LIP -- The following is a translation of a dispatch sent from Nantes by Pierre Bois which was published in the May 30 issue of Le Figaro, a leading Paris daily.]
The most famous restaurant in Nantes is called the "Duchesse Anne." Ordinarily only a few bourgeois families come there after mass to enjoy something special gastronomically in a leisurely atmosphere. This is now finished. The proprietor is even hesitant about putting up listing dinner at l1s menu at the door.
32 francs [about US$6.40]...
The stylish shops have also locked their doors. And the big department stores display broken windows. As for "Prisunic" [the equivalent of the Woolworth chain), it has been occupied and the salesgirls are sleeping in the management's easy chairs.
Everything is deserted and the town appears dead. Appears -- because within a few days one system displaced another. Ioday the unions hold power com- Betely, and heele to thor ganes pletely and the preiect police commisexcept a few faithful civil servants and a bailill who is still there, no one knows why.
Only the girls school run by the Sisters has not lowered its flag. Classes are being continued there without much chance of finishing until summer. Some of the Joung priests, much more politically conscious, have rallied to the university student movement.
In Nantes, as in all the universithe ideological brew has ties of France, brought about a certain confusion. The UNEF [Union Nationale des Etudiants de France] announces a demonstration and then just as quickly cancels it. Next an assault is proposed on police headquarters to set the building on fire (173 Molotov cocktails were discovered in some automobiles), but this 1s given up. Every nour, every day, a band of young people by the police headquarters, wander pass around, 1o0k them over, divide into smal] groups seeking a confrontation. The good fellows in the local police department sigh and also wait. Some Of them say: "I have never known such a time, when youngsters come to urinate on the walls of the police station and nothing is done about it." And not knowing what saint to invoke, they put everyone in the same sack.
These Joungsters are hoodlums, the authorities claim. They are young workers who have joined our movement, the students say. Because here, unquestionably, the two have fused. This is thanks to a very particular figure. In articulateness, he is a popular orator, but in action he is a formidable tactician. His name is Alexandre Hébert; he is of the anarchist school of 1905 and heads the FO [Force Ouvrièrel. A friend of the two Cohn-Bendit brothers, he is in the thick of events and has assembled a considerable number of glowing young apprentices.
Ihe other unions may seem to have withdrawn. In reality they hold the Loire- Atlantique in an iron grip.
Inis began with the gasoline. Ihe Donge refineries are quite close. But the strikers raised a red flag over the exit gates. Not a gasoline truck can leave without authorization from them. The same goes for the only pump in use in town,. which has been reserved for doctors only. A picket guards it. The same for water, gas and electricity. And since the police could do nothing about the most urgent problems, a "Comité intersyndical de grève" [Interunion Strike Committeel was set up in city hall. Little by little it has taken over administration of the city.
Thus it hands out vouchers permitting ambulances to be driven and deliveries of bread and vegetables to be made. Thus merchants must stick the following ticket on their show windows: "This store Is authorized to open. Its prices are under the continual control of the unions. Signed: CGI [Confédération Générale du Travail], CFDI [Confédération Française Democratique du Travaill, FO. Another example: This morning [May
291, the workers as a whole decided, after a secret ballot, to release Mr. Duvochel, who had been held prisoner in his offices at Sud- Aviation since May 14.
At Saint-Nazaire, 80 kilometers away, the situation is the same. Ihe municipal administration is Socialist, but the mayor's aides are unemployed. The commissioners' offices are almost empty. And everywhere, everywhere, red flags, red handkerchiefs at the throats of boys, children wearing red sweaters, red yarn tied to automobile antennas.
New "inspectors" are in the market, but this time they are unionists, checking prices against lists provided by their economic services. In the surrounding areas, the wives of strikers have organized direct producer-consumer provisioning, while on the highways you are asked in an amiable way to contribute to the funds being raised for those who reject the "personal regime."
de l'Atlantique [Atlantic Shipyards] summarized the situation perfectly for me:
At the Bourse du Travail [job placement office] activity is feverish. 'rom metal workers to fishermen, the word of the leaders is decisive. A new the officials, we had to take public acdistribution of labor is being organized tivities in hand. Today the only use the police commissioner is to us is to send here.
on our decisions to Paris. For us he