The leftist groups of France. Each group is situated according to how left-wing and how democratic it is. The higher a group appears, the more democratic its internal politics and political theory are. The further left a group appears on this diagram, the further left it is politically. |
French Red GroupsThe Alternatives (Les Alternatifs): Formed in 1999 by two smaller eco-socialist groupings: The Red and Green Alternative (AREV) and the Convention for a Progressive Alternative (CAP). While voicing similar demands to the Greens for stronger environmental protection, Les Alternatifs also incorporates some of the ideas of the late Parti socialiste unifié (such as autogestion). Though it maintains a presence in the anti-globalization movements, Les Alternatifs is not yet a truly national organization. Consequently, the group did not field Presidential or legislative candidates in 2002. Citizens’ Movement (Le Mouvement des Citoyens): Led by Jean-Pierre Chevènement, the MDC was formed in January 1966 as a faction of the Socialist Party, the "Center of Socialist Study, Research, and Education" (CERES). CERES was always a minority within the PS, usually opposing François Mitterand's majority from the left. In 1986, CERES became Socialisme et République (SR). Its slate received the highest vote at the Socialist Party's Nantes Congress in 1977 — receiving 24.21% of the vote. Chevènement served several ministerial posts in the Mitterand government. In 1992, he broke with Mitterand over the latter's critical support of Corsican autonomy. SR joined with Chevènement and formally broke with the Socialist Party in 1993, forming the Citizens' Movement (MDC). Two other parliamentary deputies (Jean-Pierre Michel and Georges Sarre) and a senator (Paul Loridant) left and joined the MDC. As president of the MDC, Chevènement fielded candidates in 1994 for the European Parliament and received 2.54% of the French vote. In 1997, the MDC won seven seats in the Parliament. In 2000, Chevènement rejoined the government as Interior Minister, though he still opposed Corsican autonomy. However, the MDC left the center-left coalition in 2001. In 2002, Chevènement announced his candidacy for President and formed an electoral alliance, Pôle Républicain ("Republican Pole"). Though PR attracting people to the left of the Socialist Party, it drew criticism for also being supported by right-wing nationalists who agreed with Chevènement on French nationalism in Corsica. Though at one point considered the "third force" in the election, by April Chevènement dropped to sixth place of sixteen, polling 1,503,490 votes (5.36%). In the subsequent legislative elections, PR failed to gain any parliamentary deputies. Not even Chevènement succeeded in being reelected. It is likely that the MDC / PR will continue to dwindle in membership and importance. French Communist Party (Le Parti Communiste français): Founded in December 1920 at the Tours Congress of the Socialist Party (SFIO). A large majority of the congress's delegates voted in favor of affiliating with the Communist International (Comintern) and reorganizing the SFIO as the Section français de la Internationale Communiste (SFIC). (The non-Communist delegates left the congress and re-constituted the Socialist Party shortly thereafter.) The PCF grew by leaps and bounds, and by 1928, regularly received over 1 million votes and had over a dozen deputies in Parliament. Along with the Partito Comunista d'Italia and the German Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, the PCF was one of the three largest Communist parties in the Western Hemisphere. During the battle in the Comintern between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky, the PCF sided with the latter; consequently, Stalin had most of the PCF's Central Committee removed and replaced with his loyal lackies. From this point forward, the French party was a hardline Stalinist organization, and expelled any Trotskyist or pro-Zinoviev factions in the party. In 1929, it adopted Stalin's theory of the Third Period, and verbally attacked the Socialists and other non-Communists as "social fascists"; however, when this tactic led to the destruction of the German KPD at the hands of Hitler, the PCF back-peddled away from the Third Period. In 1936, PCF head Maurice Thorez led his party into a Popular Front electoral pact with the Socialists and the Radical Party, a middle-class "liberal" political party. Further, Communist trade union Confédération générale du travail uni (CGTU) dissolved into the social-democratic CGT as a minority. (By the end of World War II, however, the Communists would gain full control of the CGT — causing Léon Jouhaux and other anti-Communists to split and form Force Ouvrière in 1947.) In April-July 1936, the Popular Front was voted into power and ousted the old center-right government. Though at first the Socialists led the Front (with the Socialist Léon Blum as Prime Minister), the Radicals won a majority between 1938-1940. The Radicals ended social reforms and betrayed the Front, leading the Socialists to the leave it in 1940. Soon afterwards, the Popular Front became useless anyway after German troops invaded