France Insoumise is the main left organisation in France, with 70 MPs and nearly half a million members. LEILA MESSAOUDI of Gauche Révolutionnaire (CWI France) explains its programme, class orientation and method of organisation.
Since Emmanuel Macron came to power as French president in 2017, France Insoumise (FI – France Unbowed) is the only political force resisting the offensive by the capitalist parties and their representatives on a wide scale. It is opposed to racism, to police violence, and to war. This is in a context where the rest of the ‘left’ and the leadership of the trade union movement is holding back, forming a kind of ‘national unity’ in the face of political and economic crises. FI also denounces the ills of this capitalist system, especially the economic and environmental problems.
France Insoumise has existed since 2016. The movement was launched to support the presidential election campaign of Jean-Luc Mélenchon in 2017, around a programme titled ‘The Future Together’. Today this programme still constitutes the basis of the movement and gives it a certain consistence and homogeneity. It’s a very broad programme however which says it is anti-capitalist without identifying itself as socialist. In reality it’s a reformist programme which rests on the idea of a citizens revolt ‘in the streets’ and ‘in the ballot box’.
Since Macron dissolved the national assembly (parliament) leading to early elections in June 2024, FI has played even more of a role because it is the only force which thinks that the political instability should be a means of bringing about a politics that is in favour of the majority of the population and not just of the rich, the capitalists Macron supports, and the multiple governments he has presided over. The FI movement has developed a radical profile on crucial questions in France: against racism and on Gaza, which have been used by Macron particularly against Muslims in France.
FI has been the only organisation mobilising against the genocide in Gaza. Mélenchon and FI MPs attack the policies of Macron, François Bayrou (prime minister) and of the right-wing populist National Rally (RN). They have also been talking more openly about ending capitalism. And that has been more the case as world instability has increased, especially since Trump 2.0. Mélenchon wants to use this instability to advance his programme in a more direct way. FI is therefore a pole of attraction, especially for young people. That’s why all the capitalist media and all the capitalist parties – from Macron to the RN, to the Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party (PCF) – attack Mélenchon and FI. There have been two assassination attempts against Mélenchon by neo-Nazi groups and FI public representatives are under permanent threat, in particular Roma Hassan, FI MEP in Brussels, and a Palestine protester.
Why has FI not followed the same trajectory as other left parties such as Syriza in Greece or Podemos in Spain? It is the polarisation in society which is pushing FI into the space it is occupying in the French political landscape. The capitalists and Macron are pursuing increasingly violent measures against workers, youth and immigrants and Mélenchon orientates France Insoumise accordingly. Above all it remains an opposition force that for the moment has not had to confront the many contradictions of being in government.
On the other hand, this intense and unstable political phase has been marked by an almost total absence of strikes and activity coordinated by the trade union federations. There have been few struggles by workers and youth against Macron’s policies: two almost ‘ blank’ years with regards to social struggles and strikes. These are years during which FI, unlike other organisations, has mobilised around anti-racism and against the genocide in Gaza, as well as denouncing the austerity policies of the governments of Michel Barnier, Gabriel Attal and Bayrou. That explains why tens of thousands of people have joined FI via its platform ‘Popular Action’ and through local ‘action groups’, especially students and young workers.
Centred around the figure of Mélenchon, the FI movement is structured around elections, with very little activity outside of election periods. Nevertheless, FI has had ‘red lines’ since its foundation, such as keeping its distance from François Hollande’s PS and the ‘liberal’ left. It is the social and political situation, the general instability and lack of a political alternative on the left, which have increased the influence of FI in France.
But on a wider level, its 7.7 million votes in the 2022 presidential elections and, more recently, the censure vote against the Barnier government, its position against the Darmanin and Retailleau racist laws and against the war on Gaza, have meant that FI is the only opposition force on the left with an electoral base, therefore forming the main point of support against Macron and the other capitalist parties – the PS, EELV (Green Party), and the right and the extreme right.
But FI doesn’t really attract workers and doesn’t try to specifically address the only class capable of overthrowing capitalism – the working class. FI limits its programme to that of a ‘citizens revolution’ resting on elections and popular mobilisation.
The limits of its programme
FI has rightly developed a conscious policy against the racist division of the government, the right and the RN, in particular against Muslims, young people in working-class areas, and immigrants. But FI poses this as defending “real republican ideas”. In the face of a huge reactionary bourgeois offensive at an international level, FI’s slogans don’t allow them to approach the working class, explaining its role in the struggle. FI’s programme is limited to international rights within the framework of the UN and it supports the idea of an alliance of non-aligned countries, without talking about the economic basis of that alliance.
The environmental programme is one of the key points of The Future Together programme, defending in a developed way the idea of environmental planning. That is positive, but this planning cannot exist without taking the means of production out of the hands of the capitalists. Nationalisation or bringing private industry into public ownership under the democratic control and management of workers and the population are not at the heart of the programme, or only mentioned in certain cases.
