r IN THESE TIMES JULY 2-16, T98O 9 By contrast, labor's participation in the protest has remained disciplined, de- spite gross provocations by the regime and some employers. In one case, 42 M WO RID meat workers in the Cape are being held without bail. The workers maintain, quite reasonably, that they are legitimate residents of the area awaiting the resolu- SOUTH AFRICA tion of then- strike. The regime (undoubt- edly encouraged by the employer) says the 42 forfeited their right to remain when they struck, and must now be de- ported to "their" bantustans. In another instance, the regime moved against the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU), a group of 13 mostly black unions representing 50,000 workers. In a transparent effort to de- stroy the increasingly influential federa- tion, the regime unilaterally banned it from raising funds either here or over- seas. These and other moves once again exposed last year's much-heralded "new deal" for black labor as a sham. The regime's efforts to win over Afri- cans of mixed descent ("coloreds") and Indians are also ending in a debacle. Botha is proposing a President's Council of selected "coloreds" and Indians that would advise the white government. Leaders from the two communities re- fused to serve, in part because the coun- cil will exclude 20 million "Africans." Hennie Smit, the minister of posts and telecommunications, explained that Af- Demonstrators flee tear gas in Soweto. The violence peaked on June U> the fourth ricans were being left out because they ®Uke uprising in that black township. were "less developed," with "slower thought processes." A nationwide up- roar ensued over Smit's remarks, and no legitimate leader from any of the three communities will endorse the council Sabotage, protests and strikes now. Counterattacks. By contrast, the regime's response to the Sasol raid was instant—and deadly. One challenge the Botha regime day after the blast, what can only have been its agents bombed an ANC house in neighboring, black-ruled Swaziland, kill- least 1,000 dead—and probably more. By James North would prefer a continuation of the disci- ing two people. (No one died in the Sasol Prime minister P.W. Botha may be ex- pline that characterized the first phase of attack.) JOHANNESBURG ercising some restraint because he still the protest. "If a riotous situation emer- The protest wave reached one peak on nourishes hopes for his cosmetic reform ges, then the issue becomes hatred," one June 16, the anniversary of the outbreak HE MOB.NING AFTER AFRICAN policy, though the eruption has certainly National Congress (ANC) seasoned black leader here said. "The of the Soweto rebellion. Since 1976, crippled some of those half-hearted ini- long-range political goals we are fighting blacks have observed the date as a holi- guerrillas blew up one part of tiatives. More likely, he is deterred by a Sasol oil-from-coal plant for are forgotten." Random violence day to commemorate the dead and to world opinion, for which another Sharpe- south of lieie the liberal can also set back the struggle; Soweto pledge together to continue the struggle. s ville or Soweto could provide the catalyst TRand Daily Mail remarked editorially, has played a relatively minor role in the This year, the nervous regime banned all to start talking seriously about some "This country is ?iow ie a state of revo- present round of unrest because so many gatherings intended to observe the June lutionary war.'" form of economic sanctions. of its activists were either detained, ban- 16 holiday, including church services, The original boycott leaders, and oth- ned, or forced into exile after 1976. The paper's'assessment is still a bit Young people in Soweto and elsewhere ers, are by no means ecstatic at the grow- "Their wounds are still raw," the black predictably responded with stepped-up premature, though its apocalyptic tone ing risk of uncontrolled violence. They could ise pardoned, while saioke from the leader explained. violence. blaze—the biggest in Scjiith African his- Simultaneously, Botha told a hushed tory—billowed wmr. rJiar. two miles into parliament that the biggest battle be- the air. tween the South African army and SWA- But there is little doubt that South'Af- PO, the Namibian guerrilla movement, ANC takes militant lead has taken place in southern Angoia. rica i? experiencing the most extensive upheaval ever. A mood bordering on in- The African National Congress was now-underground ANC then carried Botha claimed the government had killed surrection is sweeping the country. Only founded in 1921, just two years after the out a sabotage program, attacking non- 200 SWAPO fighters while losing 16 of a miracle—the persistent discipline and