Has the Left abandoned the class struggle ?

What has become of the laboring classes ? How does the Left approach the question ?

“There are those who want to inflame the class struggle and those, of whom I am one, who say that the fate of each individual depends on the fate of all of us.” Should we be surprised at Nicolas Sarkozy’s bold sally during the election campaign ? In any case, you’ve got to give the French president credit for having said aloud what his confederates and his pals, the big bosses and the billionaires, know quite well : the class struggle continues.

It never stopped. It would be hard to get anyone to believe that any part of the avalanche of goodies that were showered on Fortune’s sons and daughters over the summer is going to wind up in the pocket of your Renault auto worker or your Carrefour checkout clerk.

The question that will inevitably crop up is : And the Left ? How does the Left approach the question ?

Beyond the political forces and the parties for which the values and ideals of the Left are a reference, each individual who reflects on the conditions that are necessary to realize a real social and political alternative in France has got to address the following problem : Where does the wealth produced by Labor go ? How does society divvy it up ? And can you change the living conditions of the “lower” classes without changing the existing social order ?

The Left has no choice : If it wants to win back the confidence of the laboring classes, which have felt abandoned these past few years, it has to put these laboring classes back at the heart of its goals ? Why ? And how ?

Today, L’Humanité continues the free debate it has begun in its columns, comparing the analyses and the points of view of researchers in the social sciences and those of movers and shakers in the world of politics.