and occupied France. During the Nazi-German Occupation, the Communists played an important part in the French Resistance and gained much popularity as a result: In roughly a decade, the PCF jumped from 25,000 members to 500,000. By the end of World War II, the Communist Party was much larger in membership in membership than even the Socialist Party or Charles de Gaulle's MRP. They also gained popular support from workers by taking control of the militant General Confederation of Labour (CGT). The Communist Party has been in slow decline since 1947. Due to the Sino-Soviet split and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, the PCF lost both Maoist and anti-Stalinist members at the same time. In 1965, the PCF supported the Plural-Left candidacy of Socialist François Mitterand for President. During the student/worker revolt of May 1968, the PCF failed to support the uprising — allowing groups to its left (Maoists, Trotskyists, Guevaraists, and the PSU) to draw the newly radicalized youth as a result. Many feel that if the PCF had supported Mai68, a revolution would surely have occurred. In 1969, the Communist Jacques Duclos received 21.27% of the vote for President in the first round. In 1972, the Communists established a common program with the Socialists and in 1974 once again supported Mitterand for President. Continuing to "de-Stalinize", the PCF officially ended its pursuit of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" in 1976. In the 1979 European elections, the PCF received 20.52% of the vote. In the 1980's, the PCF took part in President Mitterand's center-left coalition — just as the Communist Party continued to fall into decline. In 1988, two Communists (the "official" candidate, Andre Lajoinie, and the dissident Communist Pierre Juquin) ran for President, dividing the PCF vote. After the fall of the USSR and the Soviet Bloc, the slow dissintigration of the French Communist Party intensified. To try to stop this, the XXVII Congress of the PCF elected modernizer Robert Hue national secretary of the party. Hue sought to democratize the party while keeping it militant. In the 1995 Presidential elections, Robert Hue received 8.64% of the vote in the first round. In 1997, the Communists entered a new Socialist-led government under Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and consequently received several ministerial posts. Meanwhile, orthodox Stalinists and other hardliners continued to attack Hue's revisionist tactics, forming such factions as Communist Regroupment and Communist Left in the 1990's. In May of 2002, the Communists received a shocking defeat. For President, Robert Hue received only 957,385 votes (3.41 percent); this not only placed him below moderate candidates, but also ones to his left (those of the Revolutionary Communist League and Lutte Ouvrière). Because Hue received less than five percent of the vote, his party was not reimbursed for its expenses and faced bankruptcy. Fortunately, the PCF received an flood of small and large checks, from as diverse an element as young militants to French actor Gerard Depardieu; membership rose by about 5,000 during this time. This softened the blow that was to come in June 2002, when the number of Communist deputies in Parliament dropped from 38 to 21. One of these lost seats was that of Robert Hue. As long as the Communist Party continues to cling to the neo-liberal Socialists to "democratize," this trend of decline will probably continue as its left wing departs the party. The youth group of the PCF is the Movement of Communist Youth (MJC). The Communist union federation, the CGT, has 600,000 members, making it the second largest federation in France. The Greens (Les Verts): Founded in 1979 as the Movement of Political Ecology (MEP) by (primarily) middle-class ecological activists who supported the successful German Green Party (Die Grünen). In 1981, the MEP fielded Brice Lalonde for President, who fielded 3.88% of the vote. From this relatively strong first showing, the MEP drew other "greens." By 1982, it was reorganized as the The Greens-Ecologist Party and became "The Greens" in 1984 after merging with a smaller ecologist group. In 1986, the Greens elected three officials in regional elections. In 1988, the Greens' Presidential candidate, Antoine Waechter, obtained 3.78 percent. The next year, in elections to the European Parliament, the Greens' list won over 10% of the vote. In the 1997 legislative elections, the Greens succeeded in electing 7 deputies and became the third-largest partner in the Socialist-led coalition government. In the April 2002 Presidential elections, the Greens' candidate (Noel Mamere) garnered 1,478,470 votes (5.27 percent, seventh place). Following the June 2002 elections, the number of Green deputies dropped to three (4.5% nationally). The Greens were one of only three parties to fail to file in time for television time for these elections! This general disorganization, combined with lackadaisical, middle-class radicalism, will probably lead to the continued decline of the Greens. Internationalist Communist Organization (Le Organisation Communiste Internationaliste): See the Workers' Party.
