 Press clipping from the Dernières nouvelles d'Alsace, November 5, 1996. The "Ras l'Front-Strasbourg" association sues Jean-Marie Le Pen for defamation. |
Ras l'Front (abbreviated as RLF) is a network of associations in France, aligned with the far-left [1] [2] . It was established in 1990 following the "Appeal of the 250" [3] (personalities), aimed at countering the Front National and its ideology.
This organization aimed to create and stimulate a "movement of resistance and vigilance" against fascism. It targeted citizens, associations, trade unions, and political parties to combat the Front National, its allies, and other parties deemed to support similar ideologies. The network claims to be independent both [ citation needed ]. It consists of autonomous collectives and operates locally. [4]
Ras l'Front employs various means of action:
The association also publishes books exposing the ideas and actions of the Front National and contributes to discussions on ideologies it considers fascist.
By the late 1990s, the association appeared to have lost most of its militants. [6] However, some collectives reportedly remain active. [7]
In 1997, a stand at the Salon du Livre held by National-Hebdo , a magazine linked to the Front National, was ransacked by individuals claiming association with Ras l'Front. [8]
Far-right journalist Emmanuel Ratier alleged that the movement was Trotskyist-inspired and used the antifascism fight to manipulate youth. [9]
In 2006, "Ras l'Front" found particular resonance within the far-left, especially the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire, from which many militants originated. The network is sometimes classified as far-left. [10]
In 2008, the Ras l'Front network was partially dissolved. [11]
In 2012, "Some Ras l’Front collectives still exist". [12]
In January 1997, Jean-Marie Le Pen was ordered to pay one symbolic franc to the association for calling it a "movement of cop killers."
In May 2007, Ras l'Front was convicted of public defamation after calling for protests in 2005 against a conference by the Fondation Jérôme-Lejeune. [13]
Roland Gaucher was the pseudonym of Roland Goguillot, a French far-right journalist and politician. One of the main thinkers of the French far-right, he had participated in Marcel Déat's fascist party Rassemblement National Populaire (RNP) under the Vichy regime. Sentenced to five years of prison for Collaborationism after the war, he then engaged in a career of journalism, while continuing political activism. One of the co-founders of the National Front (FN) in October 1972, he became a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the FN in 1986.
The Revolutionary Communist League was a Trotskyist political party in France. It was the French section of the Fourth International (Post-Reunification). It published the weekly newspaper Rouge and the journal Critique communiste. Established in 1974, it became the leading party of the French far-left in the 2000s. It officially abolished itself on 5 February 2009 to merge with smaller factions of the far-left and form a New Anticapitalist Party.
Alain Krivine was a French Trotskyist leader.
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François Duprat was a French essayist and politician, a founding member of the Front National party and part of the leadership until his assassination in 1978. Duprat was one of the main architects in the introduction of Holocaust denial in France.
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The Union of Communist Students is a French student political organization, part of the Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France. It was founded in 1939 but dissolved after World War II. The UEC was re-created in 1956, along with the MJCF. It is independent from the French Communist Party (PCF) although it remains close to it. It maintains exchange contacts with the PCF, in particular on student issues. The UEC is organized in sectors, by university, and is led by a national collective elected during the congress of the MJCF and renewed during the National Assemblies of the facilitators, every year. A national coordination runs the organization.
Olivier Christophe Besancenot is a French left-wing political figure and trade unionist, and the founding main spokesperson of the New Anticapitalist Party from 2009 to 2011.
Jean-Gilles Malliarakis is a French far-right politician and writer.
Ordre Nouveau was a far-right neo-fascist movement created on 15 December 1969. The first president was the lawyer Jean-François Galvaire . After the departure of Jean-François Galvaire, in May 1970, the new political bureau comprised Emmanuel Allot, Jacques Charasse, François Duprat, Louis Ecorcheville, Gabriel Jeantet, Claude Joubert, Paul Léandri, Hugues Leclère, Jean-Claude Nourry and Alain Robert. In June 1972, Ordre Nouveau joined with Jean-Marie Le Pen's movement in the Front National. José Bruneau de La Salle joined the political bureau, while Jean-Claude Nourry, Patrice Janeau and Michel Bodin left the movement. On 5 October 1972 the Front National was formed.
Pierre Clementi, real name Francis Anthony Clementi, was a French politician active during the 1930s and the occupation of France during the Second World War. He was the founder and leader of the French National-Collectivist Party, which espoused a platform of National Communism, a combination of Fascism, French nationalism and to a certain extent Communism.
Anarchism spread into Belgium as Communards took refuge in Brussels with the fall of the Paris Commune. Most Belgian members in the First International joined the anarchist Jura Federation after the socialist schism. Belgian anarchists also organized the 1886 Walloon uprising, the Libertarian Communist Group, and several Bruxellois newspapers at the turn of the century. Apart from new publications, the movement dissipated through the internecine antimilitarism in the interwar period. Several groups emerged mid-century for social justice and anti-fascism.
The Communist Committees for Self-Management (CCA) were a far-left French organization that existed from 1977 to 1982. It brought together Pabloist activists and the "Carrefour Group" of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). The group had no more than 300 members at its height.
The far-left in France encompasses political organizations, movements, and ideologies that are considered to be at the furthest left end of the political spectrum. It includes a variety of political traditions, such as revolutionary socialism, anarchism, Maoism, and Trotskyism. Historically, the far-left has distinguished itself by opposing the reformist left represented by the PCF and the SFIO, advocating instead for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a classless, egalitarian society.
In France, several organizations identify with Trotskyism. These groups vary in size, with memberships ranging from a few dozen to several thousand activists.
Révolution Permanente (RP) is a French political organization adhering to Trotskyism. It was founded in 2022 as the French section of the Trotskyist Fraction – Fourth International, originating from the Courant communiste révolutionnaire (CCR), a tendency of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) until 2021. According to La Croix, Adèle Haenel, Assa Traoré and Frédéric Lordon are supporters of the organization.
