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The New Anticapitalist Party ( , NPA ) is a
far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...
political party in France founded in February 2009. The party launched with 9,200 members and was intended to unify the fractured movements of the French radical Left, and attract new activists drawing on the combined strength of far-left parties in the 2002 presidential elections, where they achieved 10.44% of the vote and 7% in
2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
. The political party is closely associated with postal worker Olivier Besancenot, the main spokesman of the former
Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...
party, the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), the NPA's main predecessor. In March 2011, and were elected the main spokespersons of the NPA. In May 2012, Myriam Martin supported the candidate of the Left Front,
Jean-Luc Mélenchon Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon (; born 19 August 1951) is a French politician who has been the ''de facto'' leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) since it was established in 2016. He was the Deputy (France), deputy in the National Assembly ( ...
in the 2012 presidential election instead of the NPA candidate, a worker and union activist at Ford's car plant in Bordeaux, Philippe Poutou, who came eighth in the first round with 411,160 votes, 1.15% of the total votes. She left the NPA in July 2012. In December 2022, it the party split into two roughly equal groups. Two main reasons for the split are to end to the internal disagreements that have plagued the NPA for many years and to employ different strategies towards NUPES (the New Ecological and Social People's Union).


Founding conference

At the founding conference (6 to 8 February 2009), 630 delegates voted on a series of documents, which had gone through a long process of amendment and re-amendment in local and regional assemblies. * The first document "Founding principles" detailed the party's analysis of the impasse of capitalism and the need for both mass mobilization, and, in the long term, the overthrowing of existing institutions. * The second document was the provisional rulebook, which will remain in effect until the next conference. * The third document was the Perspectives document, which attempted to set out priorities for the year ahead, and key demands to be pushed for in the immediate future. * Finally, a document on the European elections expressed the attitude of the party towards the June European elections. A number of contentious issues within the party, especially those relating to secularism, religion, and Islamophobia, were left open for further debate, leading to a number of difficulties and a tendency to devote considerable time and energy on internal debates, rather than activity. The party's name was originally intended to be temporary; a vote on the name was held at the founding congress, where NPA won over "Revolutionary Anticapitalist Party" (''Parti anticapitaliste révolutionnaire'') with 53% of the vote.''Le Monde'' (Paris), 9 November 2008


Structure

Besancenot has stated that it has no single leader and is instead run collectively, being represented by elected spokespersons. The basic structure of the party is the local committee, which organises local activities. A National Political Council decides on general policy. Delegates to the Council are elected at the congress on a proportional basis, ensuring the representation of different tendencies or platforms.


Ideology

The party's stated aim is to "build a new socialist, democratic perspective for the twenty-first century". Olivier Besancenot has said that the party will be " the left that leads anticapitalist, internationalist, antiracist,
ecologist Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...
,
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
struggles, opposing all forms of
discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...
". The LCR's distinctive identification with
Trotskyism Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...
was not continued by the NPA. Unlike in previous LCR documents, although feminism is very present, patriarchy theory is not mentioned. Such issues as the withdrawal of French troops from
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
, a rise 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. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...
and public services, however, are accepted by all members of the NPA. The party's candidate for the
2022 French presidential election Presidential elections were held in France on 10 and 24 April 2022. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a Two-round system, runoff was held, in which Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen and was re-elected as President of France. ...
, Philippe Poutou, said in an interview for Franceinfo that he would amnesty all "political prisoners" if elected, such as members of the FLNC and
ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...
, and condemned France's "colonial attitude" in both
Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...
and The Basque Country.


