FRENCH TROTSKYISTS ON TATE CASE
[The following letter was made public by Farrell Dobbs, National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. The letter referred to in the first paragraph appeared in the December 2 World Outlook together with related correspondence. ]
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December 1, 1966 National Committee Socialist Workers Party New York
Dear Comrades,
We have taken cognizance of the letter which you sent to the SLL [Socialist Labour League] of Great Britain November 21 following the assault on Comrade Ernest Tate during a meeting held by that organization.
The Political Bureau of the Parti Communiste Internationaliste (French section of the Fourth International) joins in your protest against methods that are outrageous in the workers movement in general and in the Trotskyist movement in particular.
The employment of these methods is, in the case in question, the result of a deliberate policy, since it is not an isolated incident. During November, the group that calls itself the "Organisation Communiste Internationaliste," and which publishes La Verité, held a meeting in Paris at which the main speaker was G. Healy. He devoted most of his speech to attacking the Fourth International (which he claims to have unmasked as having gone over to the camp of the bourgeoisie) and the Jeunesse Communiste Révolutionnaire de France [Revolutionary Communist Youth of France], leveling against them slanders such as he printed in his newspaper against the majority of the participants in the demonstration at Liége. After this verbal assault, members of the JCR who were present in the hall, asked that one of them be given the floor. This was sufficient for the sergeants at arms to set upon them with blows. Members of the Voix Ouvriére, who objected to such methods, were likewise attacked. We are attaching to this letter a copy of an article which appeared in Voix Ouvriére testifying to the facts.
Those responsible for these inadmissible methods are self-styled Trotskyist leaders, who, incapable of debating ideas, hurl infamous charges and thus incite inexperienced youth to commit scandalous acts.
With our fraternal greetings,
For the Political Bureau
Pierre Frank
Michel Lequenne