CONTE.NTS • French High School Students Fight Back: The Ligue Communiste and the OCl-AJS Opposed To The Autonomous Organization of Working- Class Youth. · - The Parliamentary Elections : Positive Results For Revolutionaries. - Bluff and Slander: Weapons Proper To Petty Bourgeois Organizations, Not To The Proletariat . . April 1973 No PRICE: FF 3 CLASS STRUGGLE Trotskyist Monthly edited by «LUTTE OUVRIERE» Managing Editor : Michel Rodinson Printed at: 25, rue du Moulinet - 75013 PARIS Mailing address : Lutte Ouvriere B.P. 152-06 75263 PARIS CEDEX 06 PRICE: FF 3 Yearly Subscription: ORDINARY CLOSED MAIL Fran~ FF30 FF 50 ·Europe - North Afr. FF 50 FF 70 Other Countries FF .60 FF 100 CLASS STRUGGLE CONTENTS Page 2 French High School Students Fight Back : The Ligue Communiste and The OCl-AJS Opposed To The Au tonomous Organization of Working Class Youth. Page 9 The Parliamentary Elections : Posi tive Results For Revolutionaries. Page 12 Bluff and Slander : Weapons Proper To Petty Bourgeois Organizations, Not To The Proletariat. ------------NUMBER 9 CLASS STRUGGLE FRENCH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FIGHT BACK : THE LIGUE COMMUNISTE AND THE OCl-AJS OPPOSED TO THE AUTONOMOUS ORGANIZATION OF WORKING-CLASS YOUTH The vast student mobilization which began during the first days of March is, at the time of this writing, far from having exhausted all its possibilities, even though the approaching Easter holidays permit the government to hope for at least a two week respite. The starting point for this mobilization was the application of the Debre Law (so named after the former Defense Minister Michel Debre), which, al though passed three years ago, has only this year begun to make its effects felt. The Debre Law in effect provides for the suppression of the student draft deferment. The powder keg was ignited during t~. first week in March in a number of French high schools by the fact that some of the students there had received their induction papers. The movement then spread rapidly, affecting a large majority of high schools. But the discontent expressed by this movement degrees to which corporatism and hostility to is due to more than just the Debre Law, more militarism occupy a place in this movement, the than just the desire to fight for the re-establishment position of the revolutionaries must be made clear. of the deferment privilege. It also reflects the hos OI course, they cannot but express solidarity with tility of broad layers of French youth to govern· the high school students in their struggle against the mental policies, and to the army in general. This bourgeois state, be it o_nly for the support of mere has been proved by the large participation of corporatist demands designed to protect a privi high school students in strikes and demonstra lege. tions, as well as by that of the students of the But revolutionaries must also defend, within Colleges d'Enseignement Technique (CET, French ·the movement, their own revolutionary policies, trade schools). their own demands, and in particular tho~ which Most students of this latter group are not · defend the interests of the working-class youth. directly concerned by the suppression of the de- Socialist revolutionaries must not forget, par ferments, since a CET student normally finishes ticularly when they militate in a petty-bourgeois his education at the age of 17 or 18. milieu, that they are before all else the repre- sentatives of the general interests of the working · But in any case, whatever be the respective class. 2 CLASS STRUGGLE And it is no sufficient to say that once a corpo- movement adopt political slogans, that is, political ratist movement is «objectively» directed against objectives, which are explicitly directed against the the army and the bourgeois state, it ceases to be a army and against the state. The role of revolution corporatist movement. For it is necessary that this aries is obviously to defend such slogans: RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF DEFERMENTS OR SUPPRESSION OF MILITARY SERVICE? It is not surprising that the high school mo rently without the least consideration of the pro vement as such has been unable to go beyond the blems posed by the corporatist nature of such problem of draft deferments. But the revolution a slogan. ary organizations which militate within this mo The Ligue Communiste, on the other hand, did vement and ensure its de facto leadership, must not entirely forget that the role of revolutionaries struggle to open a way toward the mobilization in these circumstances must be to attempt to broad of all the youth against compulsory military en and to politicize the struggle. It felt obliged there service. And the events have not taken these or fore to advance a «unifying» slogan - «Extension ganizations off guard, since the Ligue Communiste of Deferment to all the Youth» and «Free Choice has for years made its campaign against the army of Induction Date». But it is nonetheless clear one of the foremost themes of its agitation, while that such slogans constitute nothing but an alibi the OCl-AJS maintains, however wrongly, that it destined to ease the conscience cheaply. For they is the second organization of working-class youth cannot in any way be considered as pertinent to • in this country. Both