Global Research

French President Emmanuel Macron invited Donald Trump and 60 heads of State to attend a “Peace Forum” in Paris on November 11-13. It was  preceded one day earlier by a ceremony at the Place des Invalides to pay tribute to the millions of people who died in the First World War or, stated more accurately, the first great inter-imperialist bloodbath.

Special tribute was paid to the generals who led their soldiers to slaughter from 1914 to 1918, including Maréchal Philippe Pétain, who Macron described as a “great soldier” despite his subsequent “fateful choices” — a reference to Pétain’s close collaboration with Hitler and the Nazis during World War II.

“Who are they kidding?” read a statement by Jeunesse Révolution (Revolution Youth). It continued:

“Trump is the man who ordered all NATO member countries to increase the war budgets to 2% of GDP, or about 40 billion euros for France. Of course, Emmanuel Macron, our king without a crown, did not object. 

“And yet … With 40 billion euros, governments could have built hospitals, schools, and childcare centers, and created living-wage jobs for young people. But no, no, no. Workers are being asked to tighten their belts more and more for wars that are not their wars; they are the capitalists’ wars. Hence the attacks throughout France on retirement pensions, the dismantling of the national Single-Payer healthcare system, and the destruction of public education, while the capitalist class continues to reap more and more profits.”

Jeunesse Révolution issued a united-front “Call to Demonstrate on November 11 Against Trump’s Presence in Paris.” Hundreds and hundreds of working class youth endorsed this call and are building this demonstration. But none of the main organizations to which the call was addressed [see initial call below] responded to the call to mobilize in the broadest unity against the warmakers.

Toward the end of October, the Democratic Independent Workers Party of France (POID) and Jeunesse Révolution learned that a number of “collectives” had issued a call to rally on November 11 at the Place de la République. Their call was not endorsable, but the POID and Jeunesse Révolution were considering participating in that gathering separately under their own banners and with their own demands. 

That thinking changed, however, on November 6, when the POID and Jeunesse Révolution learned that a so-called “Coordinating Committee of the Syrian Revolution in Paris” had been invited to join the rally on November 11 at the Place de la République.

The “Coordinating Committee of the Syrian Revolution in Paris” had stated that they would be joining the rally to call upon “Member States of the United Nations Security Council to assume their responsibility for the implementation of the Security Council’s resolutions on Syria, starting with the establishment of a Transitional Governing Body.”

The POID and Jeunesse Révolution explained that they could not demonstrate against the war policies of Trump and Macron’s … alongside supporters of Trump’s and Macron’s war and intervention in Syria. The call for a “Transitional Governing Body” is exactly what Trump and Macron are calling for; it is what they are seeking to impose on Syria through their military intervention — an intervention that since 2011 has driven 12 million Syrians from their homes and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

 Under these conditions, the POID and Jeunesse Révolution explained that they had no choice but to call their own separate demonstration at Place Gambetta at 2:30 pm on Sunday, November 11 with the following slogans:

• Solidarity with workers and youth in the United States!
• Immediate withdrawal of all French and U.S. troops from the countries where they are stationed!
• Immediate halt to all threats of military intervention!
• Solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to a nation!
• Welcome all refugees fleeing war and misery!
• Down with war! Down with exploitation!

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Note

[1] Trump traveled to France for the 100th anniversary celebrations, but he notified Macron only two days earlier that he would not join Macron, Merkel (Germany), Guterrez (Portugal) , Erdogan (Turkey), Putin (Russia) and all the other so-called “voices for peace” at the November 11-13 Paris Peace Forum.