Such measures, which were only mitigated by the release of the activists new wave of repression against corsican nationalist charged, will inevitably be seen in Corsica as a return to practices similar in every respect to those of the former rightist government. In fact, some of those now charged got out of prison only after 1981 [when the left coalition came to power in the French state].
This new stage of the confrontation
The island of Corsica passed under the jurisdiction of the French state in 1768, when it was sold to France by the city state of Genoa.
The language of the older population, called Corsican by the nationalists and written in a special orthography, is quite close to standard Italian.
Corsica has also had a distinctive political history, including a major bourgeois nationalist rebellion against French rule at the end of the eighteenth century.
In the recent period, the distinctiveness of Corsican society has been threatened
The older economy of the island is declining, with more and more Corsicans being forced to emigrate in search of work.
At the same time, a French speaking population has been coming in, linked to new businesses, such as a wine industry owned by former French settlers in North Africa and tourism, as well as to the French administration. The new comers already represent about half the population of Corsica, which is only about 200,000
The Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC) has claimed the assassination of Pierre-Jean Massimi, general secretary of the General Council of Upper Corsica, the second highest official in the department.
Massini was assassinated on September 13 in Bastia. The FLNC informed French authorities, using a special code, on September 21 that they had killed Massini because he funnelled large sums of money to an ultraright French nationalist organization on Corsica, Francia.
The FLNC says that such elements were responsible for the kidnapping, torture, and murder of Corsican nationalist activist Guy Orsoni last summer.
Parallel police operations in fact have a long tradition in France.
The FLNC announcement was the front page story in the Paris papers on September 22 and the French radio reports talked about the "irelandization" of Cor-
The following interview by two Corsican nationalist leaders was given to Christian Picquet, a journalist for Rouge, the paper of the French section of the Fourth International. Piquet's introduction follows and then the interview.
Culturally and socially, it has between the French state and the nationalist movement was sparked by the disappearance June 17 of CCN leader Guy Orsoni. The indications are that he was murdered after being tortured in revolting ways by goons linked to the SAC [French nationalist terrorists]. The problem is that the role of the French authorities in this affair seems particularly murky, since the police kept a close watch on the perpetrators of this kidnapping and seemed to have been informed of their preparations.
Up until now, the government has been able to take advantage of the errors and weaknesses of the nationalist movement and exploit its relative isolation. For example, chauvinist slogans aimed at French people in general and a very confused sort of strategy have played into the hands of the French authorities.
The attitude of the police in the Orsoni affair, the uncommunicativeness of the police officials from Commissioner Broussard on down, have turned things around and given the CCN a new capacity for molibization. Thus, recently, entirely on its own, the CCN was able to call a
NO
PEUPLÈMEI COLONISATI
COLONI demonstration of two thousand people in the streets of Ajaccio marching to the chant of "Statu francesu assassinu!" ["The French State is a Murderer" in Corsican].
In this context, we thought that it would be interesting to give the floor to Yves Stella and Pierre Poggioli, two of the nationalist leaders who have just been charged.
This does not mean that we agree with the orientation of the CCN, but it is an expression of elementary solidarity with the victims of a repressive campaign that cannot contribute in any way to solving the problems of the Corsican people.
Question. What is the political situation in Corsica and what is the French state trying to do?
Answer. We are seeing the failure of the system that has been set up - of the special status for Corsica that was instituted and the regional assembly, the failure of the officials appointed, both the old ones and the new ones (Prosper the in repression.
banning of the Front de Liberation Nationale de la Corse (FLNC — National the banned movement in Vero, it arrested government has just started a new step up
Following a public demonstration by des Comites Nationalistes (CCN - Con-
Alfonsi and Simeoni). (1)
This refers to a layer of nationalist leaders who have opted for participation in the autonomous institutions. -IV.
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DE UPEC COLONISt PLE No to colonialization! (DR)
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is coming to the limits of this strategy. It "order" in Corsica.
Mitterrand is lying about the nature of the Corsican people. He is playing with words, recognizing the existence of a separate people without granting it a capacity for expressing itself as distinct from the French people. The regional assembly does not represent the Corsican people.
The election of the assembly was compromised by all the evils of the system of domination by the traditional and by the reduction of the Corsican people to a minority in their own coun try, which were the issues in the debate that preceded the election of the assem-
The CCN calls for the dissolution of this powerless assembly and the election of a new one endowed with real powers. This assembly should be elected by a new recognition of Corsican people, which requires a two-
The Corsican nationalists will not lend themselves to any destabilization of the left government for the benefit of the
We will not retreat either on what we consider the minimal acceptable demands for any sincere Corsican or for any sincere French person.
If the government undertakes a process of decolonization, we will play the
If not, there will be a test of strength. We will never give up the strug. gle to free Corsica, any more than we will condemn the FLNC.
