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CP has no alternative The moment came for a general strike. But all the French Communist Party (PCF) wanted to talk about was its project for a referendum on the European Union. As George Villetin explains, the PCF is desperate to avoid the "politicisation" of the social crisis. Every night, the satirical programmes on television take pleasure in reminding us that the traditional left has no alternative to propose. Rubber puppets representing Leonel Jospin (Socialist) and Robert Hue (PCF) nourish their common impotence in the face of a tidal wave which has challenged the legitimacy of the government and society itself. The PCF goes a little bit further than the socialists. At least Robert Hue admits that he has no alternative to offer. And he declares his party willing to rebuild such an alternative. But this is where the weakness starts. At the Party's National Committee meeting on 5 December, vC. Gayssot reported on the party's initiative in favour of an alternative. "We have met all the left organisations. There are differences of evaluation and policy concerning the construction of Europe, and on the idea of a popular consultation by referendum". [In effect, the party has made the need for a referendum on Europe into a sectarian obsession]. Gayssot informed the world that the PCF was still willing to discuss Europe with its partners "though not now, of course" What an admission! The middle of a general strike, and all the PCF wants to talk about is its own plan for a referendum in France about the European Union. All the other questions we might think important are to be discussed in the famous "forums" set up by the PCF, where individuals can come and express their views. Robert Hue has decided that there is no possibility for co-operation with his main partner, the Socialist Party. So he is willing to build some kind of alternative on the left, but only round "forums" controlled by the PCF. On 6 December, journalists asked Hue if he thought we should "demand that Juppé resign, and parliament be dissolved?" His answer: "these are not the questions which the movement is putting forward at the moment". They were, of course, and everyone knows it. Like Socialist Party leader Leonel Jospin,. Robert Hue doesn't want to see a general strike which would create a political crisis. The problem is that the only way out of the current crisis is for the left political forces to develop a common plattorm which expresses the essential demands of the social movement, and then to defend that platform at every level. A political solution is the only solution to this social crisis. * Reprinted from Rouge, 14 December 1995
IUS: EN represent the heart of the strike, the heart of working-class democracy. This was the place for everyone who wanted to take part.
And it was through this daily meeting that all the workplaces and all the trade union bodies were gradually infected with the spirit of the strike. At the beginning, you had two or three workers coming from a particular company or depot. Then they started to bring their work mates! And, for three weeks, this railway yard was THE meeting place for all the sectors in struggle. The Rouen Post Office sorting centre was the first to join the strike. Then there was Electricité de France. The Renault auto plant at Cleon decided to join us after 800 of us decided to go talk to them! We held a meeting in front of their gates. The local CGT representatives arranged for us to speak at a general assembly in the plant the following day.
• A kind of inter-professional general strike committee?
No, you can't say that it became a general strike committee. It wasn't thought of in that way. That was not the mandate that those of us in the committee had from our sectoral general assemblies. But it certainly did represent a meeting place, a forum for initiatives by al the sectors in struggle. This was the place where the demonstrations were organised.
The committee brought together workers from more than 20 different enterprises and sectors in struggle. Working people with different professional identities and backgrounds. There was a very strong presence of railway workers and 8 International Viewpoint nº273
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PATRONS secondary school teachers. From the private sector you had Grande Paroisse (an important local chemical factory), the CGT comrades from the Alsthom engineering plant at Petit-Quevilly, workers from a number of smaller engineering plants. Then Renault, of course, and the postal workers, and spokespeople for the various teachers' strike committees.
Together, we drafted a leaflet [see below], which was distributed on 11 December, when blocked all the roads into Rouen. More than 1,000 workers from all the sectors met at the SNCF depot at 4 am. Teachers, postal workers, Renault workers... we blocked the town that day! The next day, we organised a "forum of enterprises in struggle", just in front of the town hall. A situation like this dramatically changes your way of thinking. How couldn't it? * notes 1. Chirac was elected after pretending to break with the liberal orthodoxy of the preceding Balladur government. He even won an absolute majority of votes in the 18-34 age group. 2. We return to this theme in the next issue of International Viewpoint 3. La Tribune, 18 December 1995 4. Axa financial group manager Claude Bébéar even spoke, earlier this year, of a "pre-revolutionary situation". 5. In 1993 the Balladur government increased the number of years private sector workers must contribute to the state pension scheme from 37.5 to 40. 6. When Chirac was elected president, Communist Party leaders were worried that the Socialist Party would be the main benefactor of what they expected to be a rapid decline in the popularity of the new government. So they tried to position themselves as the main "constructive opposition" to the new government. 7. L'Humanité, 7 December 1995 8. Le Monde, 27 December 1995 9. Forty thousand people demonstrated for women's reproductive rights in Paris on 25 November see International Viewpoint #272, December 1995) 10. L'Express, 7 December 1995 11. According to the financial daily La Tribune (19 December 1995), Juppé's propositions for reducing the social deficit "would mean 150,000 more unemployed". This is because any reduction in welfare payments and pensions reduces effective demand for goods and services. This reduces consumption, which causes capitalists to cut investment in production. Hence, unemployment.
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