{"id":1091,"date":"2019-03-11T22:27:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T22:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsm.prolerat.org\/?page_id=1091"},"modified":"2019-10-21T15:02:56","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T14:02:56","slug":"how-close-was-france-to-a-socialist-revolution","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/how-close-was-france-to-a-socialist-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"How close was France to a socialist revolution?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
July 1968, U.K.<\/a><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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One\n of the most amusing reports to come out of France during the recent \nunrest was of one panic-stricken capitalist, convinced that his class \nwas about to be expropriated, who loaded his car with over \u00a31 million in\n cash and made a dash for the Swiss border. But his terror, ridiculous \nin retrospect, was matched by a corresponding euphoria in left-wing \ncircles. Anyone accustomed to thinking along Bolshevik or anarchist \nlines was convinced that “a revolutionary situation” had developed and, \nin Britain at any rate, there were several groups declaring that the \nsocialist revolution had started. Already May 1968 is part of the \nmythology of the left and there is a generally accepted explanation of \nwhy the agitation seeped away and why the strikers drifted back to work.\n The French workers are supposed to have been ripe for revolution and \nall that was missing was “a large revolutionary organisation capable of \ngiving direction to the demands of the working class”.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThis raises the whole question of what constitutes a socialist \nrevolution. The Socialist Party of Great Britain argues that it is not \nenough to have thousands of demonstrators on the streets or even \nmillions of workers occupying the factories. Above all the working class\n must have a clear understanding of what Socialism entails and what \nmethods are effective in overthrowing capitalism. A grasp of socialist \nprinciples by the vast majority of the workers is a minimal condition \nfor going forward to Socialism and no party, no matter how religiously \nit follows the Bolshevik tradition, can substitute for this.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIf this is accepted, then we can estimate how close France came to a \nsocialist revolution by taking a look at the demands which the workers \nadvanced during the period of upheaval. Most prominent were the usual \nclaims for higher wages, better working conditions, shorter hours and \nsecurity of employment. (There are between two and three million workers\n on the minimum wage level of less than \u00a38 a week and at least four \nmillion earning under \u00a311 a week.) Such demands have the full support of\n the Socialist Party–but we must emphasise that there is nothing \nrevolutionary about them. In fact, the wage increases that have been \nsecured need to be put in perspective. They seem to be averaging out to a\n general rise of about 13 per cent (on the basis of a 10 per cent \nall-round increase and a 3 per cent rise in the minimum wage) but this \nneeds to be set against the fact that nominal wages have been rising by 6\n per cent annually over the last few years anyway. Although these \nincreases will naturally cut into profits, the international capitalist \nclass hastened to reassure itself that the outcome would be far from a \ndisaster As the Economics Editor of the Sunday Times (London) put it:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\tThe pay settlement will not be wholly adverse for France’s economy. The\n big \tincrease in the minimum wage will help send the poorer French \nfirms to the \twall, releasing workers for the big, profitable \nones–which pay well above the \tminimum.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nYet the strikers did not restrict their demands simply to these issues. \nAt numerous plants there were calls for “a radical change in the power \nstructure” and for “participation of the workers in the running of the \nfactory”. A leader of Force Ouvriere (the social democratic trade union \nfederation) pointed out his members were agitating for “genuine workers’\n participation in the policy of industry” and a senior Renault shop \nsteward came out for nationalisation of key sectors of the economy, \nincluding all the car firms, the chemical industry and the banks. \nUnderstandably, demands such as these were greeted with rapturous \ndelight by all those who imagine Socialism as a system of \nnationalisation under workers’ control; but the Socialist Party rejects \nthis view. For socialists nationalisation, whatever its trimmings, is \nnothing more than state capitalism. The policy of workers’ control does \nnot pose a threat to the capitalist system as long as those workers are \nstill committed to capitalism and have not understood the socialist \nalternative. That this was the case in France is made clear by the fact \nthat even the most extreme elements, such as Cohn-Bendit, went no \nfurther than the old utopian demand for equal wages. Who was urging the \nabolition of the wages system and an end to the market economy? For this\n reason, we cannot accept the claims of one young activist in St. \nNazaire:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe long-term outlook is uncertain, but not hopeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nOn one tier, there are the traditional union claims, which must be met \nimmediately. On another, the government and the regime itself are in \nquestion. There is the challenge of capitalist society, of social orders\n based on private property.