Over 1,000 Asian workers and their supporters marched through central London last Sunday in protest at police repression in the Indian states of Bihar and Gujarat. The demonstration was organised by the Indian Workers' The death of President Pompidou has really set the cat among the pigeons for the French capitalist cliss, Despite much wheeling and dealing, there is every sign that no Jess than three major figures from the Government parties-ex-prime minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas, finance minister Valery Giscard d'Estaing, and ex-prime minister Edgar Faure-will be candidates in the first round of voting on 5 May.
There is even speculation that the Joint candidate of the Left, Socialist Party leader Francois Mitterrand, could win an overall majority in the first round, given the divided state of the opposition. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes in the first round of voting, then there will the two most successful candidates.
DEEP DIFFERENCES
Thee davisions in the ranks of the Goverment represent much more than Rather, they indicate the deep differences among the capitalists, faced with the basic question: how to maintan the rule of the class in the years ahead.
Since de Gaulle rode in on a white charger in 1958 to save the capitalists by setting up the Fifth Repubtic, France has Association. had a system of governent in which power is mainly vested in the figure of the president. The lattor las been portrayed as above class differences, the guardian of the national interest'-while, of course, the employers and State's repressive forces have got on with the job as before.
But the right man is needed to go with the job. And while de Gaulle and to a lesser extent Pompidoe filled the hill there i now no candloate of temule ly similar stature in whom the capitalists TEAM UNUS CH SEEN Hence the present confusion in the ranks of the Government parties-and the resultant opportunity for the partics or in working clas 'COMMON PROGRAMME' Mitterrand, however, Is far fram putting forward the necessary, decisive solutions to the problem faced by the French working class. On the conlrary. he and his Communist Party allies have be a second round on 19 May between Presented a continon programme when consists simply of a series of reformsincheased minimum wage, nationalisation of certain corporations, etc. This amounts: to nothing more than tinkering with the worn-out machinery of capitalism, when it should be thrown out altogether, It was in this sitution that our Freoch comrades of Roupt proposed that the fores of the revolutionary let as well - the Unified Socialist Party (PSU: the bargest political group to the lett of the Socialist and Communist Parties) should mount a united campaign around a single necessity for the orgunisation of independent working class struggle to overthrow capitalism, in contrast to the 'parliamentary" approach of Mitterrand and his allies, In this respect the name of Charles Piaget, leader of the epic strugde at the Lip watch factory, was sugrested.
Hat although this idea received strong support froan a large number of groups and individuals, it has proved impossible to organise in practice, CHLOES WHACS BLEMIC group (Lutte Ouvriene) announeed independently that it would he putring up its member Arletto Laguiller, a leading figure in the bank employees strike. Then last Sunday, the PSU tol which Paget is a member) voted to fall in behind Mitterrand.
changes of bart, therefore, Rouge will be putting forward Alain Krivine as its own candidate.
IMPACT WEAKENED
These divisions will undoubtedly weaken the impact of the revolutionar left in the clections, This is all the more fortunate, since a victory for Mitterrand would open up a situation of unparalicled cless conflict, in which the in fuence of the revolutionary left would be a vital factor in unabling the wacking class to march forward.
But even if Mitterrand doesn't win, there can be no doubt that the election will mark a watershed in the bistory of capitalist nile in France, leaving everything up for grabs in the years ahead. Red Weekly