More on the France Insoumise

I was asked three more questions, when I sent in the article you can find posted a few days back. Here they are.

1) What is the role of the Front de Gauche? What is the party's class base?

The Front de Gauche had a real existence from 2009 to 2012, as an alliance between the Communist Party, the Left Party and a couple of anticapitalist groupings who had left the New Anticapitalist Party, complaining of its sectarian policy. It then became less and less relevant. The main reason was that the Communist Party’s tactics in local and regional elections, where they were often in alliance « for pragmatic reasons » with the Socialist Party, were not supported by the other groupings inside the Front de Gauche. The Front de Gauche, which had had a potential to become something more dynamic and grassroots, eventually proved itself to be just a fading electoral tactic. Mélenchon, standing in the 2012 presidential election as the Left Front candidate, had however obtained 4 million votes.

The tensions inside the Left Front led Mélenchon to set up the France Insoumise and declare himself candidate for the 2017 presidential elections. The Communist Party (somewhat reluctantly) later declared their support. Mélenchon as the FI candidate got 7 million votes.

The FI is not a party, but is more a movement – you don’t pay regular subscriptions, and you are considered a supporter not a member. The class base of the movement is not easy to be precise about. Certainly, Mélenchon’s mass meetings for the elections attracted the biggest working class audiences at political events for many years (almost 100 000 on the sea front at Marseille). Mélenchon got 19,6% of the first round overall. He was especially successful among young people (getting 30% of their expressed votes) and among unemployed people (31%). 24% of manual workers who voted voted Mélenchon, and 22% of white-collar workers. So the vast majority of LFI supporters are ordinary workers. The healthworker, Caroline Fiat who was elected FI MP is very popular for her work denouncing bad working conditions in hospitals.

2) How does the party position itself on religious freedom / Islam / racism / immigration?

Like other Left parties in France, LFI tries to avoid the question of islamophobia. The Left party which Mélenchon comes from has a very poor record on this and has been linked to traditional left wing antireligious prejudice (eg campaigns against hijab, or against Muslim sections in municipal cemeteries). There is some debate on the question. Mélenchon has often denounced anti-muslim prejudice, but has also made very poor declarations at times. For example, when right-wing mayors wanted to ban full-body swimsuit son beaches he denounced both the mayors and the makers of full-body swimsuits, who, he claimed were making a political point. Among the MPs elected under an FI ticket there is Danièle Obono who has been a well-known fighter against islamophobia for many years, and this shows that some development is possible, and also that there is not too much of an attempt to impose uniformity on the MPs.

On immigration more generallly, the LFI leadership position is fairly classically reformist. They do not support the removal of immigration controls, but do demand that more refugees be accepted etc. The programme demands papers for all undocumented workers living in France. It also proposes the closing of illegal immigrant detention centres

3) Is it true that the LFI refer positively to the theorists of left-wing populism Laclau/Mouffe?

The vast majority of LFI supporters have no idea who these people are, but yes, these writers are referred to positively by sections of the FI leadership, in particular Mélenchon. Last year Chantal Mouffe and Jean-Luc Mélenchon held a joint speaking event under the title « The time of the people has come ».[1] On a more everyday level, there is a clear tendency to use appeals to « the people »,and to the traditions of « France from below » or of the « Great French Revolution ». The result is not much clarity about French imperialism (even if on the immediate issues, e g the bombing of Syria, the LFI leadership take a good position).

---

[1]Available with English subtitles here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtriFMxsOWw