The negotia tions over the future of the Lip watch-mak Fing factory in Besancon in eastern France seem now to be on the point of beeaking down. The factory was seized last month by 3,000 armed police after striking workers had occupied it since June in their fight against redundancies.
Only a fortnight ago the French press was full of stories about a "breakthrough' in the negotiations. Every effort was made to give the impression that the struggle was as good as over, and that the working class could settle down again to business as usual.
RALLY SABOTAGED This impression was reinforced by the reformist trade union leaders of the Communist Party-led CGT and Socialist Party-inclined CFDT federations. They have all along stressed the The restless legions of the New Israeli Order have committed another premeditated act of aggression, this time against Syria.
The Zionist sky-ords claim this time to have shot down 13 Syrian jet fighters for the loss of one isracli aircraft. The incident was probably designed as u warning to President Assad of Syria not to make the much-vaunted reopening of the castern front a reality.
Last week's air clash followed closely on the Isracli hacking of an Irag plane on which The smokesereonore: Hussain, Sedat, and Assed in Caito importance of a negotiated solution, while playing down the need to mobilise the entire working class to ensure a favourable outcome in what has become a central test of strength between the government and the working class movement, As a result a solidarity rally in Pars on 7 September which coincided with the news of this breakthrough was openly sabotaged by the union leaders, who turned it into a relatively small meeting on the outskirts of Paris, lasting less than an hour, However the "break through" was short-lived indeed, Based on reports of a possible agreement on the vexed question of reorganisation (whether or not Lip would be split up into several companies), it left out the question of redundancies as well as the problem of rights previously won. And at the next round of negotiations, on 11 September, the Government's negotiator M.Giraud revealed that no less than 334 redundancies were still envisaged under this new scheme.
Faced with continual manocuvres of this kind, the Lip workers are now throwing all their George Habash, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was believed to be travelling. The brazen hypocrisy of the Zion ist regime, which has been filling the world with its cries for stiffer measures agsinst "Terror", is now getting too much even for Washington: Israet's chief ally. Haunted by the spectre of the oil crisis, the desire of sections of the American ruling class to move towards some kind of peace setticient is increasingly being frustrated by the "irresponsible" activities of its client-state. In these circumstances, pressure on the Zionists energies into the nationn] "march on Besancon" planned for 29 Septomber. As one of their Jeaders, Charles Piaget, commented in an interview in Le Monde on Tuesday, What will be decisive will be the extent of the solidarity movement mobilised in France*. By providing a central focus for the organisation of solidarity activity, the march could prove to be a turning point in the struggle.
MAYOR APPEALS However the reformist leaders are continuing to minimise the importance of such a mobilisation. The Communist Party newspaper, L Humanite, has been referring to it as e "regional demonstration', while the Socialist Parly mayor of Besancon has actually appealed to the Lip workers to call the march off This last, as Piaget pointed out, shows the inadequacyof the electoral approach of the CP and SP with their "common programme" what good is clection to office if one is premay be expected to increase after the Israeli general election in the autumn.
At the same lime, public awareness of the murderous activities of Israeli agents in Western Europe is slowly increasing Zionist asassinacion squads have been busy for a year liquidating prominent Palestinian militants with, until recently, total impunity. But the expulsion last month of an Isracli diplomat from Norway indicates the concern of the ruling classes of Europe mer the extension of the Middle East war into the heartlands of the West, with the attendant dangers of an Irish-type development.
IMPOTENT GESTURES The Arab ruiets, Deanwante, nave been forced to throw up a smokescreen of militant nomes and impotent gestures with the aim of appeasing for. and its bedfellow. Arab reaction. the own peoples and stepping up pressure one What are a few rodundancies to the Government's negotiator? pared to bow to pressure from the State apparatus? The solution lies in the independent mobilisation of the working class, which for French militants now means organisation everywhere for a massive response on 29 September.
the U.S. to curb Israel's ambitions. The charade in Cairo last week, where President Sadat of Egypt and President Assad of Syrin welcomed back into the fold King Hussein of Jordan, previously denounced by them as a bloodstained butcher, fulfilled exactly this purpose. Presided over by Saudi Arabia, which now dominates the Arab world, the Arab oligarchies and their younger officer brothers are now coming together to find a peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel. No one should be tooled by harmless chatter about the eastern front'; that large numbers of Palestinians have no such illusions was shown in the recent commando attack on the Saudi embassy in Paris even If politically the action was a lamentable fiasco The Paleslinians, devoid of perspectives, remain angry and bitter; it is impossible not to foresee further sporadic lerrorist actions of this kind. Such futile tactics are far from being the other side of the Isrueli coin. More than ever, it is a crucial task to combat the conventional liberal wisdom which cannot, or will not, differentiate between the victim and the executioner. Real solidarity with the oppressed Palestinians involves not moral sermonsing, bul redoubled struggle against Zionism, its imperialist protecRed Weekly 21 September 1973 Page 7
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long arm of Zionism