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| New Anticapitalist Party (France) | |
|---|---|
| Name | New Anticapitalist Party |
| Native name | Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste |
| Leader | Collective leadership |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Position | Far-left |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
New Anticapitalist Party (France) is a far-left political organization founded in France in 2009 as a successor to parts of the Revolutionary Communist League and other anti-capitalist currents. It was created by activists and intellectuals who had been active in social movements such as the 2006 protests over the Contrat première embauche and the 2005 civil unrest in French suburbs. The party sought to unify disparate Marxist, Trotskyist, anarchist, and ecosocialist currents into a single electoral and extra-parliamentary formation.
The party emerged from the dissolution of the Revolutionary Communist League (France) and the debates around the 2007 French presidential election and the rise of the Union for a Popular Movement and the Socialist Party (France). Founders included figures associated with the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire, activists from the 2005 French riots, participants in the G8 protests, and organisers involved with the European Social Forum and the alter-globalization movement. The NPA announced its creation in 2009 following conferences that debated links to the Left Front (France) and responses to the Great Recession. Early years involved alliances with unions such as the General Confederation of Labour (France) and the Solidaires (union federation), and activism around issues like opposition to the Sarkozy presidency and cuts to public spending. Internal splits occurred after the 2012 French legislative election and the 2012 French presidential election, with some members joining formations connected to La France Insoumise and others returning to Trotskyist groups.
The party's ideology combined Marxism, Trotskyism, eco-socialism, feminism, and elements of anarchism into a program advocating the abolition of capitalist property relations, expansion of social services, and workers' control over production. Policy proposals referenced historic texts like The Communist Manifesto and addressed contemporary issues such as opposition to the Treaty of Lisbon and austerity measures promoted during the European sovereign debt crisis. The platform supported nationalisations in sectors including RATP-style public transport, defended rights for undocumented migrants as in debates around the Droits des étrangers, promoted secularism in the tradition of Laïcité debates, and endorsed feminist positions resonant with campaigns around the Ni Putes Ni Soumises movement and the #MeToo movement in Europe.
The party operated through regional and local committees modelled on the activist structures of the May 1968 events in France and the democratic centralism traditions of Trotskyist organizations, but with collective leadership and rotating spokespersons rather than a single leader. Internal governance relied on conferences, national councils, and working groups focused on sectors such as education, health, transport, and youth, linking with student bodies like the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France and secondary school organisations involved in the 2006 youth protests in France. Publication organs and media outreach connected to alternative press traditions stemming from periodicals comparable to Libération and magazines aligned with the New Left in Europe.
Electoral results were modest: the party contested the 2009 European Parliament election, the 2012 French presidential election indirectly via debates over candidacies like those of Olivier Besancenot and later figures, and multiple municipal and legislative contests. Vote shares typically stayed in low single digits, with occasional stronger performances in municipal councils and local assemblies in industrial and urban suburbs affected by deindustrialisation similar to constituencies in Seine-Saint-Denis and Nord (French department). The NPA's electoral strategy alternated between running independent lists and supporting broader left lists including the Left Front (France), Front de Gauche, and later forming tactical relations with movements associated with Jean-Luc Mélenchon and La France Insoumise.
The party mobilised around major campaigns opposing labour law reforms such as the Loi El Khomri (Labour Law), coordinated protests during national strikes involving the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail and the Comités d'action, organised solidarity actions for striking workers at sites like GdeF/ErDF facilities, and participated in anti-war and anti-globalization demonstrations paralleling protests against Operation Serval. It organised public assemblies during the 2010 pension reform protests in France and supported movements against police violence triggered by incidents reminiscent of those that sparked the 2005 French riots.
From its foundation the party contained competing currents: traditional Trotskyist factions advocating strategic ruptures, ecosocialists pushing green policies influenced by Greenpeace-style activism, autonomists and libertarian socialists emphasizing direct action and horizontalism, and social democrats urging broader alliances. Debates over participation in electoral coalitions, relations with La France Insoumise, and approaches to union engagement produced splits and resignations, with some members joining groups like Lutte Ouvrière or forming new tendencies comparable to movements around Anticapitalist Left initiatives elsewhere in Europe.
Internationally, the party connected with movements and parties such as the Party of the European Left, the Fourth International, Latin American left governments like Venezuela under Hugo Chávez supporters, anti-austerity leftists from Greece such as members of Syriza, and activist networks participating in the World Social Forum. It engaged in solidarity campaigns for international struggles including those in Palestine, Gaza, and against neoliberal institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, while hosting delegations and exchanges with parties from Spain, Italy, and Portugal aligned with the European far-left.