Clémentine Autain
Encyclopedia
Clémentine Autain is a French politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and a feminist, born on May 26, 1973 in Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.Like other communes of the Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine or Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of the wealthiest cities in France, ranked 22nd out of the 36500 in...

. She is also co-editor of the monthly publication Regards
Regards
Regards is a French news magazine. Created in 1932 as a Communist title, it is primarily known for photojournalism, and pre-dated other pictorial magazines such as Life and Paris-Match...

with Roger Martelli and is co-secretary of the Fondation Copernic.

She was elected to the municipal council of Paris
Council of Paris
The Council of Paris is the deliberative body responsible for the governing of Paris, the capital of France. It possesses simultaneously the powers of a Paris City Council and those of a General Council for the Département de Paris, as defined by the so-called PLM Law of 1982 that redefined the...

 as a member of the French Communist Party (PCF). At the Paris City Hall
Hôtel de Ville, Paris
The Hôtel de Ville |City Hall]]) in :Paris, France, is the building housing the City of Paris's administration. Standing on the place de l'Hôtel de Ville in the city's IVe arrondissement, it has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357...

 she is responsible for the youth portfolio. From 2001 to 2008 she was a member of the executive council of Organisme d'habitations à loyer modéré and Offices publics d'aménagement et de construction (OPAC), an office responsible for the management of low-cost housing in Paris.

Civil state

Clémentine Autain is the daughter of actor Dominique Laffin
Dominique Laffin
Dominique Laffin was a French actress, who has appeared in 19 films between 1975 and 1985....

 and singer Yvan Dautin.

Her paternal uncle, François Autain
François Autain
François Autain is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Loire-Atlantique department. He is a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group. He is a member of the Left Party, prior to which he was a member of the Citizen and Republican Movement but also the PS and the...

, is a French Senator and member of Parti de gauche (Left Party
Left Party (France)
The Left Party is a French democratic socialist political party. It seeks to emulate the German political party Die Linke led by Gesine Lötzsch and Klaus Ernst.- History :...

) for Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique is a department on the west coast of France named after the Loire River and the Atlantic Ocean.-History:...

, as well as former Deputy Mayor of Bougue
Bougue
Bougue is a commune in the Landes department in Aquitaine in south-western France.-See also:*Communes of the Landes department...

 and former Secretary of State for Immigration, then for the Ministry of Defense during the presidency of François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

. Her grandfather, André Laffin, a veteran of the War in Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...

, was briefly elected as a right-wing candidate as a member of (UNR
Union pour la nouvelle République
The Union for the New Republic , was a French political party founded on 1 October 1958 that supported Charles de Gaulle in the French presidential election, 1958- History :The UNR won 206 of 579 seats in the November 1958 elections....

) in the department of Yonne
Yonne
Yonne is a French department named after the Yonne River. It is one of the four constituent departments of Burgundy in eastern France and its prefecture is Auxerre. Its official number is 89....

.

Childhood and youth

At ten years old, Clémentine Autain wanted to become a singer like her father, Yvan Dautin. She enjoyed the musical comedy Abbacadabra, and she picked up the songs of the pop group Abba
Abba
ABBA is the name of a former Swedish pop music group.Abba may also refer to:* ABBA , a self-titled album by the Swedish pop music group ABBA* "Abba ", a song by Christian pop and rock artist, Rebecca St...

 by watching television. She collected albums, attended concerts and enjoyed television series. At the same time, she was immersed in politics due to her parents' links to Jack Ralite
Jack Ralite
Jack Ralite is a French politician. He was elected in 1973 to the Seine-Saint-Denis constituency for the French Communist Party. In 1981 he became Minister for Health and subsequently Minister for Employment . In 1984 he became Mayor of Aubervilliers, a post he retained until 2003.- References :...

 and Alain Krivine
Alain Krivine
Alain Krivine is a leader of the Trotskyist movement in France. He is a member of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire , which is the French section of the reunified Fourth International. He was a member of the LCR's political bureau until March 2006, when he resigned from that committee...

. Her father was a militant anarchist, associated with the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR).

