Olivier Besancenot
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Olivier Besancenot (born April 18, 1974) is a French left-wing political figure and was a candidate for the 2007 French presidential election, for the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR), the French section of the reunified Fourth International. He gained 1.2 million votes, 4.25%, standing as a revolutionary socialist in the 2002 presidential elections.
In the first round of the 2007 presidential election, Besancenot received 4.08% of the vote, placing him fifth and eliminating him from the race.
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[edit] Biography
Olivier Besancenot was born on April 18, 1974 in Levallois-Perret in the Hauts-de-Seine Region, (France). His father, Michel Besancenot, was a teacher and his mother a psychologist at a school.
He studied history at University of Paris X (Nanterre) and continued his studies at University of Paris VI (Pierre et Marie Curie) for a maîtrise in contemporary history. Since 1997 he works as a postal carrier in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
[edit] Portrait
Along with Alain Krivine and Roseline Vachetta, Besancenot is one of three spokespersons for the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR), a far left political party which is the French section of the reunified Fourth International, an international Trotskyist group.
Besancenot however eschews the Trotskyist label:
- I'm neither Trotskyist, nor Guevarist, neither Luxemburgist, I'm a revolutionary. And Revolution needs to be reinvented, for no revolutionary experiment has ever succeeded. Some of them finished in bloody caricatures.[1]
[edit] Political life
Besancenot's engagement in left-wing politics started at an early age. He joined the Revolutionary Communist Youth (Jeunesses communistes révolutionnaires) (JCR) in 1988 when he was just 14 years old.
When at university studying for his history licence he formed a local branch of the Confédération générale du travail trade union in the supermarket, Shopi, where he worked.
In 1991 he joined the LCR. Since 1997 he has been a member of the Sud-PTT trade union. He took a break from his job at the postal services in 1999 and 2000 to serve as a parliamentary attaché to Alain Krivine in the European Parliament.
In 2001 and 2002, he participated in the World Social Forum at Porto Alegre. He gained some national prominence when he stood for the 2002 French presidential election. At 28 years old he became the youngest presidential candidate in the country's history. Standing on an openly revolutionary socialist platform he gained 1.3 million votes, 4.25% of the total vote. Among under 25 years olds he gained 13.9 percent of the vote, beating both Lionel Jospin and Jean-Marie Le Pen. [2]
Besancenot ran again for the 2007 presidential election. Since the beginning of his presidential campaign, Besancenot has used the slogan Nos vies valent plus que leurs profits ("Our lives are worth more than their profits") and has campaigned for redistribution of wealth, an increase in the minimum wage, prohibition of layoffs for profitable companies, and a taxation of profits from capital speculation. He stood also for the political and electoral independence of the anti-capitalist left from the Socialist Party and against its participation in a centre-left government. Among non political supports, Besancenot was endorsed by British filmmaker Ken Loach, known for his depictions of working-class struggles.[3] His campaign's closing rally, in Paris, was attended by over 4,000 people, making it the largest meeting organised by the LCR, or its predecessors, since 1968.[4] Besancenot gained 1,498,581 votes or 4.08%, around 300,000 votes more than 2002.[5] He is the first in votes and in dominant position among the candidates to the left of the Socialist Party's candidate, Ségolène Royal.[6] For the second around of the elections, Besancenot, after calling for participation stated that "On 6 May, we will be on the side of those who want to prevent Nicolas Sarkozy from attaining the presidency of the republic. It is not a matter of supporting Ségolène Royal but voting against Nicolas Sarkozy.", fighting the Right in the street as well as at the ballot boxes.[5] After the victory of Sarkozy in the second round, Besancenot and LCR call for "a united front of all the social and democratic forces [...] to organise a response faced to the extreme neoliberal and repressive programme of Sarkozy". [7]
[edit] Published works
- Tout est à nous (2002), ISBN 2-207-25309-0, Denoël
- Révolution (100 mots pour changer le monde, 2003), ISBN 2-290-33828-1, Flammarion
[edit] References
- ^ La gauche dont rêve la droite, Istvan Felkaï, Le Monde, April 6, 2007
- ^ "Socialists from France speak out: Interviews with Daniel Bensaid and Alexandre Gaudillière", Socialist Worker. Retrieved on 2007-05-07.
- ^ Cause célèbre, Financial Times
- ^ Duggan, Penelope. "Olivier Besancenot holds final campaign rally", International Viewpoint. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
- ^ a b "Olivier Besancenot Statement on Election Outcome", International Viewpoint. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
- ^ Zappi, Sylvia; Vincent, Elise. "Olivier Besancenot s'impose à la gauche du Parti socialiste", Le Monde, 2007-04-24. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
- ^ "Statement by Olivier Besancenot on election of Sarkozy", International Viewpoint. Retrieved on 2007-05-07.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- (French) Olivier Besancenot official website for 2007 Presidential elections
- (French) Olivier Besancenot - Blog
