(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #234 - FN vote: Beyond ideas (fr, pt)

Scores of FN polarized media attention with each new election. Yet many truths are aired 
against starting with the idea that the FN vote is now a worker vote. Knowing the springs 
of FN vote should help counter the logic relied on by the party of Marine Le Pen. 
Decryption. ---- The National Front is set in national politics for over thirty years, 
with an aggressive strategy to win mandates. Each election night brings conviction of FN 
voters. But we know little about the profiles of these, which are often very far-es of the 
party apparatus. The social science research can provide useful insights to better combat 
the springs of these votes. ---- A class vote? ---- Since the 1990s, intellectuals "left" 
described the FN as a "populist" party, which would mean that the working class would 
naturally hold a xenophobic and authoritarian discourse.

Yet, until the 2010s, the working men and women are far from all turn to FN: during the 
first round of the 2002 presidential election, they are initially 31% to abstain, then 29% 
to vote left, 22% right and 18% FN (see Collovald in the bibliography below). In 2012, the 
abstention is estimated at 23% to 29% among workers according to pollsters, excluding 
non-registered on the electoral lists. So forbearance which is the first popular party.

Many analysts hide this reality by presenting results from percentages of the votes cast, 
they abstractly grow the share of workers who vote FN. That is to totally ignore the fact 
that FN also many voters in more privileged social categories: figures for 2002 show that 
26% of professionals voted for Jean-Marie Le Pen on April 21, and according to institute 
Ipsos in 2012 are 20% of artisans, traders and entrepreneurs who voted Marine Le Pen, the 
same as in the workers if we include the abstention. This observation shows that the FN 
brings many bosses, big or small, and easy occupations, interests understood, not those of 
the working classes.

And rural areas?

There is of course many workers or employees who vote FN, but not necessarily for the 
reasons that trying to dissect journalists. In 2012, essayist, Christophe Guilluy, largely 
presented his explanations about it: according to him, political concentrate a large 
number of ways in the suburbs, and left PS forget especially the white masses. Where a 
vote FN increased among low-income families who build in rural areas more distant from 
city centers. This view is mistaken: there is 51% of voters in the cities of FN (see 
River), and if the political efforts focused on social housing neighborhoods, it is not! 
About this type of relay returns to the contrast between French and immigrant-es on which 
the FN built his speech by an opposition already widely exploited by government officials 
for many years, according to the logic of the scapegoat.

Nevertheless, the suburban communes (spaces surrounding cities) show high scores for the 
FN in 2012. But again, few commentators look at the reasons that may explain this. The 
media frequently mention layoffs and rising unemployment among workers, but they speak 
less often working conditions of those who are still in employment. And they are rarely 
the link between union membership and low FN vote while the polls, even if they should be 
taken with caution, show that employee-es who are union members are less likely to vote 
the extreme right.

Against divisions, union rallies

Political scientists have shown that it is the younger generations, those who work in 
structures smaller and smaller and have little opportunity to participate in collective 
struggles, who identify less with being a worker and who are most likely to turn to the 
right (see Lehingue). And the suburban, areas of activity that have proliferated since the 
1980s are places where a division was conducted in the workplace, with the proliferation 
of sub-contractors and temporary contracts (see Girard).

The changes in employment on the play control options: according to historian G?rard 
Noiriel, this corresponds to a deliberate strategy of the employers and the state, 
launched since the 1950s and 1960s to weaken union mobilizations. As said another 
historian Xavier Vigna, "workers' struggles are the safest activation cleavages identity 
dam" is by collective mobilizations that we fight more effectively on the workplace the 
divisions that a party like the FN (even if not the only) wishes to impose between French 
and foreign workers, between whites and racialized-es, etc.. Many divisions that go 
against the interests of the popular classes.

Of course, politicians are too busy-they are unraveling the labor law, care little about 
the repression that leads employers against union activists, or even racist or sexist 
discriminations by the fact employers. It is our responsibility to conduct offensive 
struggles to win against exploitation and at the same time against the divisions that the 
bed of the most obnoxious ideas and allow the far right to thrive. This is what already 
activists Visa network (Vigilance and anti-fascist union Initiatives).

Dominique (AL 93)

To go further:

o This France, Xenophobia above. Choosing a shameless right, 2012, La D?couverte, see 
Chapter 6 that critical theses Guilluy Ch.

o A. Collovald, 'Populism FN. "A dangerous misinterpretation , 2004 editions of Crisp.

o V. Girard, "The right to vote in suburban" social deprivation "modest households or 
recomposition of the working classes? , "2012 metropolitiques.eu

o P. Lehingue, Voting , 2011, Discovery.

o G. Noiriel, The Workers in French society nineteenth and twentieth century , 1986 Threshold.

o J. River, "Under the maps, people. The diversity of the suburban vote in 2012," Spirit, 
2013.

o X. Vigna, History of workers in France in the twentieth century , in 2012, Perrin.