Is Journalism Worth Dying For__ Final Dispatches - Anna Politkovskaya [157]
Let me give an example, which, moreover, illustrates the old adage about knowing a man by the company he keeps. Another major left-wing figure, and ideological comrade of Jospin, is Bertrand Delanoë, the current Mayor of Paris. He is famously an “out” gay politician, which recently enabled him to win the mayoral contest, with the result that Paris now has an entire gay quarter. During the election Delanoë trod warily, but now he is in power his policies are quite aggressive, in accordance with his own radical ideas. Because he regards himself as green, the traffic in Paris is being reorganised, very much to the inconvenience of drivers, to encourage them, in Delanoë’s words, to “get on their bikes.” I am not joking. To speak in generalities, but then to reform and micro-regulate is very much the way of today’s French Left.
I was warned not to take too literally Jospin’s airy answer, “Oh no, not that. Lord, that’s all we need.” In the rather twisted political idiom of modern France, I was told, this actually means that Jospin currently favors Putin’s root-and-branch approach in Chechnya but prefers not to say so, because that is not done.
Jospin’s political background is extreme Trotskyism. For almost 20 years of his mature life, between the ages of 30 and 50, he belonged to an illegal, underground Trotskyite cell whose main ideas were permanent revolution, total egalitarianism, and taking everything from the rich and sharing it out among the poor, a little for everyone. In the present election race, Jospin is eager to disown this sectarianism. When questioned about his Trotskyite past he lies, claiming that he was never a member of the cell, that it was his brother in the list of members, and that it is their shared surname which has caused the confusion.
Is this a ploy, or might it actually be true? I discussed this with André Glucksmann, a major contemporary French philosopher. For many years Glucksmann was one of France’s most brilliant leftists, and you will search in vain for anyone better informed about this section of the French political spectrum.
“Of course it is Lionel Jospin,” he told me, “and not his brother. The organization we are talking about existed secretly, it was very conspiratorial, like a sect. Incidentally, nobody is entirely sure whether it has disbanded or not. It is perfectly possible that it exists illegally to this day, and that Jospin is a fully paid up member who is simply carrying out its program.”
“So it’s something like the Freemasons?”
“Yes. The organization in which Jospin’s political personality was formed is essentially a Trotskyite version of Freemasonry. Their aim is to penetrate the institutions and management of the state in accordance with Trotsky’s principles. Nobody knows for certain whether Jospin is still a member or not. Perhaps his presidential ambitions are just a project of this Trotskyite sect.”
It is time to return to the port in Lorient. The Prime Minister of France makes his escape from questions he does not want to answer and heads for the safe haven of his limousine. Shortly afterwards The Candidate arrives at the local Palace of Nations in the town center, where he is due to divulge his thoughts about the sea.
Jospin’s progress to the platform is barred by a crowd of his former fellow thinkers, Communists and representatives of the most powerful Communist trade union in France, the CGT. Red flags, uniforms, slogans through loud-hailers, chanting of “Hands off the Alcatel factory.” Jospin again looks irritated. Alighting from his limousine he casts a hostile glance at this left-wing crowd and, showing a fair turn of speed, runs wordlessly into