It's time for revolution, says French leftwing star

With capitalism near the rocks -- at least in a widespread French view -- it seemed a good time to check in with France's leading advocate of old-style revolution.

Olivier Besancenot, the popular young Trotskyite and former presidential candidate, has been in the news this week, not just because many are looking to his anti-capitalist movement for salvation. He has also been the victim of a bizarre plot.

Besancenot kindly received me along with a colleague at his little office, on the first floor in the printing works of the Communist Revolutionary League (LCR) at Montreuil, the borough that adjoins Paris on the east. Fittingly, the nearest Métro stop is Robespierre, named after the leader of the revolutionary Terror of the early 1790s. 

Besancenot, a part time postman in the posh western suburb of Neuilly, is only 34. In other lands, he would be dismissed as an oddity. In France, with its historic love of insurrection, he is a star. He and his fans believe that his time has come.

"We are at the end of a cycle. We are at a major turning point in the course of the world economy," Besancenot said as he surveyed the "crisis of capitalism" that was forecast all those years ago by Karl Marx and his successors.

In black sweater and jeans, the baby-faced Besancenot looks more like Tintin, the boy reporter, than political heavyweight. But his mix of eloquence and cheek have turned the "the red postman" into a serious player, a leftwing populist who needles the established parties from factory floors and tv chat shows. He won 1.6 million votes as the LCR candidate in last year's presidential election; he enjoys a 56 percent approval rating -- well ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy. An August survey ranked him second most effective opponent of the President -- after Bertrand Delanoe, the Socialist Mayor of Paris. On Thursday, Le Monde gave him half a page to pronounce on the crisis. "The system is ending by drowning in its own blood," he said.

With the wind in his sails, the timing could not be better for Besancenot to launch his New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA). He has been anointed as leader by most factions of the far left, except the fading Communist Party. Support is flowing in from the young, green activists, anti-globalisation types and from traditional leftists who are turned off by the Socialists' embrace of the free market and attracted by the romance of revolt. "If the Socialists have completely discredited themselves, it's not my fault. Holding power drove them crazy, made them giddy," he said. 

But this week we glimpsed the darker of young Olivier when a judge revoked the parole of a leader of Action Directe, a 1980s revolutionary group, who was serving life for murder. Rouillan broke the terms of his release by publicly backing Besancenot and giving an interview in which he refused to voice remorse for the 1986 killing of the chairman of the Renault company. Besancenot has refused to disown Rouillan.

He has also hit the headlines after the head of the French distributers of Taser stun guns and six private detectives, police officers and a customs official were arrested and charged with spying on him and his family. They targeted him apparently to smear or blackmail him after he campaigned against the use of Tasers by French police.

The Socialists -- and the old trade unions -- dismiss Besancenot as a trouble-maker who has no plans for governing. He is seen as useful to Sarkozy because his cause undermines the mainstream opposition just as Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right leader, was long the bane of the Gaullist movement. Many commentators also see Besancenot as a charismatic magnet for discontent with little prospect of power, like Le Pen.

Besancenot's new party may be aiming for the barricades, but it is starting humble with candidates for the European Parliament in next June's elections. "We are proposing a change of software," said Besancenot, who took his proletarian job after earning a history degree at Nanterre university, Sarko's alma mater. 

The world has only known capitalism and the bureaucratic communism founded by the Soviet Union, he said. "The only model that has not been tried is the one where the majority decides for itself."  One of Mr Besancenot's ideas -- nationalising the banks -- no longer seems as extreme as it did a month ago. He is trying to link his party with anti-capitalist movements across Europe, including Britain's Respect coalition, in which his frend Ken Loach, the film director, is involved. [watch video of Loach endorsing Besancenot]   

Besancenot is a fan of Che Guevara and other Latin American revolutionaries but his ideal, he says, is the Paris Commune of 1871. That brief exercise in people power ended with thousands dead, mainly at the hands of government troops who retook the city.

The young militant talks an ambiguous line on violence of the kind that has accompanied France's periodic upheavals since 1789. "For us, revolution is not terrorism," he said. "It is a majority of the population breaking onto the public stage to change society. It is counter revolution that is violent".

