THE MAY 17
GENERAL STRIKE IN FRANCE
By Pierre Frank
Paris
As was easy to predict, the general strike May 17 was a success. All the essential services (electricity, gas, postal deliveries, transport of all kinds, government services, etc.) were shut down. The majority of workers in private industry likewise went out on strike. In the cities and even in the small towns, demonstrations were staged. In Paris the main demonstration included close. to 150,000 persons.
In World Outlook last week, in explaining the causes of the general oneday strike, we pointed out that the action was essentially political, since it challenged the move to grant the regime special powers so as to muzzle parliament. Everyone understood this. It could even be said that it was precisely because of this that the movement was of such amplitude, broader than the preceding actions that did not go beyond limited demands (wages, negotiations with management... ).
The facts themselves thus offer a refutation of the gradualist, reformist concept according to which broad actions cannot be undertaken as long as the workers do not respond to limited slogans involving minor actions. At certain times this concept does not hold at all; at present in France only the perspective of battles for great objectives can inspire the workers to go into action.
The strike was political. But in the days preceding it, the trade-union leaders who initiated it sought to camou- 'flage this. It's a trade-union movement, practically all of them said.
In addition, the leaders of Force Ouvriére, after having taken a step forward in meeting with the leaders of the Confédération Frangaise et Démocratique du Travail in order to reach agreement on all the federations designating May 17 as the strike date, took a step backward by refusing to participate in a joint street demonstration with the Confédération Générale du Travail.
Consequently, while a giant demonstration was taking place in the streets, the leaders of Force Ouvriére were at a miserable meeting involving only a few hundred persons.
The demonstration was imposing in its size. The same cannot be said for the spirit displayed. The groups that showed some enthusiasm were the teachers and the students (under the banner of the Union Nationale des Etudiants de France). They
were the only ones to sing the Interna-
tionale.
The other sectors had no positive
objective to advance, outside of the slo-
gan "No special powers!" Pompidou, even
more than de Gaulle, was the target of
hostile shouts. -
Once again, this was not due to
any lack of militancy on the part of the
workers; it was due to a default in pol-
icy on the part of the traditional leader-
ships.
Here and there a few shouts of
"Special powers to the workers!" -- which
did not correspond at all to the official
objectives of the organizations -- pointed
in the direction of a genuine class-
struggle policy.
In short, the day was important as
marking a certain stage in the growth of
discontent among the workers not only with
regard to their conditions of life and
work but also in their opposition to the
Gaullist regime.
But this objective development,
which cannot fail to deepen in view of the
very policy of de Gaullism which will soon
receive sharp expression in the ordinances
enacted under the special powers, was
neither stimulated nor reinforced by the
traditional leaderships of the union fed-
erations and the workers parties.
Their basic idea is that they can
pull out of this situation when de Gaulle
is gone. Due to their parliamentary cre-
tinism they lack any understanding of de
Gaulle's bonapartisn.
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The discussion will begin in parliament and last just the few hours necessary at a minimum for this body to bow out.
We will return to this debate over the Gaullist regime and its perspectives at a later date.
. May 19, 1967
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