Consequently, workers, particularly immigrants and those in working-class areas, who often support FI at election time, do not consider it to be an instrument for waging their daily struggles. And other workers, in particular those attracted by the RN, don’t see FI as a force which defends their interests. For example, one of its most problematic posters says ‘Racists vote, and you?’, without saying who profits from racism, and that to fight the system and the ruling classes we have to be united. Of course, in most of its activity FI makes the link between social attacks, poverty and low wages, but this poster also shows the limits of its programme and approach, which doesn’t sufficiently link the common interests of young people and workers whatever their origin or religion. The programme and the methods are intimately linked.
How does the FI movement function?
After nine years of existence the movement is still important. More than 450,000 people are signed up to its platform which brings activities together, distributes material etc. Since 1 January 2025, more than 5,000 have joined FI and more than 200 new local action groups have been created. The movement claims 5,000 action groups, bringing together 106,000 members in France and abroad, of which 2,060 groups are ‘certified’, meaning they are active at least once a month (demonstrations, door-to-door, flyposting, people’s cafés etc). We could therefore estimate that there are around 35,000 active members in FI, with a large number of young people and middle-class people in the cities.
Concretely putting the programme into practice isn’t discussed by the members, however. Local groups are free to carry out their own activities, but they mainly use national leaflets and posters without developing anything themselves, partly because they don’t really have their own finances and there are no subs. The political understanding is often quite basic, because it is very difficult to take part in drawing up a common policy.
There are 70 FI MPs in the national assembly, forming a distinct FI parliamentary group, but local groups have no control over their representatives nor over the leadership of FI. If some national coordinating mechanisms have on occasions been put in place, they are far from functioning democratically and do not permit members full rights. The last FI national conference, held in March 2023, was more a media event than a moment of FI internal life (as some conferences might have been a few years ago).
The movement has representative meetings every six months with one representative for each department [a middle-tier unit of local government] – so around 90 people on average – drawn by lot from the ‘facilitators’ of the local groups. Statements and texts are submitted for discussion, in small groups, and an analysis comes out of this. It is voted on in an indicative ballot of the participants, but the documents are validated by the online platform. Department meetings exist, but don’t include all the members, only the action group facilitators.
All of that limits decision-making, as well as the capacity of ‘the unbowed’ to be active and have an influence. It’s clear that some workers cannot identify with an organisation that is so organisationally loose, dominated by a structure where decisions are taken by those who have the time to be active on social media.
FI isn’t very active in the workplaces. That limits members reach amongst trade unionists, even though they might support the movement. What’s more, the PCF idea of a necessary division between the trade unions and the party – between the trade unions who are deemed responsible for struggles, and the party which is responsible for ‘politics’ – persists in the FI and prevents common appeals and mobilisation. The absence of a political tool and programme therefore makes it difficult for struggles to be carried out. Members of FI should be able to discuss what’s happening in the trade unions and in our workplaces, and how we can appeal for coordinated action and mobilisation. But, more broadly, we should offer to workers, to youth and to all those who want to resist and fight back, the possibility of being organised in a serious and effective way.
FI and the question of a new party
Since the foundation of FI, Mélenchon and other leaders have rejected the idea of a new party, even if a majority of FI members feel and act like party members, and local groups are beginning to sink roots in the areas where they are active. Basically, Mélenchon thinks and has argued that “a party is the political expression of a class, while a movement is for the people”. FI refuses to consider itself a political force for workers, believing that the question of class is outdated in an opposition which will no longer be between the bourgeoisie and workers, but between a capitalist oligarchy and the people. Only the elites are the capitalists, as Mélenchon puts it. And as we know, they have their parties to defend their interests.
Mélenchon is conscious of what he is arguing; he knows that a broad and inclusive party, functioning in a democratic way, organising workers and youth against capitalism, could play an important, indeed decisive role, in the balance of power and class struggle in France. However, FI’s programme is limited to the idea of a citizen’s revolution at the ballot box, supported by mass mobilisation. Mélenchon is well aware that a true workers’ party would challenge capitalist power and play an important role in the struggles. It would also get an echo and considerable support amongst trade union activists, involved in their struggle against the bosses and the government.
Mélenchon’s approach, as well as that of the leadership of FI, weakens the reach of the mobilisations that FI can carry out, because workers and their activity don’t have a central role. And its programme follows this logic, with slogans that don’t address workers directly. And in one sense, even the most motivated have a low level of class consciousness, which doesn’t help workers to struggle and organise, although obviously FI is not alone responsible for this situation.
An important layer of FI members want to see the victory of a real revolution in France against Macron, the RN and the capitalists. And they cannot see any other outcome, especially after the last parliamentary elections in June/July 2024. They are open to socialist and revolutionary Marxist ideas. And the discussions with certain ‘unbowed’ members are important, particularly with all the young people and workers who think FI is the only way to resist in the country. Common discussions and actions must continue. Gauche Révolutionnaire members have participated in FI since its inception in November 2016, in our local areas, wherever that is possible, and as members of a revolutionary Marxist organisation.
This is an essential battle to broaden discussion of a revolutionary Marxist programme and to intensify exchanges and actions on the need for a mass party of workers’ and youth in the fight for socialism.
Translated for Socialism Today by Christine Thomas