'France is a major imperialist power'
De Gaulle, like Pompidou and Giscard, with the same arguments, and above all by considering that a good part of the continent is a private preserve for
Let us look at the case of Chad for example. French imperialism, which is not even prepared to recognise the rights of the Corsicans, French imperialism, which
The intervention of French troops in Chad and Lebanon has coincided with the rise of a right-wing campaign in France against immigrant workers, who are largely
Muslim and African.
For example, early in the fall the main bourgeois party, the RPR, in coalition with neofascists, won control of the municipal government in Dreux, mainly on the basis of an anti-immigrant campaign.
For this reason, the public meeting held in the Paris Mutualite on October 13 by the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire, French section of the Fourth International, to kick off its fall season of political work focused to a considerable extent on the question of French imperialist intervention and the anti-immigrant campaign and the link between the two.
These themes were taken up extensively in the main speech by Alain Krivine. But dealt with in more detail by the second speaker, Claude Gabriel, they were also a leader of the international work of the LCR and a specialist in African affairs.
The following is the text of the speech given by Gabriel. It offers a general picture of the role of French imperialism in the world today and how this relates to a decisive aspect of the class struggle within France itself.
To listen to Francois Mitterrand,
France is so much in solidarity with the poor countries, it is so concerned with of these peoples, that you would think that our country has no responsibility for the situation of poverty and repression which reigns there.
To listen to the government,
"independent of the blocs', has only one concern, to defend peace and protect the people from the excesses of the two so-called superpowers.
In reality, France is an imperialist
A major imperialist power.
have to be aware that our country oppresses entire peoples and exploits millions of
All our work, all our positions as internationalist revolutionaries must start
Therefore, it is in this context that we have to situate the military interventions in Chad and Lebanon.
It is in this context that we have to deal with, on the one hand, the delivery of weapons to Iraq, and on the other, the decision to stop arms sales to revolutionary Nicaragua under the pretext, in the
Cheysson, [the Foreign
Since they came to power, Mitterrand, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party, have tried to hide the im-
International Viewpoint 14 November 1983 perialist and colonialist nature of French state. Several times, Mitterrand stated that the policy had changed, that a new leaf had been turned in Africa, and that the neo-colonial policy had ended. All that is obviously just a lie.
First of all, let us look at this famous Franco-African summit at Vittel. years ago it brought together ten coun
This time, there were thirty-eight. Is this not indicative of the huge increase in France's own responsibilities in Africa? Is it not significant that today the overwhelming majority of African states feel themselves obliged to come and discuss future together with the French
And to top it all, this summit was held in the Club Mediterranee, one of the symbols of French snobbery and arrogance in Africa.
And remember also that this summit, like every meeting of this type, costs of millions of francs for sumptuous meals and expenses. All that to discuss the poverty of the peoples. THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS TAKE UP
THE IMPERIALISTS' 'DUTY'
None of this set up is by chance. Our leaders have to demonstrate continuity. On one side they say that everything has changed, on the other they rush to keep up the African policy of the Fifth Republic, right down to the finest detail. Like in general could not care less about national rights, has got it into its head to impose a national consciousness by force on the peoples of Chad.
With a cardboard-cutout state that it has protected for more than years, France imagined that it could deliver a Chadian nation by Caesarian section to suit the needs of its African policy. The result is there - 23 years of civil war, 23 years of French intervention.
Mitterrand, like the three other presidents of the Fifth Republic, has had to take the lead, relying on the army, the secret services and brainwashing to protect the strategic interests of France. Just like his predecessors, he began by calling the first troops sent to Chad 'instructors in order to cover up his warlike policy. Regarding Lebanon, he defended the illusion of a so-called 'interposition force' is a curious form of 'interposition' between two sides which starts by dismantling the Palestinian defence lines, and closely controlling the only progressive neighbourhoods in Beirut.
But the government is not short of
If it sends troops, it is obviously - at the request of legitimate governments'. But what legitimacy do
Gemayel - is he legitimate? legitimacy comes from the Israeli occupa-
What sort of legitimate leader is this, whose Phalangist forces have for a long time been supported by all the fascists groups in Europe? Need we remind the Socialist Party that it was only a few years ago that elements of the GUD [a far-right fascist group] in France went regularly to Lebanon to give a helping hand to Gemayel's Phalangists?
