"Our victory stems from our daily activism": A discussion with elected French communist Diana Kdouh

By Adrien Welsh (translated by Dave McKee)

This article originally appeared in French in Jeunesse militante

France has a long tradition of electing communists locally. As Georges Marchais noted in his 1980 book L’espoir au present (Hope in the Present), “The French Communist Party has 28,000 elected officials, 1500 mayors, nearly 500 councillors. One in five French people live in a communist-controlled municipality.”

Forty years later the French Communist Party (PCF) has certainly faded, especially after the counter-revolution in Eastern Europe and the USSR. Still, even today several “red cities” remain, particularly in the working-class suburbs around urban centres. These centres of power, which elude the bourgeois parties, are commonly called the “red belts.” The tradition of communist municipalities is so strong that it is sometimes crudely identified as "municipal communism." Some town halls have been run by the PCF since the 1920s (the Parisian suburb of Malakoff is a notable example) but the history of most of these red cities began with the Liberation in 1945.

Write for Rebel Youth! A Call for Submissions

How should you kill time under quarantine? Write for RY-JM!

With the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, almost all of Canada is idling under quarantine. As of now, numerous cities, provinces, territories, and First Nations have declared a public health state of emergency. Several schools and universities in the country have closed; restaurants, cafés, stores and other businesses have either closed their doors or reduced their activity and staff, if they are not temporarily laid off, are forced to work from home. All public political and cultural events, demonstrations, rallies, and meetings are cancelled or postponed, thus a large portion of the population are confined to their homes.

Why not take advantage of these days in confinement to write an article for Rebel Youth or Jeunesse militante? The Press Commission is currently preparing the 25th print edition of our magazine! If you would like to contribute, please send your articles to us by April 10th.

INVITATION: Rebel Youth Festival, Sept. 6-7: let's celebrate alternative and progressive media!

Special to RY 

It is increasingly clear that corporate media empires considerably reduce our ability to access quality information. Big corporations and the ruling class love it. With the commodification of information, they control the editorial line of major media groups by financing them generously.

This kind of media is presented as being moderate and holding the truth. This is in the context of the rise of the extreme right (of which it is a major sponsor) and while the dangers of imperialist wars and the destruction of the environment (which it does not seriously challenge). There is no doubt that promoting an alternative, militant and combative press is a necessity.