"Ce n'est qu'un debut: continuons le combat. * (This is only the beginning, keep up the struggle). That was the messnge which thundered out of France in May 1968. Ies confident ryhthm and defiance set the pulse of the entire Now, just three years later that cry is taken up again by 35,000 European militants, resouped. orgarised determined. The occason was the 100th Anniversary of the that first "beginning", that first taste of workers power, The Paris Commune.
The demonstration and the meeting before i was organised or the milliants or the Lague Communiste (the freuch section of the Fourth international) and called in conjanction with Lutte Ourriere. This demonstration of such sce maurancy and discipane come ar a most apt conjuncture in the middle of the Renant stake and occupation see the articie on Rennult in this issue for a more detailed exposure of the French C.P. and its partial dis integration). It was a visible sign of at accelerat ing process in France during the past year and a half-the growth of the Ligue at the expense of the PCF.
Nearly 3,000 militants poured into Paris from the French provinces. Every bus had been stopped at least once by the police A thousand more from the European sections of the Fourth Internationni swelled the march and gave it u truly internationalist character.
The French bourgeoisie aid the French C.P. both did their utmost on the one hand to create difficulties for the organisers, on the other to try to discredit the aims und re volutionary credentials of the militants in the Pera or toe masses.
The French C.P. for instance had earlier leaflered every house on the route of the march advising the inhabitants to lock and bolt their doom because on Sunday a gang of hoodlums would pass that way smashing windows and assmulting old people.
Instead, the march passed off without incident, without one arrest. One thousand 'Service d'Ordre' (stewards), helmeted and armed, protected the route of the march from a threatened fascist counter demonstation, possible agent-provocateurs, and the police. We never saw one policeman the whole afternoon (though they were there in thousands a couple of streets back from the route.
As for the inhabitants of Belleville: not a trice of hostility or fearfulness The British delegation could hardly believe their eyes, but for the French too it was a pleasant surprise to see the countless fists raised the cheers and enthusiasm of the inhabitants of Belleville.
The march, which cook two hours to pass given point. wound through those streets whete the Communards made their lust stand and down to Le Mur des Federes ( the wall of the Federals, where the last resisters were stor by the toonsend).
THE ROLE OF LE MONDA The bourgeois paper of France, Le Monde. reported the whole weekend very extensively and objectively. They criticised the PCF for not differentiating between the Ligue and similar organisations and some crackpot anarchists who went on n car-burning binge in the Latin Quarter after being relued entry to the Saturd85 evening a meeting but most metreatog for tle PCF. Le Monde devoted but ten lines (just ten!" screamed L 'Humanite the next day) to report a festival of some 10,000 people organised by the two newspupers of che Young Contunists.
But all this was not done because Le Monde loves Trotskyists. It created the perfect opportunity for the Stalinists to point their fingers and cry in L 'Humanite "The United Front of Prouvost-Fauver-Krivine is a class front" (Provost and Fauvet are editors of Le Figoro and Le Monde respectively. Kalvine is a leading militant of in Ligue Conomunise)
The amnigams of the "30s hegin again. Messiours Provost und Fauvet can chuckle at the initini success of their divisive tactics But amid cheir smiles und the Stalinists sereams we will continue to remember: Never trust the bourgeoisie; never trust the bureaucracy