Lutte Ouvrière
Lutte Ouvrière ("Workers' Struggle") is the usual name under which the Union Communiste (trotskyste), a French trotskyite political party, is known (technically, it is the name of the weekly paper edited by the party).While denouncing the undemocratic Communist regimes of the former Eastern Bloc, Lutte Ouvrière advocates the replacement of the current political and economical regime of France (and the World) through a Communist revolution. Nevertheless, it still fields candidates in political elections. Its main goal is public ownership of the means of production through the expropriation of the capitalist corporations.
For long, the internal organizations of the party were largely unknown to the general public, the spokeswoman and chronic presidential candidate Arlette Laguiller was the only party leader appearing in public. The actual historical leader of the party was Robert Barcia, also known as "Hardy" - even to party members, some leaders were known only code names. Such measures of secrecy were justified by the possibility that the party may have to go into hiding, should there be opportunities for a Communist revolution. For the same reason, marriages and children were discouraged. Lutte Ouvrière was thus often cricitized as being sectarian or akin to a cult.
An ongoing issue is the possibility and conditions of an electoral alliance with fellow trotskyite party Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire.
