DISCUSSES HOW FRENCH CAN HELP VIETNAM
{The following interview with Professor Laurent Schwartz, chairman of the French Committee for the Support of the Vietnamese People, was published by Le Nouvel Observateur November 16. The translation is by World Outlook. ]
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Question: What response do you expect from the appeal that you launched together with Henri Bartoli, Alfred Kastler and Jean-Paul Sartre?
Answer: Local and national committees already exist, but they are scattered. We hope for the formation of a national committee for Vietnam that will centralize all the efforts. We are not thinking of direct coordination but rather of all of them adhering to the national committee -- possibly with a dual status for the committees that want to retain a certain autonomy. We are asking the members of the committees and all those who have not yet joined any organization, to rejoin the national committee and set up rankand-file committees. There would be no federation of existing committees -- that would pose complicated political problems.
In a certain sense we want to start again from zero.
Q: What are your concrete objectives? .
A: We are supporting what has already been initiated: the campaign for a Million [francs] for Vietnam, the International Day Against the War on December 10, the tribunal organized by Bertrand Russell to judge the war crimes of the American government, the campaign to recruit a body of civilian volunteers -- nurses, doctors, who would place themselves at the disposition of North Vietnam...But we are looking farther ahead. We could consider effectively boycotting American products in France. Of course, since many products contain American ingredients, it would be necessary to take several companies; let's say Coca Cola, Ford, some brands of cigarettes...The question must be thought out carefully. The members of the rank-and-file committees can debate their ideas and work out something in common. We are likewise thinking of a magazine.
Q: How is the November 28 demonstration shaping up?
A: This will be the first "public showing" of the National Committee for Vietnam. It is projected for the Palais des Sports. Max Ernst is getting up a poster. Sartre is to speak on the war in Vietnam. We will have a first showing of a film by Wilfred Burchett. Last May the demonstration "Six Hours for Vietnam," at the Mutualité, was limited to the Paris region. On November 28 we would like similar demonstrations to be organized in other cities in order to give the day the character of a national rather than simply Parisian effort.
The problem is to set the entire public in motion. Many people are discouraged. They say, "You are working for nothing; nothing will come of it..." It should not be forgotten that since 1945, public opinion and mass ideological movements have often won against pure force. Remember, when Tito resisted Stalin, everywhere at the beginning all you could find was skepticism. He held out. The way Cuba held out against the American military threat. After the-war in Algeria, many French intellectuals engaged ina kind of self-flagellation: "We lost our time; we accomplished nothing." This is false,
we accomplished calling the attention of public opinion to the problems of the war in Algeria. Due to this opinion, the government could not intervene massively, it could not "wrap up the package"...The manifesto of the 121 led to the big October 27 demonstration of the UNEF [Union Nationale des Etudiants de France]. That touched off a movement of public opinion. This movement led de Gaulle to make his trip to Algeria, a trip during which the Algerian masses entered into the scene in a spectacular way.
Q: Just how much is the French left “blocked" with regard to the war in Vietnam because the government appears to be following an oppositional policy?
A: Internationally, the gaullist regime is following a leftist policy. The third world recognizes it. The actions that we can undertake appear to some ineffective in comparison with the gaullist action. But we could surpass gaullism. De Gaulle does not follow his international policy on a domestic level.
Gaullism wants action at a summit level with regard to Vietnam. De Gaulle says to us: “Have confidence in me." We want something quite different -- to think and to act politically. This difference is fundamental.
Q: In face of the war in Vietnam, the French left seems to be, if not divided, at least not very well united. Why hasn't any Communist figure signed the appeal for the creation of a National Committee for Vietnam?
A: Yes, the present formations of the left, in facing the war in Vietnam, are not very effective. We have solicited Communist signatures. We are still ready-.to take them. A united movement cannot be organized without the Communists. But, for the moment, they don't want to become engaged along these lines. We hope that they will turn out massively for the demonstration on the twenty-eighth, that they will join the committee for Vietnam in a massive way.
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A: Many things. They would like to see us help bring their case before international public opinion. The North Vietnamese came to the "Six Hours for Vietnam." They attach great importance to all the demonstrations of solidarity.
Q: Do certain things that have been undertaken, like the Russell tribunal, attract the complete support of the Vietnamese?
A: Most certainly! The Vietnamese are very much interested in the tribunal, but perhaps they wish it could be effective immediately, that it would quickly condemn the American government. I think instead that the tribunal has a role of historic importance. The heads of state must understand that they are not beyond the judgment of men.
sity people, the intellectuals, and regroup them in a kind of ghetto. How do you get out of it?
A: That is one of our objectives. Some people would like the university circles, the intellectuals, to stay off by themselves. In fact, there are not many countries -- East or West -- in which the masses of the people are not screened from the most "thinking" part of the nation. Before 1914, there was a kind of communication between the university circles and the masses. People's universities correspond with a very democratic idea. Today a screen separates the popular masses from the intellectuals. It would seem in order, it seems to me, to organize a “teach in" with the workers in the Renault plants. The American university circles, who are fighting so courageously, feel the same kind of isolation. There is no center linking the university circles and the masses. The loss of this tradition is grave.
In the "developed" countries, the main alienation of the working class is not merely economic -- it is cultural. The masses of workers do not participate in culture. The intellectuals ought to get in touch with them -- and certain people fear the effect of this contact. In addition, the unions often struggle for economic demands, but very seldom for cultural demands. This is likewise one of the causes for the loss of interest in politics.