the Ligue Communiste and young workers or to CET students. For young the OCl-AJS are satisfied to take over the high workers, military service is but a piece of drud school students' corporatist demands for their gery which, in the absence of any possibility of own. Both organizations have refused to do any avoiding it, they wish to have done with as soon thing at all so that the movement might go be as possible, given that it is next to impossible to yond the objectives of the struggle against the find a job until military service has been completed. Dpbre Law, beyond a struggle for the re-establish Furthermore, it would be perfectly stupid to ima ment of student deferments. gine that the overwhelming majority of those with no opportunity to pursue a university education If the positions of the OCl-AJS and the Ligue could even be interested by a student deferment. Communiste are essentially identical, there has nevertheless been a shade of difference in the In fact, the only demand capable of touching presentation of these positions. The corporatism the youth as a whole, the only demand capable of the former has been of a cynical variety, while of representing, first and foremost, the interests of the latter adds a good measure of hypocrisy. the working-class youth, is the demand for the pure and simple suppression of military service. But it is Considering the system of deferment as a gain just this slogan, defended by the militants of (but a gain for whom? For French youth as I! Lutte Ouvriere, which has found itself up against a whole, including working-class youth, or only for de facto common front of every opportunist ten the most favored fraction of the youth, the frac dency in the high school and university students' tion which enjoys the possibility to study? ), the movement, from the youth organizations of the OCl-AJS feels quite satisfied to have put forward French Communist Party to the Ligue Coml1'!uniste the slogan «Re-establishment of Deferments», appa- and the OCl-AJS. THE FALSE ARGUMENT OF THE STANDING ARMY In considering the arguments advanced by the sion of military service», it is interesting to observe Ligue Communiste to criticize the slogan, «suppres- to what degree they resemble those of the Stalin- 3 CLASS STRUGGLE ists. Whereas the former still maintains that its per deferment». But, obviously, if we demand the supp spective is resolutely revolutionary, the latter open ression of military service, we are not inspired by ly displays its bourgeois democratic positions. As some sort of sheep-like pacifism which considers is often the case, the Ligue Communiste is once learning to handle arms to be a sin. Needless to say, again pasting a «revolutionary» conclusion onto we think that every young worker should learn to Stalinist reasoning. handle arms, but that, in order to do this, it is not necessary for them to be shut up in barracks nor to For the French Communist Party. which inclu come under the power of a professional mifitary ded the «democratisation of the army» among the elite. It is quite possible for workers to learn this at points of its Joint Program of Government, it is work or at home, under the guidance of workers· only normal to defend the principle of the draft organizations. against that of the standing army. It is with such arguments on «the people's army» that the French Our position in this respect is in any case not Communist Party justified the re-establishment of particularly original. It is in fact the traditional compulsory military service during the aftermath of position of the revolutionary movement, specifi the second World War. It was, however, this same cally, the position that Trotsky upheld in 1940 as so-called «people's army» that waged its horrible regards the American workers' movement, at the war on the Algerian people. same time as the American bourgeoisie was consider ing the introduction of compulsory military service But it is in the name of revolutionary anti to satisfy the needs of the 2nd World War. militarism (with the explanation that the suppress ion of compulsory military service would automa The leaders of the Ligue Communiste have not tically reinforce the standing army), that the even the petty excuse of ignoring this position of Ligue Communiste opposes the abolition of the the revolutionary movement. For example. they draft. And in support of its arguments, it does not wrote in Rouge (No 197) : «We also think that hesitate to falsify the history of the draft in France, military service should be reduced to the period of however large or small the events in question might actual instruction in the use of arms and that it be. It is thus that the Ligue Communiste speaks in should be done without taking young people far No 198 of Rouge of the «draftees who, at the time from their home and work, for this has only one of the 1961 putsch of the generals in Algiers, aim, that is to rope them into a system of estab arrested their non-commissioned officers and hoist lished values.» Though the Ligue Communiste de ed the red flag over the barracks of Constantine mand for a reduction of the military service seems province». While it is true that the draftees did to contradict the rest of that text (since it implies indeed· disobey the putschist generals, the move precisely