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New Anticapitalist Party Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste | |
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| Abbreviation | L'Anticapitaliste NPA-A or NPA-AC Révolutionnaires NPA-R |
| Leader | Collective leadership (Central committee) |
| Main spokesperson | L'Anticapitaliste Christine Poupin Philippe Poutou Olivier Besancenot Pauline Salingue Révolutionnaires Selma Labib Damien Scali Gaël Quirante Armelle Pertus |
| Founded | 8 February 2009; 17 years ago (2009-02-08) |
| Preceded by | Revolutionary Communist League |
| Headquarters | 2, rue Richard-Lenoir 93100 Montreuil |
| Newspaper | L'Anticapitaliste L'Anticapitaliste Révolutionnaires Révolutionnaires |
| Youth wing | L'Anticapitaliste NPA Jeunesses Anticapitalistes Révolutionnaires NPA Jeunes Révolutionnaires |
| Membership(2018) |  2,000[1] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-left |
| National affiliation | L'Anticapitaliste New Popular Front (since 2024) |
| European affiliation | L'Anticapitaliste European Anti-Capitalist Left |
| International affiliation | L'Anticapitaliste Fourth International[4] |
| Colours | Red |
| National Assembly | 0 / 577 |
| Senate | 0 / 343 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 72 |
| Regional councils | 0 / 1,758 |
| Website | |
| L'Anticapitaliste https://npa-lanticapitaliste.org/ Révolutionnaires https://npa-revolutionnaires.org/ | |
Constitution of France Parliament;government;president | |
TheNew Anticapitalist Party (French:Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste[nuvopaʁtiɑ̃tikapitalist],NPA[ɛnpea]) is afar-leftpolitical 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 activists drawing on the combined strength of far-left parties in the2002 presidential elections, where they achieved 10.44% of the vote and 7% in2007.
The political party is closely associated with postal workerOlivier Besancenot, the main spokesman of the formerTrotskyist party, theRevolutionary Communist League (LCR), the NPA's main predecessor. In March 2011,Myriam Martin [fr] andChristine Poupin [fr] were elected the main spokespersons of the NPA.[5] In May 2012, Myriam Martin supported the candidate of theLeft Front,Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the2012 presidential election instead of the NPA candidate, a worker and union activist at Ford's car plant in Bordeaux,Philippe Poutou, who came eighth in the first round with 411,160 votes, 1.15% of the total votes. She left the NPA in July 2012.
In December 2022, the party split into two roughly equal groups, both claiming to be the continuation of the NPA. Two main reasons for the split are to end to the internal disagreements that have plagued the NPA for many years, and to employ different strategies towardsNUPES (the New Ecological and Social People's Union)[6]. What became TheNPA – L'Anticapitaliste joined theNew Popular Front[7], another left coalition, while theNPA – Révolutionnaires stayed independant from the left, and works at the construction of a Revolutionnary Pole[8][9], mainly towardLutte ouvrière andRévolution Permanente.
At the founding conference (6 to 8 February 2009), 630 delegates voted on a series of documents, which had gone through a long process of amendment and re-amendment in local and regional assemblies.
A number of contentious issues within the party, especially those relating to secularism, religion, and Islamophobia, were left open for further debate, leading to a number of difficulties and a tendency to devote considerable time and energy on internal debates, rather than activity. The party's name was originally intended to be temporary; a vote on the name was held at the founding congress, where NPA won over "Revolutionary Anticapitalist Party" (Parti anticapitaliste révolutionnaire) with 53% of the vote.[10]
Besancenot has stated that it has no single leader and is instead run collectively, being represented by elected spokespersons. The basic structure of the party is the local committee, which organises local activities. A National Political Council decides on general policy. Delegates to the Council are elected at the congress on a proportional basis, ensuring the representation of different tendencies or platforms.
The party's stated aim is to "build a new socialist, democratic perspective for the twenty-first century".[11]
Olivier Besancenot has said that the party will be "the left that leadsanticapitalist,internationalist,antiracist,ecologist,feminist struggles, opposing all forms ofdiscrimination".[12] The LCR's distinctive identification withTrotskyism was not continued by the NPA.[10] Unlike in previous LCR documents, although feminism is very present, patriarchy theory is not mentioned. Such issues as the withdrawal of French troops fromAfghanistan, a rise in theminimum wage and public services, however, are accepted by all members of the NPA.
The party's candidate for the2022 French presidential election,Philippe Poutou, said in an interview forFranceinfo that he would amnesty all "political prisoners" if elected, such as members of theFLNC andETA, and condemned France's "colonial attitude" in bothCorsica andThe Basque Country.[13]
Debate continues within the NPA about what sort of alliances with other groups are acceptable. The majority of militants emphasize the dangers of allying with forces which are likely to end up in joint local or national governments with theSocialist Party (PS). A minority believes there is work to be done in wide alliances with antiliberal parties of the left, such as theParty of the Left (PG).
In January 2009, the NPA signed a joint declaration with several other parties of the left, calling for the building of the 29 January national strike. A minority (16%) claimed that such unity in thestrike movements means sufficient basis can be found for joint slates at theEuropean elections, while the majority made a sharp distinction between alliances for social movements and electoral alliances. The party received 4.98% of the vote in the European election. Discussions were held in the course of 2009 with other parties to the left of the PS, concerning the possibility of joint slates for theregional elections in 2010. Finally, the NPA presented independent lists in a majority of regions, but joined theLeft Front in three regions, and theLeft Party in two others.