Union of South Africa was formed. The human targets, in a last attempt to force its own soldiers. He tried to paint an op- courage of black protestors, together first ANC activists, who were mostly the regime to the bargaining table. The timistic picture of the fighting there, but with a degree of police restraint—has church leaders and members of the tiny effort failed, and Mandela and its other shock at the casualties spread through the prevented it from exploding into a blood- black professional class, carried out a organizers are still in prison. white community. bath that would dwarf the 1976 uprising. restrained and dignified petition cam- The ANC weathered the long years in Lost in the news of-turmoil was the Virtually all the major urban centers paign against the intensifying system of exile better than its rival, which was prediction that South Africa's real econ- are affected, The black school-boycott racial domination.. plagued by poor leadership and vicious omic growth for both 1980 aad 1981 will campaign, which showed signs of ending In 1948 the National Party came to infighting. The PAC is no longer a ser- be the second highest in the Western in mid-May, has rekindled and spread to power and apartheid immediately be- ious political force. The ANC grew clos- world, trailing only Japan. ITie eruption even more areas. The students' original came more draconian. In response, er to the Communist Party—member- may still alter that forecast, but it at least commitment to nonviolence is eroding; younger ANC activists, including Nel- ship in the two overlaps in some cases— seriously calls into question the argument the young people more and more are re- son Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and other and received arms, supplies and training put forward by various multinational sponding to police brutality by stoning current senior leaders, formulated a from the USSR and its allies. It was corporations that foreign investment and and burning vehicles. One policeman in militant, nonviolent Program of Ac- therefore in a position to absorb many consequent economic growth here tend to the Cape was stabbed to death during a tion. In the 1952 "defiance campaign" of the several thousand young people erode apartheid. Events of the past few demonstration. la response, police acted the ANC led a nationwide effort to de- who fled the country after 1976 and months show that the system is as power- happily on a shoot-to -kill order. The of- liberately disobey certain apartheid sta- now constitute the ANC's growing ful and evil as ever, even as the boom in- ficial death toll is 32, but the press— tutes; close to 10,000 people went to guerrilla army. duced by high gold prices gets underway. which was not allowed into the affected prison. The organization is by no means a A more telling response to the pro-in- areas—insists it. is higher. The nationalist regime only respond- Soviet puppet. Its leadership does in- vestment rationale was offered by the The biggest WHVC of strikes in seven ed with more oppression, putting the clude a significant number of commun- ANC commandos who placed explosives years has idled thousands of workers at ANC leaders, including its president, ists, both black and white, some of next to the local headquarters of Fluor, plants and mines across the country. A Chief Albert J. Lutuli, through a mar- whom are insufficiently de-Stalinized. the American-based corporation that is bus boycott in the Cape 5s almost com- athon "treason trial." At the same But it is above all a broad-based front, building Sasol, at the same time that their pletely successful, arid the ANC's attack time, an "Africanist" faction within with a basically nationalist program colleagues were blasting the refinery it- at Sasol—easily the most spectacular the ANC charged that the organization that includes democratic socialist fea- self. The Fluor bomb was detected and raid in its history—has permanently de- worked too closely with whites and In- tures. The ANC also enjoys strong sup- defused, but its existence underscored the stroyed its lingering image of ineffectu- dians, particularly those in the illegal, port inside the country from people point that the ANC and other opponents ally and served notice that it, and the multi-racial Communist Party. In who are unconcerned with its interna- of apartheid consider investment a vital guerrilla struggle that it will carry out, 1959, the faction broke away to form tional alignment as long as it fulfills its strategic aid to the enemy during the will be a force tc be reckoned with. the Pan-Africanist Congress. growing promise in the struggle. Wheth- struggle for liberation. Whether Fluor The apartheid regime seems confused