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Lutte Ouvrière (, ) is a
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 ...
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 Nathalie Yvonne Thérèse Arthaud (; born 23 February 1970) is a French secondary school ( lycée) economics teacher and politician. Since 2008, she has served as the spokesperson for the Lutte Ouvrière (Workers' Struggle), a communist party, ...
was the candidate. Robert Barcia (Hardy) was its founder and central leader. Lutte Ouvrière is a member of the Internationalist Communist Union. It emphasises workplace activity and has been critical of such recent phenomena as
alter-globalization Alter-globalization (also known as alter-globo, alternative globalization or alter-mundialization—from the French alter- mondialisation) is a social movement whose proponents support global cooperation and interaction, but oppose what they desc ...
.


History

Its origins lie in the tiny Trotskyist Group founded in 1939 by David Korner (Barta). This developed factory work throughout the war and was instrumental in the
Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...
strike of 1947, along with the
anarcho-syndicalists Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchism, anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade uni ...
. The group was exhausted by this effort and collapsed in 1952. After attempts to revive the Trotskyist Group, Voix Ouvrière was founded in 1956 by Robert Barcia, known as Hardy and the group's pre-eminent leader, and by Pierre Bois, a leading activist in the Renault plant. Effort was made to involve Barta but disputes between him, Hardy and Bois prevented it. VO established itself through the 1960s by producing mass factory bulletins, usually weekly. The Communist Party of France (PCF) retained its hegemonic position within the workers' movement in France and its members sometimes tried to prevent the distribution of VO bulletins. In part this explains the continued use of semi-clandestine operation within VO and in LO today. After being banned due to its support of the Students Revolt of May '68, the group became Lutte Ouvrière.


Since the 1970s

An ongoing issue is the possibility and conditions of cooperation with fellow Trotskyist party the Revolutionary Communist League, the French section of 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 ...
. In 1970, LO initiated fusion discussions with the LC (as the LCR was then called). After extensive discussions, the two organisations had agreed the basis for a fused organisation. However, the fusion was not completed. In 1976 discussions between the Ligue and Lutte Ouvrière progressed again. The two organisations started to produce a common weekly supplement to their newspapers, common electoral work and other common campaigning. Since then on occasions the two organizations have stood joint candidates at some elections. LO has made great efforts to stand in elections either on its own or in an alliance with the LCR. As a result, Arlette Laguiller has become well known to the public as LO's perennial presidential candidate. The early 1970s also saw two breakaways from Lutte Ouvrière. The first such split, in 1974 in Bordeaux, took the name l'Union Ouvrière, but rapidly disintegrated, so much so that when another small split group that developed a year later expected to be able to fuse with l'Union Ouvrière, it found it had already disappeared and were forced to form their own organisation as a consequence. This new group, Combat Communiste, evolved into Socialisme International, an affiliate of the International Socialist Tendency. Another more recent breakaway developed after Arlette Laguiller's relatively high electoral results in the 1990s and LO's statement that this meant that a new workers' party was a possibility. This statement, as well as a dispute over the personal code members were expected to abide by, led to the departure of over a hundred members to form the Voix des Travailleurs group. This later fused with another smaller group but has more recently joined the Revolutionary Communist League as a recognised faction. In the period up to 2008, a minority faction existed within LO and appeared publicly, although its supporters were segregated in their own cells. LO has gained critique for their position on the 2004 French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools. André Victor written in his article ''Islamic Hijab and the Subjugation of Women'' 25 April 2003 that "Sarkozy has spoken out against hijab on passport photos, and presumably earned the approval of millions of voters, which was probably the real purpose of this exercise in demagoguery". It considers that "The real problem is that wearing the hijab, visible sign of the subjugation of women to their husband, father, brother or men in general, has been the subject of a political campaign of organizations present in fundamentalist migrant groups to impose their law within them, especially women. ... Therefore this policy leads to increase the weight of the most reactionary religious authorities within the immigrant population". While considering the law as ''hypocrite'', LO stated that "For teachers, not accepting hijab, - particularly in the classroom, - means to support women in their family and social environment, attempting to resist the machismo". Following the very low score of Arlette Laguiller in the first round of the April–May 2007 presidential election (1,33%, compared to 5,72% in 2002), the party was left with a debt of €1.4 million. According to Michel Rodinson, a party official, the campaign cost was in total €2 million (800,000 of which are paid by the state). The rent of the
Zenith The zenith (, ) is the imaginary point on the celestial sphere directly "above" a particular location. "Above" means in the vertical direction (Vertical and horizontal, plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The z ...
for meetings in Paris, as well as the December political poster campaign, account for most of the expenses. In the local elections in 2008, Lutte Ouvrière broke with tradition by joining the Socialist Party-led slates by the first round of the elections in a number of towns, preferring this tactic to the more usual option of cooperating with other far left groups to run a joint election campaign. Because an organized minority faction called "L'Étincelle" supported some lists running against lists supported by the party leadership, Lutte Ouvrière suspended the faction from the organization in February 2008; the faction was expelled in September 2008. The faction has agreed to take part in the initial stages of the
New Anticapitalist Party The New Anticapitalist Party ( , 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 of the French radical Left, and attract new activ ...
set up by the LCR with others, though this may not be a long-term strategy, with one member explaining it as "foot in both camps" strategy. Unlike in 2004 and 1999, when it ran common lists with the Revolutionary Communist League, LO ran autonomous lists in the
2009 European Parliament election in France European Parliament elections were held in France on Sunday 7 June 2009 to elect the 72 French Member of the European Parliament, Members of the European Parliament. Due to the entry of Romania and Bulgaria in the European Union in 2007, the n ...
. For the 2022 French legislative election, LO announced that the party would run its own slate separate from the New Ecologic and Social People's Union, which they believe to be
reformist Reformism is a political tendency advocating the reform of an existing system or institution – often a political or religious establishment – as opposed to its abolition and replacement via revolution. Within the socialist movement, ref ...
.