that young men should be shut up in bar lllf!nt of disobedience never went beyond the limits racks), there is at least one idea to be found in this imposed upon i:t by De Gaulle. Ligue Communiste text: namely that military service is not necessary leaflets in this connection furthermore maintain to learn to handle arms. But this text was published that «during the recent garbage men's strike, the on March 23rd that is just before the CET coordina draft showed that it can be a factor of resistance tion committee (1') adopted as its slogan that «mi to the schemes of the bourgeoisie», as if the un litary service should be replaced by arm's instruc fortunate draftees had not been forced into break tion at work or at home». ing the strike by emptying trash bins. One could have thought that this identity of These two examples illustrate the absence of the slogan of the CET coordination committee good faith with which the Ligue Communiste and the position supported by the Ligue Commu defends this position. But the most outrageous of niste (though at first it was not a slogan of the all is obviously their «fundamental» argument Ligue Communiste, but a political position that which opposes the antimilitarist work of the revo was incidentally upheld), should have indulged the lutionary party done from within the army to the Ligue Communiste to push its propaganda harder demand for suppression ·of compulsory military than ever in this direction. But this was far from service. the case. As a matter of fact, "";"echnique Rouge, «You are offered a gun, take it!», Rouge keeps a paper published on April 2nd by the Ligue saying so as to justify that it does not demand Communiste for the CET students, only talked inci anything else than: «Bring back and generalize dentally about the «reduction of military service•. CLASS STRUGGLE and finally called the CET students to fight for «the The OCl-AJS does not even seem to need such extension of deferment to all young people». justifications. In fact, it merely repeats tirelessly its only slogan: «Bring back deferment». Besides, This gives evidence, that all the chattering of in its April 4th issue, Informations Ouvrieres gets the Ligue Communiste about military service is virtuously indignant at the anti-militarist slogans meant to justify its refusal to fight inside the move of the CET demonstration of March 27th pretend ment for revolutionary positions, to avoid anything ing untruthfully that these slogans were not those that could frighten their petty bourgeois milieu, adopted by the CET coordination committee. No and thus to adopt the demands of those petty mistake about it, the bourgeois army has awkward bourgeois sympathizers, while «justifying» these supporters ! But that is exactly where student demands from a «Marxist» point of view. corporatism leads. SUPPORTING AN INDEPENDENT CET MOVEMENT The Ligue Communiste and the OCl-AJS were For instance, an article published in Rouge well determined to do nothing that could displease (March 30th) and presented as an earnest inter their student sympathizers. This did not only make view of a member (was it any member?) of the these petty bourgeois organizations incapable of bureau of the Paris CET coordination committee, adopting slogans that could have unified the struggle runs as follows : «We all the more support the fight of all youth against the state and its army, but, as of the students against the Debre Law, as they soon as the CET movement began to organize itself demand that deferment should benefit to young independently to fight for its own demands, those workers as well ; and we are interested in that». organizations did all they could to subject the CET But nothing was said in this article about the posi movement to the student movement. tion adopted by the Paris CET coordination com mittee, that is that «military service should be It is not by chance that the revolutionists be replaced by instruction in the use of arms at work longing to Lutte Ouvriere have played a much more or at home». important part in organizing the CET movement, the strike committees in each CET, and the In an article headed «CET : that is enough» pu coordination committees in each town, than those plished in Informations Ouvrieres (April 4th) every belonging to the Ligue Communiste or to the OCl thing is said about the demands of the CET coordi AJS. In fact, at first the Ligue Communiste as well nation committee, except one, and casually it is as the OCl-AJS simply ignored the CET movement, the same as in Rouge, that is the suppression of and it was only when the Paris coordination com military service. mittee was created that those organizations felt concerned with this matter. But then, they did not These petty dishonesties have a political mean try to help the CET movement to develop and to ing. During a demonstration organized by the CET get independent ; in fact, they tried to turn it into coordination committee in the south suburbs of a minor trend of the student movement. Paris on March 27th, some members of the OCl AJS made an attempt to create difficulties by Since a large majority of the CET students was refusing to demonstrate behind a banner showing conscious that, beyond their sympathetic fight for the slogan «down with the army» (does that mean the