Close to 30,000 militant: had gathered in Paris to celebrete the anniversary of the Commune, The Ligue itself har not expected more than 10,000, It grossly underustimated the support it enjoyed in France. Who were all the militants? Abou: 2000 had come from abroad, militants of the I. in Europe parading behind the banners of heir sections. This figure exceeded the attendance of: preign sectione at RED CUROPE hell 6 months previous to the Conmune mobilisation and sho ied the increase of certain sectioz a, in particular the Germans and Italians. The british contingent was relatively small, consisting of 50 or so members of the Spartacus Lea jue..
"e were mistaken in not mobili sing nationally for the Commune demo as it would hav: enabled us to take contacts and d monstrate the reality of the FI. The fact that a coug le of unaffiliated militants from & itain who attended independently and made their firet contact with the SL in Paris and : ater joined the organisation gives us a fair indice tion of what we missed. 8-10,000 md litants had been mobilised by the L'gue in the provinces and another 2-3000 were mobilised oy the LUTTE OUVRIERE group. the remaining. 15-20,C 00 had come from Paris and the subur is, attracted by the massive publicity campains of the ligue, The Vicious sectarianien o! the CP in France and its clessic Stalinist attach 6 on the "ultra-left" ensured that me ny militants turned out tot show their contempt for 1 rench Stalinism.
The demonstration itself had been preceded by a large open moe ting on the eve. More than 10,000 people took per' in this though several sections fro 1 the provinces were delayed owing to police her issment. The Ligue leaders opened the 1 leeting by pointing to its significance and stress 2g the need to build the Fourth Intert ational. There were solidarity messages from Be agal and Ceylon. Preparations were mada for leafletting Peris to advertise the demo. The demonstration itself, however,
turned out to be an extrem ly impressive spectacle. We11-organised contingents, linking arms, shouting co-ordinated als gans, with tthe reassuring presence of the 1000 strong white-helmeted Service d'Ordre. 0 iant portreits of Merx, Lenin and Trotsky as wrll es banners of the Fourth preceded the pro session, 4 transformat• Ion during the course of the march itself could be witnessed. ferlic r the cdes had been somewhat dubious of shoutir g specifically FI slogans,, but at the fir al mecting whero ede Mendel, defying an order benning him from entering France, appeared and spoke averyone started chanting slogans st ch as: "Long live the Fourth Internationa. L." The seriousness of the organisation (the Igg i) had been realised. As Krivine later said? it was the largest demo behind Ieninist-Trots yist banners after the Left Oppogition's Moscow demo in the lat Iwenties. THE BEFECTS OF THE DEMONSTRATION FOR THE LIGUE COMMUNIST AND THE FOUL TH INTERNATIONAL
The effects of the dam pnstration were vory important for the I gue and the FI. It had, firet of all, a marked imp act on the French bourgeoisie compelling'it to distinguish between the previous holda 11 of the "ultra left", as severel newspaper: reports indicated afterwards. Today on every
national issue, the I gue is asked to make press statements end Its cadre school held over • the summer, received frontpage treatment in LE MONDE. At present the bourgeoisie can do little else but rogister this phenomena. Ta fact
that revolutionary currenta are a political force and able to mobilise tens of thousande of, militants to the left of the CP worries the bourgeoisie. Naturally all this press coverage
means that the Idgue is now earmarked for • repression. However if the bourgeois press devo tes an important place to the activities o;? the ligue todey, it is because it has understoo 1 that the existence of the rev. left is not an episodic phenomenon. But it is also partly to pressurisd the CP to become mona firm towards the extreme left. The French CP was staggered by the Comnune demo: its first reaction was one of ill-concealed rage. They used old-type Stalinist methods to try and discredit the Ligue, accusing Krivine of being en agent of the bourgeoisie. The ligu e's activities are elearly having an effect on the (7.P. 's rankend file. Having nways been told by their leadership that "these Trot groups: are nothing,
they always disapreer'y m-any questions are now being asked as the Lipue_s disappearing and a Party congress was forcedty hold a dabete ofthe Naoko 4
Trotskyism.
Since then, it has continued its fight against the "extreme left" in 4 mamner by attempting to amalgamate all the various left currents and groupe left, atcributing to all cf them Maoist or anarchist positions. ds can be PCF has also adopted a "left" stance: this can be seen in their present inte: ;in leacing campaigns against the trials in Morocco and the Sudan. However a rece -artiela in the conservative caily Le Figaro warned them: " You say you arc a a: and of government, and you showed this in May '68; but watch out, when you being overtaken on the Left you do not hesitate to avoid the danger by resorti vocabulary which can lend you further than you desire."
In terms of the Fl, the Commune was more impressive than Red Europe: it 1 concrete. The vicious attacks of the Lembertistés that no International ais
only temporarily, disappeared from their press. Their attempt to compete by ¢ a “united front" demo with anti-communists etc exposed them even further and Loseumnta oma conference in Sacen was an abysmel failure. (There our comrades
IkD- a parasitic sect~ were prevented from selling their literature, He contribution was avdsing. stewards who physical y assaulted our edes!).
Repercuseions from the demo were slso felt outside France. In Itsly, for our section is still ::clative small and unknown, the largest left croup IL ¥ a long article on the Commune demo and opened up a claculesee in their rapew
"nature of Troteskyier."'
The enormous sucess of the demo has, minbanth had an effect on the 02
itself. The campai,n leading up to it had been the first of its sort co .Ligue (excepting tie Krivine election campaign). In pert: cular the Ligue first time, to wors out the tactics of a mass campaipn ;repared over a fact that the Ligve has reached the threshol¢ of credibility and has ssp militants as an alternative to the OP. has been a massivi boost for the o end has naturally had a favourable psychological impact ca its own mili a nt from the peripiery has become easier but what is even gore si_nificant ly,_groups of young workers have been coming to its pubtic mectings, 4, unknown before t)« Commune demo. it long last Trotskyism js beginning to break out of its isolationism < of the working-class movement. Uut thie was not’ an accident in France. precisely due te the conerete applicetion of the correct i tratesy, the sostratecy of "frrm the peripjery to the centre" whereby the Ligue, oe an in the working: tlase (even though it is at the moment miniscule when compa: tasks) is able to ensure that political issues haw an effect in tha Aheaxt 4
French workin: clase itselé,
SRE RE RESET hhh ee
ERNEST MAND SL'S SPEsSCH AT THE COMMUNE DEMONSTRATION AND HI3 PREVIOUS i '66 (cealirs largely with the perfidious role of the French (‘P) has’ Séenry IMG pamphli t. Copies should be ordered from IMG PUBLICATION::, 182-Pentony