Fête de Lutte Ouvrière

Another very public activity of LO is their annual
fête In the United Kingdom and some of its former colonies, a fête or fete is a public festival organised to raise money for a charity, typically held outdoors. It generally includes entertainment and the sale of goods and refreshments. Fetes are ty ...
which is held in the grounds of a chateau which the organisation purchased for that purpose in 1981. The annual Fête de Lutte Ouvrière is probably the largest public gathering of the revolutionary left in Europe.


Leadership

The 2012 presidential candidate,
Nathalie Arthaud Nathalie Yvonne Thérèse Arthaud (; born 23 February 1970) is a French secondary school ( lycée) economics teacher and politician. Since 2008, she has served as the spokesperson for the Lutte Ouvrière (Workers' Struggle), a communist party, ...
, is a teacher and was an elected town councillor for
Vaulx-en-Velin Vaulx-en-Velin () is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, eastern France. It is the third-largest suburb of the city of Lyon, and is located to its northeast, on the river Rhône. History The rivers, including the Rhône, ...
, in charge of youth matters. Arthaud was also the spokesperson for Arlette Laguiller's 2007 presidential campaign. Arlette Laguiller had first run as the LO candidate in 1974, and subsequently in 1981, 1988, 1995, 2002, with 2007 being her last candidacy, and still plays an active part in the leadership of the party. For long, the internal organisations of the party were largely unknown to the general public, the spokeswoman and regular presidential candidate Arlette Laguiller being the only party leader appearing in public. Even to party members, some leaders were known only by cadre names. The party justified such secrecy measures by the possibility that it may have to enter clandestinity, should a highly repressive government take power. For similar reasons, marriages and children were strongly discouraged. Bernard Seytre, a member of LO for 20 years, confirmed the "iron discipline which rhythms the life of this Trotskyist organisation, whose responsibles 'cadres''do not have the right to have children, lest they be excluded". Lutte Ouvrière was criticised by political opponents in the 2002 presidential campaign as being a political cult, for example by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, his older brother Gabriel Cohn-Bendit, ''
L'Humanité (; ) is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organisation of the SFIO, ''de facto'', and thereafter of the French Communist Party (PCF), and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, would not exist." History ...
'' and ''
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 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...
''. Daniel Cohn-Bendit and his brother Gabriel
Arlette n'est pas une sainte
''
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 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...
'', 4 April 2002 (mirrored)
In part, this strict disciplinary attitude has enabled LO to be a very stable organisation in contrast to the instability that they allege characterises so many other left groups. LO is a difficult organisation to actually join and after becoming a member, individuals are expected to conform to a code of conduct, which is considered old fashioned by some critics.


Election results


Presidential


European Parliament


International relations

LO maintains relations with the following other Trotskyist groups ( Internationalist Communist Union): *Workers' Fight (UK) * The Spark (United States) *
Guadeloupe Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...
and
Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...
*Organisation Révolutionnaire des travailleurs Haïti * (Africa) *Sınıf Mücadelesi (Turkey) *Lucha de Clase (Spain) * L'Internazionale (Italy) * Bund Revolutionärer Arbeiter (
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
)


See also

*
International Workingmen's Association The International Workingmen's Association (IWA; 1864–1876), often called the First International, was a political international which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, social democratic, communist, and anarchist g ...
* Arlette Laguiller * Parti des Travailleurs


References


External links

*
Internationalist Communist Union site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lutte Ouvriere Party (France) 1956 establishments in France Communist parties in France Internationalist Communist Union Political parties established in 1956 Political parties of the French Fifth Republic Trotskyist organizations in France Trotskyist parties