By Gérard Florenson

On May 16, the Executive Committee of Lutte Ouvrière (LO) rejected the proposal from the NPA-R’s political committee, sent on April 12, to launch a joint campaign for the 2027 presidential election. The fact that Nathalie Arthaud, who has already run twice as an LO candidate, will once again be a candidate in this unified campaign poses no problem in this context.

LO’s answer is clear and definitive: NO! LO, which considers itself the only “proletarian tendency” among all revolutionary organizations, chooses to do it alone. For quite a few years now, we have been accustomed to this sectarian self-assertion, which is expressed, among other things, in the absence of any international grouping: The so-called Internationalist Communist Union (UCI) is completely dominated by the parent organization, which dictates the path to follow to a few small groups.

However, LO’s well-known shortcomings should not prevent the formation of an electoral front of revolutionary organizations, each maintaining its own identity and emphasizing their common ground. Regardless of LO’s claims, joint candidacies in the recent municipal elections would have improved the results, secured more elected seats, and increased their visibility. This is what the New Anti-Capitalist Party–Revolutionaries (NPA-R) rightly argues, and what LO refutes without presenting any convincing argument.

LO carefully avoids debating the campaign strategies proposed in the NPA-R’s letter. Instead—and this is absolutely ridiculous—LO lists the past betrayals of the Revolutionary Communist League and the NPA, accusing the NPA-R of continuing this politics simply by retaining the acronym NPA. This is a shameful tactic because the leaders of Lutte Ouvrière know full well that the NPA-R cadres—some of whom come from their own ranks— bear no responsibility for the mistakes of the “Mandelists,” just as they know that the most right-wing factions of the former LCR split off in successive waves and that what remained of the historic leadership, overcome by skepticism and opportunism, chose to break with the NPA. But instead of welcoming the fact that the majority of NPA comrades rejected this drift and clarified their position by adding “Revolutionary” to the party’s name, LO refuses to engage in any serious debate and prefers to condemn them, accusing them of limiting themselves to a vague anti-capitalism that would replace a communist perspective.

In fact, beyond the traditional disagreements regarding the place—which they consider marginal—of social movements that do not focus exclusively on the struggles of the industrial working class and, therefore, on those that oppose specific forms of oppression, LO offers an explanation to justify its withdrawal:

“The current period is characterized by the rise of reactionary ideas and the influence of the far right—even among the working class—against a backdrop of an increasingly severe crisis and growing tensions. But it is also characterized by a certain demoralization of the working class and a lack of response to the offensive that the capitalists and the government are waging against it.”

This says it all. The working class is passive, which conveniently justifies the politics of the union bureaucracies, who use this as an excuse not to participate in the struggle during every conflict. Of course, that day will come… but until it awakens, revolutionaries must keep the flame alive and protect it with their own hands. Fortunately, when the true “midnight of the century” arrived, the Trotskyists did not choose to retreat and wait for better times…

A defeatist and one-sided view that ignores the popular uprising in Bolivia, as well as the powerful teachers’ strike in Spain, the numerous feminist demonstrations around the world protesting femicide and demanding abortion rights, the radical struggle against ICE in the U.S., at the heart of imperialism: all of this, without a doubt, is not purely proletarian in LO’s view.

To conclude her letter rejecting a joint campaign, LO—which generally has no trouble securing the 500 endorsements needed to field its candidate (in 2022, Nathalie Arthaud was the first to secure them), wishes the NPA-R—and likely Révolution Permanente as well—good luck in achieving this goal. It does so with all due cordiality, in the tone of an older sister encouraging her younger sisters after having scolded them. It remains to be seen what LO activists and supporters will think, given that they sense among their friends, colleagues, and students a desire for the revolutionaries to join forces.