In 1960 the PAC, which had also ac- er the ANC's communist membership has integrated toilets or pays its black workers adequate wages seems unimpor- and uncertain. Though it has already de- cused the ANC of lacking militance, becomes ascendent will depend greatly tained, an estimated 400 people, it has still staged the anti-pass campaign that re- on how the West reacts as the fighting tant as South Africa moves closer to war. not cracked dews with ruthlessness. sulted in the Sharpeville massacre and escalates. James North is the IN THESE TIMES cor-• The Capetown casualty figures don't be- the banning of both organizations. The gin to approach the 1976 death toll of at —James North respondent in Southern Africa. LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED

IO IN THESE TIMES JULY 2-15,198O tion. Of the 39 delegations that spoke at concerned. One is dealing with the Iran- the revolutionary guards, who are the the conference, none called for a trial. ians, and the other is military interven- second military force in the country. It The Ayatollah Khomeini has not taken a tion. A propos of military intervention, I seems therefore that Khomeini presides position, publicly, on whether or not read professor George Wold (another over a balance of forces in Iran, that he Iran they should be tried, but now that he has member of the Clark delegaton) express allows a dialogue to occur inside and out- '"raleresults of the conference, he might the suspicion that after all it might serve side the institutions. He waits for the dia- Continued from page 3. take a stand. the interest of this government to have logue to be completed, and then he indi- We were invited by President Bani Sadr, / understand that Bani Sadr made some the hostages prisoners in Iran, because it cates his position. and that is definitely one faction that verbal requests to Clark, as far as the re- gives them a very good excuse for any It was reported by the American press wants to resolve the crisis and does not lease of the hostages Is concerned. One type of intervention they should decide that, although people love and respect want to put the hostages on trial. What point though is not clear to me: what upon in the future—including, and this is Khomeini, they consider several clergy- disturbs me somewhat about reporting in about the restoration of the Shah's my own speculation, seizing the oilfields. men, such as the AyatoOas KhalkhaB and the U.S. on the internal politics of Iran is wealth? And can you'also clarify what I would agree with that assessment. My Beheshti "rapacious and dishonest men." that there are great objections here to the kind of acknowledgement of American own view is that the present policy of the The subject of corruption among the existence of different factions. It seems to crimes in Iran Bani Sadr expects? U.S. is to destabilize the government of Mullahs has been widely reported. I hope me that when one government speaks First, the conference did not call for the Iran. It is the same policy we had toward it will not make us forget the vast corrup- with one voice only, there is reason to return of the Shah, or his wealth. The Chile. The way we destabilize the govern- tion in our own country. The closest ad- suspect the nature of that government. conference merely went on record as rec- ment of Iran is by keeping the hostages visers to the Shah are all here in Los An- Iran has a number of political elements, ognizing the right of the Iranian people there, by promoting inflation and politi- geles. There are buildings now hi down- but, like the U.S., there are only two par- to seek the extradition of the Shah -and cal discord in that country, and by the ' town Los Angeles that have been built or ties that have significant political power: his wealth—which is an extremely mod- constant threat of military intervention. purchased by the Iranians who left the The Islamic Republican Party on the erate stand.,Also, when we met privately During the conference, has there been country with illegal currency. There is not right, and the more progressive Bani with Bani Sadr, the Shah's return to Iran any speculation—especially front other a whimper of protest hi the U.S. about Sadr faction. The U.S. uses the fact that —or his .wealth—did not even come up Muslim countries—of what would hap- this, although the importation of illegal opinion is divided in Iran for not talking in the conversation. What Bani Sadr did ' pen in the whole area in case of U.S. mil- currency certainly fuels both inflation to Bani Sadr, in line with our continuing discuss with us is that the crisis could be itary intervention? and the housing shortage in Los Angeles. policy to try to destabilize that govern- ended if