Alliances and splits

Debate continues within the NPA about what sort of alliances with other groups are acceptable. The majority of militants emphasize the dangers of allying with forces which are likely to end up in joint local or national governments with 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 ...
(PS). A minority believes there is work to be done in wide alliances with antiliberal parties of the left, such as the Party of the Left (PG). In January 2009, the NPA signed a joint declaration with several other parties of the left, calling for the building of the 29 January national strike. A minority (16%) claimed that such unity in the
strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...
movements means sufficient basis can be found for joint slates at the
European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until 2019, 751 ...
, while the majority made a sharp distinction between alliances for social movements and electoral alliances. The party received 4.98% of the vote in the European election. Discussions were held in the course of 2009 with other parties to the left of the PS, concerning the possibility of joint slates for the regional elections in 2010. Finally, the NPA presented independent lists in a majority of regions, but joined the Left Front in three regions, and the Left Party in two others. Since its foundation, the NPA has suffered a number of breakaways, and by the beginning of 2015 total membership had declined to 2,100, compared with 9,200 at the time of its Founding Conference in February 2009. In addition to the loss of individual members, three organised groups have left the party in order to join the Left Front: Gauche Unitaire in 2009, Convergences et Alternative in 2011, and the largest of the three,
Anticapitalist left Anticapitalistas (, , ), known as Izquierda Anticapitalista (Anti-Capitalist Left, IA) until January 2015 and as Espacio Alternativo (Alternative Space, EA) from 1995 to November 2008, is a socialist political organisation that works as a confe ...
(''Gauche Anticapitaliste'') in July 2012. In addition, failure to reach the required level of support in the presidential and parliamentary elections has deprived the party of state funding, leading to a financial crisis. As a result of these setbacks, the NPA is engaged in an internal debate with the aim of refounding the party and reforming its internal structures. However, the NPA continues to be active in various social movements. It produces a weekly newspaper, ''Tout est à nous !'' (originating as a slogan to be chanted on demonstrations, the name roughly translates as "Everything Belongs to Us!") and a monthly magazine of the same name. In December 2013, the Revolutionary Marxists faction in the
Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) was a political international established in France in 1938 by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union and the Communist International (also known as Comintern or the Third Inte ...
declared the Anticapitalism and Revolution current in the NPA and criticized the reformist orientation of the party. In June 2021, almost 300 members of the Revolutionary Communist Current faction (''Courante Communiste Révolutionnaire'', CCR) left the party after being excluded from participating in the NPA congress and national conference, and the rejection of the pre-candidacy of CCR member Anasse Kazib as the NPA nominee for the
2022 French presidential election Presidential elections were held in France on 10 and 24 April 2022. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a Two-round system, runoff was held, in which Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen and was re-elected as President of France. ...
. The NPA was in discussion to join the
New Ecologic and Social People's Union New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
(NUPES) for the
2022 French legislative election Legislative elections in France, Legislative elections were held in France on 12 and 19 June 2022 to elect the 577 Deputy (France), members of the 16th National Assembly (France), National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic. Th ...
. After the PS joined the union, the NPA announced it would not enter the coalition due to insurmountable ideological differences with the PS; they also said they would support the coalition's more radical left-wing candidates. In December 2022, the party, at the 5th congress, announced the departure of an un-specified group of people from many of the different splits and individual sectors inside the party. The new direction of the party follows "Platform B", an organisation plan aimed at being the framework of the future of the party, having gained 48% of the votes on the voted where other 2 alternative frameworks were proposed. It has been announced as of 11 December 2022 that the NPA's majority would follow the lead of the most prominent figures in the group, like Philippe Poutou, Olivier Besancenot, Christine Poupin and Pauline Salingue. The party has also announced a new meeting on 17 January 2023, aimed at clearing up some of the concerns regarding the future of the party and how exactly the split will affect its course.


Hijab controversy

The NPA announced in February 2010 that it was fielding Ilham Moussaïd, a
Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
woman, as its candidate in
Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...
for that year's regional elections. The party's decision was met with criticism from "across the political spectrum" in France, as Moussaïd wears a
hijab Hijab (, ) refers to head coverings worn by Women in Islam, Muslim women. Similar to the mitpaḥat/tichel or Snood (headgear), snood worn by religious married Jewish women, certain Christian head covering, headcoverings worn by some Christian w ...
(a headscarf worn by Muslim women) and the announcement came amidst a national debate regarding the wearing of hijabs in public areas. A few weeks prior to the announcement, the NPA denounced bans on hijabs as " Islamophobic and draconian". Tony Todd of
France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned publicly funded international news television network based in Paris. Its channels, broadcast in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb ...
described the party's decision to field Moussaïd as "radical pragmatism" aimed at securing votes from France's Muslim community."Far-left party reveals ‘veiled’ female candidate"
France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned publicly funded international news television network based in Paris. Its channels, broadcast in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb ...
, 3 February 2010.
Moussaïd describes herself as "feminist, secular, and veiled"; however, critics of Moussaïd argue that hijabs are an affront to women and incompatible with Moussaïd's values. In response, Moussaïd stated in March 2010:


Election results


Legislative elections


President


See also

*
Criticism of capitalism Criticism of capitalism typically ranges from expressing disagreement with particular aspects or outcomes of capitalism to rejecting the principles of the capitalist system in its entirety. Criticism comes from various political and philosophic ...
*
Lutte Ouvrière Lutte Ouvrière (, ) is a Trotskyist communist party in France, named after its weekly paper. Arlette Laguiller was the party's spokeswoman from 1973 to 2008 and ran in each presidential election until 2012, when Nathalie Arthaud was the candi ...


References


Sources


"Le Nouveau parti anticapitaliste d'Olivier Besancenot est lancé"
Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 c ...
, 29 June 2008
"'Le Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste ne doit pas être une LCR relookée'"
''
Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...
'', 30 June 2008
"Le Nouveau parti anticapitaliste, c'est parti"
,
Radio France Internationale Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the State media, state-owned international radio news network of France. With 59.5 million listeners in 2022, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world ...
, 30 June 2008
Interview (in English) of one activist by the Daily Maybe

Ongoing coverage on the NPA in LINKS (in English)

Anticapitalism and Revolution current in the NPA
{{Authority control 2009 establishments in France Anti-capitalist political parties Anti-globalization political parties Alter-globalization Eurosceptic parties in France Far-left politics in France Green political parties in France Political parties established in 2009 Political parties of the French Fifth Republic Socialist feminist parties Socialist parties in France Trotskyist parties