ISR Index | Main Newspaper Index
Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
From International Socialist Review, Vol.29 No.4, July-August 1968.
Transcribed & marked up by Andrew Pollack for ETOL.
Charles de Gaulle’s repression of the main revolutionary groups in France has been vigorously condemned by virtually all the leftist political tendencies in that country except the Communist Party. It was answered by a wave of demonstrations at French consulates and information centers across Canada and the United States. And it is vital that these efforts be supported and reinforced. There can be no question of a democratic future for the peoples of France if the vanguard of the revolutionary struggle is banned and in danger of persecution and arrest without warning.
June 18, the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, the World Party of Socialist Revolution founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938, condemned the Gaullist repression in a brief statement:
“On June 14, 1968, the French secret police raided the offices of the French section of the International, the offices of their publishing enterprise and the private homes of many militants. This followed by a day the official government dissolution of the PCI [Parti Communiste Internationaliste – Internationalist Communist Party, the French section of the Fourth International] and the JCR [Jeunesse Communiste Revolutionnaire – Revolutionary Communist Youth].
“Many comrades were arrested and held for questioning and their personal papers seized. Most of them have since been released. However, Pierre Frank is still being held.” (Frank, secretary of the PCI, was released June 24 after a three-day hunger strike. He had been held incommunicado for ten days.)
The United Secretariat statement called for the organization of protests and solidarity actions. The United Secretariat also requested that material aid be sent to the following address: Emile Van Ceulen, secretary, Fonds de Solidarité contre la Repression en France, 111 Avenue Seghers, Brussels 8, Belgium.
In this issue of the International Socialist Review we are printing documents which we hope will be of use in clarifying the world historic importance of the French revolutionary upsurge and the burning necessity of building international support for the victims of the French regime.
ISR Index | Main Newspaper Index
Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
Last updated on 20 June 2009