the U.S. would give* to use his The Muslim countries were the strongest Is it true that the delegation in Tehran ment. By doing that, we play into the words, sound and logical assurances to single component at the conference and was "confined in the secluded Hilton hands of the conservatives, who are es- the Iranian people that it would stop in- the concern was voiced over and over Hotel," as the Los Angeles Times sentially more anti-American and op- terfering in their internal affairs. Sound again of the military threat the U.S. poses printed? posed to the release of the hostages—but and logical assurances must be accom- in the Persian Gulf. One of the most I don't understand those reports. Not on- ironically enough, ideologically closer to panied by actions. And the actions he striking presentations was by the rebel ly were we free, we were even offered a the U.S. asked for were threefold: first, the U.S. delegation from Afghanistan, which car and a driver to go anywhere we want- The importance of the conference is must end its attempts to subvert Iran spent the first half of the speech con- ed to. I walked around the streets, I walk- that it strengthened Bani Sadr's posi- from within; second, the U.S. must end demning the Soviet Union for its inva- ed around the embassy, all over down- its attempts to subvert Iran from with- sion—as everyone expected—and the sec- town; I went over to visit Dick Gregory out, by arming other persons; third, the ond half condemning the U.S. for its who has lost 47 pounds in a fast and is U.S. must drop the economic boycott hypocritical attitude in posturing sup- down to 108. and isolation of Iran, and he made spe- port for the rebels all the time, using the What about the accusations by the Islam- cific references to resuming the shipment Afghan situation not to aid the rebels ic Republican Party that dark is a CIA it's not an act of God of spare ^parts. These were the major materially, but to justify a huge military agent? conditions he talked about. Bani Sadr build-up in the Persian Gulf, which di- That was in fact broadcast over the state There are people who would like you believes a shift could occur if a commis- to believe that world hunger is a rectly threatens the Iranian revolution. radio controlled by the IRP, which did natural phenomenon . . . most of those sion were set up in the U.S., headed by The U.S. press describes Iran as a coun- not support the conference. But some- people are in the boardrooms of Ramsey Clark, that would get out the try plunging into chaos, and I have also tiling the media did not report here is that agribusiness corporations. full documentation of American involve- read statements to the effect that the within the last two days, the national state Susan George, Frances Moore Lappe ment hi Iran. He was confident that, if communist party, the compact and well- radio has changed its position on Clark, and Joseph Collins dispell the myths the American people had the full record and point the finger at those who organized Tudeh, is filling up official describing him as a well-intentioned would become rich as a result of the before them, they would not allow their posts. American patriot. starvation of others. government to continue to interfere. One thing that is constantly overlooked Let's talk about the possibility of prose- It seems to me that there are only two here is the fact that in the first national cution in this country for your trip to possibilities as far as the hostage crisis is election President Bani Sadr received 70 Institutt' Iran. Clark defends the legality of the trip for percent of the vote. I don't think there , on constitutional grounds: the right of Iblio Studie: has been a president in the U.S. in a cen- any citizen to travel, speak and assemble. > From The tury who could count on that much sup- Positions among the U.S. officials seem NATIONAL CENTER port. Granted, the parliament is in other quite contradictory: Carter says you hands, the hands of the Islamic Republi- should be prosecuted. Secretary of State For ECONOMIC can Party, by a slight majority. I might Muskie made a statement in the opposite Feeding ALTERNATIVES add that the timing of the rescue mission direction. —which occurred in the week of the elec- As far as the legality of the mission, let theFew: tions—aided the conservatives. me point out that of the 10 delegates who Corporate Control It was not our impression that the gov- went, three are attorneys: Ramsey Clark, ofF(K>d ernment or society are falling apart in the former attorney-general, Leeny Hind, Workplace Iran. Things appeared to be normal. who is a law professor at Rutgers Univer- Food is plentiful. There might be a slight sity, and myself. We examined