Lessons from Bové
From the outset French presidential candidate and anti-globalisation veteran, José Bové's intentions were never towards the Presidency. A casualty of the tactical vote, known in France as the 'worth vote', he knows most of the electorate's first-round vote will be deeply affected by the second round, and who the likely finalists will be. So the results of the elections pored over by the mainstream media as a snapshot of the political situation are really a distorting mirror.
Bové's score of 1.32% , eleventh of twelve candidates, may appear humble, but his campaign has been something of a revolution. One may question its current strength, but something happened. Something new. Something that has the potential to determine the evolution of the radical left in France.
Back in May 2005, despite the main parties of the right and left endorsing what many feared as a neoliberal, free-market orientated EU constitution French people gave the political elite a bloody nose in the national referendum. Although some sections of the right had rebelled, it seemed the result could form the basis for a transformation of the left. Different movements, parties, often informal or unorganized sectors of the left, militants and activists in diverse fields tried to build an alternative network to the official left. Hundreds of local committees were created around the country, several national meetings of delegates were convened resulting in a ratified political programme. However, momentum was lost when the anti-liberal left failed to choose a unitary candidate for the presidential elections. The Trotskyst LCR led by Olivier Besancenot, then the Communist PCF led by Marie-George Buffet sank into factionalism and unilaterally ran their own campaigns, ignoring strong objections within their own ranks.
In January 2007, a group of utopians launched an internet petition, like a message in a bottle, calling on Bové to join the presidential campaign. Within a month, several thousand people were mobilised from the whole spectrum of the radical left.
As a potential presidential candidate José Bové has certain advantages. Not tied to any party, he still has a long history of social activism. Known at as a peasant trade unionist, he was internationally renowned for his struggles against neoliberal globalization, from the WTO protests at Seattle to the World Social Forums of Porto-Allegre and Bamako. As a possible presidential candidate representing the alternative left at the election, it appeared to many that he was the man. Finally, Bové agreed to run.
For those who lived it and made it live, this campaign was marked by a new constituency attending meetings who we had never seen before. Bové the peasant was popular in the poor urban suburbs. He made the connection between common struggles facing the poor and oppressed everywhere, identifying the guilty and providing concrete solutions. His was not a presidential-style campaign but a collective one, with key contributions made by over 20 spokespersons of various ages, political backgrounds, ethnical or national origins. Voices of the marginalised, like migrants fighting for their rights, were heard in this new public space. These were the same young people of North African and Sub-Saharan descent, stigmatised by almost every player on the French political chessboard, those that Sarkozy, as Minister of the Interior, had criminalised, were giving these meeting a new flavour, energy and atmosphere.
After such a rich campaign and a poor electoral result, what next? In finding answers to the evolution of unity on the radical left, José Bové's campaign points the way to a possible future.
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