Frédéric Lordon is a French economist and philosopher, CNRS Director of Research at the Centre européen de sociologie et de science politique in Paris. He is an influential figure in France's Nuit debout movement and has regularly contributed to French broadcast and print media on French and European politics, and also writes a regular opinion column for Le Monde diplomatique. He has argued in favour of Communism as an alternative to Capitalism in books, articles and media appearances, and has been engaged in a project of re-grounding the social sciences in a Spinoza-inspired materialism. He is considered one of the most prominent intellectual voices of the radical left in France today.

Nuit debout is a French social movement that began on 31 March 2016, arising out of protests against proposed labor reforms known as the El Khomri law or Loi travail. The movement was organized around a broad aim of "overthrowing the El Khomri bill and the world it represents". It has been compared to the Occupy movement in the United States and to Spain's anti-austerity 15-M or Indignados movement.