The French Communist Party within the Left and alternative movements

French Communism once dominated the Left of the Left and assimilated within itself most of the ‘alternative’ political movements. However, the decline of Communism has created a space on the extreme Left that has been exploited by a myriad of small movements. These have occupied a political territory that the Communists would like to claim for their own, but they are unable to reclaim their once hegemonic position and find themselves a junior partner in many of the transactions on the extreme Left. Communist decline and their inability to find a way out of their impasse are connected with the same thing–their rigidity. However, if Communism changes it will cease to be Communist and the indications are, given Communist history and politics, that it is not capable of making the changes.