| Internationalist Communist Party (Le Parti Communiste Internationaliste): See Revolutionary Communist League.
| Radical Party of the Left (Le Parti Radical de Gauche): Formed in 1971 as a tendency within the Radical Party that proposed moving towards the left and working with the Socialist Party (PS). This tendency supported Mitterand's "Union of the Left" in 1972 and was consequently expelled from the Radical Party. It was reorganized as the Movement of the Radical-Socialist Left (MGRS) and in 1973 was renamed the Mouvement des Radicaux de Gauche ("Movement of Radicals of the Left", MRG). The MRG soon grew in strength — electing 10 deputies in 1978 and 14 deputies in 1981. In 1981, the MRG supported the Presidential campaign of the Socialists' Mitterand and joined in his coalition government. In 1993, the MRG was renamed as simply "Radical" and then the Radical Socialist Party (PRS) in 1996. In 1997, the PRS ran an electoral alliance and won 12 seats in parliament (1.4 percent of the total national vote). The PRS was renamed the Radical Party of the Left (PRG) in 1998. In April 2002, the PRG fielded Christiane Taubira for President, but was in thirteenth place out of sixteen candidates (achieving 589,460 votes, or 2.1 percent). In the June 2002 legislative elections, the PRG kept seven deputies. The modern PRG has no "rank and file", and is little more than an appartus for electing politicians. Republican Pole (Le Pôle Républicain): See Citizens' Movement.
| Revolutionary Communist League (La Ligue communiste révolutionnaire): Leading French far-left organization. The lineage of the LCR can be traced back to the very first French Trotskyist organizations; in April 1930, the Ligue Communiste was formed as an amalgamation of the supporters of Leon Trotsky who had been expelled from the French Communist Party (PCF). With a tiny membership and no possibility of rejoining the Stalinized PCF, Trotsky had the Ligue dissolve into the left-moving Socialist Party in August of 1934, forming the Bolshevik-Leninist Group (GBL). The GBL leadership was plagued with personal rivalries — much to the dismay of Trotsky. In January of 1936, Pierre Frank and Raymond Molinier were expelled from the GBL and formed a rival group, the Internationalist Communist Party (PCI). Meanwhile, in June of that year, the GBL and their supporters in the Socialist Party were expelled and formed the Revolutionary Workers' Party (POR). In 1938, Socialist Marceau Pivert formed the "Workers' and Peasants' Socialist Party" (PSOP), and both the PCI and POR entered it. However, the PSOP fell apart when World War II began and the Trotskyists became isolated — especially during the Nazi occupation of France. At the end of the War, the PCI merged with the POR and a third group (Groupe Octobre) to form the unified Internationalist Communist Party (PCI) in May 1944. Pierre Frank became general secretary in 1948 and proposed (along with the Fourth International's leader, Michel Pablo) that the PCI enter the Communist Party. A majority of hardliners in the PCI, led by Pierre Lambert and opposed to entering the PCF, were expelled in July 1952 and formed a rival PCI (see Workers' Party). Meanwhile, Frank's PCI was making remarkable progress in the PCF's youth section, the Union of Communist Students (UEC). The Trotskyist faction (working with Maoists and pro-Cuban communists) became so powerful that they were all expelled from the UEC, forming the group Revolutionary Communist Youth (JCR) in 1967. The JCR worked closely with the chief New Left party, the Parti socialiste unifié, and quickly grew in influence. In May of 1968, a revolutionary situation errupted in France due to government policies at home and abroad. Initiated by leftist students who were soon joined by militant workers, the JCR (led by Alain Krivine, Daniel Bensaïd and other students) played an key role in the revolt. The conservative de Gaulle government intervened, and outlawed both the JCR and PCI. In response, the two organizations merged to form the Ligue Communiste in 1969, and associated with the Fourth International (USFI). That year, Krivine ran as the Ligue's candidate for President and received 239,000 votes (1.06 percent). After clashing with the neo-fascist group New Order in 1973, the Ligue was once again outlawed and once again reorganized — this time under its current name, the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). As the revolutionary spirit in France diminished in the 70's, so did the LCR's vote total. In 