Thu 17, December 2009 @ 11:33
Formed just over six months ago, the NPA has already been
incurring the wrath of leaders of the main French union
federations. The party has been denounced by the leader of the CFDT
for sticking its nose in issues that apparently don’t concern it –
defending workers faced with mass lay-offs and factory closures!
This summer, the CGT, the CFDT and FO all refused an invitation to
attend a summer school held by the NPA – the debate the NPA
proposed was a burning one for French workers: “What strategy for
the current struggles?”
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Thu 17, December 2009 @ 11:32
Franck Gaudichaud is a member of the www.rebelion.org collective
and the chair of Latin American studies in a French university. His
PHD analysed Chilean popular movements during the Allende
government. Franck is an active militant of the New French
Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA). He spoke to Andrés Figueroa Cornejo of
the Movimiento de los Pueblos y los Trabajadores (MPT) during a
recent visit to Chile.
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Sun 26, July 2009 @ 22:16
As Matthew Cobb makes clear from the outset “the vast majority
of French people did little or nothing to oppose Vichy and the
Occupation” by the Germans after May 1940. Maybe up to half a
million people (2%) were involved in the resistance one way or
another and about 100,000 résistants are estimated to have been
executed, killed in combat or to have died in camps. But those who
resisted showed extraordinary courage as well as mind-boggling
organisational naivety.
read more...
Thu 18, June 2009 @ 17:50
A revolutionary party that breaks out of the ghetto of the
French far left: that was the promise on offer at the February
launch of the new anti-capitalist party in Paris. Christina Duval
was there, listened to the debates and interviewed local activists.
This is was she made of it The French Ligue Communiste
Révolutionnaire (LCR) is no more.
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Mon 01, June 2009 @ 23:03
Yes, of course. I think that the conference has been very rich.
It’s a conference where, the opening towards those who have a
different past to ours, who think differently has, at the end of
the day been an excellent choice. Beforehand, even for the
LCR...
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Thu 19, February 2009 @ 21:11
Until very recently you
probably wouldn't have known from reading the mainstream press in
the English-speaking world, but two of France's remaining colonial
outposts are in the throes of the most militant struggles seen for
at least two generations. More than a fortnight before some two
million took to the streets of mainland France's cities and towns,
strike action had begun to rock 'l'outre-mer'. George Binette
reports on the general strikes, which have rocked the islands of
Guadeloupe and Martinique
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Sun 08, February 2009 @ 21:45
This
weekend, nearly 700 delegates met at an exhibition centre in the
north of Paris to vote on the founding documents of a new left
party in France, writes Tina Purcell. After more than a year of
preparation, the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste, has finally been
launched. The NPA looks set to change the face of left
politics in France, particularly in the current context of economic
crisis and the ongoing struggles of workers and youth to resist
plans by the government and bosses to offload the crisis onto the
working class...
read more...
Thu 29, January 2009 @ 22:10
Today’s general strike in France showed yet again that the
French working class can serve as a beacon for workers throughout
Europe and beyond, writes Tina Purcell. In an magnificent show of
strength, over two million workers took to the streets to say
enough is enough! From older workers faced with poverty in
retirement to young students fearful of their future opportunities,
from highly skilled technicians.
read more...
Tue 02, December 2008 @ 17:48
In January this year, at its national congress, the Ligue
Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR) voted to launch a campaign for new
anti-capitalist party, the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA).
Since then, the activity of the LCR has been focused on building
local committees which are to form the basis of the party. The
founding conference is due to take place early next year, after
which time the LCR will cease to exist.
read more...
Sat 04, October 2008 @ 13:24
It started as a row over female access to male student
bedrooms. Within a month student unrest led to barricades in Paris
and 10 million workers on strike. The posters claimed ‘everything
is possible’ but what was actually achieved? Christine Duval and
Emile Gallet recall the momentous events of May 68 and the left’s
role
read more...
