Olivier Christophe Besancenot (; born 18 April 1974) is a French left-wing political figure and trade unionist, and the founding main spokesperson of the
New Anticapitalist Party
The New Anticapitalist Party (french: Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste , abbreviated NPA) is a far-left political party in France founded in February 2009. The party launched with 9,200 members and was intended to unify the fractured movements o ...
(''Nouveau parti anticapitaliste'', NPA) from 2009 to 2011.
He was a candidate for the
2007 French presidential election
Presidential elections in France, Presidential elections were held in France on 21 and 22 April 2007 to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as President of the French Republic, president of France (and ''ex officio'' Co-Prince of Andorra) for ...
, for the ''
Ligue communiste révolutionnaire
The Revolutionary Communist League (french: Ligue communiste révolutionnaire, ''LCR'') was a Trotskyist political party in France. It was the French section of the Fourth International (Post-Reunification). It published the weekly newspaper ''R ...
'' (LCR), the French section of the
Fourth International. He gained 1.2 million votes, 4.25%, standing as a
revolutionary socialist
Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revoluti ...
in the
2002 presidential elections. In the first round of the
2007 presidential election
This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...
, Besancenot received 4.08% of the vote, just short of 1.5 million votes, placing him fifth and eliminating him from the race.
In May 2011, Besancenot announced that he would not be standing in the
2012 presidential election
This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*3–4 January: E ...
. He was succeeded as main spokesperson of the NPA by
Myriam Martin, who later left the NPA to found Gauche Anticapitaliste (Anticapitalist Left), and
Christine Poupin, joined by Philippe Poutou, who was the NPA presidential candidate in 2012.
Biography
Olivier Besancenot was born on 18 April 1974 in
Levallois-Perret in the
Hauts-de-Seine
Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a Departments of France, département in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, Northern France. It covers Paris's western inner Banlieue, suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the e ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
. His father was a teacher, and his mother a
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
at a school.
He studied
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
at
University of Paris X (Nanterre), gaining a
degree
Degree may refer to:
As a unit of measurement
* Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement
** Degree of geographical latitude
** Degree of geographical longitude
* Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics
...
in contemporary history. Since 1997, he has worked as a
postal carrier
A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...
in
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...
, a suburb of Paris, and is often dismissed by his
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
opponents as "The Red Postman".
Stance
Along with
Alain Krivine
Alain Krivine (; 10 July 1941 – 12 March 2022) was a French Trotskyist leader.
Early life
Krivine was born in July 1941 in Paris, France, the child of Pierre Léon Georges Krivine, a stomatologist, and Esther Lautman, the sister of French ...
and
Roseline Vachetta
Roseline Vachetta (born 12 December 1951 in Le Mans) is a French Trotskyist politician.
She became a member of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) and in 1999 was elected to the European Parliament. She lost her seat in 2004, , Besancenot was one of three spokespersons for the ''Ligue communiste révolutionnaire'' (LCR), a far-left political party which is the French section of the
reunified Fourth International, an international
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
group.
Besancenot, however, eschews the Trotskyist label:
:I'm neither Trotskyist nor
Guevarist
Guevarism is a theory of communist revolution and a military strategy of guerrilla warfare associated with Marxist–Leninist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a leading figure of the Cuban Revolution who believed in the idea of Marxism–Len ...
or
Luxemburgist
Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat pa ...
, I'm a revolutionary. And revolution needs to be reinvented, for no revolutionary experiment has ever succeeded. Some of them ended up as bloody caricatures.
Political life
Besancenot's engagement in left-wing politics started early. He joined the
Revolutionary Communist Youth Revolutionary Communist Youth may refer to:
* Revolutionary Communist Youth (Argentina)
* Revolutionary Communist Youth (Norway)
*Revolutionary Communist Youth (Sweden)
* ''Jeunesse communiste révolutionnaire'', a French Trotskyist organisation fo ...
(''Jeunesses communistes révolutionnaires'', or JCR) in 1988 when he was fourteen.
When at university studying for his history ''
licence
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
'', he formed a branch of the
Confédération générale du travail
The General Confederation of Labour (french: Confédération Générale du Travail, CGT) is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.
It is t ...
trade union in the supermarket,
Shopi, where he worked.
In 1991, he joined the LCR. Since 1997, he has been a member of the
Sud-PTT
Sud-PTT is a French trade union created in fall 1988 after the exclusion of more radical elements from the CFDT- PTT. CFDT is a union generally considered as the most open for negotiation and reforms. It is sometimes criticized for this approach, ...
trade union. He took a break from his job at the postal services in 1999 and 2000 to serve as a parliamentary attaché to Alain Krivine in the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
.
In 2001 and 2002, he participated in the
World Social Forum at
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...
.
He gained national prominence when he stood for the
2002 French presidential election
Presidential elections were held in France on 21 April 2002, with a runoff election between the top two candidates, incumbent Jacques Chirac of the Rally for the Republic and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front, on 5 May. This presidential ...
. At twenty-eight, he was the youngest presidential candidate in the country's history. Standing on a
revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.
...
socialist platform, he gained 1.3 million votes, 4.25% of the total. Among voters under the age of 25, he gained 13.9 percent, beating
Lionel Jospin and
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015.
Le Pen graduated fro ...
. In the run-up to the second round of voting, Besancenot urged voters to ensure that the far-right Le Pen did not gain power, by re-electing
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...
, despite his own misgivings about Chirac's political positions.
Besancenot ran again for the
2007 presidential election
This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...