students' demands, they had to organize inde that the OCl-AJS is against the suppression of pendently for their own demands, the Ligue Com deferment, but not against the bourgeois army ?). muniste and the OCl-AJS obviously could not fight These members of the OCl-AJS pretended that openly against the independence of the CET move this slogan had not been adopted by the bureau ment. That is why the only policy of these organi of the CET coordination committee, whereas it zations has finally consisted in a repeated attempt was precisely this slogan that ended a leaflet to forge the aims of the CET movement and to un issued on March 25th by the bureau of the CET dermine its demonstrati.ons. coordination committee, in which the demonstra- 5 CLASS STRUGGLE tion was announced; this assertion of the OCl-AJS consequently renounce to appear openly as politi can still be found in Informations Ouvrieres (April cal tendencies in this milieu. Moreover they are 4th), whereas nothing can be found in it about brought about to playing on latent anti-political the leaflet. prejudices. The Ligue Communiste and OCl-AJS militants thus do not hesitate to adopt an apolitical On the same day, during another demonstration position and to denounce the intervention of poli- that took place in the south-west suburbs of Paris, tical organizations as such in the movement. To some members of the Ligue Communiste who had their mind, the ultimate in democracy is to use nothing to do with the CET movement, came to every little scheme to get their brand of politics the head of the demonstration with the obvious across, whereas the appearance of a political force purpose of imposing such slogans as «Students, on the scene presenting itself for what it is, and young workers, unite against Oebre Law», against openly defending its particular political line is those adopted by the CET coordination committee. synonymous with «manipulator» and «maneu verern. In the student movement, the Ligue Commu In its April 4th edition, Informations Ouvrieres niste and the OCl-AJS can openly carry their pol icy. goes as far as reproaching Lutte Ouvriere for namely. the fight for the corporatist demands of the having published a leaflet for the bureau of the student movement. But such a behaviour is im CET coordination committee, as if it were out possible in the CET movement, since a large of place for a revolutionary organization to give majority of the CET students are conscious that, technical assistance-with their consent indeed as they will soon be workers, they have specific to the leadership set up by the young CET students interests to fight for and thus, that they have to during their struggle. organize independently. Therefore, the members of the OCl-AJS and of the Ligue Communiste These young CET students are moreover perfect who have in mind attempting to take the head of ly capable of distinguishing between an honest and the CET movement so as to subject it to the open political intervention and any attempts at student movement, must change their attitude manipulation. That is why they were revolted by according to the people to whom they speak, the double dealing of militants who, at bureau before the CET students, in school-meetings or in meetings, supported the exact opposite of positions the CET coordination committee, they no longer they had appeared to approve during coordina maintain their former position and they now tion committee assemblies, and thus the CET officially agree with the necessity for an indepen coordination committee decided on April 3rd with dent CET movement. But, in the bureau of the an overwhelming majority, to order the resignation CET coordination committee, the members of the of the members of the bureau, who had been sup Ligue Communiste and of the OCl-AJS fight porting the Ligue Communiste's policies without for a quite different position, namely against this having had the political courage to put their pro independence of the CET movement. posals to the vote of the coordination committee on a clear basis, that is to say, quite openly on the The Ligue Communiste and the OCl-AJS whose grounds of the program they were intending in fact program cannot possibly be defended in the CET, to defend. THE LIGUE COMMUNISTE AND THE OCl-AJS ARE STILL HANGING ONTO THE RADICAL PETTY-BOURGEOISIE The attitude of the Ligue Communiste and of has the merit of showing up certain anti-worker the OCl-AJS is by no means unexpected, for it traits in the politics of these organizations. certainly is not the first time that they have taken up more or less radical petty-bourgeois move And when we say anti-worker, we mean exact ments, either in this country, or on the interna ly that. By refusing, out of opportunism, to fight tional scene. But though the present movement at the beginning of the high-school students move may be limited to the school milieu, it nonetheless ment for demands which went beyond corporatist CLASS STRUGGLE limits, the Ligue Communis.te .and the OCI com the program of the working class and lies under the mitted a serious political error .. By striving at all leadership of the proletariat. c.osts to iead a social movement and at the same time sacr.ificing ·one's own politics so as not to run The policy of preaching to the working class the r.isk of being isolated