the or- Dem< shortage of goods, because of the econ- ders, the regulations and all the laws per- a omic boycott and because of the auster- taining to our trip and concluded that it Susan George ity measures adopted by the Bani Sadr was lawful. But essentially it is not a mat- Productivity government. At the time of the revolu- ter of law, it is a matter.of politics. To tion, Iran was exporting over 5 million demonstrate what I mean, let me tell you FEEDING THE FEW: barrels of oil. It is now exporting 500,000 that, when I met with Dick Gregory, he Corporate Control of Food byKarlFrieden Suipon George, $3.95. barrels—a 90 percent drop-off in their informed me that the so-called travel This new and comprehensive work draws major source of income. We were in- ban, which is dated April 21, 1980, was the links between the hungry at home and those abroad exposing the economic and formed that this is a purposeful policy of originally dated April 19. That was the political forces pushing us towards a NaOonalCenlerforEconomic Alternatives the government, which is attempting to day Dick Gregory left for Iran. The ad- unified global food system. shrink the economy to wring out all the ministration did not want to prosecute a HOW THE OTHER HALF DIES Susan George. $5.95. A study of existing American excesses of consumerism brought about black hi an election year, particularly one WORLD HUNGER: Ten Myths firms where workers have some by the '70s boom. as prominent as Dick Gregory, so they Frances Moore Lappe and Joseph Collins. Now, for the Tudeh party, I have indi- moved the regulation back two days. Ul- $235. part in ownership or manage- ment of the enterprise. The cations it is under pressure from the gov- timately, what will happen to us will be a WORLD HUNGER: Causes and Remedies ernment. It is not suppressed as broadly political decision, not a legal one. Transnational Institute. $2.50. report finds consistent pro- as other elements of the left such as the Please add 75t per item for postage ductivity increases compound What are you going to do next? What and handling. Fedayeen and the Muhajadeen, who do about the commission to investigate with similar conventional face an outright oppression in the coun- Please send me the following: firms. Also looks at European American crimes? ' experience and makes policy try. But there was no indication that the We would like to begin a public cam- proposals for U.S. Tudeh party is large, strong, growing or paign to request that the government co- by Karl Freiden, $7.50 on the verge of a takeover. operating with an independent commis- One significant fact, I think, is that, sion of private citizens, releases the doc- D P'ayment enclosed D Charge to my: Other Studies: finding itself relatively isolated, con- uments on the history of American in- D Visa D Master Charge D American Express Understanding the New demned by the UN, the Iranian govern- Minimum charge: $10.00. tervention in Iran. It would be the same Inflation by Leslie Nulty ment through this conference turned to kind of compilation as for the Pentagon (with intro by Gar Alperovitz the more progressive international com- papers, which were certainly helpful in Account Number and Jeff Faux) $5.00 munities, particularly to the Third World informing the American public and end- countries, which spoke very warmly of Bank Number Toward a National Food big the Vietnamese conflict. Journalist Policy by Joe Belden $5.00 the Islamic revolution. Bob Scheer, under the Freedom of In- Expiration Date Cooperatives at the Cross- What is the role Khomeini plays in the formation Act, already requested those Signature required for charge roads by Michael Schaaf $5.00 country? Is he a mediator, like Bani documents. They were denied to him. I think I will take up his case. But die only An Economic Program for the Sadr? Name It is hard to interpret precisely what Kho- way we are going to achieve our goal is if Coming Decade by Gar there is some kind of public movement Address meini intends to do, but it appears that at Alperovitz and Jeff Faux $.75 this stage he is trying to balance forces in the U.S. in that direction. • City, State, Zip To order, send check to NCEA, within his country. After Bani Sadr re- Margherita Pagnt is an Italian journalist. Mail to: Publication Dept., 2000 P St., ceived 70 percent of the popular vote In this week's In Depth column, Mark Institute for Mcy Studies NW, Suite 200, Washington, Khomeini turned over the entire military Hulbert reports on the freeze and subse- 1901 Que St., N.W., Dept AA DC 20036 forces to him. He gave the other side, the quent seizure of Iranian assets in U.S. Washington, D.C. 20009 A-017 Islamic Republican Party, control over banks. Page 16.

