France’s radical-left party, La France Insoumise prepares for a hot autumn, explains John Mullen

Well over four thousand people attended the radical-left La France Insoumise summer school in Valence, in the south of France, this weekend [The name of the organisation, La France Insoumise, is best translated as ‘France in Revolt’ ]. Around five hundred of them had spent two days previously at a young people’s event for activists under 26.

Meetings at the summer school raged from ‘Introduction to Historical materialism’ with Stathis Kouvélakis to ‘Building a Young People’s Antifascist Movement  Across Europe’ or ‘Is the Nation a left-wing idea?’ Among the 110 debates and round tables, there were meetings on secularism, Islamophobia, the conflict between China and the US, 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. However, 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 10 September, 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 La France Insoumise becomes the government, the role of the 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 absolutely unheard of on the French Left. The FI is attacked everywhere in the right-wing and left-wing press for its principled stand against Islamophobia, and it is now recognised as the leading force which 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 against Islamophobia and demand the abrogation of the 2004 law which 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 2026. 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 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 over a thousand activists and five or six with over a hundred) are haughtily dismissive of debating with La France Insoumise, and hardly ever even 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 us as antisemitic fans of Putin, mesmerised by the charisma of Mélenchon.

All in all, this is a vibrant movement with tremendous potential (I have never before been at a political event where the average age of the speakers was so young), 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 La France Insoumise