During the holiday season, some of us have a few days off. It’s an opportunity to spend a little more time with family and friends and no one’s complaining about it. But the so-called “magic of Christmas” that the media keeps banging on about is pretty hard to swallow.
Christmas for some is the ideal time to praise tradition and even Christian tradition, which the far right loves to do. For others, Christmas means big business – the magic of Christmas goes hand-in-hand with presents under the Christmas tree and extravagant meals.
There’s certainly no truce for demagoguery or business! And definitely no truce in the attacks against workers.
The 750 workers at Brandt will receive their notice letter around Christmas. And how many others will spend the holiday season with a heavy heart because they’re afraid of losing or have already lost their job?
41% of workers borrow money to pay for presents because Christmas magic doesn’t extend to increasing wages! Millions of women and men who have jobs, have been laid off, are retired or on disability juggle permanently with their overdraft and have no choice at Christmas but to go into the red, if only to buy chocolate and a few presents for their children or grand-children.
The advice given by journalists on how to choose your foie gras, make a soft-boiled egg with truffles or choose the best wine is obviously not aimed at workers!
And there’s no real truce for immigrant workers who have to deal with administrative problems and visas and who would like to be with their families but can’t.
There’s no truce either for small farmers who wake up every day wondering if they’ll find an infected animal and will have to slaughter the entire herd, the work of a lifetime.1
As for those sleeping on the streets, the only part of Christmas they’ll see is the enticing shop windows and public illuminations.
The gap between the enchanted break that the holiday season is meant to be and the reality for the overwhelming majority of the population is even more revolting if we look beyond our borders.
Oh, there’ll be plenty of glitter, lobster and caviar for the festivities in the White House, the Kremlin and the Elysée palace! But the two million Palestinians in the Gaza strip, displaced and forced to live in makeshift camps, will be wading through mud and shivering with cold.
Ukrainian and Russian soldiers will continue to risk their lives while Putin and Trump come to an agreement at their expense.
Venezuela’s population is being stifled economically by the blockade imposed by the U.S. military. This creates more shortages and inflation and makes the food crisis worse.
As for Haitians, already surviving on next to nothing, they’re now subjected to the murderous rule of the gangs taking over the country.
Christmas sermonizing will call for peace, for ceasefire and negotiations, while all over the world, military and political leaders are polishing their weapons and preparing for war.
Last Sunday, Macron met with the French soldiers deployed to the United Arab Emirates to gift them… a new aircraft carrier, the navy’s latest exorbitant toy. When money’s needed for war, there’s no more talk of “an unacceptable deficit” or the “debt that we’ll leave for our children”!
Instead of making the cruel and distressing realities vanish, the magic of Christmas highlights them.
Room for poverty, exploitation, the domination of rich countries over poor and wars should have disappeared long ago – enough wealth and progress have been made for everyone to benefit from them.
This observation should become a political prospect: it is possible to build a better world for future generations. It’s up to the workers, the exploited, the oppressed, those revolted by society to take on the task.
Let’s hope this brief pause will give us the strength and the energy to fight against the capitalist society that is so absurd and revolting!
Nathalie Arthaud
1 In France, there is currently an outbreak of Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD), a viral infection of cattle. The government has chosen the slaughter of the whole herd as soon as the infection appears and vaccination of only the surrounding herds. Their reason is not so much scientific as it is economic – preventive vaccination would protect all herds but, because much of French beef is exported and the European Union has banned the export of vaccinated beef (because only virus-free beef can be exported and an attenuated form of the virus is used for the vaccine), the agricultural giants would not be able to sell their beef for export.