“Alain will not have given in to the pressure of ‘you’ll pass with age’. Hello, old man, and thank you for everything. We continue the fight! » It is with these words that the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) paid tribute to Alain Krivine in a press release. The man who was the boss for thirty years of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) – which gave birth to the NPA in 2009 – died on Saturday March 12, at the age of 80. The disappearance of the former leader of Trotskyism in France has sparked a shower of tributes from the left, one month before the first round of the presidential election in which Mr. Krivine had presented himself twice.
Co-founder of the LCR in 1974, Alain Krivine was called ” President “ by his friends. “I still hear you say that the best way to celebrate the memory of the deceased is to perpetuate their fight. (…) Doing it without you will never taste the same”, reacted Olivier Besancenot, who campaigned for the LCR and then the NPA at his side. Words taken up on his own by the NPA candidate for the presidential election, Philippe Poutou.
” Change the world “
“Emotion and grief. A sorrowful thought to his family and fraternal greetings to the entire Trotskyist movement., commented the candidate of La France insoumise (LFI) for the presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Another candidate for the Elysée, for the third time, Nathalie Arthaud (Lutte Ouvrière) echoed the NPA in saluting the memory of a “a sixty-eight man who has never denied his anti-capitalist and revolutionary convictions”.
“He was one of the voices of the political history of the left”according to Fabien Roussel, the communist candidate, whose campaign manager, Ian Brossat, also reacted: “Not everyone was lucky enough to have Trotskyist parents. I had the pleasure of meeting Alain Krivine when I was a kid. He defended his ideal with great constancy. »
Former LCR MP Eric Coquerel (LFI) paid tribute to his “comrade” who “will have been one of the great figures of the revolutionary movement, human and talented spokesperson”. “Along with Jack Ralite, Alain Krivine was one of the figures who made me want to do politics to change the world”tweeted another “rebellious” MP, Clémentine Autain.
“A human and political dough that hardly exists anymore”
“The revolutionary militant, present in all the struggles, marked by his convictions”also said Pierre Moscovici on Twitter. “The man was cultured, full of humor. He was made of a human and political dough that hardly exists anymore., added the former socialist minister and European commissioner. Olivier Faure, the spokesperson for the Socialist Party, judged that“following the death of Henri Weber [ancien cadre de la Ligue communiste, mort en 2020]it’s a new page in the history of the league that is turning”.
Born on July 10, 1941 in Paris, Alain Krivine came from a family of the Jewish petty bourgeoisie, immigrants from Central Europe. Fed like his brothers to the communist student movements, he was one of the founders, in 1966, of the Revolutionary Communist Youth (JCR), and became one of the figures of May-68, alongside Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Jacques Sauvageot and Alain Geismar. His activism earned him a month’s imprisonment at the Health Department and led to the dissolution of the JCR.
He was then nominated by the newly created Communist League as a candidate for the 1969 presidential election. capitalist order and redistribute wealth. He won only 1.06% of the vote. He also ran in 1974, at the head of the LCR, but failed with 0.37% of the vote. Journalist at the weekly Rougethe organ of the party, and MEP between 1999 and 2004, he resigned from the political bureau of the LCR in 2006, while remaining its spokesperson until its dissolution in 2009.
