Wanted: justice for Clive Forbes and his family National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen took PAUL ELIE-LEVY, a member of the LCR, French section of the Fourth International, to court for accusing him of being the spiritual heir of Hitler.
Here Paul outlines the case and how Le Pen was beaten.
Le Pen decided to launch his regional election campaign with a big rally in Nancy. This meeting followed the publication of the '50 Proposals of the Front National' against immigration.
About 50 organisations supported the proposal of the antifascist alliance Ras L' Front for a demonstration. Over 8,000 poopie supponed the demo, the biggest in Nancy since May '68.
I was one of the speakers and I said that 'Le Pen is the spiritual son of Hitler, Mussolini and Petain.' Expensive Three months later Le Pen announced he was taking me to court. He decided on a civil action because it would be much more expensive for me and is much more complicated. We decided to fight at two levels.
On the political level we organised a conference in Nancy followed by a big rally, with representatives from every antiracist organisation in France. The day after this rally Le Pen's lawyer postponed the court At a judicial level we chose two lawyers: one from the Radical Left in Nancy, . the other Henri Leclerc of the Ligue Des Droits D'Homme.
The case was finally heard on 14 May this year. Le Pen claimed I was an ogre with 50 heads and accused me of indoctrinating Jewish people. On the 14 June the court decided that Le Pen must pay me seven hundred pounds plus costs, rather than the twelve thousand pounds he was demanding from mc.
This was the first time that a court has accepted that Le Pen can be compared to fascists.
Ideological heir of Hitler: FN leader Le Pen Although he has now appealed he has not been able to organise a single public mecting in Nancy since January 1992.
However the F.N. increased its eloctoral support by three per last clections. AIthough they lost their only MP they gained 30% of the vote in some areas ino, in the second round, won 49% Some people think they must try extreme right solutions because of disil. lusionment with the other The F.N. bases itself on porerty and unemployment. At a local level they have organised sporting events, social events and try practical help for injured workI don't believe that we can control the growth of the far-right solely by anti-fascist ac tivities. The growth of poverty and unemployment means we have to work at grass roots level and base struggles on 'equal rights" for immigrant workers. Unfortunately there is less support for this than simple anti Le Pen campaigns.
Fascist party
The FN is not a big party: it is mainly an electoral party. It has few members and is very crosco, its a lascist party. though not all its supporters are fascists.
Its ideology is that of historic right-wing French colonialism, Vietnam etc. Its members frequently come from ex-military families or French Algerian settlers.
Some of the support for the main right-wing parties, the RPR and UDF is racist and the government s actons prove that. Their first decision was the have kept!
In several regions they have semi-official pacts with the FN.
But the government parties are not looking for an alliance with Le Pen. They won't do so unless it is absolutely necessary, because it would cause them prob lems.
More votes However they haven't succeeded in limiting support for the FN. Although Le Pen appeared to lose votes compared to the local elections the FN have three per cent more, than in the last Legislative elections. despite losing some support to Pasqua.
Immigrants are now much more worried about their status. Their right to marry French citizens, to be joined by their families are all under attack.
An Algerian woman, six months pregnant, has recently been refused permission to marry the tather. here is in creased opposition but this is not yet translated into activity.
We need more contacts between all the anti-fascist and anti-racist Europe and should think about suric common inidaave around the next European elections. The idea of a European anti-racist festival is very good.
The recent attempted visit of Le Pen to Bntain and ifelind was a big defeat for the extreme British and Irish people served an exclusion oract on him.
All he could do was have a semi-legal press conference -not a very glorious episode for the would-be Fuhrer!