The New Dark Age

18 February, 2009 – Toronto

The founding conference of the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA) was held just outside Paris over the weekend of February 6th to 8th.The conference marks the conclusion of a process initiated following the encouraging election results (1.5 million votes) of the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire’s (LCR) candidate in the 2007 presidential elections, 34 year-old postal worker Olivier Besancenot. This process has involved thousands of activists and interested individuals organized in hundreds of committees across France. The new party begins its life with some 10,000 members and in a context of deepening economic crisis and a big wave of strikes and protests against the hard-Right government of president Nicolas Sarkozy.

A report-back from two Toronto-based socialists who attended the founding conference and a Paris-based NPA member and teacher’s union activist.

http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/Groupvideo.2165837

Background reading:

French postman delivers far left message, by Lizzy Davies

France: A Sea Change on the Left, by Yann Remy

From the LCR to the NPA, by LCR veterans

Source: http://www.socialistproject.ca/leftstreamed/#ls15