Fête de l’Humanité

I went to the Fête de l’Humanité on Saturday, my first time in 15 years. The Fête de l’Huma is the annual bash of the French Communist party (PCF)—formally to raise money for the party’s daily newspaper L’Humanité (which has been on life support for years now)—, organized over three days the second weekend of September at the Parc Départmental in La Courneuve, a nearby Paris banlieue that has been run by the PCF continuously since the 1920s (the war years excepted). The Fête de l’Huma, which was founded in 1930, was mainly an event for PCF members and sympathizers in the early decades but beginning in the 1960s it opened up to the rest of society, as part of the party’s effort to break out of its ghetto—into which it was consigned, and consigned itself, in the early years of the Cold War—and show that communists were regular people like everyone else and knew how to have a good time. Everyone was and is welcome, so attending in no way suggests that one is a party sympathizer (and I am decidedly not). Young people have been a particular target, through concerts of high-profile musicians and bands, which, over the years, have included The Who, Pink Floyd, Genesis, The Kinks, and Deep Purple, among others (for a mostly complete list, see here). The tête d’affiche this year was New Order and Patti Smith. The Fête de l’Huma has long been an important political event in France as well, well-covered in the news and where the PCF secretary-general’s speech at the park’s Grande scène lays out the party’s positions for the upcoming year. As the PCF received 19 to 29% of the vote in national elections from 1945 through the 1970s, had a sizable parliamentary delegation, ran over 200 municipalities with a population of over 9,000 (at its peak after the 1977 municipal elections; today it’s on the order of 90), and had several hundred thousand dues-paying members, its views and positions were necessarily newsworthy. During the 1970s and ’80s the Fête de l’Huma attracted around a million people over the three days. The numbers declined after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union—not to mention the decline of the PCF itself, which is now electorally in the low single digits nationally—, and the Fête shrunk in size, but it has rebounded over the past several years. I made it a point to go to the Fête de l’Huma whenever I was in Paris that weekend in September. From 1974 to 1997 I thus attended nine times, but then decided I had had enough of the cocos, couldn’t stand them politically, and no longer found them interesting enough to justify schlepping out to La Courneuve for the day, so I stopped going. But I decided I wanted to attend this weekend, so went out with couple of friends. It was a lot of fun. Here are the photos I took and with commentary (below the photo). As there are some 160 of them, they continue beneath the fold.

It’s almost 4 PM. We came in through a secondary entrance. Finding parking took forever, as the lots were full. Entrance price is €26 at the gate for the three days, €20 if one buys a ticket from a party member beforehand (they hawk them outside).

Young people come from all over France for the event, sleeping in tents at the edge of the grounds.

I know nothing about this Parti Communiste des Ouvriers de France. It’s got nothing to do with the PCF, that’s for sure.

The Front de Gauche is the coalition of several parties and groupings of the hard left, the PCF and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Parti de Gauche—much smaller than than the PCF—being the main constituents. Mélenchon was, of course, the Front de Gauche’s presidential candidate last spring. I spelled out my dim views of him here during the presidential campaign. He was naturally present at the Fête, though we didn’t cross paths.

There’s lots of food and drink at the Fête de l’Huma.

Lots of Che too. How could it be otherwise?

Also lots of music at the Fête and at the stands, not just the main concerts at the Grande scène.

Ethnic cuisine and not just in the Village du monde (see below).

Stand of a tiny offshoot of Jean-Pierre Chevènement’s Mouvement Républicain et Citoyen.

Discussion-debates at the stands are a big Fête happening.

Didn’t take note of which group this was.

Stand of the neo-Trotskyist Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA, ex-LCR). The participation of Trots in the Fête de l’Huma was inconceivable in the old days. But the bad blood between the Trots and PCF “Stalinists” is now all in the past. The NPA declined to make a deal with the Front de Gauche in last spring’s elections, BTW. Trots are as sectarian as ever. Some things don’t change.

Wacky Trot sect Union Communiste (Trotskyiste) (a.k.a. Lutte Ouvrière). These people are really crazy, e.g. members need party authorization to get married and have children, which is usually not granted, as this may detract from one’s political activism. Normally this would characterize an organization not as a political party but as a cult, which is in fact what LO is.

The party’s departmental federations—there are 96 in metropolitan France—all have stands, most with local cuisine on offer. This from the Savoie (in the Alps).

Department above the Savoie: Annecy, Chamonix, Evian… There have never been too many Reds in those parts.

Jean-Marc & Gisèle, this one’s for you. Beautiful area the Ardèche.