Since its foundation, the NPA has suffered a number of breakaways, and by the beginning of 2015 total membership had declined to 2,100, compared with 9,200 at the time of its Founding Conference in February 2009. In addition to the loss of individual members, three organised groups have left the party in order to join the Left Front:Gauche Unitaire in 2009,Convergences et Alternative in 2011, and the largest of the three,Anticapitalist left (Gauche Anticapitaliste) in July 2012. In addition, failure to reach the required level of support in the presidential and parliamentary elections has deprived the party of state funding, leading to a financial crisis. As a result of these setbacks, the NPA is engaged in an internal debate with the aim of refounding the party and reforming its internal structures. However, the NPA continues to be active in various social movements. It produces a weekly newspaper,Tout est à nous ! (originating as a slogan to be chanted on demonstrations, the name roughly translates as "Everything Belongs to Us!") and a monthly magazine of the same name.
In December 2013, the Revolutionary Marxists faction in theFourth International declared the Anticapitalism and Revolution current in the NPA and criticized the reformist orientation of the party.[14] In June 2021, almost 300 members of theRevolutionary Communist Current faction (Courante Communiste Révolutionnaire, CCR) left the party after being excluded from participating in the NPA congress and national conference, and the rejection of the pre-candidacy of CCR memberAnasse Kazib as the NPA nominee for the2022 French presidential election.[15]
The NPA was in discussion to join theNew Ecologic and Social People's Union (NUPES) for the2022 French legislative election. After the PS joined the union, the NPA announced it would not enter the coalition due to insurmountable ideological differences with the PS;[16][17][18] they also said they would support the coalition's more radical left-wing candidates.[19]
In December 2022, at the 5th congress, 3 "Plateforms" were put to the vote[20]:
Plateform A (6.16%)
Plateform B (48.29%)
Plateform C (45.55%)
On the initiative of the Plateform B, a split between two groups of equal size occurred during this congress, mainly on the question of electoral alliances with the radical left (La France Insoumise)[21], with one side often called "NPA-B", withPhilippe Poutou,Olivier Besancenot, and the Plateform B, the other called "NPA-C", with Selma Labib and Gaël Quirante, and the currentsL'Étincelle (fr) andAnticapitalisme & Révolution[22][23]. After months of fighting over the name and history of the NPA, a legal agreement was reached, where following the names of their respective newspaper, the two new parties would be calledNPA – L'Anticapitaliste andNPA – Révolutionnaires[24][25].
The NPA announced in February 2010 that it was fielding Ilham Moussaïd, aMuslim woman, as its candidate inAvignon forthat year's regional elections.[26] The party's decision was met with criticism from "across the political spectrum" in France, as Moussaïd wears ahijab (a headscarf worn by Muslim women) and the announcement came amidst anational debate regarding the wearing of hijabs in public areas.[27] A few weeks prior to the announcement, the NPA denounced bans on hijabs as "Islamophobic and draconian".[28] Tony Todd ofFrance 24 described the party's decision to field Moussaïd as "radical pragmatism" aimed at securing votes from France's Muslim community.[29]
Moussaïd describes herself as "feminist, secular, and veiled";[27] however, critics of Moussaïd argue that hijabs are an affront to women and incompatible with Moussaïd's values. In response, Moussaïd stated in March 2010:
These feminists say that it's a symbol of oppression, of submission. For my part, I'm not submissive; it's a personal choice. I'm a feminist. I fight for women's rights with my women comrades. I fight for equality between men and women. I fight for the right to abortion, the right to contraception. It's true they see it as a symbol of oppression but unfortunately they forget that there are women who wear it out of choice. A certain number of women are obliged to wear it, of course, I don't deny that, and I'll fight for these women. But you can't say that all those who've chosen to wear a headscarf are submissive. It's not true. Once it's a question of personal choice you can't say the person is being oppressed, as these feminists argue.For me, being a feminist means defending the right of women to have control over their own lives. I have control over mine and I've made this choice but it's not respected. These feminists don't respect it because I haven't made the same choice as them. My response is that there's not just one way to be a feminist; there's not just one way to be a woman. We can't all be alike. We need to concentrate on what unites us, on the fight for equality between men and women, and not to say we should all dress the same way, that you can't wear a headscarf because otherwise you're not a feminist. I think that shows a lack of respect. I don't feel represented by feminists who say that the headscarf is always a question of obligation. There are a lot of feminists who agree with me, who see that I'm fighting the same battles as them, and they support me.[30]
| Election year | First round | Second round | Seats | +/- | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||
| 2012 | 77 975[31] | 0.3 | — | 0 / 577 | New | ||
| 2017 | 5 460 | 0.02 | — | 0 / 577 |  0 | ||
| 2022 | 5 244 | 0.02 | — | 0 / 577 | 0 | ||
| 2024 | 23 630 | 0.07 | 46 134 | 0.17 | 0 / 577 | 0 | NPA – L'Anticapitaliste, within theNew Popular Front coalition. Philippe Poutou was candidate up to the second round, but lost against Christophe Barthès (RN). Raphaël Arnault (LFI) was elected with her substitue being member of the NPA – L'Anticapitaliste. |
| 5 964 | 0.02 | — | 0 / 577 | 0 | NPA – Révolutionnaires, aside from coalitions. | ||
| Election year | Candidate | First round | Second round | Result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Rank | Votes | % | Rank | |||
| 2012 | Philippe Poutou | 411,160 | 1.15 |  8th | N/a | Lost | ||
| 2017 | 394,505 | 1.09 | 8th | N/a | Lost | |||
| 2022 | 268,904 | 0.77 | 11th | N/a | Lost | |||
| Election year | Votes | % | Seats | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 840 833 | 4.88 | 0 / 74 | 7th |
| 2014 | 74 770 | 0.39 | 0 / 74 | 16th |
| 2019 | calls to voteLutte ouvrière | |||
| 2024 | NPA – L'Anticapitalistecalls to voteLFI | |||
| 37 440 | 0.15 | 0 / 81 | 18th | |
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