Besancenot softens such talk with jokes and assurances that his internet-age revolution will welcome a free press and multi-party democracy -- provided of course that they do not conflict with the will of the people.

---------

[Watch video of Besancenot in talk show action against class enemy Charles Beigbeder, businessman and capitalist champion]

Comments

[Rick]

I recall the periphrasis ‘le maître de Barnsley’ being used to refer to Ken Loach. What next, ‘Bruce Forsyth, le bel esprit d’Edmonton’?

Oh lor, DOT. Freud strikes anew!

[Pierre]

Besancenot's success is also but not only the expression of a politically kitch french tolerance for the old communist ideas...

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iWLRkEVYvzfvPkjBWcIU9IzfH3Tg

http://www.courrierinternational.com/hebdo/sommaire.asp?obj_id=637

[Pierre B]

Ah yes, Robespierre, the famous left-wing métro station!

[rocket]

"But this week we glimpsed the darker of young Olivier when a judge revoked the parole of a leader of Action Directe, a 1980s revolutionary group, who was serving life for murder. Rouillan broke the terms of his release by publicly backing Besancenot and giving an interview in which he refused to voice remorse for the 1986 killing of the chairman of the Renault company. Besancenot has refused to disown Rouillan."

We have the same kind of person in the United States. His name is Barack Obama and he will probably be the next President of the United States.

Maybe that's one reason the French love him so.

[Pierre B]

With the banks nationalised, perhaps Olivier can apply to work for Sarkozy.

It's a great pity that no French intellectual feels comfortable standing up for the Individual. The most influential Frenchman of the 20th century ended up siding with Heidegger. Read Locke if you want to get a better grip of marxism.

[dot king]

Oh lor, DOT. Freud strikes anew!

RICK

Wha . . .?

CHARLES, I think it's a little unfair to run a few separate ideas together as you have (simplify then exaggerate - isn't that the journalist creed? :)).
Rouillan was on semi-liberty and had expressed his intention to join the NPA. In an interview, he ignored the ban on talking about the activities he was jailed for, and in talking about them did not express regret.
Rouillan has now been put back into jail for breaking the conditions of his semi-liberty, which were not to become involved in politics and not to speak about his politically influenced crimes.

This has nothing directly to do with Besancenot, who has neither need nor duty to deny or renounce.

I'm disappointed you don't go further into this spying story, which at first was dismissed in the media as fantasy and now involves 7 or 8 people under arrest and being charged - including the head of the Taser-gun manufacturing company, some private detectives and, I believe, one or two serving policemen.
Spying on his family - ie following and photgraphing his wife and children as well as himself - definitely spooky and worth more than a few lines, n'est-ce pas?
Especially as he comes out of it squeaky-clean.

[dot king]

As for Besancenot's being a "star", then much less than any of the rest. At least he doesn't put his family life on display, nor wear clothes "borrowed" from top couturiers . . .
It's just a couple of weeks ago that I saw Ted Stanger on "C dans l'air" saying that in the USA most Americans wouldn't know who the justice or some other minister was, but that the French government were stars - and on the World stage!

[Daniel Strohl]

"in the printing works of the Communist Revolutionary League (LCR) at Montreuil, the borough that adjoins Paris on the east. Fittingly, the nearest Métro stop is Robespierre (CHARLES) :)

If I remember well, the headquarters of our beloved CGT union are as well located at the "Porte de Montreuil". I have in memory a feudal headquarters building, not especially in harmony with the idea one may have of an union said to be battling for widows and orphans and exploited workers :)

PS : Robespierre - let us hope that this is not a bad omen for our young historian turned past time postman :).

[alan morgan]

Would you take your car to be repaired at the local florist? No? Why not? Because the florist knows nothing about cars!
So why go to Besancenot to ask about finance? A history graduate?A postman? A professed commununist?
Who would ask such things of such a person?
Only an idiot or a journalist seeking seeking strange views.

[V]

"So why go to Besancenot to ask about finance?"

Because in France everybody is competent in everything and giving one's opinion is a matter of liberty-equality. So, politics, economics, or football...

