French Revolutionists Outlawed

Special: interview with leader of banned French movement The following exclusive interview with Alain for The Militant, along with our photo only a few years ago. Most of the students Krivine, one of the central leaders of the graphers, Helena Hermes and Brian there come from the most upper-class district French student movement and a leader of Shannon. of Paris. Until recently there has been no po the Jeunesse Communiste Revolutionnaire litical tradition at Nanterre, not even a strong (JCR- Revolutionary Communist Youth) student union (UNEF), partly because it's was obtained by Mary-Alice Waters on June MARY-ALICE WATERS: To begin with, a new university, and partly because the stu 2. could you give us some background on the dents are there only for their first few years On June 12, the de Gaulle regime out development of the student movement in of study. They go directly from the high France during the last few months? lawed the JCR, along with six other youth schools to the University of Nanterre. groups. ALAIN KRIVINE: The student movement The student movement was touched off by Mary-Alice Waters and Joseph Hansen began, in a real sense, on March 22 at the an incident. On the evening of March 21 there are presently in France covering events there University of Nanterre, a new school built was a demonstration in front of American Express in Paris, and some of the windows of the building were broken by the students. One of the Nanterre students, who is a leader of the JCR, was arrested that night by the police and accused of having organized this THE demonstration. He was arrested at 7:00p.m., and by 9:00 p.m. a huge crowd of Nanterre students had assembled at the university. The different stu dent organizations of the far left had set up loudspeakers to inform the students of what had happened. The students agreed upon a MILITANT new form of struggle never before seen in Published in the Interests of the Working People France-they decided to occupy the school until the comrade, Xavier Langlade, was Vol. 32- No. 25 Friday, June 21, 1968 Price 1Oc released. (Continued on page 6) Alain Krivine French revolutionists outlawed BY THE POLITICAL COMMITTEE, members of the Federation of German Social Anyone who in the opinion of the police defies vanguard of the student and mass movements. SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY AND ist Students (SDS). the decree is liable to be tried and faces six Under the relationship of forces in the current NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, The government likewise prohibited all months to two years in jail plus fines. revolutionary situation in the country, YOUNG SOCIALIST ALLIANCE street demonstrations during the election cam Both the PCI and the JCR immediately de Gaulle and his Premier would not have JUNE 14-While de Gaullewelcomesback paign, which opened June 10 and extends issued statements that they refuse to recognize dared to undertake such repressions unless the neo-fascists, his government has outlawed until the June 30 runoffs. the legality of the ban and propose to fight they were sure they could go ahead without all the militant student and left-wing organi The next day, June 13, Pompidou illegalized it in the courts and in the streets (see page 12). serious objection from the forces controlled by zations which have led the mighty mass move four adult political organizations: the Inter Guy Mollet, leader of the French Socialist the CGT and CP bureaucrats. ment in France. On June 12, as the three nationalist Communist Party (PCI), French Party, spokesmen for the Federation of the In fact, the CP leaders have prepared the week general strike of the workers tapered section of the Fourth International; the Lam Democratic and Socialist Left headed by ground for the government moves by ven off and the national pre-election period began, bertiste Internationalist Communist Organi Alexandre Mitterrand, and other political, omous denunciations of the student rebels Premier Pompidou dissolved seven student zation (OCI); the Maoist Communist Party labor and student bodies immediately de as ultra-left "adventurers" and their chauvin groups. (Marxist-Leninist) and an anarchist group. nounced the government's acts as outrageous ist attacks on foreigners such as Cohn-Bendit These are the Trotskyist Revolutionary The official charge against these persecuted violations of civil liberties. A broad protest whom l'Humanite labelled as the "West Ger Communist Youth (JCR), the March 22 organizations is that they organized subver movement will undoubtedly develop in de man" while the far-right press added "Jew." Movement led by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Work sive commando squads, a frameup accusa fense of the victimized organizations both These slanderous attacks emboldened the ers Voice, the anarchist Revolutionary Group, tion which they