No to the EU Fiscal Stability Treaty, yes to a referendum on it. I’m not for a referendum but the Front de Gauche does have a valid argument in opposing the treaty.

L’amour.

It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon, sunny and in the low-mid 70s F/low-mid 20s C. What better way to spend it than coming to the Fête de l’Huma?

The Paris Commune: mega event in the historical iconography of the French left.

Be realistic, demand the impossible!

American hero.

PCF cell at Charles de Gaulle airport. Yes, there are Commies working at that airport you all fly into when you come to town.

Lefty heroes from the past (and these two are heroes for me too).

Notable front pages of the PCF’s rag daily newspaper.

Contemporary PCF hero (but definitely not mine).

A debate on something having to do with capitalists and working people. I find these debates devoid of interest. It’s all rhetoric. Haven’t people heard this stuff hundreds of thousands of times already? An interesting comment from one of my friends, who has a doctorate in political science but, having failed to even qualify for the right to apply for a position in a French public university—a scandalous feature of the French system that afflicts many otherwise qualified foreigners (my friend is from Algeria)—, went to work in the private sector. He is presently a sales rep for an auto parts manufacturer—and making more money than he ever would in French academia—and spent all of last week at a trade fair in Frankfurt (though despite working for capitalists he is a member of the Socialist party and not ill-disposed toward the PCF). He talked about the people he was with in Frankfurt and those at the Fête de l’Huma inhabiting two diametrically opposed worlds, with each knowing nothing whatever about the other. One big difference between the two struck him: when the people at his trade fair talk and make decisions, it has a real impact; on the economy and on people. What is debated at the Fête de l’Huma has no impact whatever on anything. In other words, the debates at the Fête are irrelevant. Alas.

Halal paella. But I am quite sure the sangria is haram.

Many youngsters at the Fête.

PCF section from Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris’s western banlieue that likely has the highest per capita income in the country. Can’t imagine who is in its section. Maybe a few ageing concierges.

Solidarity with Pussy Riot. If there were any Vladimir Putin fans at the Fête they didn’t make their presence known.

There actually are significant—or at least noteworthy and (maybe) interesting—debates at the Fête. Here we see Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, spokeswoman of the government, who was scheduled to appear on Saturday (we didn’t stick around for it). Socialist politicians regularly show up at the Fête de l’Huma, often to speak or participate in debates. This year their numbers were down, and with only four ministers in the government coming out to La Courneuve. The PCF and the PS do not appreciate one other, are politically farther apart than ever, and with the Front de Gauche harshly criticizing François Hollande and PM Jean-Marc Ayrault’s government. But the Front will not go into overt opposition—not the PCF at any rate—, as its electoral survival depends on the good will of the Socialists and the latter’s willingness to conclude electoral accords. The PS could sink the Front de Gauche in legislative and municipal elections if it so desired.

Some major intellectuals here, notably Pierre Rosanvallon (he’s brilliant). Trade union leaders too. And politicians of the right, here Jean-Paul Delevoye of the UMP. Mainstream right-wing politicians have been respectfully received at the Fête de l’Huma for several years now. Americans may find all this bizarre but the French Communist party has been such an integral part of the French political scene for almost a century. And in its heyday it was more than a political party; it was a political subculture involving several million Frenchmen and women, including a significant part of the working class. The PCF used to be feared but with the end of the Cold War and the party’s irreversible electoral collapse—and that has accelerated over the past decade—, it is no longer. The Communists are harmless and threaten no one. Only the extreme right continues to demonize them.

Nonstop debates here.

The book fair.

Debates with authors.

Is a socialist revolution possible in the United States? I told the stand rep: No! Period. He wanted to debate me on the question but I declined. If I’m going to debate something, even for five minutes, it has to be on a topic at least halfway serious.

The Militant: rag of the Socialist Workers Party (US Trots). I used to look at it in the 1970s. Amazing it still has a readership today (or that it even still exists). The stand here is Pathfinder Press, the longtime American Trotskyist publishing house. The rep spoke to me in French, though he may have been American. I didn’t ask.

An American Trot classic. About the Teamsters in the 1930s. Before Jimmy Hoffa. Le bon vieux temps.

Cartoon books for the kids (and grown-ups too). It’s not all politics at the Fête de l’Huma.

Poetry.

Authors signing books.

Marie-Monique Robin. I’ve had a couple of posts on her, including one the other day (here and here). Hope she’s had a chance to look at my blog.

More authors.

The PCF no longer has problems with investigating the dark side of its past (and dark it is).

