CRISIS IN THE FRENCH UNITED SOCIALIST PARTY
By Auguste Deschamps
PARIS -- The second national congress of the PSU (Parti Socialiste Unifié) was held Jan. 24-27 at Alfortville, a suburb of Paris, Up to-then the party was directed by a bloc composed of Social Democrats and right-wing centrists. The general secretary was Edouard Depreux, formerly of the SFIO (Section Francaise Internationale Ouvriere) and one-time "socialist" Minister of the Interior. The political brains of this leadership was Gilles Martinet, coeditor of the weekly France Observateur, who has just published a book The Marxism of Our Times in which he revises Marx, Engels and Trotsky In a technocratic direction. Mendes-France and his ideas ~ had heavy influence in this leadership.
10-
At the congress six tendencies, each designated by a letter of the alphabet, sought a majority.
Tendency "A" was a combination of partisens of Mendes-France and old-school reformists. Daniel Mayer, their spokesman, expressed nostalgia for the Popular Front and the policies of Leon Blun. Robert Verdier, former member of parliament and current editor of the official newspaper of the PSU Tribune Socialiste, whose base is among the trade unionists of the reformist "Force Ouvriere," spoke a bit more to the left.
Tendency "B," up to now the majority bloc, was headed by Gilles Martinet and Edouard Depreux. Paradoxically, this current rests essentially on the left Catholics in the PSU, but also contains many petty-bourgeois elements with a technocratic ideology.
Tendency "C" was born in the past few months through a break with the majority. Its leader, Jean Poperen, once occupied high posts in the French Communist party before becoming one of the inspirers of the opposition group which published a bulletin called Tribune du Communisme and which participated in the formation of the
6 oun are to be found such figures as Claude Bourdet, the other co-editor of France Observateur, Tanguy-Prigent, one of the two PSU members of parliament, Victor Fay, Yvan Craipeau, Roland Filiatre, etc. This left-centrist wing succeeded in winning about thirty-five percent of the rank and file of the P8U, a notable victory in view of its recent formation.
Tendency "E," which calls itself the "revolutionary-socialist tendency," is the fourth important current in the PSU. The press designates it as "Trotskyist" because almost all of its leaders were former figures in the PCI (Parti Communiste Internationaliste, French Section of the Fourth International). These include, Marce} Favre-Bleibtreu, Michel Lequenne, Marcel Pennetier and Andre Calves. This current is associated with the publication of a series of factory newspapers all bearing the same title, L'Etincelle (The Spark). It also has student support.
The two agro Fria are negligible. Tendency "D" is pro- Stalinist. Tendency "was liquidated during the congress.
The former majority, feeling that it was losing its position in the party, fought on a purely tactical level. Appealing to the rank-and-file wish for unity, it sought to form a bloc with tendency "C." The vote for the former majority on various issues never rose above forty-five percent.
The discussion as a whole centered around two problems:
(1) The "new layers" -- technicians, managerial personnel, "progressive" farmers -~ should they or should they not constitute the primary audience to which the party appeals? These layers, are they or are they not the "new sociological vanguard"? "Yer,' said tendency "B." "No," gaid all the others.
:
;
¢ mde
{2) Shouldiwe or should we not integrate ourselves dn. the ecanomic bodies.created byskhe Gaullist regime (advisory. bodies, gitached th. the, Rilenning Cemmission and the. future Economic Senate) ewe to utilize-them in challenging the bexngegisie for, -power?: "Yes," said tendencies "A" and "B,." "No, ‘i field tendencies. NOM? and "E,
‘ov? None of the resolutions presented by the contending tendencies won an absolute majority. The national political committee, which was elected, is a "chambre ingouvernable" (a parliament in which no ome can win a majority). Tendency "B" has twenty-five seats, tendency "C," eighteen; tendencies "A" and "E" each six. . ax
In the week after the congress the crisis hit France Gbserva ene one of the most important left-wing weeklies in France. Martinet denied Claude Bourdet space in the same issue for his aiffering estimate of the congress. Since a break between the. two editors is inevitable, a new difficulty is placed in the way of a com k pion between tendencies "B" and "C.' . he congress registered a leftward shift in the PSU. The. sini iu= ence of Mendes-Prance has collapsed, and it is doubtful that this former leader of the Radical party and his friends will remain in the PSU where they can no longer play a significant role. Some of them have joined tendency "B" which now constitutes the new right wing in the PSU. Tendency "C," which stands in opposition, is supported critically by tendency '","
At its February 3 meeting, the national political committee of the PSU was unable to reach agreement on the formation of a national office. They adopted the lame solution of a "parity" secretariat composed of an equal number of members of tendency "B" and "C." This body, which was given office for three months only, is bolstered by another body of fourteen members in which the four tenden-~ cies divided up the leadership of seven commissions,
This "solution" canbe only the prelude to a violent strug ggle between the left and the right to win a majority af, the rank and file.
ALGIERS