The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle) in the Municipal Elections

Mar 3, 2008

In the municipal elections of March 9, nearly 5,000 candidates of Lutte Ouvrière (LO) will be running on 186 different lists. Lutte Ouvrière will have candidates in most major population centers since 32 out of 38 of the main cities in France, those with 100,000 inhabitants or more, will have LO candidates. So LO’s presence is clearly greater in this year’s municipal elections than in the last municipal elections in 2001.

In 69 cities, Lutte Ouvrière is participating on slates with the big traditional parties of the left–the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, or both. In a number of towns, our candidates are on lists with other smaller parties, like the LCR (Revolutionary Communist League), the Greens, the Citizens Movement of J-P ChevPnement, the Workers Party, or the Left Radicals.

Thirty-seven of these lists, or 55%, are led by the Communist Party, and 26 of them are led by the Socialist Party.

Finally, in 117 cities, Lutte Ouvrière will present lists under its own name. And in a number of cities, it will be for the first time.