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The French Communist Party (French: Parti communiste français, PCF ; French pronunciation: ) is a communist party in France.
Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a strong influence in French politics, especially at the local level. In 2012, the PCF claimed 138,000 members including 70,000 who have paid their membership fees.[5] This would make it the third largest party in France in terms of membership after the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the Socialist Party (PS).
Founded in 1920 by the majority faction of the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), it participated in three governments:
It was also once the largest French left-wing party in a number of national elections, from 1945 to 1960, before falling behind the Socialist Party in the 1970s. The PCF has lost further ground to the Socialists since that time.
Since 2009 the PCF has been a leading member of the Left Front (Front de gauche), alongside Jean-Luc Mélenchon's Left Party (PG).
The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group.
The PCF, in contrast to weaker and more marginal communist parties in Europe, is usually seen as a left-wing rather than far-left party in the French context. While the French far-left (LCR/NPA, LO) has refused to participate in government or engage in electoral alliances with centre-left parties such as the PS, the PCF has participated in governments in the past and still enjoys a de facto electoral agreement with the PS (mutual withdrawals, the common practice since 1962 and in 1934-1939). Nonetheless, some observers and analysts classify the PCF as a far-left party, noting their ideological proximity to other far-left parties.
In the 1980s, under
During the 1970s, the PCF registered success with the children's magazine it founded, Pif gadget.
Traditionally, it was also the owner of the French daily L'Humanité (Humanity), founded by Jean Jaurès. Although the newspaper is now independent, it remains close to the PCF. The paper is sustained by the annual Fête de L'Humanité festival, held in La Courneuve, a working class suburb of Paris. This event remains the biggest festival in France with 600,000 people during a three days festival.
The PCF publishes the following:
During the course of the Twentieth Century, the French Communists were considered to be pioneers in local government, providing not only efficient street lighting and clean streets, but also public entertainment, public housing, municipal swimming pools, day nurseries, children’s playgrounds, and public lavatories.[22] In 1976, for instance, the Communist mayor of Sarchelles, Henri Canacos, was named “best mayor in the Paris region” by Vie Publique (a trade periodical for urban planners and administrators) for enriching Sarchelles’ public spaces with new restaurants, movie theatres, cafes, more parks, a large shopping mall, and better transportation.[23] Education also became, in the words of one text, an “identifiable characteristic of Communist government at the local level.” A study of municipal budgets that was completed in 1975 (but using data from 1968) found that while Communist local government spent 34% less that non-Communist Left governments and 36% less than moderate-Right governments for maintenance, it nevertheless spent 49% more than moderate Right governments and 36% more than non-Communist Left governments for education and educational support.[24]
There exists isolated Communist bases in the rural anti-clerical areas of southwestern Côtes-d'Armor and northwestern Morbihan; in the industrial areas of Le Mans; in the shipbuilding cities of Saint-Nazaire, La Seyne-sur-Mer (there are no more ships built in La Seyne); and in isolated industrial centres built along the old Paris-Lyon railway (The urban core of Romilly-sur-Seine, Aube has elected a Communist general councillor since 1958).
Communist traditions in the "Red Limousin", the Pas-de-Calais, Paris proper, Nièvre, Finistère, Alpes-Maritimes and Var have been hurt significantly by demographic changes (Var, Alpes-Maritimes, Finistère), a loss of voters to the Socialist Party due to good local Socialist infrastructure or strongmen (Nièvre, Pas-de-Calais, Paris) or due to the emergence of rival parties on the radical left (the Convention for a Progressive Alternative, a party of reformist communists, in the Limousin and Val-de-Marne).
Currently, the PCF retains some strength in suburban Paris, in the Nord section of the old coal mining area in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, the industrial harbours of Le Havre and Dieppe, in some departments of central France, such as Allier and Cher (where a form of sharecropping existed, in addition to mining and small industrial-mining centres such as Commentry and Montceau-les-Mines), the industrial mining region of northern Meurthe-et-Moselle (Longwy) and in some cities of the south, such as the industrial areas of Marseille and nearby towns, as well as the working-class suburbs surrounding Paris (the ceinture rouge), Lyon, Saint-Étienne, Alès and Grenoble.[21] The PCF is also strong in the Cévennes mountains, a left-wing rural anti-clerical stronghold with a strong Protestant minority.
At the XXXIV Congress in 2008, for the election of the national council, the majority's list won 67.73% from the congress' delegates against 16.38% for Marie-Pierre Vieu's huiste list backed by the refondateurs, 10.26% for André Gerin's orthodox list and 5.64% for Nicolas Marchand's novateur list.[14]
There are no formal organized factions or political groupings within the PCF. This was originally due to the practice of democratic centralism, but even after the democratization of the PCF structure after 1994 the ban on the organization of formal factions within the party remained. According to party statutes, the PCF supports the "pluralism of ideas" but the right to pluralism "may not be translated into an organizations of tendencies".[13] Nevertheless, certain factions and groups are easily identifiable within the PCF and they are de facto expressed officially by different orientation texts or lists for leadership elections at party congresses.
