Last week Pierre Rousset, a former member of the Political Bureau of the banned Communist League (French section of the Fourth International) spoke at an IMG meetin in London about the banning and the current situation in France. The substance of his speech appears below. First of all, why did we organise a counter-demonstration against the fascist meeting held We did so because the meeting was held to protest against so-called illegal immigration Into France. The question of immigration, and the problem of racism, is beginning to become a major issue in France as it is in England. In particular, the Government has launched a big attack on immigrants through new legislation against so-called illegal immigration. At the same time, the struggles of immigrant workers in France are today entering into a. new phase, For years after the Algerian war, Immigrant workers were mainly active on such Issues as accommodation rather than in the factories. But in the last few months there have been new struggles: first against the Government's "Fontanet Circular', which was a in the factoties themselves. Before the New Order meeting there was the immigrant workers" strike in Renault-Billancourt, which is strengtbens the struggle of the working class. the largest factory in France, And since then there has been the cnormous national strike of unmigrant workers against racism last month. GROWING REPRESSION So the meeting organised by New Order raised important questions fot the French working class, because it geared into one of the main political axes of the French ruling class today: 10 divide the working ciass between French and because it developed within a framework where the repression in France against the This repression takes two forms. There is the "legal' repression - for instance, the increasing occupation of factories by the police as at "Joint Francais and at Lip this summer, But there is also the parallel repression by illegal or unofficial bodies, with the activity of the fancist so-called trade union, the CFT, in factories like Citroen; the intervention of fascist commandos against the leugeot strike in St. Etienne: and the murder by fascist commandos of a number of immigrants this summer in Marseilles and elsewhere.
So, because of the objective importance of this meeting, and the complete passivity of the traditional leaderships of the working class, the extreme left, especially the Communist League, had to take on the responsibility of showing French ruling class was both possible and However, for much the same reasons, the Government wanted the New Order meeting to go ahead not simply to defend the policy of dividing the working class through racism, or the policy of legal and parallel repression, but as part of its preparation for the enormous class confrontations which are developing in France. Since the March elections the political crisis of lendership of the bourgeoisie has been growing. by New Örder at the Mutualite hall on 21 June? Right after the clections, the movement against the Debre laws on ariny conscription showed bow far the rar sation had extended ever among sche dents.
Following on from this has been the Lip workers" strike in Besancon the most impur tant workers' struggle In France since May "G8. You can understand what is happening in France when you see workers, who were not revolutionaries before the strike, going round explaining to meetines that the strike is solid because it has imposed is own legality workers' legality, in pluce of bourgeois legality When the police threw them out of the factory, they took with them thousands and thousands of watches. They have explained to workers all over France how they organised the biggest hold-up in French history. Imagine what such decree against illegal immigration; and secondly. a statement means, publicised all over the press and on radio and TV, explaining that it's Bormal and correct to do this, because it ROLE OF LEFT Also very significant has been the solidarity which has developed around Lip and the role played by the extremo left in this. None of the traditional leaderships of the working class neither the CGI and CFDT trade union federations nor the Communist or Socialist organised for the march last weekend. Yet last weekend we were 100,000 in Besancon Ever. in Paris it's rare to have 100,000 on a demonstration, but in Besancon, a little provincial town, you can imagine what kitd of national mobilisation - by car, bus and train -this meant. And in this 100,000-trong demonstration, the extreme left grouped a third of all the demonstrators, and the contingent behind the Rouge banner was 20,000strong, the biggest single contingent on the whole demonstration.
This shows to some extent what is happening. C course, you mustn't think that now we will be able to outflank the leaderships of the CGT and CP, or of the CFDT, anywhere, anyhow, at any time. No. But this does indicate a new deepening of the class struggle in France today. and the role of the extreme left in this upsurge is becoming more and more important The Government knows this, which is why it chose to hit the extreme left through its main organisation, the Communist League, thinking it could get away with it.
SOLIDARITY But although the support for our demonstra. tion on 21 June, before it took place, was weak.
hanned was unprecedented in France. Esen tbe Communist Party wastorced to lake up the issue and organise a public meeting to defend the Communst League, a Trotskyist organisation, This shows the extent to which their own base in the CP and the CGT supported us and were demanding action in defence of is, Out side of such a situation the Communist Pacty would never have supported is against the Also significant were the divisions which arose in the state apparatus and even in the Government itself, Two days after the 21 June demonstration, for instance, the police trade union which is not exactly revolutionary publicly protested that Marcellin (the Minister of the Interior) had arranged things so that the police would suffer at the hands of the demonstraton. Why? To assist the policy of developing a fascist current in the police, and to use this to attack the Communist League atter the demonstration All this shows how the action which the Communist Leage decided to take against the New Order meeting was absolutely correct, and corresponded to the needs and aspirations of many workers in France. In this situation, the Government had to retreat on several fronts. First, it was forced to allow our newspaper, Rouge, to continue publication as a paper of communist action. Then, after jailing myself and Alain Krivine, it was forced to relcase Krivine after a month (we don't yet know when his trial will take placel and to sentence me to only two months, which I had already served hy the time the trial took place.
Just after the banning. Marcellin explained that if necessary he would jail hundreds and thousands of little Krivines" as he put it Che is always personalising things). The fact that he has now had to retreat on the content of the banning, and on the first moves be took after the banning, shows just how widespread was the support we received. We were never less isolated than after the 21 June demonstration. Michel Recanati, seen here at school students" rally. However, although we have had many successe the repression against us has by no means stopped. The ban is still in force, and another former member of the Political Bureau of the ex-Communist League, Michel Recroati, is today in jail. Because he is less well-known, and because unlike Alain or myself he was physically present on the demonstration, the Government may well try to make an example out of him after its failure with us. So, altbough we have seen that the barning of the League has not prevented the Trotskyist movement in France from continwing to develop its influence, it is ingortant to continue solidarity activity on an international level.
First, because it helps us in our struggle to tree Michel Recanati and get the ban on the League lifted. I don't know that we will be able to lift the ban on the League it is a very serious question for the Government But if we were able to achieve it, It would be a very important political lesson: it would show that the Government cannot take such a measure without facing not oily a very big movement of protest but also having to retreat all the way back. To win this battle we still need support not only in France but also on the international level Secondly, such a campaign is necessary because similar problems, similar issues, similar forms of acliun, similar repression, a similar developmen of racism, exist in many European countries today, especially in England and in France, It is also because of the objective relationship between the struggles we as revolutionaries are developing in France, England and elsewhere that together we must continue the struggle for the lifting of the ban on the Communist League and the release of Michel Recanati.