In 1985, when she was not yet twelve years old, her mother, Dominique Laffin
Dominique Laffin
Dominique Laffin was a French actress, who has appeared in 19 films between 1975 and 1985....

, died by suicide.

At the age of seventeen, she moved out of the family home and, with her baccalauréat
Baccalauréat
The baccalauréat , often known in France colloquially as le bac, is an academic qualification which French and international students take at the end of the lycée . It was introduced by Napoleon I in 1808. It is the main diploma required to pursue university studies...

 diploma in hand, she then pursued university studies in History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

.
Clémentine Autain earned a Master's Degree in History, with a specialization in colonial Algeria and with a DEA titled "Mouvement social, féminisme et législation à travers l'exemple du corps des femmes (1967-1982)" (in English: "Social Movements, Feminism and Legislation through the Example of Women's Bodies (1967-1982)") on the Mouvement de libération des femmes (MLF).

Militantism

In a biography, she reveals that she was raped at age 23 while being threatened with a knife near the Université de Paris VIII. She revealed the tragedy in the middle of the presidential campaign as . About this book, she declared:

This rape marked, for her, the start of her engagement in feminism. She was active in the Union des étudiants communistes. She supported the Collectif contre le viol and contributed her feminist perspective. She made the Mouvement de libération des femmes (MLF) the thesis topic for her DEA in History. In 1997, she decided to create a new feminist organization, Mix-Cité
Mix-Cité
Mix-Cité is a mixed movement for equality of the sexes and of sexualities, founded in 1997. It is a feminist, antisexist and universalist association for reflection and action in public, in media, and in institutions...

, for which she was co-president. The organization is well-known in France for its protests against the use of live models in the display windows of the shopping centre Galeries Lafayette
Galeries Lafayette
- History :In 1893 Théophile Bader and his cousin Alphonse Kahn opened a fashion store in a small haberdasher's shop at the corner of rue La Fayette and the Chaussée d'Antin, Paris. In 1896, the company purchased the entire building at n°1 rue La Fayette and in 1905 the buildings at n°38, 40 et...

.

She next worked as a parliamentary assistant to Georges Mazars, the Senator for the department of Tarn. She worked with Cécile Silhouette, a Paris councillor, who was elected as a representative of Ensemble pour une gauche alternative et écologiste. According to Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

, she would also have been close to the Gauche socialiste associated Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is a French politician who served in the government of France as Minister of Vocational Education from 2000 to 2002. He was also a member of the Senate of France, representing the Essonne department...

.

Political career

In 2001, the Parti communiste français asked her to run at the top of the ballot in 17th arrondisement of Paris against Françoise de Panafieu
Françoise de Panafieu
Françoise de Panafieu is a French politician, member of the Union for a Popular Movement party and mayor of the XVIIe arrondissement of Paris. She was a member of the French Cabinet as tourism minister in 1995 and she has been an MP for Paris since 2002...

, which she describes as a "large town" with "appalling class contempt". Winning with 35% of the vote, the new Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë
Bertrand Delanoë
Bertrand Delanoë is a French politician, and has been the mayor of Paris since 2001. He is member of the Socialist Party . Delanoë was born in Tunis, Tunisia to a French-Tunisian father and a French mother...

, named her assisant in charge of youth.

As a representative of Paris city hall, in 2001 she attended the Universités d’été euroméditerranéennes des homosexualités, where she worried about possible discrimination towards militant bisexuals in the associations within the homosexual world, a "biphobia".

In 2003, she defended lesbians against the "phallocratic" tendencies of some members of gay associations. She denounced the threat that the Centre d'archives gay-lesbiennes de la mairie de Paris could neglect the "lesbian identity".

In 2005, she signed the Appel des indigènes de la République, before ultimately withdrawing her signature when Tariq Ramadan
Tariq Ramadan
Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss academic, poet and writer. He is also a Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University...

 added his own. During this period, she participated in activities organized by the Conseil représentatif des associations noires de France (CRAN).

In the Group of May 29, she campaigned against the 2004 Treaty of Rome, the European Constitutional Treaty, during the French referendum on the treaty.

