The Reds in France, long spoiled by cultural acceptance and the absence of a French homologue of McCarthy, have recently celebrated a new milestone in their long slouch toward irrelevancy. Their newspaper L'Humanit?©, the least often-seen rag on the metro, just celebrated its 100th anniversary.
The paper's centenary comes in the midst of severe financial troubles -- and not for lack of embracing capitalist fund-raising techniques. Its editors recently resorted to a free CD giveaway in an attempt to chip away at a 17.5 million euro debt.
Such tactics prove that at least in France, the present-day version of communism thinks of marketing as much as class struggle. And in my opinion, the Reds aren't as much fun when they don't think the Revolution is just around the corner.
Perhaps in response to this fact, L'Humanit?© has watered-down its political affiliation with the Communist Party. L'Humanit?© now calls itself merely a "communist newspaper" -- far wimpier than the uncompromising bras arm?© of the Party that Georges Marchais once christened it.
But falling circulation has meant that the paper's motto -- "In an ideal world, L'Humanit?© would not exist" -- is coming dangerously close to undermining itself.
The paper still has a certain presence -- not least because it comes in the easy-to-read tabloid format. But the French also cherish what they call le pluralisme de la presse -- a broad range of journalistic viewpoints -- because French newspapers don't necessarily hide their ideological leanings.
In the U.S., the Washington Times and Fox News can still claim to be fair and balanced whereas in France, journalism is almost always served with a side of rhetoric.
Still, the role of L'Humanit?© in today's French press seems more and more marginal since its staff of a mere 58 journalists has a hard time competing with more established papers like Le Monde and Le Figaro.
One way L'Humanit?© tries to remind the reading public of its existence is through its annual three-day festival, which puts a sheen of ideology on what is otherwise just an outdoor party.
I went to the festival with a few friends last September, even though it was outside Paris and required taking the dingy commuter trains. We bought discount tickets for the festival at the train station; I wasn't sure if this was consistent or not with the Communist mentality.
A shuttle bus took us to the fairgrounds, and as we wandered around from booth to booth and tent to tent, it soon became apparent that there wasn't much to do at the Communist festival other than shop for T-shirts and trinkets and buy food.
Later on, I discovered the disappointing fact that one had to pay to use the toilet in the People's Republic of L'Humanit?©. The triumph of capitalism was so complete that the festival's organizers couldn't even have been deluding themselves.
At least the T-shirts, though probably made by un-unionized sweatshop workers in the Philippines, had revolutionary slogans. There was the ubiquitous Che Guevara, T-shirts sold by striking McDonald's workers that said "McMerde," and one with an American flag in which the stripes were the names of countries such as El Salvador, Afghanistan, and Chile, and the stars were skulls.
There were also innumerable leaflets covering all the usual suspects: Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Palestinian cause, American imperialism. The people braving the hot sun to hand out these pamphlets often had a fierce gleam of commitment in their eyes -- I guess the Communists had succeeded in gathering the last of those who really believed in something.
These people were still in the minority at the festival, however. Most of us were there to eat cheap ethnic food, enjoy the last days of summer, and go to the huge free concert, where the air was perfumed with a welcome herbal smell.
My guess is that few of these people have plugged their way through "Das Kapital" or even the "Communist Manifesto."
To put things in perspective, however, the Communist party is not ignored in present-day French politics. Even fifty-one years after the death of Stalin and fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the Communist movement still has some life in it.
Though the party's leader won only 3.37 percent of the vote in the 2002 presidential election -- its worst result since the end of World War II -- this is still a higher percentage than Ralph Nader won in 2000.
The Communists aren't even the left-most end of the political spectrum. There are three Trotskyite parties: Workers' Party, Workers' Struggle, and the Revolutionary Communist League, whose motto is "100 percent to the left."
I have a certain respect for these parties, because even though their worldview is a little off, at least they really believe in it. Even though Trotsky was purged from his own revolution, he kept spreading the gospel for decades until Stalin caught up with him in Mexico.
The passion and desperation of politics is missing today, and even a watered-down version is better than indifference.