1974, Krivine received only 93,000 votes (0.37 percent). After this drop, the League reduced its emphasis on electoral campaigns. However, they did run a joint slate with Lutte Ouvrière for the European Parliament in 1979. This continued until 1988, when they supported the campaign of Communist Party dissident Pierre Juquin, who received 2.1 percent of the vote for President. In 1994, a split in the LCR occurred, resulting in the creation of Gauche Socialiste, which entered into the Socialist Party and seeks to pull it to the left. In 1998, the LCR won three regional seats in Brittany and Midday-Pyrenees. For the 1999 European elections, the LCR ran a joint slate with Lutte Ouvrière (LO) and succeeded in electing five MEPs — two of them (Krivine and Roseline Vachetta) members of the LCR. For the 2002 Presidential elections, LCR hoped to do another joint slate with LO's Arlette Laguiller, but LO refused. So LCR ran a candidate of their own, a 27-year-old postal worker named Olivier Besancenot. Running on a "100% to the Left" campaign, Besancenot attracted 1/4 of all the young voters, receiving 1,203,485 votes (4.29 percent) — beating the Communist Party and almost tying the snobbish Laguiller. People became critical of LO when they refused once again to do a joint slate with LCR in the 2002 legislative elections; though the LCR did not win any seats, they succeeded in receiving more votes than LO (roughly 1.3 percent nationally). LCR's journal is Rouge and its youth affiliate is Revolutionary Communist Youth (JCR). Besides running electoral campaigns, the League is involved in the anti-fascist group Ras L'Front and the anti-poverty group ATTAC. A wonderfully open and vibrant group, the LCR will hopefully continue to grow in influence and membership — and eventually leave the sectarian Lutte Ouvrière in its dust. Socialist Party (Le Parti Socialiste): Formed as the "French Section of the Workers' International" (SFIO) in 1905 as a fusion of numerous socialist tendencies — from reformist to French-Utopian to Marxist. Led by Jean Jaurès and other labor leaders, the SFIO grew to a major political party in just a matter of years. In 1914, the SFIO was one of the least "social-patriotic" of the social-democratic parties; though it joined a pro-war coalition, much of its rank and file (as well as many Socialist theoreticians) were opposed to the war — either because of pacifist or Marxist beliefs. This anti-war segment was galvanized by the Russian Revolution in November 1917. The Bolshevik left of the party became so powerful that, by 1920, they had a majority. At the SFIO's Tours Congress, the majority of the delegates (3,208 out of 4,241) voted to affiliate with Lenin's Communist International (Comintern) as the French Communist Party (PCF). The right-wing minority, led by Léon Blum, broke from the new PCF and re-constituted the SFIO. The SFIO continued on its social-democratic course until the mid-1930's. Most of the party's members blamed their German sister party's close-minded anti-communism for the victory of Hitler in 1933. The new left-wing of the SFIO (under the Léon Blum leadership) grew to the point that the right-wing "Neo-Socialists" split from the party. The left-moving SFIO attracted the attention of the Trotskyists, who entered the party under the program of the "Left Turn" in 1936 (see LCR). During World War II, the Socialists entered into the Popular Front with the Communists and the (upper-class liberal) Radical Party. After the War, the SFIO emerged weaker than the Communist Party, and was attacked from both the left and the right. Its leaders' support of French colonialism in Algeria caused its left to join the Unified Socialist Party (PSU) in 1960. In the 1960's, the Socialists came under the leadership of François Mitterand. He sought to create a "Union of the Left", containing the SFIO, Communist Party, PSU, and other left-wing parties. In 1965, he formed the Confederation of Republican Institutions (CIR) to facilitate this. In the 1965 Presidential elections, Mitterand received 31.72% of the vote but lost the run-off elections to Charles de Gaulle. At the Alfortville Congress of 1969, Mitterand officially renamed the SFIO as the Parti Socialiste (PS) and drew many left-wing groups into the organization. By 1974, the PS had drawn in much of the old PSU. In the 1981 Presidential elections, Mitterand was elected 51.76% of the vote and led a center-left coalition government. (He was reelected in 1988.) But Mitterand's "Plural Left" began