A frequent presence on television screens, in 2006 Clémentine Autain became a possible candidate for Gauche antilibérale. She was declared ready to be a candidate in the 2007 French presidential election on September 10, 2006, at the meeting of the Collectif national d’initiative pour un rassemblement antilibéral de gauche et des candidatures communes where a number of local groups were in attendance, believing that she answered the needs of some militants for a candidate who did not represent any party, which gave her an advantage over Marie-George Buffet
Marie-George Buffet
Marie-George Buffet is a French politician. She was the head of the French Communist Party from 2001 to 2010. She joined the Party in 1969, and was the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports from June 4, 1997 to May 5, 2002. Ms...

, Olivier Besancenot
Olivier Besancenot
Olivier Besancenot is a French far left political figure and trade unionist, and the founding main spokesperson of the New Anticapitalist Party from 2009 to 2011....

, Patrick Braouezec
Patrick Braouezec
Patrick Braouezec is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Seine-Saint-Denis department, and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine.-References:...

, Yves Salesse or José Bové
José Bové
Joseph Bové is a French farmer and syndicalist, member of the alter-globalization movement, and spokesman for Via Campesina. He was one of the twelve official candidates in the 2007 French presidential election...

 "to synthesize."

She participates in the Fondation Copernic, a club for discussions relating to the radical left
Radical left
Radical left is a term used in the names of several political movements:* Det Radikale Venstre, a social-liberal party in Denmark* Radical Party of the Left , a social-liberal party in France...

 and to leftist ideas: the RAP with Jacques Kergoat, SELS (Sensibilité écologiste libertaire et radicalement sociale-démocrate) or "Ramulaud" (a movement to develop an alternative to the left, named after a restaurant where it was launched). She has also contributed written pieces to L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...

. At the end of 2008 – beginning of 2009, she contributed to the creation of the Fédération pour une alternative sociale et écologique (FASE), a political movement whose objective is to "unite all the forces of transformation and transcendence of capitalism" and of which she is the spokesperson.

Reporting to Paris City Hall

As Deputy Youth Mayor of Paris from 2001 to 2007, Clémentine Autain developed the Conseils de la jeunesse de Paris (Youth Councils of Paris), operations charged with providing youth with opportunities for dialogue with elected officials, to contribute their perspectives on important initiatives driving the city (transportation, environment, housing, etc.) and to open projects up to the average Parisian. These operations distribute a budget of approximately 200,000 euros to the councils of the city's arrondissements and another 80,000 euros to the Conseils de la jeunesse de Paris.

Thanks to a 50% increase in the budget directed at youth, Clementine Autain put in place different initiatives: Paris Jeunes Talents, Paris Jeunes Vacances, Paris Jeunes Aventures, Paris Jeunes Solidarité, which provide youth with activities such as job training, professional experience, and educational travel.

Reflection

After the setback of a planned unitarian antiliberal candidacy, Clémentine Autain decided not to engage in a disunited campaign that was establishing itself:

Controversy in Montreuil

In May 2007, Clémentine Autain left the 17th arrondissement
Arrondissement
Arrondissement is any of various administrative divisions of France, certain other Francophone countries, and the Netherlands.-France:The 101 French departments are divided into 342 arrondissements, which may be translated into English as districts. The capital of an arrondissement is called a...

 in Paris for a new home in Montreuil
Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis
Montreuil is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is the third most populous suburb of Paris...

 in Seine-Saint-Denis
Seine-Saint-Denis
- Culture :A number of hip hop artists come from the Seine-Saint-Denis, including one of the first major hip-hop groups in France, NTM, as well as Lord Kossity, or more recent acts such as Tandem or Sefyu.- Miscellaneous topics :...

, and sold her former apartment, which she had bought some years previously. Several months later, Clémentine Autain confirmed her intention to not run as a candidate in the 2008 Paris municipal elections. She expressed concerns about a possible alliance of Bertrand Delanoë
Bertrand Delanoë
Bertrand Delanoë is a French politician, and has been the mayor of Paris since 2001. He is member of the Socialist Party . Delanoë was born in Tunis, Tunisia to a French-Tunisian father and a French mother...

 with MoDem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...

 in Paris in the second round of municipal voting.

