November 19, 2008 (LPAC)--As 4,000 participants to the Socialist Party congress in Reims last weekend (November 14-16) arrived, teams of Solidarite & Progres organizers received them at the Station and in front of the Congress hall with a leaflet written by Jacques Cheminades on how to deal with the world financial crash.

While the global crisis was nominally in the mouths of all leaders participating, the real struggle that ensued on the floor was a bad re-enactment of the well known battle between the "moderns" and the "ancients" (though in all actuality both had the same ideology--namely, impotence). The casting involved Segolene Royal, the candidate to replace François Hollande as First secretary of the party, on the side of modernitude (she likes to invent such words), and Martine Aubry, the former minister of Social and Labour affairs for Lionel Jospin, on the side of the grossly inflated "Ancients of the Party" apparatus.

The differences between the two factions were not based on principle but on ridiculous "issues." The event was essentially an insane power struggle between Segolene Royal, who adopted the religious language of president-elect Barack Obama, and the traditional grouping of Jospin, Fabius, and Strauss Kahn, who refuse to abandon the reins of the party to the next generation. The program which comes closest to sanity is led by a third candidate, the young Benoit Hamon who is calling for a review of the independent status and the orientations of the European Central Bank, for a loosening up of the Stability Pact, and for protective tariffs in Europe. He is also calling for State intervention to develop great public works, noting that it was these methods which allowed Europe to develop its major and still operating programs, such as the Airbus and Ariane space launcher and nuclear power programs. Unable to establish unity, the membership vote next Thursday will determine who the next First secretary will be. Nobody at this point is risking to bet on who that will be, but the fight has been so nasty among the two main candidates in particular, that there may be a factional split in the party following the vote.

The repeated interventions by Lyndon LaRouche collaborator Jacques Cheminade into the party have introduced the only sane and relevant proposals: the necessary reintroduction of the State into the economy, the support for great industrial projects to build up the physical economy of Europe, and the necessary shift back from a post-industrial service economy towards real large scale international production! Solidarite & Progres organizers report many signs of recognition and positive interest among the delegates and cadre participating. However, if this current society is to get out of its plunge into a dark age, the focus on local issues and liberal boomer bickering must cease immediately and Lyndon LaRouche's solutions for a bankruptcy reorganization and a four powers New Bretton Woods agreement must be taken up. Let's make it clear: no more bullshit!