French Communist Party in crisis the decisive positions of the CP. The necessity of a total break with everything brought about by Stalinism is clearly stated. The need for solidarity with 'the peoples of the socialist countries in struggle' and the demand for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afgha- The authors in their text openly state their claim to be Marxist and revolutionary. They self- 'socialist on themselves nistan are explicit. French students demonstrate in Paris in November, 1986 base the French Communist Part has dropping to below ten per cent, PHILOMENA O'MALLEY looks at the politics of the With is share of the vote been plunged into crisis. FRANC opposition. young, old, workers, intellectuals. Some of THE CRISIS in the Communist Party (CP) tion. If the election defeat of the CP was the last straw, the roots of the crisis lay in the CP's recent governmental experience and the oscillation between collaboration and secta- rian criticism which has characterised the CP generation and all sectors in the party, exploded within days of the March 1986 elec- since the 1960s. This crisis touched every
management' and the need for a thorough mselves from social-democratic notions that it is possible to 'manage the crisis' to protect They stand for full employment. The right to work, to health care, to study, to decent housing are promi- nent. They ask what new ideas can the wo- men's movement bring to the workers' movement, and take a clear stand against transformation of society. They distance the- working class. the bil, former steel worker and until recently first secretary of the CP in the Meurthe et Moselle steel region. Endorsed as candidate for departmental councillor in a forthcoming position of the departmental and national leadership, he will nevertheless be standing by-election by his local party against the op- unopposed by an 'official' candidate. the most solid working class bases of the party, such as the cells in the French car firm Peugeot in eastern France, or the Michelin tyre factory in Clermont Ferrand, became The three traditional pillars of the party: ives and the CGT (Conféderation Générale de the party apparatus, the elected representat- Travail, CP-led trade union federation, still the strongest in France) were all affected, oppositional.
any form of racism and in solidarity with the This opposition is confronting the CP with an historic challenge. Not only is it proving that dissidents are not always the disap- pointed and the worn-out, but it is also prov- ing that political activity does not necessarily revolve around the Socialist Party. Not eve- rything is sliding to the right! However no- thing is yet definite about the future evolu- people of the 'third world' me by the opposition was Juquin's speech to the January central committee. A written programme has now been published under the title "The revolution comrades!' The au- thors of this document, the coordinating committee organising almost all the opposi- tional forces within the CP, although its ac- tual composition is not public, have taken pains to state that it is an unfinished docu- The first statement of a political program- centred on the democratic demand for an Increasingly however it began to develop discussions and move towards a statement of The main figure of the opposition is although in the CGT the conflict takes a difffe- The developing opposition originally emergency congress which was refused. central committee member Pierre Juquin. A its political positions. rent form.
31 tion of this current. It is not a homogenous grouping, nor does it have a clearly worked out idea on how to achieve a socialist trans- Nevertheless, the emergence of this new left-wing current in the traditional mass par- ty of the French working class, and one which through the CGT still influences a sizeable section of organised working class, is a pro- formation of society. mising sign • ment. It clearly distances itself from many of In fact, public meetings are to be organised throughout France, open to party members and non-party members alike, to discuss this manifesto. The far left has been told it is welcome to attend - an unprecedented invi- As the publication of an opposition within a Communist Party this is a radical docu- ment and is open to dialogue and discussion. tation from members of the CP! during the governmental period, he was the most prominent CC member to reject the xorable 'slide to the right' in French society, reaffirmed in the wake of the student and railworkers movements. This position of the CP is of course an excuse for why it is failing nent figure of the opposition is Alain Amica- spokesperson for the politbureau of the party reaffirmation of the CP's analysis of an ine- to win votes and members! Another promi-