[The following article about the results of two polls conducted among French youth appeared in the September 30 issue of Rouge, weekly newspaper of the Ligue Communiste, French section of the Fourth International. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
Two IFOP [Institut Français d'Opinion Publique] polls published last week in Point and Nouvel Observateur have just confirmed that the youth are still "the spark of the revolution." Point polled students returning to classes for the 1972 session; Nouvel Observateur took youth between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, those who could vote in the legislative elections if the voting age were lowered - a possibility that, with the publication of this poll, becomes strongly doubtful.
Of the students polled 31% said frankly that they were revolutionists; in September 1968 the figure was only 12%.
The "reformists" who want to rearrange the university system declined in number from 54% to 36%. Those who think that the only way to get results is by direct action, even if it involves violence, reached 48%, while 49% are favorable to "leftist" ideas.
Of the political parties the students feel closest to the Parti Socialiste Unifié [United Socialist party] (22%) and the Parti Socialiste [Socialist party](17%). On the other hand, the Communist party (34%) and the Gaullist party [Union pour la Défense de la République- Union for the Defense of the Republic] (30%) are held in greatest disrepute among students. It is unfortunate that these figures put the country's largest workers' party and the clique of crooked businessmen on the same level. But at the same time it is a healthy sign that a large section of the students reject the counterrevolutionary methods and objectives of the Communist party.
The overwhelming majority (79%) of the 2,500,000 youth between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one favor "changes in French society." This strong majority expresses a generalized discontent more than a desire for a precise alternative: Among the 79%, 21% consider a "Swedish-style socialism" as a model; 7% favor the communism of the East-bloc countries; 4% look to Cuba, 3% to China, and 3% to the Chilean experience. The rest, more than half, indicated some other choice or else did not know.
This heterogeneity is reflected in the attitudes toward elections. Of the total number surveyed, 57% favored lowering the voting age to eighteen, but only 50% felt that the vote was really important; and 65% thought that the trade unions defend the "French people" better than do the political parties (14%).
The other tendencies disclosed by the two polls can be summed up in the following result: the majority of the youth reject present-day society and the organizations that uphold it, whether conservatives in power or reformists seeking power. The desire for socialism is widespread, but there is no clear idea of exactly what a socialist France would be like.
This is a terrible demonstration of weakness for the bourgeoisie, but it also places a heavy responsibility on the organizations that for decades have claimed to speak in the name of the working class and to point the way out. The millions of workers who died for the Russian revolution between 1917 and 1922 deserve better than this chilling verdict: In an advanced capitalist country, fifty years after the revolution, "the communism of the Eastern countries" is chosen as a model by a ridiculously small fraction of the youth - 7%.