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IN THESE TIMES JULY 2-15,198O 11 numerous amendments from the right majority. These were likely to leave in- EUROPE tact what labor people saw as the gov- ernment's central purpose, that is, to in- timidate and repress social movements. Whatever "attempted threat to per- sons or property" may turn out to be, it seems significant that the new crime is aggravated if committed during "intru- sion in a work place" or "at a meeting." These and other provisions seem de- signed, not to protect little old ladies from purse snatchers, but rather to facil- itate the arrest, conviction and lengthy imprisonment of workers who take part in the kind of strike with occupation of the premises that is frequent in France as employees fight to keep their plants from being shut down. Another new law in the code would send people to jail for attempting in any way to disturb railroad traffic. This measure threatens not only strikers, but also passengers who (as has happened re- cently) block the rails to protest against termination of train service to their towns —actions that may multiply as France follows the American lead in dismant- ling unprofitable passenger service. The code's many provisions to crimi- nalize and repress disturbances associat- ed with social protest movements are not balanced by measures to combat "white France's right wing moves to collar crime," left leaders point out. Labor leader Edmond Make says that the Peyrefitte code fits into a context in which bosses are using a new arsenal of ' "Americanize" penal code union-busting devices such as suing un- ions for production losses during strikes, ment-controlled television and the right- should be swift and standard, meted out and steel industry manageme.nl, faced wing press can help convince good citi- strictly according to the acts committed, with worker unrest due to shutdowns, has zens that they are scared half to death. without lingering over the personality, been demanding an end to "violence in IP A S A lot of French people own secondary circumstances and motivations of the in- the plants." The unions are currently SON C? THS TIMES: THE FRENCH residences, country houses that are left dividual criminal. Some of Peyrefitte's losing their battle against another gov- penal sods is being overhauled unoccupied except for occasional holi- statements closely paraphrased Senator ernment bill banning strikes in nuclear to strengthen the prosecution day weekends, making them a choice Edward Kennedy. plants on security grounds. and the police at ths expense of target for burglars. Some owners have il- The French and American judicial The Socialist Party used every parlia- the defense and o? fes indepen- legally booby-trapped their houses to systems are so different in theory and in mentary device it could think of to stall dent investigating judge, fee /«ge rf'//i- kill or maim intruders, becoming heroes practice that what sounds fair and rea- passage of the code, and the Commun- stntction. The declared pus-pose is to of a new "self-defense" movement of sonable on one side of the Atlantic may ist Party joined in the obstruction. In hustle authors of violent crimes more property owners who take up arms and sound outrageously repressive on the mid-June, debate on "Security and Lib- rapidly through the courts and off to occasionally shoot dead a member of the other. People arrested in the U.S. have erty" was interrupted by a bizarre inci- prison for longer stays. family who got up in the night to go to recourse to habeas corpus; on the other dent, when one of Peyrefitte's colleagues The new code, entitled "Security and the bathroom. Peyrefitte is clearly fish- hand, prison sentences are much, much in the cabinet, Jacques Dominati, secre- Liberty" by its author,, rustics minister ing for the nervous property owner vote. longer in the U.S. than anywhere else in tary in charge of repatriated French set- Alain Peyrefitte, was rammed through Amateur psychologists see Peyrefitte's the Western world. In criminal cases, the tlers from Algeria, attended ceremonies the National Assembly June 20 despite own insecurity at work in the repressive adversary system as practiced in the U.S. honoring right-wing terrorist commando strenuous opposition from Socialists, measures. Scandal watchers note that favors defendants who can afford good leader Lieutenant Roger Degueldre, exe- jurists and labor leaders who call it a the new code will make it even easier attorneys over poor people who may cuted in 1962, whose assassination, vic- serious threat to the rights both of indi- than it is already for the government to never get to tell their side of the story, tims very nearly included De Gaulle him- viduals and of sociai saovemerats. cover up such a potentially embarrassing caught between a mediocre defense and self. Indignant Gaullists stalked: out of The project aroused such a storm of case as the currently pending investiga- a prosecution ever eager to score convic- the assembly, demanding Dominati's criticism that its passage at first seemed tion of former interior minister Prince tions. dismissal. "But what about 'Security, unlikely. The legal profession was up in Michel Poniatowski and the ever-mys- In theory and often in practice, the and Liberty'?" a Justice official asked arms. The whole range of magistrates', terious murder a few years ago of Prince job of the juge d'instruction, on the plaintively. De Gaulle's old justice min- lawyers' aad jurists' organizations Jean de Broglie. Political activists and other hand, is to get to the bottom of a flunked Peyrefitte for sloppy drafting, labor leaders