[The following is a translation of extracts from a letter as published in the June 30-July 1 issue of Le Monde. I'he editors of the Paris daily included the following note: "Mr. Pierre Frank, secretary of the Parti Communiste Internationaliste (Fourth International, Trotskyist), which has been dissolved, sent us the fol- Lovin 1etter,,d1550lved, sent us the 101-
In addition to being the secretary of the Parti Communiste Internationaliste, which has been "dissolved" under a decree signed by de Gaulle, Pierre Frank is a former secretary of leon Irotsky. He has challenged de Gaulle's decree banning the PCI and a campaign has been opened for funds to carry the case through the courts.]
As the secretary of a revolutionary organization dissolved by
• the government decree of June 12, I was "confined" for ten days on a warrant sworn out by the prefect of police. Ihe warrant was issued in connection with a preliminary hearing for an offense against the national security...
A decision can be made by the prefect of police, that is by an executive officer of the government. Pursuant to this decision, a citizen in full possession of his civil and political rights can be "confined" for two days, followed by another five days, and finally for three additional days by decision of the prosecutor of the State Security Court [cour de Sûreté de l'Etat], that is by another executive officer of the government.
During these days this person totally vanishes from society. He has no right to see his family or to talk with a lawyer. At bottom this is the same system as the lettre de cachet.* During this "confinement" the person concerned is peated oranged under dicestut hen placed formally is turned over to the police who subject him to "inquiries" (not to interrogation -- you will note the distinction). No definite complaint has been brought against him. He does not know what his answers might lead to. He has no legal counsel. He does not even have a piece of paper to note down the questions and his answers.
Ten days, that might seem a brief time. But it is by no means so when a person finds himself totally cut off from the world. I was not subjected to any physical violence, but I was placed under intolerable material and mental duress. To my protests the judicial police replied in substance: "We aren't treating jou the way the fascists would; in other countries confinement runs for a longer time." What a strange basis for comparison! I was not subjected to fascist methods; but I was caught in a "judicial" system which could lead there without great difficulties -- with the aid, I presume, of a few decrees.
After having refused to answer questions for forty-eight hours, I decided to go along with them to find out what was in my dossier. At the end of the second period, the five-day one, after about ten hours of interrogation, the questions hac removed all doubt. My dossier was empty. They held me three more days, not because they had anything against me but because they had nothing. There was nothing left for me to do but refuse to answer all questions and go on a hunger strike.
During these three additional days, I was not even asked to come to an "inquiry." Ten minutes before the legal termination of "confinement," I was notified I was free. I left the Gravelle redoubt without any official papers of release whatsoever. I have not been indicted; I am not a "witness." But the fact is that I was removed from society for ten days. Are there other persons at present in these circumstances? I suspected that there were others confined at Gravelle in another building, but I am unable to say for certain.
I have little to say about the conditions of my existence in those ten days. My keepers provided me with decent and acceptable living conditions Ior ten days. Nonetheless, I cannot fail to mention that I was afforded a night in jail as a preliminary; it is an unsanitary place which cannot be justified even for criminals.
I should like to add a few words at this point on the political background of my case. My party was dissolved because to have created "combat it was supposed groups and a private militia" (which nobody has seen yet). I was interrogated in the above-mentioned circumstances for a supposed offense against the national security. All through my interrogation, despite my insistence, I was not asked a single question concerning these so-called "combat groups and a private militia." Why? I presume that the police did not want to put themselves in a position where they might have to expose an allegation contained in a document signed by the present one me of erinthe president of the republic,
OI.
The questions I was asked dealt with the Trotskyist ideas I have defended for what will soon be forty jears, with my trips abroad -- about which I conceal nothing - about a speech I made at the sorbonne, the activity of one of my "pupils," about my impressions in walking through Paris, etc. Nothing which had anything to do with a definite offense against the national security. There could have been no error or oversight because the policemen questioning me did not hide the fact that they reported to their superiors every evening and were given new questions to ask the next day.
There is a final point which I think holds some interest. I was notified on June 21 that I would be held for the additional three days of my period of confinement. By that time I was sick and tired of hearing arguments about how criminal it was to want to overthrow by force a government based on universal sufirage. so, I made the lollowing demano in writing: "My confinement does not deprive me of my political rights. Therefore, I ask that provisions be made so that
I can exercise my right to vote on Sunday, June 23." It goes without saying
Paris from the hu e 11 linge ot dt 4, nslated
Ine Iollowing article, translatec newspaper of the Action Committees supported by the Union Nationale des Etudiants de France (National Union of French Students), provides further details on the Nantes committee which assumed such broad powers during the height of the strike movement in France as to become an incipient organ of "dual power" in opposition to the capitalist government.