The ubiquitous Che.

There was less corporate advertising than in the past. Back in the 1970s—when the PCF actually represented a sizable portion of society—major companies, and not just French ones, had stands and advertising.

A carousel. The Fête de l’Huma is child friendly.

PKK activists collecting signatures demanding the liberation of Abdallah Öcalan from prison (which I’m sure will really impress the Turkish government). I told them I’d already signed (LOL). Too bad Claire wasn’t there to engage them in a fruitful exchange of ideas and perspectives.

The stand of the Bas-Rhin federation (Alsace; Strasbourg). She’s probably one of the five or six Communists out that way.

He’s everywhere.

There were people of all ages at the Fête but we noted that there were relatively few jeunes de banlieue, even though La Courneuve is in the heart of the heavily immigrant-origin populated neuf-trois and with immigrant-origin citizens forming the core of the electoral clientele of PCF-run municipalities there. Maybe just as well—as, at the risk of sounding un-PC, one would not be entirely sanguine at the prospect of packs of jeunes rebeus et renois roaming an otherwise bon enfant Fête de l’Huma—, though the subject does merit analysis.

We’ve arrived in the Cité internationale, now called the Village du monde. This is where the fraternal parties and organizations from throughout the world have their stands—always the most interesting part of the Fête de l’Huma for me. In the ’70s and ’80s the Cité internationale was big, and with big parties represented, notably from the Eastern bloc. The stands of the USSR, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, etc, were elaborate affairs, as where those of major CPs elsewhere (e.g. Italy, Portugal), ruling parties of leftist Third World regimes, and movements of national liberation. There are still many parties and groups represented, but what they represent is another matter.

One of the attractions of the Village du monde: ethnic food galore.

Ferhat Hached: Tunisian trade unionist martyr, assassinated by extremist French settlers in 1952. FYI, he was supported by the AFL-CIO.

Morocco: opposing King M6.

Extreme left-wing Moroccans.

I committed a faux pas when I told my friends, who were with some people, that I was going to check out the Turkish stand. They looked at me aghast (okay, not quite, but almost). Please, they’re KURDS!

Kurds.

Personally speaking, I don’t boycott countries.

The Amazigh flag. This is such a momentous development in North Africa: in Algeria, Morocco, even Tunisia, and now Libya (where it turns out that the Berber population is more significant than imagined and its expressing its identity).

The Ivory Coast. Pro-Gbagbo.

Naturally.

Uruguay.

Germany. This was the only party—that I saw at least—from the former Warsaw Pact represented at the Fête (and only partly so, as it’s also in the former West Germany).

Die Linke is Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s model.

Mexico (on the lower left).

Ireland. Sinn Féin. Didn’t notice any Brits. I remember them from the ’80s, promoting Arthur Scargill’s union and the coal miners strike. The British CP stand was well-supplied with whiskey, and which they visibly consumed in quantity.

American heroes. À propos, the American Communist party (CPUSA) has never shown up at the Fête de l’Huma, which I have always found puzzling and intriguing given that it was ideologically on the same page as the PCF and equally slavish toward the Soviet Union (if not more so). In the early ’80s I asked a few PCF militants at the Fête for an explanation of this absence but none could give it—and with one saying “but it’s illegal, isn’t it?” Answer: no, the CPUSA has never been illegal. Political parties in America cannot be banned (and since when has illegality ever prevented anyone from participating in the Fête de l’Huma?). I remain puzzled and intrigued by this (and who in their right mind would pass up the opportunity to spend several days in Paris and with like-minded people?).

Mumia Abu-Jamal: eternal French leftist cause.

Abolish the death penalty! (I entirely agree)

Italian true believers.

The Iraqi CP was severely repressed under Saddam Hussein but reemerged immediately after the US invasion in 2003. The party even got a seat at the table under Paul Bremer’s Coalition Provisional Authority. An irony of history.

A Tuareg.

Greece. Syriza. They’re popular chez the Front de Gauche.

Haven’t thought about him in a while. The man was a terrorist. He killed unarmed people. He should stay in the slammer!

The Algerian RCD. Berberist. Not really left-wing. Has been in cahoots with the pouvoir off and on over the past two decades (nowadays it’s off).

The RCD stand was one of the few to offer whiskey and other hard stuff. I doubt they drink it themselves but it’s their way of telling the Islamists to go shove it. Good for them.

Polisario. The Western Sahara.

Sahraouis.