THE 'LEGITIMACY' OF HISSENE HABRE
And Hissene Habre in Chad. It appears that he also is 'legitimate'. Having overthrown by force a government that was also "legitimate', just a few months ago, Habre imposed his militias and took power without any popular support. There were neither elections nor mass mobilisations to confirm his regime. The only legitimacy that the Elysee could find for him is that he was recognised by the other African states.
For ourselves, we think that the legitimacy accorded by a band of dictators of the style of Mobutu or Hassan II of Morocco is a masquerade and an insult to the African peoples.
Habre is no more 'legitimate' than any of the other military tendencies that are fighting over the neo-colonial regime in Chad.
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FRANCE
Moreover, the French press has noted, that Mitterrand had mentioned the eventual possibility of elections to get out of the crisis
But, the press also noted that the word 'election' had never been men-
We know why. To talk about free elections in front of Mobutu and Houphouet Boigny, is like taking about rope in the house of a hanged man. And Mitterrand was not there to upset these getting to the Elysee that French policy in Africa had to be changed. He had even said that it was a matter of 'political will'. As if it was simply a question of good will or morality...
When the Thomson company wants to close a factory in France and open up in Morocco or Malaysia to profit from the inhabitants. This can offer some reassurance to the government about France's foreign-trade performance.
Never short of ideas, the government has chosen to present its military interventions as 'peace missions'. will be, it appears, 'neutral' between the different Chadian factions, or the different Lebanese factions.
But, it was Gemayel himself who, on television, informed the French their soldiers were not only in UNIFIL, the United Nations force, in the south, not only in the multinational interposition force in Beirut, but also instructors in the Lebanese Army, that is the army organised by the Phalangists for the benefit of Gemayel. A strange way of being 'neutral'!
In Chad, the French troops will be equally 'neutral'. However, French officers have been heard to talk of the aid to so-called Islamic justice, for theft a hand cut off, for adultery the death
This is the famous progressive camp which opposes the Qadhafi dictatorship!
It appears that the Vittel summit has not found any solution for Chad. We can quite believe it. It is not hard to see either that, given the extent of the crisis
Chad other countries are going to experience a similar chaos. This is why it is important to oppose French intervention. There will alwavs be a legitimate government, a 'Russian danger' But every time, whatever the government in power in France, there will be an in-
And the turn will certainly come for the DOM-TOM [Overseas Departments and Territories], New Caledonia, the Antilles, or the Indian Ocean.
There will be two, three, many Chads.
exploitation of the workers, and above all of the women workers, in these countries, is it a simple question of It to fight this policy from now on -'political will' to change the relations of exploitation? Obviously not.
More than eighty per cent of our companies have subsidiaries in the dependent countries: that is concrete reality.
Imperialist domination is the power of the French banks, the French people living there, the dozens of
- a veritable spider's web -that link these economies to fact, imperialism is first of all a material, concrete reality, on the ground. That is why, in France, one is so discreet 312,000 French, that is to say more than in France. And, believe me, these French they are not unemployed, and they are not the victims of discriminatory laws.
AND FRENCH CHAMPAGNE
In a country like the Ivory Coast, there were already 12,000 French people at the end of colonisation, today there are 50,000. In a small country like Gabon which has 500,000 inhabitants, there are 25,000 French. All these people, who make up in fact a foreign occupation, control the most important aspects of the economy, politics, the military, police and even culture. This French emigration is a secret emigration because even the respectful left hide its existence. plundered by French and European firms. They are also dismembered and thrown off balance by the princely consumption of the rulers and foreign occupiers.
For example, our champagne sells very
The Ivory Coast imports 560,000 bottles per year. The former president of the Cameroons, Ahidjo, imported 1,500 crates of champagne for the marriage of his daughter. And Gabon imports at the rate of one bottle on average for three given to what they call 'their Chadian comrades' - that is Habre's forces. also appears that they have even had difficulty in holding back their troops who wanted to go and deal with the Libyans
Anyway, how could these troops be neutral. We got a look at them as they were being shipped out. They are regiments trained for colonial
It is a troop of racists that Mitterrand has sent to Africa. That is who is supposed to re-establish democracy, and a national understanding.
