Arlette Yvonne Laguiller (born 18 March 1940) is a French politician. From 1973 to 2008, she was the spokeswoman and the best-known leader and presidential nominee of

Lutte Ouvrière The French Trotskyist political party Union Communiste (Communist Union) is usually known as Lutte Ouvrière (Workers' Struggle, ), after the name of its weekly paper. Arlette Laguiller has been the party's spokeswoman since 1973 and ran in each ...

(LO),

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 ...

political party.

Career

Born at

Les Lilas Les Lilas () is a commune in the northern-eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. History The commune of Les Lilas (literally "the lilacs") was created on 24 July 1867 by detaching a part of the territory of ...

Seine-Saint-Denis () is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as ' or ' ("ninety-three" or "nine three"), after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bobig ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, Arlette became a clerical worker in a bank. She was a member of the CGT until 1965 when she was expelled for her Trotskyist views. She joined ''Lutte Ouvrière'' in 1968. She became the leader of a 1974 bank workers'

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

that began with the actions of employees at

Crédit Lyonnais The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th c ...

. She continues to live in a council high-rise in Les Lilas and her only income is her pension from the bank where she worked for 40 years. She has been a frequent candidate for the French presidency, starting with the election of 1974, and continuing through those of

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, 2002, and 2007. During most of these, Laguiller was the only female candidate and was the first female candidate to the French presidency in 1974. Her best result was in 2002 when she came in fifth place and received 5.72% of the vote. In December 2005, Laguiller announced that she would run for president for the sixth and final time in 2007. After finishing a distant ninth in 2007's first round of voting (487,857 votes, totaling 1.33% of the popular vote), for the first time since 1981, she endorsed 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 t ...

candidate (

Ségolène Royal Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election. Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 201 ...

) for the second round. In the past, Laguiller and LO have often refrained from openly supporting the Socialist Party and take a neutral stance in the second round.

Popular culture

Arlette Laguiller 384133733 b384cfaee6 o d cropped

The

puppet show Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performan ...

Les Guignols de l'info ''Les Guignols'' (, ''The Puppets''), formerly ''Les Guignols de l'info'' (, ''The News Puppets''), was a daily satirical latex puppet show broadcast on the French television channel Canal+. It was created in 1988, inspired by '' Le Bébête Sh ...

'' frequently caricatured Laguiller as saying, "''Travailleuses, travailleurs ! On vous ment, on vous spolie !''" ("Female workers, male workers! You are being lied to, you are being robbed!"). Laguiller indeed did begin most of her speeches with the formula, "''Travailleuses, travailleurs!''". In 1995, pop singer

Alain Souchon Alain Souchon (; born Alain Édouard Kienast ; 27 May 1944) is a French singer-songwriter and actor. He has released 15 albums and has played roles in seven films. Profile Alain Souchon was born in Casablanca, Morocco. His family on his mother ...

recorded the song ''Arlette Laguiller'', commenting that, "''Her words, of course, maybe a little worn-out''," but praising her "''peppermint-fresh''" way of expressing them, and indicating that, "''When Arlette sings, you feel a real sense of love''." He has since lost his soft spot for Laguiller after she refused to back Jacques Chirac against

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 2002 presidential election and has stated that he won't sing the song again. Although, in 2008 Laguiller mentioned that Souchon had started singing the song again.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine

References

External links

Official campaign web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laguiller, Arlette 1940 births Living people People from Les Lilas Unified Socialist Party (France) politicians Lutte Ouvrière politicians Candidates in the 2007 French presidential election Candidates in the 2002 French presidential election Candidates in the 1995 French presidential election Candidates in the 1988 French presidential election Candidates in the 1981 French presidential election Candidates in the 1974 French presidential election Workers' Struggle MEPs MEPs for France 1999–2004 20th-century women MEPs for France 21st-century women MEPs for France Politicians from Paris