Near Mont Blanc in France, 700 people gathered from August 24 to 27 for the annual summer school of Left Voice’s sister organization Révolution Permanente, with workers, student activists, and international delegations of the Trotskyist Fraction — Fourth International and other groups from the United States, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, and more. The program analyzed the past year of politics in France and outlined the challenges ahead, in the face of the Far Right, authoritarianism, and the dead-end perspectives proposed by France’s New Popular Front. 

　　The RP summer school attracted workers and youth who want to help rebuild a revolutionary Left in France. This year, priority was given to activists and supporters who are already involved in the organization’s circles and open assemblies. Strategic discussions were held to revisit the fundamentals of Marxism and their relevance today, as well as debates with contemporary critical theories and political movements. 

　　The program included presentations on the history of popular fronts, the contemporary workers movement, a political education cycle on the Russian Revolution and the transitional program, as well as debates engaging with the work of intellectuals like Nicos Poulantzas, Ernesto Laclau, Bernard Friot, and Frédéric Lordon, or with theoretical-political currents ranging from intersectionality to decolonial theories and degrowth. 

　　Discussions also featured guests such as Paul Guillibert and Yvan Lemaître from Revolutionary Democracy (NPA-R) for exchanges on ecology and revolutionary strategy or the political stance to adopt in the current period. Various foreign delegations also participated, including South Korean activists from March to Socialism. 

　　The Left Voice delegation gave a presentation about the student movement for Palestine in the United States and the upcoming presidential elections, sparking important discussions about anti-imperialism, lesser evilism, class independence, the new progressive labor movement, and the prospects for class struggle in the U.S. 

　　RP held its main political event on Sunday evening. In an electrifying atmosphere, the meeting began with several chants welcoming activists to the stage, from “On est là”— a protest song popular during the pension reform battles — to “Free Free Palestine.” Onstage, Elsa Marcel opened the meeting. “Although we chose to do little public communication this year,” she said, “there are 700 of us here today. This shows the resonance of our ideas and the goal of rebuilding a revolutionary Left, despite the significant pressure to settle for the lesser evil expressed during the legislative elections.” 

　　Luigi Morris, a Left Voice member and immigrant worker involved in last year’s UPS-Teamsters contract struggle, opened the meeting. 

　　“As revolutionary organizations in imperialist countries,” he said, “it’s essential for us to raise high the banners of anti-imperialism and international solidarity — from Palestine to Kanaky to Mexico, imperialism has got to go.” With the outcome of the U.S. presidential elections still uncertain, he stressed their geopolitical impact on the international situation in the coming years and the dynamism of class struggle in the country. 

　　“Twenty twenty-three has been the year with the most strikes in decades — fighting not only for better wages and conditions, but for a better quality of life,” he said. In this context, the historic strike by autoworkers demonstrated significant potential on the demands front, as they called for a 32-hour workweek without a reduction in pay. These efforts continue the trend in working-class mobilization in the U.S., from the Black Lives Matter movement to unionization efforts at companies like Amazon and Starbucks, and they explain why an anti-capitalist consciousness is growing among many young people, who have led a large-scale movement against the genocide in Gaza, and for whom socialism is “no longer a dirty word.” 

　　Ariane Anemoyannis, an activist with Poing Levé, spoke about the dynamics among French student youth, noting, “Today, Macron wants to prevent Palestine from becoming the Vietnam of the 21st century, and universities from once again becoming hotbeds of resistance to French imperialism and the regime more broadly.” Marcel also highlighted the long-standing repression of anti-imperialist activists, referring to George Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been a political prisoner in jails across France for nearly 40 years. 

　　Christian Porta, a union activist with the CGT Neuhauser and member of Révolution Permanente, reflected on the major victory of their struggle against InVivo, an agribusiness giant. In a poignant speech, the CGT activist highlighted key lessons from a victory that was far from guaranteed. “If you had told me seven months ago that I would come out of this fight with my job reinstated and even have a Macronist labor minister agree with me, I wouldn’t have believed it,” he remarked, before ironically thanking his bosses: “Today, I want to thank Thierry Blandinières, Sébastien Graff, and all the others, because they gave us the opportunity to fight a battle that has deeply strengthened us. More than ever, at Neuhauser, we say it loud and clear: if they touch one of us, we will respond in the hundreds.” 

　　Porta addressed the unprecedented brutality of this employer offensive, which he called “a provocation against the entire working class,” and recalled the long struggle of the Neuhauser workers, documented in a film screened the previous evening at the summer school. He recounted the protracted battle and the central role of revolutionary organization and strategy in the victory. And he emphasized that this win should be the starting point for a counteroffensive, as thousands of workers continue to face repression. 

　　Sasha Yaropolskaya, a trans activist with Du Pain et des Roses (Bread and Roses), discussed the far-right offensive against trans people, highlighting its connection to broader right-wing campaigns, such as the one targeting Algeria’s Olympic boxer Imane Khelif. “Imane Khelif’s story shows that the Far Right won’t stop at trans people. They will target anyone who doesn’t fit their deeply sexist and racist view of femininity,” she explained, before stressing the dead-end nature of “lesser evil” strategies in confronting this danger. 

　　Vanessa Raiz, an activist with RP and the CGT in aerospace subcontracting, addressed the ongoing struggle against French imperialism and its neocolonial character. “For decades, the people of colonized territories, from Kanaky to Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte, and Polynesia, have been deprived of their fundamental right to self-determination because the French state sees them only as tools to serve its economic, political, and military interests,” she emphasized. She also pointed out the hypocrisy of Macron and his “Olympic truce” after the legislative elections, noting that “colonial repression knows no pause,” citing the recent bloody repression in Kanaky. “The Fifth Republic was born in the blood of Algerians, and that blood has never dried. It flowed in 1967 in Guadeloupe, in 1974 in Martinique, in 1988 in Kanaky. And it still flows today,” she concluded. 

　　To close the meeting, Anasse Kazib, spokesperson for RP, addressed the current political situation in France and the challenges ahead.“After a year of intense authoritarian offensives and repression, after a political crisis that brought the Far Right to the brink of power, Macron seems to have regained some control since the Olympics,” he said. This dynamic reveals the impotence of the New Popular Front (NFP) and its conciliatory approach to the regime, as reflected in the recent statements of Lucie Castets, the NFP’s nominee for prime minister.  

　　In the face of Macron and the Far Right, Kazib emphasized the importance of maintaining an independent and revolutionary policy rooted in class struggle. He highlighted how the defeats of the Left in power and the failures of struggles led by the union bureaucracy have strengthened the far-right National Rally (RN). He pointed out the fundamental differences between such a strategy and that of La France Insoumise (LFI), which recently showed its willingness to be sidelined from a (very) hypothetical NFP government, marking another concession. Kazib concluded, “We do not want to run their reactionary and bourgeois institutions, to find compromises with the Far Right and Macron. We want to fight, from below, to put an end to the capitalist system and all forms of oppression.” This vision requires rebuilding a “combative, revolutionary Left,” one that can demonstrate its “usefulness in the class struggle” and revive “the best revolutionary and anti-imperialist traditions.” 

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  Deng Panyi 

　　From:https://www.leftvoice.org/700-gather-for-revolution-permanentes-summer-school-in-france///(2024-8-30)