[Fernandez]

"Besancenot has refused to disown Rouillan."

This Rouillan sounds like a certain William Ayers, but I would hate to see Charles condemning people for 'Guilt by Association'. Was Besancenot even 8 y.o. when this happened? In America, certain quarters would label you a racist, Charles. [Before the Obamaniacs attack: No, I'm not being serious.]

[qwerty]

Dot, read the editorial of Jacques Julliard in last week's Nouvel Obs (certainly not a right-wing paper), for more on Besancenot's ambivalence.

I think Besancenot is useful as "poil à gratter" because he raises a lot of good questions and is extremely articulate, so he's good in a democracy. But does he have anything like a programme, apart from prohibiting all lay-offs, your job guaranteed for life?

And he keeps talking about a "revolution" but seems unlikely to ever lead one.

The other ambiguities Charles has pointed out (Che, etc.)

He's just a populiste, a certain type of poujadiste.

[Ros]

"We are at the end of a cycle. We are at a major turning point in the course of the world economy," Besancenot said " - is that all he said, Charles, during your interview? True you string a lot of facts together & quite interesting too but we (at least I) haven't understood WHY you went,WHAT you talked about etc - were you offered tea, coffee or something stronger?

[dot king]

QWERTY - I'm not a revolutionary, nor even an anarchist (just for the record :)) but I thought Charles' piece wasn't all that clear for anyone outside of France concerning his relationship to Rouillan (as Mary says, guilt by association), nor concerning the played-down spy story and the fact that no-one took him seriously when he found listening devices in his car, and so on.
Today, the head of the Taser company has admitted wanting Besancenot under surveillance to have ammunition about his patrimoine and private life to use against him in a possible live TV debate. Is that crazy, or not? Someone sees him as a threat, that's for sure - just speaking out about tasers isn't a big enough issue to warrant that, surely?

I wasn't defending OB's politics but was trying to balance out the rather light and somewhat negative, vaguely amused treatment I thought was given.

Of all the political figures who might give an opinion on any subject in France today, Besancenot is the only one likely to be saying what he really thinks - whether one agrees with him or not. Do you see what I mean?

BTW some time ago you recommended Fred Vargas to me as a writer - I never forget such things and have picked one up, it's next on my pile and I'm looking forward to it.

[Daniel Strohl]

DOT,

"saying that in the USA most Americans wouldn't know who the justice or some other minister was"

One of the reasons could be that proportionally, more French than Americans turn up for elections. One may infer from this fact that French have more interest in politics and therefore know at least a few minister names :)

ALAN,

"Would you take your car to be repaired at the local florist? No?

I wouldn't take history lectures either from Besancenot, since I am not sure whether the latter understood everything he was told or taught at Nanterre university :)

More seriously :

"The only model that has not been tried is the one where the majority decides for itself."

This is not quite true. There have been a few "Coopératives Ouvrières de Production" (workers running themselves their plant or business in a democratic way, with their own money). As far as I know, there are no blatant success stories to report for the amateurs of "démocratie participative" and the like ...

[Pierre]

"the rather light and somewhat negative, vaguely amused treatment"

I agree Dot. He is more than Tintin like. Even if he has "parrains" upon or beside him (Krivine is not retired). He's often truly brilliant. Even if working as a partial post man.
I specifically remember he levelling in a debate with the cerebral and experienced DSK ( and my personal opinions are much closer to DSK than OB).
Populist as Qwerty mentions? Maybe.Demagogist more precisely. But who ain't in politics?
Sincere? Surely. But nothing to do with Poujadism quite a specific and distinct political trend.

[qwerty]

cf Julliard in Nouvel Obs:Dans le bref commentaire qu Olivier Besancenot fait de cet interview, dans le même numéro de «l'Express», il y a ceci : «Françoise Besse a des comptes à régler avec Action directe.» Vous avez bien lu : l'épouse de la victime a des «comptes à régler» avec l'assassin. C'est pourquoi le langage de Mme Besse n'est pas recevable : «Cela ne peut être un débat entre elle et nous.» Du reste, «le passé est le passé... j'étais bien jeune à l'époque».
Elle est épatante la morale de Besancenot. La parole de la victime est toujours suspecte, puisque nécessairement elle a des «comptes à régler» avec l'assassin. C'est comme les juifs. Quand ils parlent de génocide, il y a lieu de se méfier, puisque, sans conteste, ils ont des comptes à régler avec Hitler. Il est vrai que vous n'étiez même pas né à l'époque. Le passé est en effet le passé.