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nObviously there was a challenge to the government and the Gaullist regime but capitalism remained secure throughout.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nFor all that, the Socialist Party recognises that there are vital \nlessons to be drawn from the recent struggles of the French workers. One\n of the most important is the complete bankruptcy of the “communist” \nparties, as demonstrated by the PCF. Another striking feature was the \nway in which the factories and universities were organised while the \nemployers and authorities were temporarily eliminated. Although there \nwas no production during the strikes, all the factory services had to be\n maintained. At the Renault plant at Billancourt, for example, the \nfactory hospital was still functionning, the firemen and security \nofficers had to keep patrolling, food had to be prepared\u2014and  so on. \nEven more impressive was the Sorbonne, with the students in control. A \nhospital service, treating those injured in the riots, was centred on \nthe Medical Faculty and it was estimated that a daily average of 10,000 \nposters and hand-outs were being produced by the Fine Arts School. Yet \nall of this was done by unpaid, voluntary labour, by people cooperating \nfor a common purpose. Too much should not be made of this (we are not \nsuggesting it represented “socialism in action”) but it does at least \ndisprove the often-heard objection to a socialist society that, if the \ncoercive pressures of the wages system were removed, nothing but chaos \nwould result.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAnother important aspect was the role of the police and armed forces. \nAlthough vast publicity was given to the brutality of the CRS, there was\n less on the discontent which was building up among the ordinary police \nforces over their use as government thugs Already by May 18 there were \nreports from the police unions of “extreme tension” in the forces. Some \nof the police were also adopting the tactics of the strikers themselves.\n An article in the Times (London) mentioned that the branch dealing with\n intelligence on student activity had been deliberately depriving the \ngovernment of information about student leaders in support of an \nexpenses claim! This indicates that the majority of those who make up \nthe police and armed forces are subjected to the general pressures which\n act on all working men and women.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAs for the army, General Fourquet\u2014the  Chief of Staff\u2014made it clear that\n it would obey any constitutionally elected government\u2014even  a \n“communist” one. Whether Fourquet and the general meant this or not is \nlargely immaterial for, when we are in a position to establish \nSocialism, the bulk of the armed forces (as with the rest of the working\n class) will be socialists and will understand that their interest lies \nnot in fighting their fellow workers but in freeing mankind as a whole \nby stripping the capitalist class of its wealth.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIf there were a working class committed to Socialism in France the \ncorrect method of achieving political power would be to fight the \ngeneral election on a revolutionary programme, without any reforms to \nattract support from non-socialists. In fact, the first stage in a \nsocialist revolution is for the vast majority of the working class to \nuse their votes as class weapons. This would represent the transfer of \npolitical power to the working class. We adopt this position not because\n we are mesmerised by legality and not because we overlook the cynical \nand two-faced double-dealing which the capitalists will no doubt resort \nto. We say, however, that a majority of socialist delegates voted into \nthe national assembly or parliament would use political power to \ncoordinate the measures needed to overthrow the capitalist system. Any \nminority which was inclined to waver would have second thoughts about \ntaking on such a socialist majority which was in a position to wield the\n state power.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nBut since the workers in France are still convinced that capitalism is \nthe only viable social system, the immediate task must be for genuine \nsocialists to concentrate their efforts on spreading socialist ideas \namong the working class. For this purpose an independent socialist \nparty, which does not compromise its principles or dissipate its \nactivity in attempts to reform capitalism, is indispensable.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Back to the History Index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Back to the World Socialist Movement home page<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
July 1968, U.K. One of the most amusing reports to come out of France during the recent unrest was of one panic-stricken capitalist, convinced that his class was about to be expropriated, who loaded his car with over \u00a31 million in cash and made a dash for the Swiss border. But his terror, ridiculous in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2661,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1091","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2662,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1091\/revisions\/2662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}