Secretaries-general (1921–1994) and national-secretaries (since 1994)
L'Humanité has retained closer ties with the PCF. The newspaper was founded by Jean Jaurès in 1904 as the socialist movement's mouthpiece, and it followed the communist majority following the split in 1920. After having been the official newspaper of the PCF, with a readership of up to 100,000 in 1945, the newspaper's readership and sales declined substantially partly due to the PCF's concomitant decline. In 1999, the mention of the newspaper's link to the PCF was dropped and the PCF no longer determines its editorial stance. It sold an average of 46,929 newspapers per day in 2012; down from 53,530 in 2007.[12]
The Henri Krasucki, Louis Viannet) also serving in the PCF's national leadership structures. For years, the CGT and the PCF were close and almost indissociable allies - notably in May 1968 when both the CGT and PCF were eager for a restoration of social order and welcomed the Grenelle agreements. While the CGT has remained the largest trade union in France, it has taken its independence vis-à-vis the PCF. Louis Viannet spectacularly quit the national bureau of the PCF in 1996 and Bernard Thibault, the CGT's leader between 1999 and 2013, left the PCF's national council in 2001.
The party's structures were democratized at the 1994 Congress, dropping democratic centralism and allowing for the public expression of disapproval or dissent with the party line or leadership. The party's top posts, like that of 'secretary-general', were renamed (secretary-general became national-secretary). The party, since 2000, is now led by a national council, which serves as the leadership between congresses; and the executive committee, which is charged with applying the national council's decisions. The national-secretary is elected by delegates at the congress. Likewise, the national council is elected by list voting at every congress. A reform of statutes in 2001 has allowed "alternative texts" - dissent from the text proposed by the PCF leadership - to be presented and voted on; dissident lists to those backed by the leadership may also run for the national council.[6]:170–171
According to studies by the CEVIPOF in 1979 and 1997, the makeup of the PCF's membership has also changed significantly since 1979. The most marked change was a major decline in the share of manual workers (ouvriers) in the party's membership, with a larger number of employees and middle-classes, especially those who work in the public sector.[6]:175 The form of political action taken by members has also changed, with less emphasis on direct political or electoral action but a greater emphasis on social work and protests.
The party likely has about 70,000 members as of today, but only about 40 to 50 thousand seem to actively participate in the party's organization and political activities. :166[6] In the 2011 internal primary, 69,277 members were registered to vote and 48,631 (70.2%) did so.:166[6] In 2008, the party claimed that it had 134,000 members of which 79,000 were up to date on their membership fees.:166[6] The PCF has traditionally been a "mass party", although
The PCF has two Presidents of the General Council – in the Val-de-Marne and Allier. It lost Seine-Saint-Denis, which it had held since the 1960s, to the PS in 2008.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the FG's platform in the 2012 presidential election was broken up into nine overarching 'themes'.[11]
The text adopted at the XXXVI Congress in February 2013 reiterated the party's call on the need to "overcome" capitalism, fiercely denounced by the PCF as having led to "savage competition", "the devastation of the planet" and "barbarism".[10] It contrasts its vision of capitalism with its proposed alternative, described as an egalitarian, humanist, and democratic alternative. It emphasizes human emancipation, the development of "each and every one", the right to happiness and the equal dignity of each human being regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation.[10] The party further posits that such an egalitarian society is impossible within capitalism, which "unleashes domination and hatred".[10]
One consistency in the PCF's ideology has been its staunch opposition to capitalism, which must be "overcome" because, according to the PCF, the capitalist system is "exhausted" and "on the verge of collapse".[6]:177 The PCF has interpreted the current course of globalization as a confirmation of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's view on the future evolution of capitalism. The party feels that the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the Great Recession have further justified its calls to overcome capitalism.[6]:177 However, the PCF has remained somewhat vague on how capitalism will be 'overcome' and what will replace it, placing heavy emphasis on utopic models or values.[6]:178
On the issue of immigration, the PCF's positions have also evolved significantly since the 1980s. In the Vitry-sur-Seine who had destroyed a home for Malian migrant workers; the PCF claimed that the right-wing government was trying to push immigrants into ghettos in Communist working-class cities.[9] The Libération newspaper also alleged that PCF municipal administrations had been working to limit the number of immigrants in housing projects. Today, however, the PCF supports the regularization of illegal immigrants.
Since then, the PCF's ideology has been marked by significant ideological evolution on some topics but consistency on other issues. Some of the most marked changes have come on individual rights and immigration. After having vilified homosexuality and feminism as "the rubbish of capitalism" in the 1970s, the PCF has evolved towards tolerance and now full support for both gay rights and feminism.[6]:174 In the 1980s, the PCF supported reducing the age of consent for homosexual relationships and opposed attempts to repenalize homosexuality. In 1998, the PCF voted in favour of the civil solidarity pact (PACS), civil unions including homosexual couples. The PCF currently supports both same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption. On 12 February 2013, PCF deputies voted in favour of same-sex marriage and adoption rights in the National Assembly.[7] However, one PCF deputy, Patrice Carvalho, voted against.[8] The PCF also supports feminist movements and supports policies to further promote gender equality and parity.
:176–177[6] It also tried to downplay the PCF's historic attachment to Moscow and the Soviet Union.:176–177[6] models.social democratic or capitalist, and it has tried to downplay the failure of Soviet socialism by saying that the failure of Soviet socialism was the failure of one model "among others", including the communism. That being said, it has not attributed the failure of the Soviet Union as being that of Stalinism Today, the PCF considers the Soviet Union as a 'perversion' of the communist model and unambiguously rejects :174[6] Hue clearly rejected the Soviet model, and reserved very harsh criticism for Soviet leaders who had "rejected, for years, human rights and 'bourgeois' democracy" and had oppressed individual liberties and aspirations.:174[6]
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