The general strike of May 1968 in France enormously strengthened the revolutionary left in France. This left has since then succeeded in scoring some notable political vietories the demonstration of 35,000 organised in commemoration of the Paris Commune by the Ligue Communiste and the immense demonstration of 200.000 called to protest the shooting of Maoist worker Pierre Overney by Renault police guards were the most obvious signs of the growth of this left. Nevertheless the French Communist Party still remains by far the strongest force inside the French working class and the revolutionary groups have not succeeded in breaking the support of the Communist Party. In this situation it is inevitable that organisations which wobble between the CP and other reformist parties and the revolutionary left should develop. The most important of these in France was the Unified Socialist Party (PSU). This organisation supported in a confused way the May 1968 strikes and has frequently since then cooperated with the revolutionary left. The PSU in the June 1968 elections obtained about 4% of the vote and it is the smallest party as opposed simply to a group or sect, of the French working class. Nevertheless despite its small size compared to the CP the existence of the PSU is a complicated problem for the French left. The Ligue Communiste (French Section of the Fourth International) is now able to more or less dominate the French revolutionary left but the PSU creates a bloc preventing it turning itself from 'the largest of the groups to the smallest of the parties' If it were possible for the Ligue to break the PSU politically or win over a large section of the cadres of the PSU then it would be able to use entirely different tactics with regard to the CP. The tactic of the United Front, joint activity,etc. would begin to be possible as a real argument that could be used with rank and file CP members. This development is clearly a matter of years rather than of weeks but nevertheless any developments in the PSU are of considerable interest to the revolutionary left.
The wobbling of the PSU between the reformist parties of the French working class and the reyolutionaries produces almost continual crisis within the party. Many of the SU's members join believing that the party is actually basically revolutionary and simply makes tactical mistakes. Rapidly however they discover that the leadership of the party is in fact basically reformist and merely makes revolutionary noises.
In this situation many different tendencies emerge in the PSU. Some currents tend towards Maoism, some towards spontaneism, some to Trotskyism and some take reformism to its logical conclusion and want to join the Socialist Party. Most of these currents have not clarified their political views. Earlier this year however
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PSU members join Fourth International