orders crackdown to exploit the difficulties in which the government finds itself.
As for the government, it wants to against Corsican nationalists demonstrate its ability to defend the bourgeois state. "No compromise is possible when the unity of the nation is in question," Francois Mitterrand said in his January 2 speech over French TV.
There are three main comments we can make about the recent events.
1. The offensive by the Fronte di Liberazione Nazionale Corso (FLNC-Corsican National Liberation Front) is only a symptom of the general deterioration of the situation. People too often forget the effects of the long period of French domination over the island. The rates of inflation and unemployment are much higher there than they are in the mother country. On the other hand, wages are strikingly lower. The economic conditions that prevail on Corsica are forcing a massive exodus.
Where modern agricultural operations are started up, they are in the hands of big landowners who often live outside Corsica, either repatriated French Algerians or continental French. Likewise, the only ones to profit from the establishment of a parasitic tourist industry have been promoters, banks, trusts, and merchants.
The picture is completed by a political life dominated by certain families, the denial of the Corsican language and culture, and the presence of several Foreign
Political nationalism became a mass phenomenon in Corsica in the 1970s. In the elections for the Corsican assembly set up by the left government that came into office in the spring of 1981, the parliamentary nationalist party, the Unione do
Popolo Corso (UPC Union of the Corsican People) emerged as one of the major parties, eclipsing, notably, the CP.
Legion regiments, which are only the most spectacular manifestation of colonial occupation.
"Everything that should have, and
The election the UPC in the spring 1982 elections for the assembly.
However, the new regime has produced no real change, and at the same time the economic situation has worsened. In August, the section of the nationalist movement committed to physical force ended the truce it had declared during the period when hope for change was at its peak. creasing series of bombings and the physical-force organization has announced that it will exact a tax from the local wealthy to finance the struggle.
The growing tension in Corsica has provoked a furor in French political life and in the French press. The right is raising a hue and cry about the situation as an example of the inability of the left government to maintain order. In particular, the sensational press has played up the nationalist slogan "I Francesi fora," that is "French Go Home.
The Corsican language fits into the spectrum of neo-Latin dialects spoken in the Italian peninsula; it is historically closest to the dialect of Genoa, which ruled Corsica at one time. But the language of the Corsicans had a separate development because of the political vicissitudes of the island, and the nationalists claim that it is a separate language from Italian. It is written according to a different spelling system that takes account of Corsican pronounciation.
The influx of non-Corsicans is a sharp issue because the distinctly Corsican population is being submerged. Furthermore, the newcomers are generally economically much better off than the locals and include a lot of wandering exploiters, many driven out of Algeria. In its January 7 issue, Rouge, the weekly paper of the French section of the Fourth International, noted:
"The slogan • i francesi fora' appeard long before the FLNC. It is everywhere on the island, on the walls, billboards, and on many lips. It is the spontaneous and elementary expression of the rebellion of many Corsicans against a central governthem even the most minimal national rights point of French Fourth Internationalists:
could have been done to permit the de. velopment of the specific Corsican way of life has been done, "the head of state said. Nothing could be more untrue. Since the May 10 victory of the left in the national elections, the new government has not gone beyond granting Corsica a "special status." The local legislatrue that was elected on this basis has in fact no powers and remains in the hands of the traditional families.
Le Monde summed up the problem well on January 4, noting "the central government has been very slow in defining the powers of the Corsican assembly," and that the latter "has been very slow •in gaining authority." It gave a good summary of the results of the government's actions: "The Socialist representatives of the central government have scarcely demonstrated that they were really working for change, that is, to end the domination of political life by family interests."
2. Instead of looking for the reasons for the present tension in the failure of its own policy, the SP-CP majority in parliament has come up with only one answer - repression. On January 5, the Council of Ministers decided to ban the
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COLONISATION NON A.LA PEUPLEMENT DE CCN OLONISATION NON A.LA 8 PEUPLEMENT DE CCN 'No to settler colonialism' (DR)
FLNC and appoint Robert Broussard, the former head of the special police, to direct the "forces of order" on the island. These decisions will be seen in Corsica as a provocation, as a return to practices quite similar to those of the former rightist governments. The government is openly risking bloodshed. Broussard, an old supercop under the Giscard regime, responsible for innumerable "excesses, has already shown the sort of method he favors.
This spiral of violence must be stopped now. Otherwise, the Corsicans will lose their hope that there is going to be change in reality, and they will turn ple.
We have no intention of accepting from a government that claims to represent democracy and the working class what we opposed when it came from a reactionary regime. It is French capitalism alone that is responsible for the situation on the island. And the parties now in office have not met the expectations of the Corsican people. So, we will stand by every victim of police action.
3. Only on the basis of supporting the fight of the Corsican people does anyone have the right to say frankly to the nationalist movement that it is on the wrong track. The orientation it has masses from the bulk of French workers, as well as from the tens of thousands of activists all over the country who are telling the left majority that came into office after May 10, "enough compromises, the policy has to change." This current is growing everywhere, even if it is still scattered.
What is more, far from uniting the working people of Corsica, slogans aimed indiscriminately at "the French" threaten to deeply divide the people of the island. To put it squarely, these errors can result in serious defeats for the Corsican people.
But whatever differences we may have
For our part, against the government.
from the moment that the repressive axe fell, we have expressed our total solidari- even ty with the struggle of the Corsican peo- confusion. They can isolate the Corsican adopted, its methods of action, and its choice of targets are ineffective, and can lead to very dangerous political with the FLNC, we are continuing to campaign for full recognition for the national rights of the Corsican people, including their right to independence.