New Popular Fronts w/ La France Insoumise

December 04 / Bar Opens at 6pm / Discussion from 7.15 / Bar Closes 11pm

In 2024 the French left united under the banner of the Noveau Front Populaire (New Popular Front) to contest the National Assembly elections. The participating parties developed a radical programme that included overturning Macron’s pension changes, price controls, raising the minimum wage and introducing a wealth tax. 

Against the odds the coalition won more seats than President Macron’s centrist Ensemble (Together) and Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally). Macron’s subsequent refusal to appoint a government led by the left has produced a democratic crisis in France. 

What are the next steps for the French left? What can the UK left learn from the experience of the New Popular Front? Is a Popular Front a viable model for the UK left ahead of the next elections? 

For the final debate in the series, we will discuss these questions with comrades from La France Insoumise, the party which was central to the formation of the New Popular Front, and Stathis Kouvelakis, a Paris-based political theorist who served on Syriza's central committee from 2012–2015.

To mark the end of the series, we will follow the discussion with a Christmas social, to which everyone is welcome!

We will send out further information in the coming weeks.

We encourage participants to attend all events in the series if possible. Tickets are free, with a suggested donation of £5 to help with Travel costs.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE SERIES BELOW!

Introduction to the Series

Pelican House is hosting a series of meetings on left electoral strategy and the prospects for a new party. Bringing together politicians, activists and intellectuals in a public forum, these discussions will seek to clarify the current aims of socialist organising. What institutional form should it take? How should it combat both the far right and the extreme centre? What are the main obstacles and opportunities in the present political landscape?

Join us and your fellow comrades for a series of three discussions of these strategic questions, followed by a bar and social! After introductions from our guest speakers, we will follow an assembly format with the intent of stimulating debate between the audience. Following our collective discussion, we invite you to stay for a drink and discuss these questions more socially with one another.

Why This & Why Now?

The Starmer government has set out its agenda in no uncertain terms: hardening authoritarianism, inaction on the climate crisis, austerity at home and militarism abroad. Its invincible majority represents a defeat for the left – but also an opportunity, because Labour’s rightward turn has created a political vacuum which the socialist movement is already starting to fill. Most militant workers and activists have torn up their membership cards. Nine MPs have been elected on left-of-Labour platforms. Comrades across the country are considering the possibility of forming our own electoral vehicle. Now, these forces must come together to discuss the most urgent strategic issues: the left’s current power bases, the pathway to a new party and how it could channel popular discontent. We must also place the present political moment in a broader theoretical and historical perspective, assessing the relationship between party and class, the practice of organising on a mass scale and the process of achieving social transformation.

These fundamental questions will form the basis of three panel discussions: on the condition of contemporary Britain, the dynamics of establishing a new party, and the threats and opportunities it will encounter over the coming years. The aim is to develop a coherent plan for building a radical electoral organisation and map the social terrain in which it will have to operate. Speakers will include socialist politicians and strategists, commentators and academics, organisers and activists, plus the public audience who will be encouraged to share their views. This will bring the conversations that are currently taking place in private, among small groups of comrades, into the public sphere – where a collective strategy can begin to take shape.

Other Discussions in the Series

1: What’s Left? Is this moment of national decline a political opportunity?

Nandita Lal / Owen Hatherley / Dan Evans / Fiona Lali / Phil Burton Cartledge

September 26th / Bar Opens at 6pm / Discussion from 7.15 / Bar Closes 11pm

For decades, Britain’s working class has been battered by falling wages, rising poverty and gutted public services. The Starmer government is offering them austerity and authoritarianism, while the far right are attempting to capitalise on the atmosphere of discontent. The left, atomised and fragmented in the wake of Corbynism, seems ready to reemerge as a national political force. What are its current power bases? Where is it strong and where is it weak? What type of organisation is needed to challenge Labour’s fragile hegemony and remake our rotten system? Join with other comrades who have been asking these questions for the first in a series of three events exploring left strategy today.

2: What is to be Done? Organisational forms and the prospect of a new party.

Andrew Feinstein / Ash Sarkar / James Schneider / Keir Milburn / Hilary Wainwright

October 10th / Bar Opens at 6pm / Discussion from 7.15 / Bar Closes 11pm

In 2017, nearly 13 million people voted for Jeremy Corbyn’s radical left-wing programme, demonstrating the viability of a popular mass politics opposed to inequality at home and war abroad. Since then, the establishment has tried to erase that result from public memory. Yet the election of nine Green and independent MPs this year shows that they have not succeeded yet. To capitalise on this historic breakthrough and rebuild our strength at the national level, socialists need a new political organisation. But what form should it take? How should it relate to left parliamentarians, trade unions, social movements and the broader working class – especially outside the major cities? Should it be focused on the electoral sphere, or should it play a more expansive role?

3: What Next? How can we take on the far-right and the extreme centre to remake national politics?

Richard Seymour / Ashok Kumar / Halimo Hussein / Grace Cowan

October 24th / Bar Opens at 6pm / Discussion from 7.15 / Bar Closes 11pm

The long-simmering threat of the far right has now burst into the open. Reform UK elected five MPs this year and came second in 98 seats. Racist riots have erupted across the country, fuelled by an ecosystem of migrant-baiting politicians, media outlets, funders and influencers. With Labour more than willing to mimic the toxic politics of Farageism, a new left electoral project will have to challenge the xenophobia of the entire political class. How can it rise to the challenge? How can those interested in national organisation move forward collectively? What should we do next?

4: The Workers Party of Belgium w/ Peter Mertens, General Secretary

November 19th / Bar Opens at 6pm / Discussion from 7.15 / Bar Closes 11pm

The Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB) has an interesting history and an exciting future.

The party originated in the 1960s student movement and was heavily influenced by Maoism and the anti-colonial struggles of the time. However, the party focused its organising amongst workers and built a base in the working class movement. By supporting workers in struggle they recruited industrial militants to the party.

For decades the party remained on the fringes but around the time of the global financial crisis the party changed its approach to organising and communications. The aim was to remain committed to a revolutionary, Marxist and socialist politics, but to position the party closer to the demands of citizens. In 2014 the party won 2 seats in Belgium’s Chamber of Representatives, which they extended to 12 in 2014 and 15 in 2019. Their core electoral support comes from working class communities.

As the far right gains ground in Belgium, as it does everywhere else, the PTB is offering a clear alternative to those who feel alienated and disenfranchised by capitalism.

The PTB is an important case study for socialists in the UK who believe we need a new party. What can we learn from the PTB? What is the role of the party, how does it make decisions and what does it do on the ground? How have they built support amongst industrial and post-industrial communities who the left in the UK is increasingly disconnected from?