Gauche prolétarienne

The Gauche prolétarienne (GP) was a French Maoist political party which existed from 1968 to 1974. As Christophe Bourseiller has put it, "Of all the Maoist organizations after May 1968, the most important numerically as well as in cultural influence was without question the Gauche prolétarienne".

History
The GP was formed in October 1968. After a split in the Union des jeunesses communistes marxistes-léninistes (UJC-ML), several members - including Olivier Rolin, Jean-Pierre Le Dantec, Jean-Claude Vernier, the brothers Tony and Benny Lévy, Jean Schiavo, Maurice Brover and Jean-Claude Zancarini - formed the new party. In 1969 the former student union leaders Alain Geismar and Serge July joined the group.

Several members of the group were involved with the founding of the French daily Libération which evolved into a centre left mainstream mass circulation daily newspaper.

The group was also known as "Mao-Spontex", or Maoist-spontaneists. The connection to Spontex, a cleaning sponge brand, was intended as a pejorative to disparage the GP's antiauthoritarianism approach to revolution.

Prominent people who were at one point members of the GP include Serge July, Olivier Rolin, Frédéric H. Fajardie, Gérard Miller, Jean-Claude Milner, Marin Karmitz, André Glucksmann, Gilles Susong, Christian Jambet, Guy Lardreau, Daniel Rondeau, Olivier Roy, Judith Miller, Dominique Grange and Gilles Millet. A group of former members became core members of the New Philosophers in the 1970s.