"July 14"

Translated "Avante!" article by Albano Nunes, Member of the International Department.

"Trump’s announced presence during the National Day of France official celebrations is another dismal proof of the new French government reactionary nature. July 14, celebrating the Bastille Day, a symbol of a Revolution which proclaimed Freedom, Equality and Fraternity as universal civilization values, is stained by official ceremonies which are an insult to their original significance : popular, progressive and revolutionary.

It is not the first time this historical date is used by the dominant class to embody reactionary messages. Notwithstanding, it is significant, that the new president of France invites Trump to attend, at the Champs Elysées, where North-American military forces, ultimately, paraded. In a moment the new USA administration, besides enhancing imperialism bellicose policy adventure, remains discredited and somehow isolated, as proved during the G20 Summit, in Hamburg.

Many commentators questioned this serious step in French diplomacy, when the French-German axis is reinforced and greatly performs aggressively – curiously under the pretext of the existent “void” in result of the USA “disinvestment” in “Europe’s security” –a new neoliberal , militarist and federalist leap, concerning the European capitalist integration, at the same time, between the USA and Germany serious disputes take place in the economic plan, with non-ignorable incidence in the German foreign policy, as one ought to infer from Trump’s visit to Poland or the recent meetings with Merkel and Xi Jiping and Putin. As a result, is Macron seeking to find negotiable position amid the great powers directorate, which commands the European Union? It is possible.

Amid imperialism secret policy one cannot ignore treason nor painful blows. It is capitalism’s nature. And the system crisis deepening is entangling alliances and tearing apart the most difficult compromises within the imperialism field, as the Paris agreement on climate changes or the TTIP and many other treaties on “free trade”, that Trump considers do not sufficiently favour, the North-American great capital.

But the most important contradiction between capital and labour, as well as the contradiction between imperialism and the peoples, subjected to exploitation and national oppression relations are those that, in the end, determinate the binomial articulation / intrinsically rivalry unto imperialism. In the end, those are the contradictions that explain the inner circle behaviour that governs Paris. After all, the invitation to Trump attend July 14 is coherent with Macron’s first visit abroad, to Mali, a country situated within the French neo-colonialism sphere and that recently, at its service, a Portuguese soldier was killed . And coherent with the fierce offensive Macron’s government is carrying out, in an accelerated manner, against workers rights, expressed in the ultramontanist labour law code, with the purpose to be imposed, till the end of summer, or against rights and fundamental freedoms, intending to install the state of exception measures under the constitution and permanently."