[qwerty]

Doing that cut & paste was difficult because Safari doesn't seem to do tabs like Explorer 7 does...
I just want to add that as far as I'm concerned, a political assassin is equivalent to an assassin de droit commun, politics excuse nothing and condoning or not clearly condemning political terrorism is abject.

[rocket]

V

"So why go to Besancenot to ask about finance?"

Because in France everybody is competent in everything and giving one's opinion is a matter of liberty-equality. So, politics, economics, or football...

Well said!!!

[V]

Yeah, it's very annoying, in France you either must accept that everyone is entitled to an opinion in your field, or you must make yourself accepted as the alpha-male by diplomas or other forceful (usually caste) means. Competence sometimes doesn't matter all that much.
Besancenot comes very well prepared to debates, speaks with gusto and very very much, quotes shocking numbers that no one can verify, and draws some dramatic conclusion, usually revolutionary.

He seems honest, but this is a skill that is learnt. He seems simple and of the people (la France d'en bas) but as Daniel said maintes fois, he's a BAC+5, history graduate, and it's not his postman job paying for his electoral campaigns.

In short, even more than Segolène Royal, Besancenot is a political viper in the white clothes of a people's martyre.

[dada]

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=2vNUPC2YfB4&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=4Trn4l8_5Tc

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=DSyXQA4QiTw

[Daniel Strohl]

QWERTY,

"Doing that cut & paste was difficult because Safari doesn't seem to do tabs like Explorer 7 does..."

You should may be try Google's CHROME - it is the fastest of the browsers, uses tabs and works really well, even if it is only a beta version. The installation is very easy, since CHROME picks up automatically all required configuration parameters (Note : I DO NOT have any shares in Google - unfortunately :).

En ce qui concerne Besancenot, sous son air de gamin sympathique, c'est un politicien roué et malin qui joue sur la corde sensible de son électorat. Il faut dire que le parti socialiste et certains syndicats lui ont grandement facilité la tache en racontant des histoires aux gens, qui s'en sont rendus compte et veulent aller voir ailleurs si l'herbe est plus verte ...

ROCKET,

"Because in France everybody is competent in everything and giving one's opinion is a matter of liberty-equality"

Rocket, I am afraid you too have been irremediably
contaminated :)

[Robert Marchenoir]

"Besancenot softens such talk with jokes and assurances that his internet-age revolution will welcome a free press and multi-party democracy."

Sure. Just witness the vicious censorship already happening on most French left-wing media sites and blogs. And I mean moderately left-wing, or even without an official political affiliation (which, in France, still means rabidly socialist).

Right-wing sites are much more tolerant to leftist comments from readers than the other way round.

Actually, the officially conservative Le Figaro "moderates" many right-wing comments into oblivion, while allowing Besancenot-style views without a wink.

Comments similar to those I regularly write here have been repeatedly censored on Le Figaro's website.

This gives you an idea of what a Besancenot-type "free press" would be.

[valerie]

Besancenot panders to the part of the French population that enjoys believing that they are all revolutionaries at heart and that their already hyper-assisted lives could only be better if even more assistance were given to them. It's all part of the raleur, the complainer, aspect of French culture. They complain that they don't get much of their pay every month because of all the deductions imposed on it and then complain when their allocations are reduced.

[John, Sartell, MN, USA]

About the TASER spying:
In a good honest investigation the Dirty get covered with mud (and merd) while the Clean come out cleaner.

About economics:
All you need to know is: 1.) You can not get something for nothing. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool or a crook.
2.) GOD (or ALAH) created gold and silver to keep bankers (money creators) honest.
3.) Account books that show how much you earned in past years without telling you how much it costed to live are con jobs.

Anyone on the street who is not a child knows these facts.