. His slogan throughout the campaign was "Nos vies valent plus que leurs profits" ("Our lives are worth more than their profits"); and he campaigned for
redistribution of wealth
Redistribution of income and wealth is the transfer of income and wealth (including physical property) from some individuals to others through a social mechanism such as taxation, welfare, public services, land reform, monetary policies, confisc ...
, an increase in the
minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...
, prohibition of layoffs for profitable companies, and taxation of profits from capital speculation. He stood for political and electoral independence of the
anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economi ...
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right
* L ...
from the
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...
(''Parti Socialiste'', PS), and against its participation in a centre-left government. Besancenot was endorsed by British filmmaker
Ken Loach, known for depictions of working-class struggles. His campaign's closing rally, in Paris, was attended by 4,000, the largest meeting organised by the LCR or its predecessors since 1968. Besancenot gained 1,498,581 votes or 4.08%, around 300,000 votes more than 2002.
He is the first in votes and in dominant position among candidates to the left of the Socialist Party's candidate,
Ségolène Royal. For the second round of the elections, Besancenot, after calling for participation, stated that, "On 6 May, we will be on the side of those who want to prevent Nicolas Sarkozy from attaining the presidency of the republic. It is not a matter of supporting Ségolène Royal, but voting against Nicolas Sarkozy.", fighting the Right in the street as well as at the ballot boxes.
[ After the victory of Sarkozy in the second round, Besancenot and LCR call for "a ]united front
A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...
of all the social and democratic forces ..to organise a response faced to the extreme neoliberal and repressive programme of Sarkozy."
This led, in June 2008, to the launching of the New Anticapitalist Party
The New Anticapitalist Party (french: Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste , abbreviated NPA) is a far-left political party in France founded in February 2009. The party launched with 9,200 members and was intended to unify the fractured movements o ...
(''Nouveau parti anticapitaliste'', NPA), intended to unify the parties and movements of the far left. The party aims to field its first electoral candidates at the 2009 EU parliamentary elections. Whilst plans were being put in place for the formation of this party, Besancenot was able to capitalise on the infighting occurring in the PS in the summer of 2008, as its members prepared to convene at La Rochelle
La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. With ...
for their annual party leadership contest. His popularity continued to increase, as he remonstrated the PS for focusing its attention on him, and not the incumbent president, Sarkozy. Besancenot told French TV, a medium in which he found himself in greater demand, that, "It's up to the population to get there orce a revolutionone way or another"; he also told a LCR conference that the left had been failing in its opposition.[ One poll showed Besancenot's approval rating to be at 47%, far exceeding two of the main candidates for the PS leadership, Royal (35%) and ]François Hollande
François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...
(31%). It was suggested in some media that, were Besancenot and the NPA to convert their popularity into votes (gaining up to a 7 or 8 per cent share), a splintering of the left-wing in France between Marxists and pro-marketeers, similar to that which occurred at the 2002 presidential elections, could happen.
The "Besancenot affair"
In October 2008, seven people – including the leader of the Taser France company, the two leaders of a private detective agency, two police officers, a retired police officer, a customs officer, and one other person – were arrested and charged with several offences related to their having allegedly spied on Besancenot and his family, including the illicit divulging of information on his private life, the violation of professional secrecy, and "fraudulent access to automated data processing systems". They were accused of having spied on them between October 2007 and January 2008. The "Besancenot affair", as it was called, received significant media attention. ''Libération
''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France's ...
'' commented, the day before the charges were confirmed: "A businessman who sells weapons to the Ministry of the Interior arrested, that's very disorderly. Particularly when he may be suspected of having had one of the most prominent politicians tailed by a private company directed by a former police officer.""Le patron de Taser , un drôle de pistolet"
''Libération'', 15 October 2008
Published works
*''Tout est à nous !'' (2002), , Denoël
*''Révolution ! 100 mots pour changer le monde'' (2003), , Flammarion Flammarion may refer to:
* Camille Flammarion (1842–1925), French astronomer and author
* Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion (1877–1962), French astronomer, wife of Camille Flammarion
* Flammarion engraving by unknown artist; appeared in a book by C ...
*''Che Guevara: His Revolutionary Legacy'' (2009), , Monthly Review Press, with Michael Löwy.
*''Prenons Parti pour un socialisme du XXIe siècle'' (2009), Mille et une nuits, with Daniel Bensaïd
Daniel Bensaïd (25 March 1946 – 12 January 2010) was a philosopher and a leader of the Trotskyist movement in France. He became a leading figure in the student revolt of 1968, while studying at the University of Paris X: Nanterre.
Life and ...
.
See also
*Ligue communiste révolutionnaire
The Revolutionary Communist League (french: Ligue communiste révolutionnaire, ''LCR'') was a Trotskyist political party in France. It was the French section of the Fourth International (Post-Reunification). It published the weekly newspaper ''R ...
(LCR)
*The reunified Fourth International
*New Anticapitalist Party
The New Anticapitalist Party (french: Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste , abbreviated NPA) is a far-left political party in France founded in February 2009. The party launched with 9,200 members and was intended to unify the fractured movements o ...
*Sud-PTT
Sud-PTT is a French trade union created in fall 1988 after the exclusion of more radical elements from the CFDT- PTT. CFDT is a union generally considered as the most open for negotiation and reforms. It is sometimes criticized for this approach, ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Besancenot, Olivier
1974 births
Living people
People from Levallois-Perret
Revolutionary Communist League (France) politicians
New Anticapitalist Party politicians
Mail carriers
Members of the General Confederation of Labour (France)
Anti-corporate activists
Candidates in the 2007 French presidential election
Espionage scandals and incidents
French political writers
21st-century French writers
French male writers
University of Paris alumni
Candidates in the 2002 French presidential election
Politicians from Île-de-France