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Workers' Struggle (Lutte Ouvrière) is the usual name under which the Communist Union (Trotskyist) (Union Communiste (Trotskyste)), a French Trotskyist political party, is known (technically, it is the name of the weekly paper edited by the party). Arlette Laguiller is its spokeswoman since 1973 and has presented herself at each presidential election, but Robert Barcia (Hardy) is its founder and real leader. It is a member of the Internationalist Communist Union.

History

Its origins lie in a tiny group called the Trotskyist Group founded in 1939 by David Korner (Barta). This developed factory work throughout the war and was instrumental in the Renault strike of 1947, along with the anarcho-syndicalists. The group was exhausted by this effort and collapsed in 1952.

After various attempts to revive the Trotskyist Group, Voix Ouvrière was founded in 1956 by Robert Barcia, better known as Hardy and the group's preminent leader, and by Pierre Bois, a leading militant in the Renault plant. It would seem that some effort was made to involve Barta but disputes between him, Hardy and Bois prevented this from happening.

VO established itself through the 1960s by producing a series of factory bulletins on a regular, usually weekly, basis which were mass distributed. This activity could be dangerous as this was still a period when the Communist Party of France (PCF) retained its hegemonic position within the workers movement in France and they would at times make efforts to physically prevent the distribution by VO of its bulletins. In part this explains the continued use of a level of semi-clandestine operation within VO and in LO even today.

After being banned due to its support for the revolt of 1968, the group became Lutte Ouvrière.

Principles and activities

Lutte Ouvrière claims allegiance to the tradition of ideas which was represented successively by Marx and Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, Lenin and Trotsky. It considers therefore that capitalism belongs to the past of human society rather than to its future; that the capitalist organisation of society will have to be replaced, on a world scale, by a social organisation based on the collective property of the natural resources and means of production, and on a democratically planned economy which will provide equal access for all to all material and cultural resources.

While denouncing "real socialism" as it was incarned by the regimes of the former Eastern Bloc, Lutte Ouvrière advocates the replacement of the current political and economic regime of France (and the World) through a Communist revolution.

While taking part in workers' struggles, as far as their resources allow, the Lutte Ouvriere activists aim at defending among workers the general political interest of the working class and the idea of its irreplaceable role in the communist transformation of society. They organize workers around their political factory bulletins in a few hundred plants in France.

According to the revolutionnary communist tradition, Lutte Ouvriere fields candidates in political elections, in order to popularize its ideas among the workiing class. Its main goal is public ownership of the means of production through the expropriation of the capitalist corporations.

An ongoing issue is the possibility and conditions of cooperation with fellow Trotskyist party the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire, the French section of the USFI. In 1970, LO inituated 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 could be not completed. In 1976 discussions between the USFI and Lutte Ouvriere progressed again. The two organisations started to produce a common weekly supplement to their newspapers, common electoral work and other common campaigning.

LO has made great efforts to stand in elections either on its own or in an alliance with the LCR. Arlette Laguiller has, as a result, become well known to the public as LO's perennial Presidential candidate and has acquired the nickname "Arlette the starlette". Another very public activity of LO is their annual fete 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 at this point in time.

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 100 members to form the Voix des Travailleurs grouping. This later fused with another smaller group but has more recently joined the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire as a recognised faction. Meanwhile a minority tendency continues to exist within LO and appears publicly, although its supporters are segregated in their own cells.

International relations

LO maintains relations with the following other trotskysts groups (Internationalist Communist Union):

References

See also

External links

1956 establishments | Communist parties in France | Trotskyist organisations

Lutte Ouvrière | مبارزه کارگران | Lutte ouvrière | Walka Robotnicza | Lutte ouvrière

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Workers' Struggle".

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