revolution" reloaded.


Résistance.


Sky