[Pierre]

John

I suggest you urgently adress your Three Commandments not only to the Porte de Montreuil but with priority to Wall Street and The City (liste non limitative).

[Pierre]

Charles,
Hurry..
Forget Besancenot, Obama or Sarkozy
Open the DSK case.
(I predict a blog riot...)

[Daniel Strohl]

JOHN, SARTELL, MN

About economics :

I agree totally with your definitions !

"Anyone on the street who is not a child knows these facts"

I would say (with your permission :) "anyone on the street who is not a child should know these facts" - unfortunately, many don't ...

VALENTIN,

"he's a BAC+5"

This reminds me another BAC + 5 story. In one of the TV debates prior to the (lost) referendum on the European constitution, I heard Clementine Autain saying : "J'ai lu la Constitution. Je n'ai rien compris, alors que je suis BAC + 5".
I have probably already reported this (true) story on the blog - si c'est le cas, je commence sérieusement à radoter :)

[christopher muir]

Any chance that Besancenot has the telephone number of Hugo Chavez handy? They seem to have a great deal in common.

[Valentin]

"Right-wing sites are much more tolerant to leftist comments from readers than the other way round." (R Marchenoir)

So true...

Daniel Strohl:

The comment about the right to give one's opinion as a matter of liberty-equality was mine, not Rocket's, I was pointing to the egalitarian attitude of many in France.

I dont remember you reporting Autain's line before, and even if you did, you (we) probably need to do it more often still, given the number of people that still believe Besancenot or other leftist politicians are honest in their simplicity.

[Francois D]

"He is seen as useful to Sarkozy because his case undermines the mainstream opposition just as Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right leader, was long the bane of the Gaullist movement".

Very well seen, Charles.

NS's dream: to be alone with OB for 2012 2nd round elections (meaning that socialist candidate is third or forth)... Comparison with Lepen, indirect Mitterrand'ally is perfectly valid.

I think qu'OB is more in line with Proudhon, libertarian anarchist of the 18th century than with Marx. This current of thought is very "hexagonal". Economic crisis is an opportunity for OB to reactivate Proudhon's theories.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Joseph_Proudhon

It was a Marx's contemporary. They exchanged ideas but were quickly opposing. Proudhon was more anarchist.

[Daniel Strohl]

CHRISTOPHER,

"They seem to have a great deal in common"

Yes, but not the oil - alas ! :)

PIERRE,

(I predict a blog riot...) - LOL !

Of course, I heard from the story not on Marianne or Libération, but on Le Figaro.

La vieille expression "Cherchez la femme" va retrouver tout son lustre, du moins si l'histoire est vraie ... Et si elle est vraie, le monde financier aura brillé une fois de plus, et au plus haut
niveau !

ROBERT,

"Actually, the officially conservative Le Figaro "moderates" many right-wing comments into oblivion, while allowing Besancenot-style views without a wink".

May be there is a simple reason for that. All papers battle to increase their circulation and/or their Internet hit score. If Le Figaro censors systematically Besancenot-style views, they will loose many left wing readers but will may be not increase significantly the number of right wing readers.

Of course, left leaning papers do the same the other way round ...

PS : if something apparently illogical happens somewhere, it appears to be "illogical" because most of the time one does not know all the (hidden) parameters. Of course, money is a big parameter, almost always present in "illogical" matters ...

[rocket]

Hi Daniel

What I meant was

"Because in France everybody is competent in everything and giving one's opinion. point! LOL

[Romain]

Charles,
Hurry..
Forget Besancenot, Obama or Sarkozy
Open the DSK case.
(I predict a blog riot...)

Posted by: Pierre | 18 Oct 2008 10:06:09

Oh Oui ! Plus Chirac's Japanese bank account.

[The DSK case has been circulating now for some months and it hardened up with the investigation a few weeks ago. It was initiated by an angry husband. I stayed out of it till now, but if it's a feeding frenzy I'll come back. CB]

[Pierre]

It was initiated by an angry husband. I stayed out of it till now, but if it's a feeding frenzy I'll come back. CB]
The casting goes global.
International Fund. Argentinian husband. Hungarian wife. French Lover. American investigation.