Many activists in France were paralysed in the Chadian affair, because at the same time there was the Libyan interven-
Let us remember this evening that the LCR considers that the aid that the Libyans give to Goukouni is a reactionary move, because he is no more progressive than Habre. But the LCR is not prepared to lay the blame equally on Libya and
We are not going to subordinate mobilisations against French imperialism to a subtle analysis of Libyan policy. Libya is not responsible for the colonial plunder of Africa, it is not responsible for French chaos in Africa.
THE CRUSADERS AGAINST QADHAFI for those who denounce Qadhafi dictatorship in order to justify their support for the French government, we would like to say this:
International has just confirmed what all the French journalists knew from the start, without saying or writing it. Habre is instituting repressummary executions in the zones which he controls.
Zaire, which is a major ally of France and the United States, and is also intervening in Chad, is a rundown, drained country. A country where the army robs the workers on pay day, where in more than four thousand million centimes of public funds [£3.34 million] misappropriated, mainly to the benefit of Mobutu and his entourage.
### Finally, in neighbouring also a supporter of Habre and imperialist intervention, new life has just been given
Therefore we should not spare any effort Whoever is in the government.
Mitterrand obviously does not intervene for fun. He intervenes in Chad and in Lebanon because he is at the head of an imperialist state. That involves certain duties, it appears. In any case, it does for officials who refuse to expropriate the big bosses here in France. You cannot forbid the CNPF [French employers federation] to do what they want in Africa if you let them do as they please in France itself. Once you accept that, in the name of the general interests of French capitalism, you have to send troops to defend the foreign markets.
THE LINK BETWEEN RACISM
AND IMPERIALIST INTERVENTION
There is a link between these two
As there is a link between racism here and the defence of Christians in
As there is a link between the fear of Arabs here and the fear of Qadhafi
It was logical that the government would one day find itself faced with an overseas military intervention, just as it was logical that it would one the events at Dreux [recent victory by the right including a fascist group in municipal elections] and elsewhere.
There is no autonomy, no separation between these two types of events. are one and the same problem — maintaining the bourgeois state and imperialist and capitalist interests.
Finally, it was logical that this government, despite its professions of faith, would end up finding itself hand in glove with American imperialism.
Undoubtedly France has 'its' policy in
Of course, France has 'its' policy in Lebanon. But the degree of autonomy Elysee Palace enjoys with respect to the White House makes no fundamental dif-
What has been shown in Lebanon and Chad is not just the kind of pressure Washington puts on the French governbut above all, that French policy fits well and truly into the framework of
International Viewpoint 14 November 1983
American interests.
One can be 'autonomous' in Chad, up to a certain point. Once can be 'autonomous' in Lebanon, up to a certain point. But the general framework is set by keeping France within the Atlantic Alliance. It is set by Mitterrand's support for the deployment of Euromissiles. mined finally by the complete integration of French military policy into the defence of world imperialism.
When Mauroy [the prime minister] explains that European solidarity enriches Atlantic solidarity' he perfectly expresses the complementary nature of the French and American policy.
the French government talks about its so-called independence, this is so that it can demand that French nuclear missiles not be included in the negotiations at Geneva. Even the vice president of the United States now admits this argument does not hold water. But, Mitterrand will not give up. no question of adding the French missiles to the American missiles...
But who can believe in the independence of this nuclear arsenal when Mitterand signed the final communique of the Williamsburg summit? the independence of French military policy when Cheysson states, 'For us, the Atlantic Alliance is the defence of fundamental values, I was going to say Chrisof civilisation against totalitarianism.' rades we find ourselves once again in an atmosphere of anti-Arab hatred and fear
We know that Chirac former Gaullist prime minister, presently mayor of Paris] has come out finally in support of the operations in Lebanon and Chad. We can see now what sort of national unity Mitterrand has built around these overseas interventions.
NUCLEAR MISSILES AND IMPERIALIST EXPEDITIONARY FORCES
In any case, this confirms that there is a link between the nuclear arsenal and co-
The danger of war comes first of all from the crisis of imperialism, the deterioration of its domin-
What is regarded as essential for a balanced military posture by the US and France is to have nuclear weapons side by side with a Rapid Deployment Force. The two are complementary. The mission of 47,000 French men is to defend imperialist the Third World. These include the infamous GIGN [Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie], the super cops, who also intervened overseas under Giscard in Somalia and Saudi Arabia, and who today make up small GIGNs in certain African countries. If Mitterrand had really wanted to start afresh as he claimed, he would have started by dissolving the GIGN.
