Version imprimableA sacked auto worker, former presidential candidate for the NPA in France and a city councillor in Bordeaux, Philippe Poutou will be a candidate this time in Belgium with the support of the NPA. “It is to make this simple idea heard that there can be another Europe than the one imposed on us, a fraternal Europe, a Europe of solidarity between peoples, between workers” he said on Saturday 13 April in Brussels.
“We think that another society is possible, in Belgium and all over the world as well. But in order to achieve this alternative society, we need to build a balance of power, not only nationally but also internationally. With the support of Philippe Poutou and the NPA, we are mutually reinforcing” said Denis Verstraeten, head of the list and spokesperson for Gauche anticapitaliste.
For Gauche anticapitaliste, which is running for the first time in the elections under the acronym “Anticapitalistes,” it is a question of offering a political expression for social and ecological struggles. “We have supported all the emancipation movements that have shaken Belgium in recent years: feminist strikes, environmental actions, mobilizations against police violence, the Delhaize strike, solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance... and, of course, the movement in support of Palestine” said Laure Horlait, feminist activist, candidate and spokesperson for Gauche anticapitaliste.
“We think it’s important that anger, struggles and social movements can find a political outlet. Because this other society for which we are fighting, egalitarian, supportive, beautiful and pleasant to live in, will not be built solely through an election. Our list is therefore also a call to fight alongside us for an eco-socialist, feminist, anti-racist, internationalist and radically democratic alternative” she added.
“The urgency of a new world”
With the slogan “The urgency of a new world,” Gauche anticapitaliste wants to put forward a project for an alternative, radically democratic society. Socialization is one of the key demands of its program: that is to say, the requisitioning, under direct control of workers and users, of several key sectors of the economy (energy, banking and insurance, mass distribution, the food industry, housing, health, education, transport). Such a requisition makes it possible to redistribute profits, to plan the necessary transitions (towards carbon-free energy production, towards pesticide-free food, and so on), but above all the reorganization of these sectors around real needs, which can finally be guaranteed, while useless and harmful but profitable productions for capitalists can be abandoned.
For Philippe Poutou, “it is important that there are organizations like the Gauche Anticapitaliste that can stand to make an anti-capitalist voice heard that says that we are not obliged to suffer, to resign ourselves. It is a fight that we must wage for an anti-capitalist Europe that opposes a capitalist and neoliberal Europe; for an ecological, feminist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist Europe; a Europe that fights against policies of closing borders, which defends freedom of movement and the welcoming of all. Finally, it is also to make the idea heard that we must mobilize ourselves, that the people must fight, organize and struggle.”
13 April 2024
Translated by International Viewpoint from Gauche Anticapitaliste.
