INTENSE ACTIVITY OF THE FRENCH SECTION DURING CRISIS
The fortnight during which the French crisis developed and reached its peak demanded of the revolutionary militants of the Parti Communiste Internationaliste more activity than is ordo alre the pay, met it to bl
This period was a way.
Despite its limited material means, the organization made enormous efforts to spread our propaganda. and slogans throughout the working class.
material in this short period of intense activity than in an entire year of activity at a normal rhythm. A special edition of La Vérité des Travailleurs was published on May 17th in the form of a single-sheet, of which 15,000 copies were distributed in the Paris region, at the gates of the big factories, the entrances to the Métro, the Sorbonne, and the workers' houses in the suburbs. During the events, three other duplicated manifestos were
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FOURTH INTERNATIONAL stration from la Nation to la République among the demonstrators, with whom it met with great success. Many of them provided our comrades with volunteer help in the distriAfter deGaulle took power, number 84 of La Vérité des Travailleurs appeared — an 8-page issue, with a text analyzing the defeat, its causes and the perspectives from the working-class viewpoint. This issue was published in double the usual quantity, for wide distribution. About 5,000 copies alone were given out as propaganda in Paris workers' districts. This issue seems to have met with considerable success among Communist Party militants. Comrades of the provinces asked for numerous copies. As the edition was soon almost exhausted, it was decided to republish the texts in the form of a pamphlet. A special 4-page supplement to number 84 was also published, declarations International Secretariat of the Fourth International on deGaulle's coming to power. The leadership of the party made a special effort to follow the events from day to day, and sometimes from hour to hour, so as to orient the rank and file correctly in their places of work, their trade unions, and their plants. Meetings of the Political Bureau were held several times a week ; meetings of the party's Secretariat every day, and sometimes several times a day. During this period numerous letters were (relived from comrades in the provinces who sent in information about the development of events in their region. Political Notes were published by the Political Bureau and sent out almost daily during the decisive week to the comrades in the provinces. During and after the events, there were received at party headquarters visits of various sympathizers, former party comrades who again drew closer to the party. Approval and support of the party's activity were particularly shown in the form of exceptional financial support by sympathizing comrades. The party received special contributions from the provinces, from both comrades and sympathizers, who made a particular effort to enable. Trotskyism to express itself fully. During and after the events, many new applications for membership were made, both by former comrades and by An exceptional Central Committee session was convoked just the peak of the crisis. It was dedicated essentially to the events and to the reorganization of the party for the new period. The Congress of the PCI was held in early July. A new party school will be held near the end of the month. Its programme has been communicated to the cells. The party participated in a certain number of public demonstrations, especially in a meeting organized "Centre of Defense of .Liberties and Peace, Barrat, Gilles Martinet, and André Philip, where our party could express the point of view of the revolutionary Marxists about the situation and the means for finding a way out of it. The party's statements were received warmly and with approval. A good sale of La Vérité des Travailleurs took place at the end of the meeting. On June 27th the party organized a meeting of the Cercle Karl Marx on the theme "The Working Class Faces Our whole International has followed and continues to follow the activity of our French comrades with great confidence and complete solidarity. If we have not been able, this time, to influence events decisively, there is no doubt but that we appeared as the real revolutionary vanguard of the French workers. Our inexhaustible activity during the decisive weeks has laid the groundwork for the future activity of Trotskyism in France. In the process of the revolutionary reorientation of the French workers, our French section will be the decisive force. In their coming resistance to deGaulle dictatorship, the workers will find a leadership forged now at a decisive stage when all other working-class leaderships have shown their complete bankruptcy. Long live the French section of the Fourth International!
Great Britain