Imperialism has thus very well understood that, beyond the question of blocs, it first of all has to deal with the struggle International Viewpoint 14 November 1983 for emancipation and the class struggle in the Third World.
Socialist Party has adopted the government's arguments word for word to defend these interventions. Not one of its leaders has expressed the least doubt. Motchane of the CERES [a leftwing tendency in the SP] has even had the insolence to talk of 'internationalism'
The Communist Party for its part has put forward the leitmotif of negotiations for Lebanon as well as for Chad. no point has it denounced the sending of for the Political Bureau, went further in stating, It is obvious that it is the duty of every French government to respect the agreements to which has given its word and its credibility. To be more precise, it is usual that in the world today states of the same or different strength make agreements for mutual
Juquin concluded, "that could be the moral thing to do.
THE 'INTERNATIONALISM' OF
CORRUPT UNION BUREAUCRATS
The trade unions have not been outdone...in doing nothing. Socialist-led union federation] published a statement on Chad that repeated the government's argument. cluded the word 'duty' no less than three
Just like Juquin, the CFDT seems to think that France has a 'duty' to fulfill
The internationalist duty MotOr Juquin's 'moral thing to do? No, it is an imperialist 'duty' that the CFDT is supporting.
Moreover, this trade union confederation has just explained, to the peace movement, that it does not want to separate this battle from that for democratic rights - a story it concocted to justify its divisive policy. Let us take the CFDT leadership at their word. While we are happy to see its leaders demonstrate on occasion outside the Polish embassy, we would also like to see them in front of regimes in Africa, when repression scends on these countries. That would be defence of democratic rights.
In reality, what the unions should have done for a start is to denounce a military policy that costs millions and millions of francs that the workers have to
However, we are not in the least surof these leaderships. They are all compromised by complicity with one or the other African regimes. The CP and the CGT [CP-led union federation] with some, the SP with others. For example, let us remember that a delegation of the CFDT led by Chereque signed a co-operation agreement with Mobutu's labour organisation in Zaire - a puppet organisation, an organisation led by the dictatorship. That is no better, comrades, than collaborating with a union organisation directed by Pinochet.
In reality, all these leaderships gave up the fight against French imperialism very long time ago. It even seems that we have lived through a miracle and that, on May 10, 1981, as if by magic, France ceased to be an imperialist country. To justify its policies, the left uses all the stereotypes of darkest Africa and the weird Third World. This is the same method used by the bourgeoisie for two centuries to stuff the French population with latent racism.
INTERNATIONALISM AND THE FIGHT FOR SOCIALISM IN FRANCE we are not going to be accomplices of this bowing and scraping socialism, with a briefcase and threepiece suit, which talks about France in the tone of de Gaulle, and that makes the working class pay the bill for the chauvinvanity of the great imperialist
Before his election, Mitterrand said in world another signal of security and solidarity than Transall, Jaguar and Alouette military aircraft. Recourse to guns has always been a sign of weakness.' For once, we would agree with him. And so we will draw the balance sheet of his policy in the Middle East and Africa. It is an imperialist policy, a policy of failure, a policy that clearly reveals the crisis and the rottenness of this society.
For the LCR the battle against French imperialism is a decisive struggle. struggle is not separate from the rest of our activity. It is not a question of an anti-imperialist 'duty'. It is an anti-imperialist dimension that is an integral part of our programme and our daily
There is a link between racism here and the lying propaganda about Africa.
La link between austerity here, the arms race and colonialist expeditions
Therefore, the LCR takes as campaign for the withdrawal of French troops from Chad and Lebanon;
for the withdrawal of troops from Africa, and against co-operation and defence agreements with African regimes;
the LCR is against the 'force de frappe' and Rapid Deployment Force;
- the LCR will mobilise to build a powerful united anti-war movement, and within this movement we will fight unrelentingly to get it to also denounce French militarism and imperialism.
Finally, as an international movement, we well and truly have the intention to continue assisting all anti-imperialist militants in those countries that France dominates. We will always be at their side. And in the face of the reactionary imperialist intervention in those countries, we state forthrightly that we want to help build revolutionary Fourth Internationalist organizations among these oppressed peoples.
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