Tue 13, May 2008 @ 21:13
France, May 1968 – ‘Everything was possible’
At the start of 1968 France had 550,000 students, well over a third of them located in Paris. Their numbers had nearly tripled since 1960. This spectacular growth was a reflection of the changing needs of French capitalism, which had undergone a feverish technological renewal in the 10 years following de Gaulle’s seizure of power in 1958….writes Emile Gallet…
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Sun 04, May 2008 @ 13:50
Over the past three years France has been in the forefront of the European class struggle. The mass strikes and street demonstrations of November and December 1995 and the lorry drivers’ strikes and blockades in succeeding years crippled and discredited the right wing government of Alain Juppé. This led to victory for the Socialist Party (PS) and Communist Party (PCF) in last June’s elections.
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Fri 02, May 2008 @ 00:18
International Workers Day provided the opportunity for French workers and youth to demonstrate that the fighting spirit of May 68 is still alive and kicking in France, despite President Sarkozy’s desire to shut the door on legacy of that magnificent moment in working class history, writes Christina Duval.
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Thu 10, April 2008 @ 21:05
The spirit of May 1968 was alive on the streets of France today, writes Christina Duval, as tens of thousands of school students took to the streets to defend France’s education system against Nicolas Sarkozy’s neo-liberal attacks.
read more...
Tue 18, March 2008 @ 17:47
Less that a year ago, Nicolas Sarkozy was celebrating his victory in the French presidential election. This weekend French voters delivered a resounding no to his rampant neo-liberal policies, as the PS took power from the right in number of key towns and departments writes Christina Duval.
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Mon 03, March 2008 @ 19:40
Despite large-scale strike action in France in November it seems the government has won the first round in the struggle between French workers and President Nicolas Sarkozy. This is not because of any brilliant tactical manoeuvres by Sarkozy, but due to the action of the union leaderships which, right from the outset, were determined to prevent a massive strike wave.
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Fri 04, January 2008 @ 23:28
Whilst the French president has spent the seasonal break showing off his new girlfriend, the Italian-born ex-super model Carla Bruni, other less well-connected immigrants have been having a bleaker Christmas, writes Christina Duval.
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Tue 01, January 2008 @ 19:57
The fortieth anniversary of the Paris 1968 revolt, will no doubt see endless repeats of old time TV news footage showing ranks of black and white stone throwing students facing down the Paris CRS riot cops.....writes Keith Hassell....
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Thu 22, November 2007 @ 19:34
Christina Duval, in Paris, argues that Le Pen can be defeated not by the left’s existing strategies but by mass mobilisations
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Fri 16, November 2007 @ 10:25
Transport workers in France have gone on strike for the second time this autumn against the government’s plans to destroy their pension rights, writes Christina Duval.
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Sat 10, November 2007 @ 12:58
Thousands of French students have been taking part in general meetings around the country and voting to strike and occupy their universities against government plans to give business more control over higher education. Barricades have been set up in dozens of universities, in some cases riot police have been sent in to clear the students out, writes Christina Duval.
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Fri 19, October 2007 @ 01:52
It looks like Sarkozy's honeymoon period is fast coming to an end, in more ways than one, writes Christina Duval. On the same day that news pundits obsessed with the announcement that the French president is to divorce from his wife, French transport workers flexed their muscles in a magnificent show of force against Sarko's plans to attack their pension rights. With a solid 95% turnout amongst SNCF workers, today's strike was even stronger than in 1995 when a rightwing government last tried to meddle with their pensions.
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Tue 16, October 2007 @ 13:42
On Thursday 18 October six transport, energy and education unions will strike and take the streets to try and derail President Sarkozy's plans to end the pension rights of half a million public sector workers. Keith Harvey says the stakes are higher than in previous rounds of struggle in 1995 and 2003 and the unions' leaders are a big obstacles to the workers' chance of success.
read more...
