France! It’s so different from much of the world in so many ways. And mostly in good ways. Where else can you pick from one of three Trotskyist presidential candidates?

This is a video of Francois Duval of the LCR speaking at a Socialist Resistance forum in London on March 21st. It’s about 35 minutes long.

In the first section Francois looks at the background to the current political situation and gives a quick assessment of the bourgeois candidates. He then gives an easy to follow account of the reasons why there are so many left candidates. The most mysterious of these is called Gérard Schivardi. I’d never heard of him either. He represents the Lambertist Parti des Travailleurs and no one seems to know anything about them. You can also vote for Arlette Laguiller, Olivier Besancenot, Jose Bove (this is not his site, I couldn’t find one, but it has some entertaining phots) and Marie-George Buffet if you want to cast an anti-capitalist vote.

It is a messy situation but Francois concludes by putting it in the context of the Fourth International’s fiasco in Brazil and the rather happier outcome with Sinistra Critica in Italy. These were brutal reminders of the need for socialists to retain the capacity for independent organisation and critical thought when working as part of larger currents.

I’ll be writing up something covering the same ground, plus what I’ve picked up from watching French TV sometime next week.