Vol. 7, No. 19 0 1969 Intercontinental Press May 19, 1969 50c Krivine for President of France Grigorenko Arrested at Crimean Tartar Trial May Day in Britain Harvard Strike Report New Social Unrest in Santo Doming0 ALAIN KRIVINE: From Sante Prison to Elysee Palace? Ninth Congress of the Chinese CP -474- ALAIN KRIVINE FOR PRESIDENT OF FMCE The Ligue Communiste* CLCl an- "This candidacy ,I' Le Monde quoted nounced May 5 that it would enter Alain Bensaid as saying, "does not, therefore, Krivine as its candidate for president have an electoral objective. Its princi- of France in the June 1 elections. Kri- pal aim is to explain that nothing was vine was the main leader of the JCR and solved by the referendum, that nothing played a key role in the May-June up- will be solved following the 1st or the heaval. He was imprisoned in July for 15th of June. thirty-nine days and drafted into the army shortly after his release. At pres- "The economic and social problems ent Krivine is stationed at Verdun with remain; the financial apprehension, the the 150th Infantry Regiment. political instability, will not be healed for long by a victory for Pompidou. The The announcement of Krivine's can- solutions lie elsewhere: in a new mobili- didacy, which was featured on the front zation of the working class in the facto- page of the widely read Paris daily & ries and in the neighborhoods." Monde, came only hours after the Commu- nist party designated seventy-two-year- The army refused to allow Alain old Jacques Duclos as their standard Krivine to leave Verdun to attend the bearer. The day before, on May 4, the press conference, but the young candidate Parti Socialiste [Socialist party -- a has set in motion legal proceedings to new regroupment of right-wing Social Dem- compel the army to recognize his right to ocrats] at its founding conference at campaign. Supporters of the Ligue Commu- Alfortville nominated Gaston Defferre, niste have asked the Constitutional Coun- the mayor of Marseille, as its presiden- cil to rule -on the case. tial candidate. The Parti Socialiste Uni- fi6 CPSU -- United Socialist party, the Le Monde said the case was "unpre- left Social Democrats] nominated its na- cedented," but indicated that Krivine had tional secretary, Michel Rocard. the right to be a candidate. At twenty- seven, he fulfills the age requirement While the strongest bourgeois can- for the presidency, which in France is didate is still Georges Pompidou, who has twenty-three. He also satisfies all oth- the support of the Gaullists, interim er constitutional requirements for the President Alain Poher is being built up presidency. Le Monde commented: by the Parti Radical [Radical party -- the traditional bourgeois liberals] as "The first reaction in military another potential heir to de Gaulle's circles was that no regulation prohibits throne. running for office. A military candidate in an election is free to write or say The Ligue Communiste made it clear what he pleases. He can take advantage that its campaign would be conducted as of a leave without pay and a special fur- part of the revolutionary struggle of the lough .'' French youth, and not as part of the tra- ditional parliamentary infighting of the French election laws require that reformist workers parties. a presidential candidate must receive the endorsement of 100 government officehold- Daniel Bensald, one of the editors ers in order to appear on the ballot. of Rouge, told a press conference May 5: These 100 signatures must be collected from mayors, members of parliament, sena- "We want to put the revolutionary tors, etc. The Ligue Communiste has is- voice of May and June on radio and tele- sued an appeal for these signatures on a vision. This revolutionary candidacy will civil-liberties basis. It is asking for help to dissipate the electoralist and endorsement from individuals who do not parliamentary illusions fostered by the necessarily agree with Krivine's program, CP. We want to break with this fantasy so that he can exercise the democratic and build a force to the left of the CP." right to appear on the ballot. The Communist party launched a red- * The Ligue Communiste [Communist League1 baiting attack on the Krivine campaign in was founded April 5-8 by supporters of the CP organ l'Humanit6. the left-Communist action journal RouKe, including former members of the Jeunesse "If Krivine ," 1 'Humanit6 said, "de- Communiste R6volutionnaire CJCR -- Revolu- spite his sudden respect for the democrat- tionary Communist Youth1 and of the Parti ic sentiments of elected officials, has Communiste Internationaliste CPCI -- In- trouble finding a hundred sponsors, Mar- ternationalist Communist party, the cellin will provide them." Marcellin, of French section of the Fourth Internation- course, is the head