Big Polisario stand (the size of which is in inverse proportion to its political fortunes on the ground). This is one of the world’s lost causes—and to which I am sympathetic, BTW, as the Sahraouis have justice (and international law) on their side. But they’ll never get the Moroccans out of there and no one is going to lift a finger to help them.

Sahraoui music.

On fait la fête !

Palestinians. They’re well represented at the Fête de l’Huma.

Ex-PCOT. Tunisian extreme leftist party. Politically nutty—it venerated Enver Hoxha’s Albania (I’m not kidding)—but its longtime guru-leader, Hamma Hammami, is an interesting personality and who suffered the full brunt of Ben Ali’s repression (but never gave in or went into exile). I’ve met and talked with him at length (a decade ago) and know and like his wife, the well-known civil rights lawyer Radhia Nasraoui. I also know a couple of other party militants. They weren’t at the stand when I passed by.

I agree.

Iranian Tudeh party.

Irish Communist party. There is apparently such a thing.

Syrian Democratic Peoples Party (schism of the Syrian CP). Anti-regime.

The BDS movement is less significant in France than in Britain and elsewhere (even the US).

Jewish far left group. Anti-Zionist.

Tiny Algerian leftist micro-party. In fact, the majority of parties and groups in the Village du monde are tiny, if not microscopic, and are entirely irrelevant in their countries. A far cry from the parties one saw at the Fête in the 1970s and ’80s.

Spain. The PCE was not too significant electorally when it reemerged at the end of the Franco era but it did have a presence. No longer.

Iran. Can’t disagree with a thing here.

Big attraction of the Belgian CP stand: best French fries at the Fête (or, I should say, Belgian fries).

These are serious fries.

Belgian Communist cashier. On his left: best beer selection at the Fête.

The Belgian stand is très sympathique.

From the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic mission in Paris: A day will come…when UN General Assembly resolution 194 is implemented, allowing Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their homes in what is now Israel. The core Palestinian narrative. Rhetoric like this is one of the reasons why that conflict is insoluble (for the foreseeable future at least).

The Chinese CP, represented by its daily newspaper. The Chinese were absent from the Fête in the old days, Sino-Soviet split oblige. Now they come but the constituents of the former Soviet Union are nowhere to be seen.

Chinese folklore.

Togolese cuisine: looks tasty. Line was long.

Stand of the city of Saint-Denis (run by the PCF almost forever), in the middle of the Village du monde for some reason. My friends ran into people they knew, so we hung out there for a bit.

Association for promoting sister city agreements between Palestinian refugee camps and French cities.

It’s past 7 PM.

PADS: schism of former Algerian CP (ex-PAGS).

PADS restaurant. Couscous on the menu.

PADS slogans, wall-to-wall.

Mauritania = racism, slavery, and genocide.

Amusement ride.

Democratic Republic of the Congo. Don’t know what party.

Venezuela. Big stand.

Back past the Die Linke stand. Nostalgia for the (not) good old days.

Last but definitely not least.

The Cubans had the biggest restaurant in the Village du monde, with a choice of delicious-looking dishes. Line was too long for us, though.

A 1970s classic. This slogan has no doubt been chanted at more demos worldwide than any other.

Paris’s 16th arrondissement is akin to New York’s Upper East Side. As in Neuilly, PCF members there must be ageing gardiens d’immeuble.

It’s past 9 PM. We’ve arrived at the Grand scène. For the young people this is the main attraction of the Fête. Concert underway is the Parov Stelar Band, an Austrian group whose existence I was unaware of. They’re good! And particularly the lead singer, Cleo Panther, of undetermined nationality. She looks and sounds like an American of Latino origin. Is singing and speaking to the crowd in English.

It’s standing room only. By our estimate there are around 80,000 people, maybe more. Enough to fill the Stade de France.

And now the top billing, the one we’ve come to see: Patti Smith!

It’s 10 PM.

Wild cheering.

She’s great! And at 65 years old! Amazing.

She speaks to the crowd in English and, given the reaction, is widely understood. Her words are very ecolo-peace-n-love.

And now the song everyone is waiting for. It’s 11:10 PM.

♪♫ Because the night belongs to lovers ♫♪
♫♪ Because the night belongs to lust ♪♫
♪♫ Because the night belongs to lovers ♫♪
♫♪ Because the night belongs to us ♪♫

The concert is being broadcast live on France Inter. My wife is listening at home.

It was over at 11:30 sharp. Awesome concert!

It’s past midnight. The Fête is still going strong.

Partying at the Spanish CP stand. But time to go home. And it’s a long walk to the car. I’ll no doubt be back next year.