to dissintigrate as he moved rightward in policies as President. In 1993, a large section of the PS (led by Jean-Pierre Chevènement) broke away and formed the Citizens' Movement. The PS lost a majority in the Parliament, and Lionel Jospin (Mitterand's heir apparent and former Lambertist) lost the 1995 Presidential election to Gaullist Jauques Chirac. However, in 1997 the Socialists entered a Popular Front coalition with the Communists, Greens, and the Radical Party of the Left, naming Jospin Prime Minister. However, due to neo-liberal and pro-business policies, the PS lost support among the working class. In the 2002 Presidential elections, Jospin was shocked to find himself knocked out of the run-off elections by neo-fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen and his National Front. In the first round, Jospin had received 17.06% (4,783,440 votes), and consequently retired from politics. Their center-left coalition was also defeated in the June 2002 Parliamentary elections; the PS received 140 seats (21.4%). The current leader of the Socialist Party's Conseil National is François Hollande. The PS youth section is the Movement of Socialist Youth (MJS). The labor federation associated with the PS is the Democratic French Confederation of Labour (CFDT), the largest union federation in France. The Spark (L'Étincelle): Founded in 1982 as Socialisme International by former members of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). SI quickly affiliated with Tony Cliff and his British Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Like other sections of the Cliffite International Socialist Tendency, Socialisme International closely followed the orders of the British SWP, but failed to grow quickly. In 1997, SI was renamed Socialisme par en bas ("Socialism From Below") and attempted to gain members through an entry into the Socialist Party. The Cliffites emerged as "Spark" in 2001. Though they supported Arlette Laguiller's and Lutte Ouvrière's Presidential campaign, the leaders of Spark are currently in negotiations to rejoin the LCR. This new turn of events is due mainly to the increasingly friendly relationship between the British SWP and the LCR. Workers’ Party (Le Parti des travailleurs): Formed in 1952 by Pierre Lambert (1920- ) and 150 of his followers who had been expelled from the Trotskyist Internationalist Communist Party (PCI). These "Lambertists" claimed to be the "true" PCI and opposed the "liquidationists" and "Pabloists" who had expelled them. The Lambertists joined the British Socialist Labour League (SLL) and the American Socialist Workers Party in forming the ultra-orthodox International Committee in 1953, and renamed their group the Internationalist Communist Organization in 1956. Being opposed to work with any sort of Stalinist, the OCI harshly opposed the French Communist Party. Though they maintained a nominal youth section, the "Alliance of Youth for Socialism" (AJS), the OCI was the only far-left group to oppose the student/worker revolt of May 1968. Consequently, the OCI was not outlawed like the other groups were in 1969. In 1971, the Lambertists left the International Committee (the American SWP had left in 1963) and began pursuing a secret campaign to enter and take over the French Socialist Party. One of the OCI's young agents was Lionel Jospin, who would become premiere secretary of the PS in 1981 and Prime Minister of France in 1997. Ironically, many people who would go through the Lambertist "school" would later become politicians in the Socialist Party's right. During the 1970's, the OCI remained quiet and isolated as it went through this campaign. However, when the Socialist François Mitterand began supporting blatantly anti-leftist policies, the OCI began breaking with the PS — renaming the group the Internationalist Communist Party (PCI) in 1981. In the European elections of 1984, the PCI fielded a list, "For a Workers' Party," but received only 0.90% of the vote. In 1985, Lambert's PCI reorganized to create a nominal alliance, the Movement for a Workers' Party (MPPT). However, 400 Lambertists who remained loyal to the Socialist Party broke with the MPPT and rejoined the PS. However, Lambert's MPPT drew new people as diverse as ex-Communists, anarchists, and unionists. Marc Blondel, leader of the union federation Force Ouvrière (an anti-communist split from the CGT) became one of the chief supporters of the MPPT. After some failed attempts to win significant votes in elections, the MPPT was formally