Similar process going on in France with the Socialist Party...
Lutte Ouvriere excludes its minority
Submitted on 4 February, 2008 - 23:27
* France
* The Left
France
Author:
Ed Maltby
Statement from "L'Etincelle": The Central Committee of Lutte Ouvriere
decided on the 2nd of February to "suspend" the "Etincelle" minority
faction until the organisation's next congress, which will be in
December.
This de facto expulsion, which is to be applied at all levels of the
organisation and without exception, to all political activities, in
particular the production and sale of the newspaper and of industrial
bulletins, comes at the time when LO is making a political U-turn and
looking to integrate itself into a centre-left alliance during the
coming municipal elections.
The pretext which the LO leader****p has used is itself instructive.
This expulsion has been carried through because two outgoing
councilors, elected in 2001 on an LO list in Wattrelos (North), of
whom one is a member of the Minority, have refused to be sidelined
this year, as this manoeuvre was intended merely to ease negotiations
around places on a centre-left common list led by the Parti
Socialiste. We cannot stress enough that this is about getting rid of
those who will not agree to line up behind the Parti Socialiste and
who refuse to accept an alliance with the centre left of the kind
which LO had always opposed until today, whether the centre-left be in
opposition or in government.
This alliance will certainly not be painless as on the one hand the
Parti Socialiste has until now rebuffed LO's offers of help in a
majority of the towns where they have been made and on the other, the
PS is complaining loudly about the reticence and even the hostility on
the part of some far-left activists and sympathisers. These
difficulties are not unrelated to the LO leader****p's determination to
expel its internal oppositon.
Whatever it may be, the "Etincelle" Fraction will naturally continue
its activist work and its political combat for the construction of a
revolutionary communist workers' party, amongst other things for a
turn from LO to politics not stained by electoral op****tunism.
Paris 4th February 2008
The "Etincelle" Fraction of Lutte Ouvri=E8re
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