The Ligue Communiste, French section of the Fourth International, held its 3rd Congress from 7 - 10 December. We reprint below a translation of the report of the conference published in Rouge, weekly newspaper of the Ligue.! At our first congress we declared our allegiance to the Fourth International. This decision signalled our commitment to the building of a revolutionary organisation; and called a halt to the fragmentation and demoralisation which followed the events of May '68.
At our second congress we broke with amateurish methods; recognising that we now had certain responsibilities and that we must provide ourselves with the means to respond to future developments in the class struggle.
This third congress marked a decisive step forward in the laboration of a revolutionary strategy. It represents the synthesis and systematisation of three years of militant activity and experience.
We have grown in numbers, in abilities, and thus in responsibilities. From now on it is no longer sufficient to denonce the blind alleys into which reformist methods invitably lead. It is no longer sufficient to say that the workers will not seize power that way. We now have to be able to point our own way forward - to construct an effective instrument capable of unravelling in a revolutionary sense the contradictions which are strangling capitalist society. To build a revolutionary party which does not become a part of society as it presently exists; which does not become the opposition on the left of the left; which can provide the lever the masses need to finish once and for all with the power of the bourgeoisie - that was the purpose of the debate on the 22 theses presented to the congress.
These theses defined our tactics in constructing the party in light of the aims which we pursue. They deal with the need to gain an implantation in the new working class vanguard which has developed in the struggle. This is a vanguard which has not rejoined the Communist Party en masse after 1968, in contrast to those of 1936 or 1945. In these circumstances, we are ready to call in It now has to be shown the ways and means of doing battle with the reformist bureaucracies for the confidence of the mass of the workers, particularly in the trade unions. It is a question of building an organisation which can take advantage of bourgeois legality without becoming a hostage to it, remaining conscious of the fact that with regard to the laws of the bourgeoisie we are like outlaws who have been temporarily reprieved.
The adoption of the political resolution concerning the Union of the Left - and the crisis of the bourgeoisie was equally important. We have explained that, if the electoral campaign expresses the deep desire of the workers for unity around a common programme, we will have no hesitation in calling in the second round 3 for a vote for the Union of the Left, while at the same time denouncing the bankruptcy of the perspectives which it claims to offer.
A group which was still small, incapable of exerting any direct influence on the course of events, and concerned above all to educate its own militants and close sympathisers, might have been justified in taking an abstentionist position. We, however, are now in a position to pose the question in a different way. We think that even a limited electoral success for the Union of the Left would be seen by the working class as a favorable shift in the balance of forces between the classes, as an incentive to struggle; we think also that such a success could precipitate a political crisis among the Gaullists.
the second round for a vote for the Union of the Left because we feel that we ourselves are in a strong position. Aware of the fact that what is at stake is not a real solution, but a heightening of the present class tensions, we are ready to answer for all the consequences through our determined participation in the struggle. We are ready to play a leading role the circle, the fall in morale of the army is Jese CONCEES DE LA LICIE CONANNST in the sense of extending the struggle beyond the legal framework within which the Union of the Left is content to confine it.
We have to intervene with all our forces in the struggles taking place in order to develop and popularise examples of workers democracy, of strike committees elected and subject to recal! by the workers themselves, which constitute the most valuable experience of self-organisation for them on the eve of struggles on an entirely new scale. We have to show concretely, through support committees for example, how solidarity can be strengthened and cemented much more firmly in struggle than in the counting of votes in the ballot boxes.
We also have to support the experiences, even the most rudimentary, of workers' self-defence in opposition to the violent provocations of the police and similar forces; and against the fascist groups and the scab bosses' unions we have to take responsibility ourseives for the permanent organisation of this struggle. In the sphere of organisation, we must devote our main efforts to education. The statisitcs collected at the time of the congress show the wide disparities inside our ranks: differences of age, of political backgrounds and experience, of organisational origin. 4 All these differences must be absorbed if we are to build an organisation which has been hardened out theoretically - the only guarantee of the democratic life of the organisation. This is absolutely necessary if the leading bodies are to be exposed to the test of a real internal debate instead of sinking into a conservative and paternalistic approach towards the organisation itself In an attempt to reduce the fatal casualty rate, Finally, the number and quality of the international greetings received by the congress only emphasises the extent of our tasks as internationalists. From support of the Indochinese revolution, to support of the liberation struggle in the Portuguese colonies. From the defence of immigrant workers, victims of capitalist super-exploitation and racism, to the development of working class solidarity on a European scale. Our 4th Congress, devoted to the preparatory discussion for the Tenth World Congress of the Fourth International, will provide us with the opportunity in the coming months to arm ourselves for these tasks.
NOTES I. This forms an introduction to an 8-page supplemer ublished with the issue of Rouge dated 16 December The main items in this supplement concern the discussion on the attitude of the Ligue to the 1973 elections, details of the joint campaign organised by th Ligue with Lutte Ouvricre for the elections, and the political resolution passed by the congress. Copies (postage included) from Red Books, 182 Pentonville of this important issue are avallable at 151 . Union of the Left: electoral alliance between the Communist Party and the Socialist Party (and supported by the Left Radicals). We shall be dealing with the 1973 elections, the Union of the Left, and ne atatude ana mICrYCaEOR UEOuE OWECORaus at much greater length in the next tew issues of The Red Mole. For a preliminary estimation of the sig ficance of the Union of the Left, see The Red Mol 46.
After the first round of voting, in which the Ligue Communiste and Lutte Ouvriere will be putting forward a total of 309 candidates, all candidates getting less than a certain percentage of the votes are eliminated, and a second round of voting takes place 4. The Rouge supplement contains a full summary of these statistics. Some of the main ones to note: -The Ligue has 5,000 members, of whom 32% are candidate members and 68% full members, -35% of these are workers, 65% are teachers, students 21 school students - 4% of the members come from the Parti Communiste International (former section of the F.L. until the fusion with the JCR to form the Ligue): 8% come rom ne sek seuncsse Communse Neyouoa.
hich plaved a leading role in the events of May 12.5% joined in May 68; 11.5% between May '68 an the Ist Congress; 31.5% between the Ist and 2nd Congresses; and 32.5% between the 2nd and 3rd Congresses (i.e. in the last 18 months). - Between six and seven hundred members were in other organisations on the left or extreme left betore joining the Ligue..
- The Ligue has three times as many trade union m DeIs in inc uur ttrac union lcucrauo dostaa by the Communist Party) as in the CFDT (federatio dominated by the Socialist Party The Ligue intervenes inside 270 factories where i has members or cels. Keguar buneuns are abo pur out for anther 180.
of the House of Commons that the British