organized as the Workers' Party (PT) in 1991. The Lambertists formed the commanding tendency of the PT, the Internationalist Communist Current (CCI). In the 2002 Presidential elections, the PT fielded their national secretary, Daniel Gluckstein. Gluckstein received the embarrassing honor of getting sixteenth place out of sixteen candidates, receiving only 131,961 votes (0.47 percent). The PT apparently did not contest any legislative seats following this defeat. Workers’ Struggle (La Lutte Ouvrière): Formed in October 1939 by a Romanian immigrant to France, David Korner (better known as "Barta"). Barta, who at one point was a member of the Fourth International's French section, felt that this organization was too "petty-bourgeois" to be reformed. After breaking off in 1939, Barta's sect took the name Union Communiste Internationaliste (UCI) and in 1942 his cadres began entering heavy industry to recruit. By 1947, they were leading a militant workers' strike in Renault. When the other Trotskyists had unified into the Internationalist Communist Party (PCI) in 1944, the UCI chose not to join. During the next ten years, the UCI went through an period of dormancy, maintaining their "underground" persona during the 1953 split in the Fourth International. In 1956, the UCI reemerged with the name Voix Ouvrière ("Workers' Voice," VO), under the leadership of Barta's lieutenant, Robert Barcia. In the split between the Fourth International between the "revisionist" International Secretariat and the "orthodox" International Committee, Barcia chose to affiliate with a third group, the American Spartacist League, in 1966. In May 1968, Voix Ouvrière played an important role in alligning militant workers with the revolutionary students during the "Mai68" revolt. President Charles de Gaulle clamped down, banning Voix Ouvrière and several others groups in the aftermath of Mai68. Subsequently, Barcia's group was refounded as Lutte Ouvrière (LO). Though still controlled by Barcia's cult-of-personality, LO had a new public face — the young militant (and former PSU member) Arlette Laguiller. In the 1969 presidential elections, LO supported the Communist League's Alain Krivine and abstained in the run-off election. They began negotiating a merging with the Communist League and form a unified French section of the Fourth International, but these talks fell apart by 1974. In the 1973 legislative elections, LO fielded 172 candidates, out-organizing both the Communist League and the Lambertists. In the 1974 Presidential election, Laguiller ran for President on the LO ticket, winning 601,519 votes in the first round (2.33 percent). In the 1979 EU elections, LO agreed to a joint slate with the LCR and achieved 3.08% of the French vote. In the 1981 and 1988 Presidential races, LO fielded Laguiller both times and received approximately 2 percent of the vote in both elections. In the 1995 race, Laguiller's vote jumped to 5.30% of the Presidential vote. However, in 1996-1997 Barcia's internal cult drove several factions away from LO and into the more-democratic LCR. In the 1998 regional elections, LO won 20 local seats in nine French provinces. In the 1999 elections for the European Parliament, Lutte Ouvrière agreed to run a joint slate with Alain Krivine and the LCR. The slate received 5.18% of the vote and elected five MEPs — three of whom (Laguiller, Armonie Bordes and Chantal Cauquil) were LO members. The LCR hoped to continue this trend for the April 2002 Presidential elections, running a joint candidacy of Laguiller, but LO refused; they said that a joint slate would primarily benefit the LCR. Though at some points polling as high as 10-12 percent of voters, Laguiller's vote total dropped to 1,621,096 (5.78 percent); this was just slightly better than the LCR. In the subsequent June parliamentary elections, LO once again refused a joint slate, but this time it paid for it: LCR received a higher vote total than LO, which received only 1.2 percent. Lutte Ouvrière is a rather bizarre political cult that has a very workerist political stance — often allowing its revolutionary and pseudo-Trotskyist beliefs to be hidden in order to attract backward stratas of workers. Also, the group's fetish of Bolshevik-underground behavior and anti-democratic internal structure will probably stunt any further growth. It is likely that in the future, many novices to the French far left will find the democratic LCR a much more attractive candidate. |
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