[Romain]

Rouillan benefitted from presidential amnesty twice : once under Giscard, once under Mitterand.
After which he was convicted for two assassinations :M. Besse, and General Audran, and sentenced again to double life term. He joined Besancenot's party in Marseille and both Krivine and Besancenot saw absolutely no objection to it, and did not have a word to condemn his crimes. Besancenot's comittees demonstrated in Bordeaux with banners "Free Rouillan". Besancenot and friends said Rouillan had purged his sentence, which is false.
The semi-liberty conditions don't prohibit joining a political movement, it would be unconstitutional, they strictly forbid to comment on the crimes for which Rouillan was condemned.
Rouillan tested the limits in his interview by l'Express, as a result the judges found Rouillan troubled "public order", and cancelled Rouillan's semi-liberty status. A very good news, because it spoils Rouillan's chances to walk free on parole (you have to be on 18 months semi-liberty before parole is considered). Pity this guy did'nt meet the same fate as his victims.

[Ranokivio]

I think the main reason Besancenot is popular in France is because he was one of the few (with Bayrou) who denounced the excess and greed of capitalism such as this kind of behaviour
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/17/executivesalaries-banking.

It just seems wrong for most of the French while it was usually seen as OK (or maybe I should say acceptable or lesser evil) for most of the Anglo-Saxons.

With Sarko, Brown (and even Bush!?) wanting to tackle this problem now (?), the popularity of Besancenot might well just slightly decrease as Sarko is just doing to him what he did to Le Pen few months ago, stealing some of his ideas to gain the most respectable of his electors...
I don't think that most of the people who vote for Besancenot want the revolution.

"So why go to Besancenot to ask about finance?"

Maybe because he predicted this mess which is (hopefully) not the case of Bush's economic advisers...

[azloon]

Taser, the stun-gun company, is based in arizona and i have followed the controversies about police use of tasers for a number of years.

my conclusion: that your chance of being killed by a taser is about 1 in 10,000. your chances of being killed by a bullet from a gun (or multiple bullets) are about 90%.

i am guessing that, for americans, this makes a much bigger difference than for most europeans who don't expect their police to shoot them. here we do expect exactly that if we misbehave badly, and do ANYTHING that the policeman could conceivably interpret as a physical threat to him or her.

so we are more equananimous about taser use.

re: DSK

CB warned us when he was appointed that he had a hard time keeping his fly zipped up. alors, pas de supris.

[Romain]

Azloon,

DSK's case is what we call a "Water Braguette" case. It is quite regrettable at a moment when Sarko and Europe are trying to find a consensus on new financial rules.

[dot king]

I think that there will always be, in politics, some people who are better, more influential, in opposition than in power.
This IMO is Besancenot's rôle. He will have enough following to keep those in power on their toes. And that's necessary.
That he should have been spied upon shows he's more than a mild irritant in some circles.

[rocket]

Ranokivio

"So why go to Besancenot to ask about finance?"

"Maybe because he predicted this mess which is (hopefully) not the case of Bush's economic advisers..."

Your's is an example of extremely weak argumentation

[john gregory flinn]

" One of Mr Besancenot's ideas -- nationalising the banks -- no longer seems as extreme as it did a month ago."

Yes, he's onto a winner!

Taking a share-holding in banks has become the inevitable choice for governments involved in this financial crisis.
Although it's not the banks but the bankers that are the problem.
As their stock market value falls banks are obliged to seek new capital to shore up their debts, loans and other financial committments. Because the rules governing the amounts of such committments are directly related to the stock value by law.
Hence, since just about all asset bubbles are now deflating there is no other way banks can re-capitalize except by bankers going cap in hand to their governments.

Soviet bankers had similar problems to cope with, especially the falling Rouble and its black market towards the end.
Somebody once described living in a soviet country as like being in a permanent recession!

Were a Besancenot revolution to occur he should be wary of avoiding the fate that his hero met in Mexico. As the facts of life become evident and the struggle for power develops, totalitarian regimes are noticeably less tolerant of "personalities" as democracies.
Did'nt Robespierre go to the guillotine in the end!

[T. J. Cassidy]

How will it play in Peoria?