see the main purpose as case, making sense not only of what disregard for the, rights of the accused repression of strikes and other social happened but why. The system provides and "demagogy" ins catering to mob at- protest movements. space for bringing out extenuating cir- titudes and fears. Critics were particular- cumstances, often leading to the lenien- ly alarmed by measures designed to by- False insecurity. cy Peyrefitte says he wants to combat. pass and hamstring the juge d'instruc- In Germany and Italy, terrorism has tion, the key figure in the French judicial served to justify more repressive laws. Computer justice. system, whose job it is to try to get to the France has no terrorism, but even so the But the thrust of the Peyrefitte criminal bottom of a case, independently of both citizenry "feels insecure," says Peyre- code is to judge facts only, not persons, defense and prosecution. fitte, and needs to be reassured. The feel- and to tie punishment as automatically Hundreds of robed judges marched ing of insecurity may stem from many as possible to the establishment of cer- down the street in angry protest. But de- factors—the restructuring of the French tain facts. To this end, the system would spite virtually unanimous opposition economy to insert it into the world mar- be Americanized by weakening the role from the Segal profession, organizations ket, which means sweeping away count- of the juge d'instruction, making it pos- concerned with civiJ rights, labor, the less jobs and small businesses; inflation; sible for the prosecutor to go ahead on left parties and prominent Eibsrals, as talk of war; more aggressive cultural his own and bring a case before the well as initial sniping from Peyrefitte's modes; or for that matter, police brutal- equivalent of a grand jury. Peyrefitte fellow Gaullists (neo-Gaullist leader Jac- ity. The media focus on violent crime dismissed the nearly unanimous outcry Alain Peyrefitte ques Chirac called the bill ° "unworthy" keeps the multiple sources of insecurity of the legal profession as mere "corpor- ister Jean Foyer thundered back, "We and said he would not vote for it), blurred in the minds of a certain part of atist" self-interest. don't give a damn about the Peyrefitte chances are that the Peyrefitte code will the public, channeling their anxiety into a The new code's aspiration toward aut- project! We're on strike!" eventually be adopted. The right has the demand for the product offered them: omatism, toward computer justice, is in- The champions of law and order have majority in parliament and, after a per- police protection. deed curiously in tune with a period their little differences. But Gaullists iod of squabbling and amending, usually Opponents of the Peyrefitte code have marked by institutional appropriation of soon were back and calling for cloture to ends up giving the government what it stressed its backward spirit. Many have knowledge belonging to the intellectual pass the bill without further debate—not wants. noted resemblance with laws enacted un- professions (something that happened to before adding a further repressive mea- Why does the government of Presi- der the Vichy regime. Francois Mitter- craftsmen long ago), and the magistrates sure legalizing police identity checks of dent Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who at rand called Peyrefitte "more repressive naturally want to defend the dignity of anyone, anywhere, any time. The bill times has invited street sweepers or intel- than Napoleon." their role. But they are not alone in fear- goes to the senate next fall. lectuals into the Elysee Palace to build But Peyrefitte himself claims to have ing the technological barbarism of a One law professor commented that up ths liberal side o.f 'sis imagg, suddenly been inspired by the latest American system that dishes out punishment with- every time the French right "American- want Is change tag peR&i cede? Many criminology, which he learned about on out regard for the individual. In human izes" French institutions, it selects only see the mak mcl:vsl:,on as electoral. a trip to the U.S. last fall. After the new affairs, the effacement of human judg- features that strengthen the executive. Giscard is ap for electors ssx£ year. philosophers, the new right and the new ment in favor of supposedly automatic Thus the Fifth Republic one-sidedly The bill aixs st pleas'ag voters who cuisine, France now gets the new crimi- processes is all too often a way of mak- strengthened the presidency, but left the think they are beir.g sisg-jufsd :a a crime nology—all owing much to the new ing a particular power relationship look National Assembly far weaker than the wave due to "pena:ss:;vs" judges. Cer- world. Echoing American criminologist neutral and natural. U.S. Congress. "And the Peyrefitte tain!y8 by Americas siamsiards, the Norval Morris, Peyrefitte announced Jurists also complained that the bill code weakens the juge d'instruction to FreBsfe criiag wave :.s Eot svera a ripple, that rehabilitation of criminals has been was sloppy and often so vague as to be the benefit of the state prosecutor—again but everything Is relal:v®, sa£ 5m Paris a discredited. The purpose of punishment inapplicable, obviously written by some- the executive—without giving the defense mugger may sauss as m&sh excitement is not to reform the criminal but to re- one with no practical experience. Peyre- the safeguards it has in the Anglo-Saxon' as a. mass mzrdsrsr :z. Csis&gs. Govern- pair a social disruption. Punishment fitte bent with the storm, welcoming system," he added. P

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