of the government po- al]. The two last-named organizations lice apparatus. The Ligue Communiste re- were banned by the de Gaulle regime in plied by asking the Communist party to June 1968. demonstrate its own willingness to defend -475- the civil liberties of workers organiza- geois election code is the posting of tions by providing the necessary signa- 10,000 francs [US$2,0001 with the govern- tures for Alain Krivine from among the ment to put a presidential candidate on many CP functionaries who hold public the ballot. This is in addition to the office. expenses of campaigning. The Ligue Comu- niste has issued an appeal for contribu- Georges Marchais, a member of the tions for the campaign, to be sent to Do- Political Bureau of the French CP, in an minique Mehl, CCP: 24 786 41, Paris, interview in the May 9 Le Monde, further France. denounced the young revolutionary and de- clared that the CP would not provide any In issuing their appeal, the Ligue signatures. Communiste further outlined the projected campaign: The same issue of Le Monde report- ed that the Ligue Communiste had already "In face of such a carnival of secured forty of the required endorse- thieves, who seek to disorient revolution- ments. Charles Michaloux, Henri Weber and ary workers and militants, the Ligue Com- Daniel Bensaid told a press conference muniste considers it important to offer that the LC had proposed a joint campaign a revolutionary candidate. We are not to the PSU, but that the PSU had decided interested in running for the post of to run its own candidate. president but in spreading revolution- ary ideas and propaganda among the work- Daniel Cohn-Bendit sent Alain Kri- ers through this campaign. At a time when vine a telegram May 7 suggesting himself all groups are digging into the mythology as a candidate for prime minister if Kri- of May to come up with attention-getting vine is elected. Speaking for Krivine, trappings for one or another of their who could not be present, Michel Michaloux heroes, we must present clearly and be- told the press that in the revolutionary fore all, one of the vanguard organiza- reconstruction that would follow if Kri- tions which bourgeois propaganda branded vine were elected there would no longer as a 'splinter gr0up.I" be such posts as ministers and such, but that Cohn-Bendit could be offered a post as a "people s commissar. Krivine's campaign is scheduled to wind up with a mass rally at the Palais Another requirement of the bour- des Sports in Paris May 28. "LE MONDE'S" APPRAISAL OF ALAIN KRIVINE [The leading role which the Trot- son-in-law of the former assistant gener- skyists played in the events of May and al secretary of the PSU [Parti Socialiste June 1968 and their organizational ad- Unifi6 -- United Socialist party -- a vances since that time have forced the centrist formation1 M. Gilles Martinet, bourgeois press in France to take a dif- he was a history student. He had to aban- ferent tack in reporting their activities don his preparation for his doctorate, Before these events, the practice was to however, to devote himself to politics. denigrate or ignore all forces to the left of the old established parties. Now Involvement in politics is Q the far left organizations are receiving -rigueur in the Krivine family. While his more attention. father, a dentist, has never been active in a political organization, his five CLe Monde, a bourgeois Paris daily brothers all joined the Comunist party. comparable to the New York or London At present, two are still in the Commu- Times in prestige, on May 7 printed the nist party. One has left politics. The following relatively objective biographi- two youngest -- Alain and his twin broth- cal sketch of Alain Krivine, the candi- er Hubert -- moved toward Trotskyism date of the Ligue Communiste for presi- under the influence especially of Ernest dent of France. Mandel, a Belgian economist and the auth- or of Marxist Economic Theory, and one of [The translation is by Interconti- the main figures in the Fourth Interna- nental Press.] tional. *** Alain Krivine got his first experi- ence in politics during the Algerian war. I With abundant but not overly long He helped to found the Front Universitaire hair, careful dress, a natural elegance Antifasciste [Student Antifascist Front]. in his expression and bearing, and a Accusing the Communist party of softness ready sense of irony, M. Alain Krivine is in the struggle for Algerian independence eloquent but discreet. At 27, he is an and a$ainst the OAS [Organisation de "old man" of the student movement. The 1'Armee Secdte -- Secret Army Organiza- -476- tion -- a colonialist terrorist outfit], especially those shaking the "third he was already trying to outflank the CP world" (Castroism, Guevarism ...) and the to the left.