More than 4000 people attended the radical left France Insoumise (France in Revolt) summer school in Valence, in the South of France, on August 23–24. About 500 of them had spent the previous two days at an event for activists under 26 years old.
Meetings at the summer school ranged from “Introduction to Historical materialism” with Stathis Kouvélakis, to “Building a Young People’s Antifascist Movement Across Europe” and “Is the Nation a left-wing idea?”. Among the 110 debates and roundtables, there were meetings on secularism, Islamophobia, the conflict between China and the United States, racism at work, housing injustice, defending the climate, building local branches, pesticides, animal rights, police violence, Palestine, extractivism and fighting homophobia.
This is a sharply radical organisation, not a revolutionary Marxist one, so one heard lots about using the United Nations, and changing the law on racism or sexism. But the insurgent tone of the movement was very real.
In a situation where many forces are calling for a yellow vest-style day of action on September 10, FI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon said in his (two-hour!) keynote speech “We need a general strike on the tenth of September.” He also said that if, in coming years, the FI becomes the government, the role of activists will not be to obey but “to be in revolt everywhere”.
Islamophobia was spoken of in many meetings and was central to Mélenchon’s keynote — something previously unheard of on the French left. The FI is attacked everywhere in the right-wing and left-wing press for its principled stand, and is now recognised as the leading force that has brought about a sea change in left attitudes to Islamophobia in France.
There were also a number of activists present, many of them Muslims, pushing for the FI to go further and demand the abrogation of the 2004 law that bans Muslim headscarves in high schools (the FI is divided on this).
A series of meetings was organised on local politics, since the municipal elections, which happen every six years, will take place in March next year.
Six years ago, the FI was smaller and unable to stand in many towns. This year, the plan is to stand everywhere possible. Some FI proposals, such as not allowing municipal police officers to be armed, are already causing a scandal in the papers.
The series of meetings covered experiences of left councils today (in Naples and across Spain), historical examples of radical left local councils and debates on specific challenges today (reversing the privatisation of water supply, building social housing and so on). Left mayors (who in France are local council chiefs) intervened in several meetings.
Stands from various campaigns and political groups were present — Palestine groups, antifascist groups and others. Three far-left groups had their own stands, but the vast majority of revolutionary groups in France — there are three or four with more than a thousand activists and five or six with more than a hundred — are haughtily dismissive of debating with the FI, and hardly ever invite FI people to debate at the far-left summer schools.
The national press reports reflect some of the strengths of the summer school, but a lot of effort is being put into continuing the huge smear campaign against the FI, portraying its members as antisemitic, fans of Putin and mesmerised by Mélenchon’s charisma.
I have never been at a political event where the average age of the speakers was so young. All in all, it is a vibrant movement with tremendous potential. But there is also a need for far more revolutionary Marxist input — in particular on the nature and processes of French imperialism.
[John Mullen is a revolutionary socialist living in the Paris area and a supporter of France Insoumise.]