The
Anticapitalist Left (), a group formed in 2011 as a tendency within the Trotskyist-influenced
New Anticapitalist Party (which it left in 2012) advocating an electoral strategy based on unity with other anti-neoliberal and anti-capitalist forces, in particular the Left Front; , a "red-green" organisation founded in 1988, some of whose roots go back to the
Unified Socialist Party (French: Parti Socialiste Unifié, PSU), and influenced by the movement for
workers' control or self-management (French: "autogestion"). The (Fédération pour une Alternative Sociale et Ecologique, FASE), a group formed in 2008, including many former members of the French Communist Party, and including the association Communistes Unitaires. The membership of Ensemble is thus made up of activists coming from various left-wing and radical political traditions: altercommunist, trotskyist, feminist, "red-green", ecologist, etc., as well as trade unionists and global justice activists (alterglobalists). Paid-up membership in June 2015 was approximately 1,200 (internal sources), with several hundred sympathisers. The movement is a member of the
Left Front (French: Front de Gauche), which also includes the
French Communist Party and the
Left Party (French: (Parti de Gauche)). The candidate of the Left Front,
Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the Left Party, obtained 11.1% of the votes in the first round of the
2012 French presidential election. Ensemble aims towards strengthening the Left Front by building a broad movement against austerity. It opposes all forms of inequality, racism, and oppression, including
homophobia,
islamophobia, and
antisemitism, and seeks to develop links with anti-capitalist groupings outside the Left Front, including more left-wing members of
Europe Ecology - The Greens (French: Europe Ecologie-Les Verts). Internationally, it has been involved in discussions and joint activities with the
Party of the European Left,
Podemos (Spain),
Syriza (Greece),
Sinn Féin (Ireland), the
Left Bloc (Portugal), and others. Ensemble was formally constituted at a conference held 31 January-1 February 2015 in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). Considering that the merger process had been successfully completed, most of its founding groups then decided to dissolve themselves. A national delegate meeting takes place in principle 3 times per year. A national coordinating committee ("Equipe d'Animation Nationale, EAN") meets weekly. Its spokespersons include Myriam Martin,
Clémentine Autain and Jean-François Pellissier. Two former Members of Parliament,
Jacqueline Fraysse and
François Asensi, both former communists who left the
French Communist Party in 2010, were, until it was dissolved in 2015, members of the FASE, one of the original constituent groups of Ensemble. An unknown number of local elected officials (including Mayors) and councillors are also members or associates of Ensemble. Philippe Marlière, professor of political science at University College London, and a long-standing member of the
French Socialist Party, and later of the New Anticapitalist Party, joined Ensemble in February 2015. The headquarters of the movement is in Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis), near Paris. Ensemble! has a website which is regularly updated, and publishes bulletins, leaflets, and occasional brochures. Members of the movement are free to publish articles on the website, using a blog facility. The movement holds an annual summer school (French: 'université d'été') in August. The first was held in Pau, with approximately 300 participants. The second took place at the university of Bordeaux from 22 to 26 August 2015, attracting approximately 420 participants. In the 2017 legislative elections, three Ensemble! activists were elected under the banner of
La France Insoumise (LFI), joining its parliamentary group :
Clémentine Autain (then co-spokesperson of the movement) in
Sevran,
Danièle Obono in Paris, and
Caroline Fiat in
Meurthe-et-Moselle. During a National Collective meeting in mid-October 2017, members voted on three motions to define their relationship with LFI: a rapprochement maintaining two entities, a "search for convergences" while keeping total independence, or a full merger. These proposals obtained 46%, 47% and 16% of the vote respectively, marking a close proximity between the two organizations. The Judicial Court of Paris declared itself incompetent on 8 June 2022, inviting the party to refer the matter to the Constitutional Council. Ten members of Ensemble! stood as candidates in the
2022 French legislative election. Four were elected: Clémentine Autain,
Hendrik Davi,
Michel Sala, and
Marianne Maximi. All sat in the
La France Insoumise-
NUPES group. In June 2022, the Ensemble Insoumis current renamed itself the Ecosocialist Left (Gauche écosocialiste). This evolution led to Ensemble! withdrawing from La France Insoumise. The Gauche écosocialiste subsequently became an autonomous party in March 2023, causing a split within Ensemble. As a result, the mouvement lost all of its national elected officials. On 25 May 2025, following months of negotiations and a consultation of members, the party's General Assembly voted to merge with L'Après, a new party launched by several former figures of La France Insoumise. ==References==