from a petty-bourgeois that it should abandon its very own claims and its social milieu, is to run the risk of finding oneself organizational independence for the sake of «unity» at the head of an anti-worker movement. A revo is as old as the workers' movement itself. But it is lutionary organization must on the contrary be not revolutionary politics. It is the politics. of capable of defending its program, even if ,this leads social democrats, Stalinists and petty-bourgeois op to putting it in a minority position; But, to top .it portunists. It is of the same variety as that which all off,. in the 'present. situation the high"school brought about the tragedy of the Chinese proletar movement was not even hostile at the start to iat in 1'927 and the crushing of the Spanish pro making the struggle a political one, as was real iied letariat from 1936 to 1939. It is the one which, JY the Lutte. Ouvriere mil.itants, wh(); in the high during the second World War put the European schools, ·were supporting the suppression of mili proletariat on the side of the imperialist «demo tary service .. The attitude of the Ligue Communiste crats» in the name of the resistance. It is unfortu and of the OCl-AJS is not even due to a consid nately also the one which led the group now erable pressure exerted by the particular milieu, but . represented by the Ligue Communiste during th1:1 can 'be attributed, .one could. say, to their characte.r Algerian War to an unmitigated support of the istic opportunism which. induced them not to do off · FLN's policy, whereas the group now represented the slightest thing which might cut them from by the OCl-AJS followed exactly the same lin1:1 the high-school students. with respect to the MNA (2), both of them show ing one thing in common, as is still the case today: their opposition to the fight for an independent If the movement had just been limited to the proletarian organization. high-schools, then this opportunism would have stopped there. But the intervention of the. Ligue Communiste and the .OCl-AJS into the CET .stu And the present example, thcugh it only goes dents struggle, that is to .say into the working-class so far, shows that organizations which adopt such sector ·of the school milieu, led. therri to adopting a form of behavior are not satisfied with just de the worst political line possible for people who call fending their policy of abandonment of the wo.rk themselves revolutionaries· and Trotskyists, namely, ers. They automatically have to go as far as con by doing everything possible to put this workers' sidering every means of preventing the develo,pment movement· in the tow of the petty-bourgeois one, of an independent workers' movement as perfectly by trying to prevent tl;lem from becoming conscious legitimate ones, in the same way as the Ligue of their belonging to a "different social class, of their Communiste is now twisting the facts concerning different interests; and of the need to thus organiz.e the history of physical elimination of Indochinese themselves on an independent basis. Trotskyists by the Vietminh. The core of the matter is that one cannot be situated politically on the side of the class enemy, The Ligue Communiste and the OCl-AJS are witl)out unavoidably being there lock, stock and taking this political° line in the name of the so-called barrel in the event of a social crisis as proven by «unity» of the movement. «All sectors of youth the whole history of Menshevism, Social Demo can be united» wrote Informations Ouvrieres of the cracy, and Stalinism likewise. 28th of March; and in Technique Rouge of the 2nd of April, the Ligue Communiste affirmed to We hope that the young militants of the l..igue the CET stude'!ts: «Our strength lies also in the Communiste and the OCl-AJS who joined these unity of the struggle with.in. the ranks of all young organizations, believing th1:1y could fight for social people». But since when has unity at whatever price ism with them, will understand in time the lesso.n been the policy of revolutionaries? The only. unity to be learnt from these events. Socialism can only. we recognize and which has any real value for us, is be fought for in a workers' organization based. that of the workers. The unity of. all young people resolutely on the proletariat. Elsewhere it can in itself is only worthwhile in so far as it is based on only be betrayed. 7 CLASS STRUGGLE ( 1) - The CET (or Trade schools) movement has delegates representing about one hundred and taken on structures modelled on those adopted twenty different schools. by the high-school movement. In each establishment the students make their decisions either in general The delegates of the Parisian coordination com assemblies or through the medium of strike com mittee have elected a bureau of about twenty mittees or action committees which have been members, responsible for taking any decision bet elected. ween two meetings of the coordination committee and for the preparation of the latter. The coordination committee assemblies bring together delegates (two per school) of any given (2) · FLN and MNA: two Algerian nationalist mo town. Thus the Parisian CET coordination com vements during the War in Algeria; the MNA had mittee brings together more than two hundred much less influence than the FLN. 8