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By Nikos Mottas.

The same old fairytale of left-progressive governments is back in the news following the electoral victory of social democrat Gustavo Petro in Colombia, as well as the performance of leftist Jean-Luc Mlenchon in French parliamentary elections.

As it happened last December with Gabriel Boric' victory in Chile, a number of left-wing, opportunist forces in Greece and abroad celebrate the recent results, presenting them as a triumph of the left which can allegedly bring positive developments for the working people.

Historical experience, both in Europe and Latin America, demonstrate that the so-called left governments cultivate and spread illusions about the humanization of capitalism. Nonetheless, the painful reality is that humane capitalism is like Santa Claus; it does not exist. The case of PSUV in Venezuela is an emblematic example of the failure of the opportunist theory of 21st Century Socialism. The examples of Lula-Rousseff in Brazil and Lopez Obrador in Mexico confirmed that no left or progressive government, no matter its intentions, can provide actual and radical solutions to the people's problems as long as the means of production remain in the hands of the capital. In the best of cases, these governments adopted some policies against extreme poverty, but even these measures were subsequently retracted as long as they were incompatible with capitalist economy. After all, the prosperity of the working class is by definition incompatible with the profitability of the monopolies.

Such political forces overlook or underestimate the laws governing capitalist economy, as well as the de facto reactionary character of the bourgeois state. The tragic outcome of Salvador Allende's Popular Unity government in Chile must be a constant reminder that socialism is impossible to come through peaceful ways and parliamentary illusions, but only through the overthrow of the capitalist system and the eradication of monopolies' power.

Is there any particular reason for the working class in Colombia and France to celebrate the electoral achievements of Petro and Melenchon? For us, the answer is pretty clear. The working people must have no illusions. The real way out for the people's interests does not lie in the old and faded fairytales about left governments, but only in the intensification of the organized class struggle against the system of exploitation, capitalism.

* Nikos Mottas is the Editor-in-Chief of In Defense of Communism.

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Gustavo Petro, Jean-Luc Mlenchon and the fairytale of left governments - In Defense of Communism