She stated that she moved to Montreuil
Montreuil
Montreuil is the name or part of the name of several communes of France:* Montreuil, Eure-et-Loir, in the Eure-et-Loir département* Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais, or Montreuil-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais département...

 to "learn about the suburb". Before Clémentine Autain had even moved, there were rumours that she could reinforce the list headed by the outgoing Mayor, Jean-Pierre Brard
Jean-Pierre Brard
Jean-Pierre Brard, , is a French politician.-Biography:Initially a teacher, he entered politics and was elected was deputy mayor of Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis a post he held until 1984, when he was elected mayor of the same city. He remained mayor until March 2008. He has also been a deputy to...

, who like Autain, was linked with the communists. In reality there was no substance to the rumours, the move to Montreuil
Montreuil
Montreuil is the name or part of the name of several communes of France:* Montreuil, Eure-et-Loir, in the Eure-et-Loir département* Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais, or Montreuil-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais département...

 corresponded above all with her personal choice and economic reasons. On her blog, Clémentine Autain confirms "she had asked nothing of the sort and nothing had been promised". Brard, who was ultimately defeated by Dominique Voynet
Dominique Voynet
Dominique Voynet was a French senator for the département of Seine-Saint-Denis, the mayor of Montreuil and a member of The Greens.-Life:...

, reaffirmed his opposition in principle.

In part motivated by a desire to fight the "gentrification" of Montreuil
Montreuil
Montreuil is the name or part of the name of several communes of France:* Montreuil, Eure-et-Loir, in the Eure-et-Loir département* Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais, or Montreuil-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais département...

, Clémentine Autain's arrival paradoxically comes in a context of strong social change in the previously more working class community.

Living in Montreuil
Montreuil
Montreuil is the name or part of the name of several communes of France:* Montreuil, Eure-et-Loir, in the Eure-et-Loir département* Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais, or Montreuil-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais département...

 since early 2008, she cohosts a program focusing on political discussion, Paroles de gauche (Words from the Left) and supported the militants without papers during their strike.

The Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste

During 2008, Autain became involved with the Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste (NPA) (New Anticapitalist Party) under development, launched by the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire.

Autain attended the national conference of l’Appel de Politis, a movement to create an alternative to the left. She called for "an acting out", making reference to the necessary creation of a new political force. However, this unity did not materialize. Clémentine Autain expressed regret that Olivier Besancenot
Olivier Besancenot
Olivier Besancenot is a French far left political figure and trade unionist, and the founding main spokesperson of the New Anticapitalist Party from 2009 to 2011....

 and the NPA did not seek to build political majorities nor to work and create alliances with others, such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is a French politician who served in the government of France as Minister of Vocational Education from 2000 to 2002. He was also a member of the Senate of France, representing the Essonne department...

.

Today Autain is active with Fédération pour une alternative sociale et écologique (FASE), for which she is spokesperson. In particular, she has represented FASE at the congress of the Parti de Gauche de Jean-Luc Mélenchon, indicating a desire to work with him despite differences on issues such as secularism, the Republic, the forms of political organization or the concept of "revolution through the ballot box", to which she prefers that of "democratic revolution".

See also

  • Mix-Cité
    Mix-Cité
    Mix-Cité is a mixed movement for equality of the sexes and of sexualities, founded in 1997. It is a feminist, antisexist and universalist association for reflection and action in public, in media, and in institutions...

  • Parti communiste français
  • Regards
    Regards
    Regards is a French news magazine. Created in 1932 as a Communist title, it is primarily known for photojournalism, and pre-dated other pictorial magazines such as Life and Paris-Match...


External links

Portrait de Clémentine Autain in Liberation
Liberation
-Publications:* Libération, French newspaper* Libération , a Moroccan newspaper* Liberation , monthly pacifist magazine founded, published, and edited by A.J...

Portrait de Clémentine Autain in L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...

Portrait de Clémentine Autain with video
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