If there are new elections, we will elections, we demonstrated our capacity to conduct an election campaign and revolutionary propaganda without any formist electoral apparatus that resembles a traditional family patronage operation. It has the blessing of the government, in nationalist pretences on which it is based.
Behind Simeoni there is no popular base or activists. He is deluded about the 15,000 votes he got in August 1982. That was not a vote for a milk-and-water is going to change it, try to incite tensions among Corsicans. But it is going to run up against the obstacle of the economic situation. They will be lucky if unemployment does not go over 10,000.
What stage has the CCN reached?
A. It has become a movement of political activists. This is the result of a concerted effort to structure and politicize the organization. strument of struggle capable of a sustained campaign to mobilize the population and not just of responding to events as we are able to take up questions that had been left to lie fallow, such as economic problems, and to create real points of counterpower, in agriculture for
We are also going to work harder to create a Corsican union, a nationalist trade-union organization. fundamental axes of work could not be developed before the CCN was consolidated into a well organized and powerful political movement.
What are your links with the
A. The struggle for national libera-
The CCN is an expression of this, as is the FLNC. The complementary character of these two organizations flows from the colonial situation in
We stand in solidarity with the FLNC on all levels, and nothing can change that. The CCN is not a front organization, it has its own political space, as does the FLNC. The notion of an armed wing is also wrong, because this would involve too much of a role for military action, a militarist illusion. This idea is the result of insufficient political understanding, and is disappearing today. The national liberation struggle is one, and even armed struggle were to have its place in it, the conclusion can only be political.
Q. What is your position toward the trade-union movement? You seem to be rather cut off from it today.
Q. What effect has the campaign to portray the FLNC as criminals had on Corsican public opinion?
A. This campaign has not failed to have a certain effect. Magnified by all the media, both right and left, Broussard's hysteria campaign reached the outer limits of provocativeness. Fortunately, we have been able to come up with political answers and to respond to the situa-
What do you think about the attacks on French teachers and clerks, when the heads of the traditional gangs are left unpunished?
We support all actions against the colonization of the island. But they have to be seen essentially as political pro-
No one has any intention, we repeat, to refute the hysteria campaign, of driving all the French, to say nothing of all the foreigners, into the sea. In a time of unbridled racism, we continue to defend the immigrant workers here, who are victims of the capitalist colonial system. The French, on the other hand, represent a social, political, and cultural pressure, a mass base for the colonial state, for "French Corsica."
The gang leaders are, on the other hand, Corsican. They may join us when the relationship of forces obliges them to, and in certain cases they may be won over to Corsican nationalism, at least
They will disappear with the system that is being reinforced by a massive influx of French who take the places
It has to be seen that the French who are working in Corsica have formed from the beginning an interclass French nationalist front against Corsican nationalism. They must leave. We had hoped that this front would break up. But we have seen nothing like that to this day. The political pressure will be kept up with the "Francesi Fora" ("French Out") cam-
Q. Have you chosen a "model for the new Corsican society?
A. We propose a break with the cap-
The underpoliticization of the italist system and the building of a socialautonomy candidate. It was a Corsican nationalist vote in the broad sense, and Simeoni has diverted this mandate.
state wants to eliminate by any means possible the organizations that uphold the cause of the national liberation
Among the means it has used
— a new political status and the ex pressions of satisfaction from the representatives of the traditional gangs, who have their snouts in the new trough provided by the autonomous assembly.
- Repression, accompanied smear campaign about the so-called degeneration of the FLNC into gangsterism, which is designed to turn the Corsican people against the nationalists.
- Physical liquidation. nature of the Corsican situation has blocked this strategy.
movement resulted in a grave deficiency in political and trade-union work. However, if, for example, the CFDT exists in northern Corsica, this is largely the result of the work of nationalists. in the CFDT, even if the leadership is doing everything it can to push our activ-
Moreover, the CFDT has dropped its support for a measure of autonomy and is lining up more and more tightly with the other unions that back the government.
and FEN (the teachers union) are French state, organizing demonstrations on its behalf against the nationalists, linking up with the hysteria campaign orchestrated by Broussard. They are under pressure from a Communist Party that is hostile to national liberation, a French chauvinist party, a party of ist Corsica suited to the traditions of our
Q. What do you expect from the
We want the parties in power to undertake a process of decolonization in
But we have no illusions. have been disillusioned by the left and far left media which either keep about the situation here or repeat the government's black propaganda aimed at stigmatizing the FLNC as criminals. left media have played a real and rotten role. It's time for them to stop their one-sided advice. We need the solidarity of French revolutionists. French organizations form "committees to support the struggle of the Corsicas are being waged further away?