As Christophe Bourseiller 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.
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.
[1] 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.
The connection to Spontex, a cleaning sponge brand, was intended as a pejorative to disparage the GP's anti-authoritarian approach to socialist revolution.