Mon 08, October 2007 @ 18:55
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Thu 12, July 2007 @ 22:31
France has been rocked by mass struggles in recent years – against the European Constitution, attacks on youth employment rights, and against racism and police repression. But they failed to produce a presidential candidate to represent the struggles of workers and youth that the left could unite around. Christina Duval looks at the contenders on the left and right of the political spectrum.
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Tue 10, July 2007 @ 23:53
In July 1789 bread prices were at their highest since 1709. Back in April wage earners had erupted in what was the purest expression in the years of the Revolution of a revolt of labour against capital. Wallpaper manufacturer Reveillon and powder manufacturer Herriot both made speeches lamenting their high wage bills.
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Thu 10, May 2007 @ 20:49
Sarkozy has won the French presidential contest. While his government is still taking shape, his intentions are clear: longer hours at work, less rights while there, and a weakened trade union movement. Keith Harvey looks at the prospects for the class struggle over the summer.
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Mon 23, April 2007 @ 21:29
As the results of the first round of the French presidential elections were announced, Sarko sounded like Sego. Nicolas Sarkozy, safe in the knowledge that he had succeeded in reducing the FN’s vote to under 11%, set about the task of wooing the 18.5% who voted for the “centrist” Francois Bayrou, writes Christina Duval.
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Sat 17, February 2007 @ 20:54
If the latest polls are anything to go by, Ségolène Royal is fast losing her chances of becoming France’s first woman president. Nicolas Sarkozy, the candidate of the right and current interior minister, is 10 points ahead of the Socialist Party’s candidate, at 55%, and likely to beat Royal in a second round run-off, writes Christina Duval.
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Sun 14, January 2007 @ 14:49
This article looks at the period following the Mulhouse congress. Here we see Trotsky arguing for the need to leave the SFIO and construct an independent party. This new turn was, as with the entry in 1934, resisted by an important fraction of the French Section - that led by Raymond Molinier and Pierre Frank.
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Sun 14, January 2007 @ 14:47
IN THE MANY probes, investigations, and background pieces printed in the bourgeois and social democratic press preparatory to the witch hunt endless references have been made to entrism (or entryism).
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Mon 01, January 2007 @ 13:50
Europe in the 1930s was reeling under the combined impact of economic depression and acute social upheavals. The fascists had conquered power in Italy and Germany, defeating the strongest working class movement in the world as they did so. Against this background the working class of France, in 1936, rose up in a massive strike movement - one that had the potential to alter the balance of forces in favour of the working class on a European scale...writes Gen D.
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Sun 26, November 2006 @ 17:58
There is no shortage of academics and journalists trying to make the two hundredth anniversary of the Great French Revolution an orgy of so-called refutations of the Marxist interpretation of the French Revolution. The London Economist launched its New Year issue with a hymn of praise to “revisionist” historians who had, at last, laid the ghost of Marx to rest. The European edition of Newsweek treated its readers to an eight page survey of the revisionist school’s critique of Marxism under the title “The Decline of the Left—rethinking the Revolution”.
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Sun 26, November 2006 @ 17:48
Mathieu Roux examines the role of France’s two main “Trotskyist” organisations: Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Fight) and the LCR (Revolutionary Communist League).
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Sun 19, November 2006 @ 22:55
There is good chance that the next president of France could be a woman. Following a campaign fought out for the most part in the media, members of the Parti Socialiste (PS) have voted overwhelmingly to endorse Ségolène Royal as their presidential candidate in next year’s presidential election, writes Christina Duval.
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Mon 09, October 2006 @ 18:50
For three weeks in December French workers took to the streets in mass protests, strikes and occupations. Paul Morris explains the events and their aftermath. Mathieu Roux of Pouvoir Ouvrier (French section of the LRCI) examines the response of the French left. We also print translations taken from the bulletins and newspapers issued by Pouvoir Ouvrier during the strikes.
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Sun 06, August 2006 @ 20:01
“Everything was possible”—May ’68
Trotskyist International No. 11, May-August 1993
A quarter of a century after France was rocked by the biggest general strike in European history, Emile Gallet recalls the events and examines the actions of the left.
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