Lihe article is entitled "Des Barrages Routiers à l'Autodéfense" (from road blocks to self-defense).]
The machine politicians and the "leftists" debated during the last two weeks of May over whether the situation in France was revolutionary or not. It is certain that the debate was much less obscure in Nantes, where the state of the struggle was such that no equivocation was possible for anyone. A concrete exwhat the effect of this request was. There is no need to say that it brought no result.
Personally, I had no doubt that the prerogatives of the police had priority over a citizen's right to vote. But I was not unhappy to be able to show that the ballot is not the democratic method, the only democratic method. Our great ancestors of the Tear I, * the founding fathers of the American republic, which then was not the republic of the CIA and the Pentagon, taught us in famous documents that insofar as democratic methods go there is a time for ballots and a time for paving stones, for popular revolts and insurrections.
I cannot recall a single national holiday that commemorates an election. On the other hand, July 14 in France, July 4 in the United States, July 21 in Belgium,. November 7 in the Soviet Union, and July 26 in Cuba...are all anniversaries of rather drastic democratic demonstrations against authoritarian governments. It was well that this lesson was remembered one evening on the Rue Gay-Lussac, even if as a result it cost me ten days of confinement.
* 1793, the peak year of the french revolution and the year the revolutionary calendar was established.
ample is offered by a leaflet signed "UNEF- FO Transport Union" which was distributed May 30:
"CRS AGAINST THE BLOCKADE
"A blockade was set up May 29 by members of the FO [Force Ouvrière -- Workers Forcel transport union and students in the Sorinières area around 5 p.m. It was composed of around fifty empty cans guarded by à hundred FO transport workers assisted by some students.
"In agreement with the central strike committee, only trucks transporting perishable goods and provided with an order signed by the central strike committee and private automobiles were authorized to proceed.
"About 10 p.m., four carloads of
Gardes Mobiles, five 'scooters,' six motorcycles, not to mention the police cars, came from downtown Nantes. After having called for the person in charge of the blockade, the chief of the forces of 'law and order,' without reading any order to
NANTES TRUCKDRIVERS THOUGHT THE SITUATION WAS REVOLUTIONARY NANTES TRUCKDRIVERS THOUGHT THE SITUATION WAS REVOLUTIONARY
disperse, ordered the squad to charge.
"A number, including a high-school student, were seriously wounded."
Those who got out the leaflet were in agreement with their readers -- a central strike committee did exist, this committee held power, it decided who had the right to use the road, if anyone in particular wanted to take the matter up, he didn't go to the mayor or the police
• but to this central conmittee. If this is not a revolutionary situation, when will there be a revolution? Or the words no longer have any meaning.
In Nantes, in any case, when the truckdrivers went on strike, they didn't pose any subtle questions about the revolution; but they did see clearly that it was necessary to control communications between Nantes and elsewhere. This was the only solution.
The roadblocks around Nantes were put up beginning on Friday, May 24. The striking truckdrivers blocked the main highways with the help of university and high-school students in order to strengthen the manpower at their disposal. After May 26, the FO union - which is the strongest in the transport industry in Nantes -- acted in liaison with the central strike committee which had just been constituted. Ihe central strike committee was already distributing vouchers for gasoline; it was also in charge of delivering authorizations to truckdrivers which would permit transport only of commodities needed by the peasants or for feeding the strikers.
The idea was a good one, but unfortunately, great confusion reigned at first, due to the lack oi organızation.
In the absence of a competent "transport" commission, the central strike committee distributed authorizations In a baa way. The license number of the truck and the nature of the freight (urgent merchandise or otherwise) was not indicated on the permit. Many truckdrivers did not know at the beginning that a permit was necessary.
The boss of the main sweatshop, Grangjouan, was given a permit because
The Jeunesse Communiste Révolutionnaire and the Parti Communiste Internationaliste (French section of the Fourth International), two of the revolutionary organizations banned by de Gaulle because of their political opposition to his reactionary regime, have gone to the courts to challenge the legality of the "dissolution" decree. Other groups, similarly the central strike committee had not got in touch with the truckdrivers!
