anyway something happened which part of its national tradition, so that in might quite well have turned into a certain circumstances it revolution. natural to put up a barricade as to raisc the red flag. The French workers may More precisely, two things which are remarkable enough, though the second be no more revolutionary in their prac tical demands than the British, but students rebelled and forced the government to retreat, and the workers fol- have made revolutions, and they nave La bad conscience about not making one lowed their example.
Student rebellion is fairly common themselves. Hence it is possiole for unc students, by example, to 'put the workthese davs. The novelty of the Paris ing class traditions back into mass mobilisation of the students (not situation lies in a, the extent of the working class' as someone has said. to mention their teachers and parents) On the other hand, leaving details aside the students rebelling against a society and b, the extent of public support for them. which eventually forced the which offers them all is prizes, luctantly, to line up behind them. In debts to establish, by their spontaneous mass action, that life is more than this situation there was not much the government could have done, short of earnings and starting to shoot; and it is an increas- potentially international phenomena. Palma: these are not wrench bul ingly well-recognised fact of politics We knew - though didn't - that people are not contented.
They feel that their lives are meaningless in the consumer society. know that, even when they are comfortable which many or them are nor organisations for whom they are items and not men. They know that the that massacring students is much trickthan massacring blacks or even tended to become a set of ceremonia white workers. Nevertheless, nobody institutions going expected that the workers would imi- rituals, They tate the students. But they did, once again in spite of the feet-dragging of about it their unions and party. It was the whether there voung workers who began the occupa tions of factories which has since snow- is that balled into a general strike. And though wach that the unions have taken it over, it was may begin to act and still is essentially a spontaneous, grass-roots movemen Could it have happened anywhere else from acting like men and not zombies except in France? In its specific details, no. No oner country nas revorunon as On Thursday, 23rd May, Andre Barjonet, Secretary of the Centre for Economic and Social Studies at the CGT who has led many important negotiations between government, employers and workers for more than 20 years, resigned from the CGT. their HP In an interview with Combat, he says: holidays in *I have resigned from my duties at the CGT, duties which I have carried out for almost 22 years and te pouncians you will therefore very easily understand that for me it was a crisis of conscience. I did it for two main ther reasons. The first is that I have not only the conviction but the they are also more powerless than certainty that the leadership of the before, more pushed around by giant CGT has no intention of leading direction which is likely to bring this formidable movement in a otheia mechanisms tor representine them — elections, parties, etc — have about political changes in society! through empty • do not like it — but until 'But in the fact of a movemente recently they did not know what to do which brings together the working and may have wondered class and the student world, which anytning that ines has stirred people from all walks could do about it. What France proves of life, it is unforgivable not people are not powerless, they someone demonstrate have acted. For years the CGT has again. Perhaps even never missed an opportunity for saying to the workers that one must more than this: that only the sense oi impotence is holding many of us back get rid of Gaullism and move towards Socialism. For years we have never hidden the fact that our aim in the CGT was not only defence of your interests but also, and above all, to get rid of the power of monopoly of the Gaullist regime. Then when the time was ripe. Georges Seguy gets up and makes a speech declaring Gaulle - he who but always for your salvation!
of commercial advertising into television.
I that the CGT does not intend to go unlikely that the French strikes will beyond day-to-day Union mands.
The second reason, less fundamental than the first but certainly not unimportant, concerns the scornful attitude of the Secretary General, Georges Seguy towards I shall be delighted). The traditional the student movement. I do not organisations of the working class -necessarily approve of methods trade unions and pontical parues -the students have used or indeed of Daniel Cohn Bendit. But Seguy's attitude seems to me to be wrong. For many years the CGT has held a political position which while being correct at the begin- relused to issue a cau for a genera ning has become an empty formula with little relevance to the present. democratic issue-dodging).
The activities of the CGT over the last few years have been important and useful. I will not deny the untiring work which is put daily by the Union Militants on the shop floor. But this movement has exploded with a force which had not been foreseen by any organisation. The movement has created an irreversible situation.
The Unions can never be the same again. I think we have come near ment's game" to the Socialist Revolution. If one ad put the question in Franc barely two months ag as to whether our country was ripe for Socialism one would have laughed those or in or sighed. We thought only in terms of Parliamentary change From now on the question of Revolution is on the order paper.
As Karl Marx wrote, " When an idea takes hold of the masses it of the faculty" becomes a material force'.
I am ready to go into battle! You claim that liberty has been stifled by the Government of General De has repeatedly preserved the liberties of the French, sometimes with your aid form of 'action.
Premier Georges Pompidou at the climax of the debate last month in the Chamber of Deputies over the introduction, opposed by the Left,
THE BLACK DWARE
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is more amazing than the first: the their ancestors for five generations back
workers forgetting about unions and the Communist Party, re-