The divisions and problems of the French revolutionary have emerged clearly in this Faced with divisions on the established left and a demagogic 'left turn' of the Communist Party there are possibilities of revolutionaries gaining an audience, RICHARD KIRKWOOD.
Last year three major groups Luite Ouvriere, the Revolutionary Communist League (CR) and the Soft Maoist" Communis Workers OrIran a joint state and did relatively well.
This time there are two main states Lutte Ouvriere is running in every seat Joint slate of the LCR, the OCT and a lees for Self-Management (CCAl, are Tunning in rather lewer.
One difference was over grammie. LO correctly claimed" Joint programme was too soft on the Union of the Left.
ILLUSIONS At the heart of the LCR's campaipa Sh a belief that a victorious left 'would HOLESTUT BUICE bourgeols This is based on the exper left the 1936 Popular Front which led to mass strikes. The illusions of the mass o workers can lead to a mass movement which will go beyond the limits imposed parties. But much of the propaganda Communist and Socialist Parties in Power can en tact De pushco Lo sae el. argues Thus pages of Rouge, the LCR paper, Presumably the idea l struggle to win over erstwhile PCF and PS supporters, INTERLUDE But, as LO pointed out, the problem may be elsewhere. They see a more likely scenario as a lelt government a la Callaghan - using its working-class credibility to win acceptance of an austenty proprantme pra- In this case the problem is railying the АПТКІПИ class established leadership to fight on basic INUES Thus it is central to denounce the Lion ol the Let as a bourzeng government and not illusions that it could ever workers" povernment.
Equaily they argued that clections were mercly an interlude, the main struggle was elsewhere and this should governmental programmes was elec?
the reformist TRAP mepression that one The trap of calling for workers unity in a way that sounds like calling for PCF-PS unity.
call on the reformist parties to unite without being clear on the content of аву unity and revolutionaries in it. has seemed to echo PS attacks on the PCF.
constitution has pointed out the "strong state" elements that make i undemocratic: positive plans leads it to prospose an alternative bourgeois constitution rather than using the opporturity to 222L0S1 denounce bourgeois democracy as such. number of other issues.
their promise of a clear revolutionary to encourage campaiga. From rejecting programmes sumed at at the government they have moved to having no progranune at all.
1o vote for them bocause an member To put it betrayed the workers Many of LO's criticisms have catens movement • their It is got the job of revolutionaries to in the past. the of At times Rouge never had The LCR's denunciation of the clear articies But its emphasis on The same can be said about a different But LO have done little to carry put workers governmen:
LO has called on ordinary people LO a government.
We shouldn't exaggerate these parties.
But propaganda when a revolutionary isr Yes eisewltere For campaign.
For PCT in the first round canuidates wil LCR soldier candidates hold first press conference - despite state attempts to gag them. of denounce the Union of the Left when AIM They have pointed out how many worsen are standing on their ticket but have had little to say about women's problems in derail or about the They have relied on the image of Ariete Laguller, whe has been meaded fornier Strike leader from her Pare constiucney lo one m central France with which she has no - CLEANSCERELUNSRI things high vote there for the revolutionaries In many cases they are running candidates in places where they have basic any activity all.
On the otber hand LO has published - for instance showing the anti-parliamentary nature of the early PCF's electoral Interventions. SAD In terms of presenting simple propaganda for some revolutionary ideas LO has ser an excellent examble But in the end it has succumbed to a kind of clectoralism.
INAPPROPRIATE We are pot on the verge OL 2 revolation so programmes for are largely inappropriate. But equally the simple prupaganda of we are the real lefts LCR. and over their atticade towards the PCT and PS now and if they form There are differences. LD land OCT de nol share the LCR's view of the united workers from and the letr. call for a government of the workers!
own electoral there is very little difference in how it soes the reformist parces and its propaganda for class The real reason for LO's behaviour primarily aused at building its own I hopes to reassemble the 600.000 voles won hy its candidate in the 1974 Presidential election, Arlene Laguiller. Those votes were won by a highly personalised and rather populist Destle its efforts it is unlikely that LO will repear that success on Sunday. The uncertainty of the outcone and the division of the left, purs a massive pressure on workers to vote for the PS This will redace the far left sore, and the corfusing presence of two or more not hein the centris PSU and an alliance of two Macis Hat the importance of electione for revolutionaries Like everyone else would trust us is not enough.
Both are substitutionist in essence. LO does have a full programme the 1938 Transitional Programme) which it will presumably raise out of nowhere at some paint.
The must be twotold Propaganda against parliamentary clections as such, and 1or 09s10 socialist principles. Agitation around workers can orginisations they can build to prepare the fight aguinst a left or -right) government. The latter, linked to socialist argument, is the contemporary meaning of transitional polities"
In a period when the tensions in the Union of the Left and the PCE's shifts give real possibilities it is sad that bouc of the material that reaches here from France shows much sign that the revolutionary left is making this preparation Richard Kirkwood is a leading member Workers International Socialists Coordinating - is that they give a chance to debate policies. The nood for an alterostive programme for class strugele is made event sharper by the political crisis, particularly the leadership crisis on the Judged in those terms, the campaige of the LCR and the joint slate is undoubtedly a success.
THE 1958 constitution is ose of the mean weapons the ruling class can use to block uny reforms it doesn't like. The muin working class purties huve refused to raise any ohjections lo it, but the Trotskrists of the LER use cleir manifesto to argue the need to get rid of this reactionary junk;
**For the abolition of the Constitution and the emergency powers it gives to the President of the Republic.
*Far the suppression of the Senute and the Presidency of the Republic *For the election of u single Constituent Assembly, combining legislative and execulive powers, elected by proportional representatio. and whose members receive the salary of a skilled
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CONSTITUTIONALLY INCAPABLE