[The following article appeared in the May 26 issue of the French Trotskyist daily Rouge. The translation is by Lynn Silver.]
Palavas-les-Flots is a town ten kilometers from Montpellier. In winter it is a fishing port; in summer it becomes a tourist beach. We are at a meeting of the local Communist Party cell.
This cell is not the only one that has met to discuss [CP leader] Georges Marchais's April 27 report, but it is surely the only one that has invited a member of the LCR [Revolutionary Communist League, French section of the Fourth International] to this discussion.
This is probably because the LCR member is active in a union (SNES- National Union of Secondary-School Teachers) that a member of the executive committee of the cell also belongs to. Another possible reason was given by a CP activist at the end of the meeting. He said that a "democratic approach" is needed toward the far-left organizations.
The cell has twenty-six members, eighteen of whom are present at the meeting: eight women and ten men, seven less than thirty years old, and seven older than fifty-blue-collar workers, and some teachers as well.
The president of the Veterans Association of the Republic, emboldened by his eighty years of age, makes ill-timed remarks throughout the meeting, and boasts of having a giant portrait of Stalin in his bedroom: "After all, comrades, who made the victory against the Germans possible?"
On one side of the table sits the executive committee-four men—and the LCR activist; the rest of the cell sits on the other side. The secretary of the cell starts the meeting with a report on the Marchais report.
It turns out to be a painstaking running commentary on the speech, lasting half an hour: a defense against "those comrades who attack the party," a justification of the party's line since 1921, and an attack on the SP aimed at creating tighter unity inside the "fortress."
The cell secretary does not speak again for the rest of the meeting, leaving the chore of defending the line to the members of the executive committee, who are united in their fury against any opposition.
For opposition there is. It begins with a fifty-year-old comrade from the département of Gard, as soon as the report had ended. After stating her agreement with the content of the report, she challenges the way in which the party functions:
"The policy comes down from the top but never goes the other way." "The change on disarmament-who discussed it and where?"
She is interrupted several times by the executive committee:
"You're not being logical, comrade. If you don't agree with Elleinstein, why do you want him to be able to express himself in the party press?"
Next, a fifty-year-old house painter: "It's true that in 1974 we said unity, unity. Later, that changed, and we lost...?" Then, answering the reporter, who has said that the struggle continues: "It's true that the struggle continues, but before March 12, we never saw the boss. On March 19 he uncorked the champagne, now he's more arrogant then ever."
Finally, a forty-five-year-old teacher, a CP sympathizer, speaks of the difficulty of putting democracy into practice, and especially of the CP's lack of a clear definition of the working class, and of its policy toward intellectuals.
In short, all three non-executive committee members who contribute to this discussion are critical, with the exception of one activist who takes the floor to say that those who publish in the bourgeois press should not be allowed to attend their cell meeting.
The executive committee takes turns speaking in defense of orthodoxy:
"I am satisfied with the party line." "The CP is the most democratic party."
"We should see the opposition to the party line as the bourgeoisie's desire to influence the party."
Their responses make the activist from Gard say, "You are not answering my questions." And even, "If this continues, I'm going to end up with Krivine."
The LCR member, on the other hand, is allowed to speak as many times and as long as he wishes (his remarks were recorded in the cell's minutes).
First, using the organization of the LCR as an example, he explains the meaning of democratic centralism. Next, he upholds the working-class character of the SP. Finally, he draws a balance sheet of the CP's policies from 1968 to the March 13 agreement and the results of the March 19 elections. An unyielding, but calm debate then ensues.
That is, up to the impassioned moment when the names of Marty and Tillon* are invoked, and the overexcited president of the Veterans Association declares: "They are cops, they are robbers."
In any event, the debate is a departure from the relationship that has existed up to now between the CP and LCR in the area. At the final campaign rally at Montpellier, Roux, the CP candidate, told an LCR speaker: "Sir, do not call me comrade, we have nothing in common!"
Notes
*Charles Tillon, former head of the French partisans, was expelled from the Communist Party in 1970. He remains one of the most prominent and popular of the leaders of the veterans of the Résistance. André Marty was the leader of the revolt in the French Black Sea fleet, in opposition to intervention against the Bolsheviks in the Russian civil war. A CP leader for many years, he was also expelled. Both Tillon and Marty spoke out against aspects of the Stalinist policy of the French CP.-IP/I