Despite all this, control of the highways did take place. The four main entry points were guarded by 500 truckdrivers and students. A few who tried to run the blockade had their windows broken and tires punctured. But there was no looting. On Saturday, June 1, an FO press release denied that any drivers of private automobiles had to pay a toll.
Inus, IOI severaL days, an entire cown was isolated, the blockades lunctioning like screens, and even being prepared for armed resistance if the few police still at the disposal of the prefect tried to interfere.
since May 31. The alarm sounded by the Gaullist government has given more reality to the threat of police repression. The Whitsuntide holiday, and especially the probable resumption of work in some of the sweatshops, compelled the unions to reinforce the pickets in the plants, that is, by reducing the number on the biockades.
Finally the central strike committee decided June 1 to give up the system of issuing gasoline vouchers (it required a genuine administration of forty persons to handle this) out of fear of losing sympathy among the automobile drivers. In these circumstances, the blockades could no longer be held, and they were taken down during the night oi June I-2.
In order to avoid any bloodshed, it was necessary to shift to another front. As an FO delegate told me June 2:
"If Paris goes back on Tuesday, June 4, convoys oi escorted trucks will in mass. It will be impossible to hold the highways! But if our pickets in the sweatshops prevent the trucks from being unloaded, the struggle will continue."
Nantes thus lived for a week in a situation of virtual sell-delense, a situation which saw no violence solely because the public authority had disintegrated.
affected, have announced their intention to go to court, too.
An international solidarity fund has been set up to aid in this fight. Contributions should be sent to Enil Van Ceulen, Secretary, Fonds de Solidarité contre la Répression en France, I11 Avenue Seghers, Brussels 8, Belgium.
REVOLUTIONARY GROUPS IN FRANCE APPEAL FOR AID REVOLUTIONARY GROUPS IN FRANCE APPEAL FOR AID
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MOBE PENSION T
ZURICH POLICE answer student demand that to be run by youth groups themselves. In city take over empty department store and reply to clubs ana fire hoses, students convert it into youth recreation center blocked traffic and threw paving stones.
ZURICH, TOO, HIT BY STUDENT UNREST
Zurich
Ihis staid city, 10ng advertised y the local bourgeoisie as the "Athens of Switzerland" but which, in the Euro-. pean class struggle, looks much more like a stagnant backwater, received a salutary stirring up June 29 when hundreds of youth under the leadership of a broad committee, the Aktion Autonomes Jugendzentrum, occupied an empty department store.
The action was part of a campaign staged by students in Zurich for several months to get the city to take over the department store and turn it into an autonomous youth center.
The student organizations set up a broad committee, began leafleting the city in an intensive way, set up pickets in front of the building and decorated it with slogans and placards in the style of the Sorbonne. A preliminary occupation was tried in the middle of June.
On June 29, the city authorities mobilized in full force to protect the endangered private property from being appropriated by the youth. Hundreds of club-wielding police and firemen armed with high-pressure water hoses sought to disperse the demonstrators.
Pitched battles were fought at Bellevue, where Lake Zurich empties into the Limmat, and at the Bahnhofplatz, the center of the city. Several streetcars were put out of commission when the students began building barricades and this halted all trams for a number of hours. The crowd at the Bahnhofplatz swelled to some 5,000 or 6,000 persons.
lore than 40 persons were injurec (including 16 police), and 169 arrests were made, 33 oi them the age of 20.
CREAM
IRVS SHOE REPAIR
I6 HOS
"FREE SPEECH, FREE ASSEMBLY, FREE HUEY." Part of crowd of 5,000 in Berkeley, California, July 4, supporting banned French
After six days of violent clashes with police in Berkeley, California, more than 5,000 student demonstrators peaceful- 1y assembled July 4 to take possession of Telegraph Avenue, the territory they had defended with barricades only a few days before.
The confrontation began June 29 when police moved in with clubs and tear gas against a demonstration of more than a thousand persons called by the Young socialist Alliance to protest de Gaulle's ban on revolutionary youth and workingclass organizations in France. In accordance with legal requirements, a permit had been secured for sound equipment to be used in a sidewalk rally. Ihe cops declared the rally illegal, using the excuse that a few people had sat down in the street.
Notes
* A royal order confining persons indefinitely without their being charged or tried.