Labour movement must stake its claim to rule

LOODSHED, violence R and workers' demonstrations in the Paris streets, only a few days after de Gaulle's speech to the nation, underline what may prove to be the mortal crisis of the Fifth Republic.

The series of demonstrations in recent months, and the extreme fear which they have provoked among supporters of the regime, shows that the real cleavage in French society is not between de Gaulle and the OAS but between the ruling class as a whole and the working class.

Determined

The government is determined to prevent the intervention of the workers at all costs. It thus gives a free hand to club-swinging and trigger-happy cops of the most brutalised police force in Europe to beat up and kill its opponents. Only a few weeks ago the victims were Algerian immigrant workers. Now they are drawn from the working population as a whole.

In principle, the anti-OAS demonstrations have been seen by the official leaders of the labour movement as an offer of help for de Gaulle, or an attempt to force him into more energetic measures against the fascist right.

But the president prefers to tackle his right-wing opponents with his own methods - which leave the way clear for a deal with them against the working class.

Opposition

It is now becoming increasingly clear to militant workers that the only effective struggle against the fascist danger begins with uncompromising opposition to the present bonapartist regime.

This lesson is being taught by harsh experience. For the official leaders, however, it is by