have denied. They are being on a national and international scale. Gaullists to make anti-Communism the theme the Maoist Union of Communist Youth banned under a conspiracy law, enacted Quite different was the attitude of the French of their election campaign, perrnit fascists (Marxist-Leninist), the Federation of Revo during the Popular Front days of 1936, Communist Party. As other organizations on banned after the Algerian war to return, and lutionary Students (FER), and the Liaison which is the French replica of the Smith Act the left voiced their opposition, the Stalinist try to incite a witch-hunt hysteria in France. Committee of Revolutionary Students. in the United States. leaders kept mum. De Gaulle counts on the CP bureaucrats to At the same time it expelled many foreign It prevents the prohibited organizations However, their silence could not conceal restrain the workers while his cops and right students who have been active in struggles from carrying on any of the normal functions their criminal complicity with the Gaullist wing groups try to terrorize the rebel youth against the government and police, notably of a political group, "directly or indirectly." reaction in inflicting these blows upon the (Continued on page 12) Protest ban Historic opportunity for socialist victory on French leftl betrayed by French Communist leaders NEW YORK-A call has been issued BY JOSEPH HANSEN of socialism, was so close that everyone could Strike committees and broader Committees for nationwide demonstrations at French PARIS, June 7- The headlines in the bour catch a glimpse of it. These days were felt of Action were mushrooming on a national consulates and information agencies June geois daily press proclaim that the situation as the genuinely "normal" life, or at least basis. In many places they began to take 22 in solidarity with the French workers in France is rapidly reverting to "normal." a taste of it. over public functions, resembling nothing so and students and to protest de Gaulle's The metros and buses are again operating How could this opportunity for an imme much as the broad representative councils, outlawing of revolutionaryorganiz~;~.tions in Paris, the trains have begun running, the diate socialist victory, the most promising in soviets, that were formed at the beginning of and his ban on public demonstrations. post office has opened, most of the indus all history, be lost and dissipated within a the revolutions in Russia in 1905 and again A broad ad hoc formation of individuals tries- with a few stubborn exceptions- are single day? This is the question now preoccu in 1917. and organizations is sponsoring a march resuming production, or are about to, and the pying the French vanguard as it assesses the The capitalist ruling class, reeling from the on the French consulate ·in New York few weeks in which it seemed that at any mo events. speed of events, floundered helplessly. Their that day. ment the country could go socialist are now daily press, printed only by courtesy of the Communist Party, openly described the situ The New York demonstrators will as receding like a "nightmare" which can BEFORE DE GAULLE'S SPEECH promptly be forgotten or left to the historians ation as "revolutionary." semble at Columbus Circle, Saturday, The facts are absolutely clear. On May 29, and sociologists for leisurely analysis. The de Gaulle regime was caught in a deep June 22, at noon, and march to the the entire French economy was paralyzed by crisis, many of the government figures pre consulate at 74th Street andFifthAvenue. The central organ of the Communist Party, the most solid general strike ever witnessed l'Humanite, is not much different from the paring like rats to abandon ship. Premier There will be picketing there from 1:00 in the country. Ten million workers, two-thirds other daily papers. In banner headlines it Pompidou, upon rushing back to France to 2:30p.m. of the working force, had occupied the plants. boasts that the workers are hurrying to end Not a wheel was turning in public transport. from a trip abroad, was said to have told A partial list of sponsors include Lew their strike and rushing back to work, con The workers stood by at the switch of the the police that the situation at that point was Jones of the Young Socialist Alliance, scious of the "great victory" they have won. public power system-and they pulled the "prerevolutionary." Fred Halstead of the Socialist Workers The triumphant shouts of the French CP switch occasionally to show their readiness Everything that the ministers did seemed Party, Dixie Bayo of the Puerto :Rican leaders make a harmonious counterpoint to to stop this most vital service. wrong. 1\i!asures which in "normal" times Pro-Independence Movement, James the great sigh of relief from all sectors of the The distribution system was similarly frozen would have worked, now seemed only to Haughton of the Harlem .

Load more