preparing a future vigorous repression of revolutionary militants and the whole workers" movement. That is why we are publicly addressing ourselves to you.
After the 21st you vehemently denounced the violence and provocative action of the demonstrators. Al this time, we would like to remind you of a previous incident: that of the meeting held by Ordre Nouveau on 9 March 1971 at the Sports Palace, a meeting which also produced clashes between counterdemonstrators and the police.
On that occasion you protested against the fact that the fascists had been allowed to openly arm themselves and turn the Sports Palace into an armed stronghold. Did the authorities take account of this previous incident? Not at ull. Throughout the entire morning of 21 June the would-be fascists were left in peace to build up their arsenal in the Mutualite meeting hall, That is why we.were forced to seize one of their vehigles ourselves. and search it... without causing any damage whatsoever.
In 1971 you also protested against the use of police, alongside helmeted Ordre Nouveau marshals, to beat and chub isolated demonstratoes, On this occasion the fascists turned up in groups with their equipment, under protection of the police, and left at midnight in a similar manner, escorted by the police as far as their headquarters. Everyone who witnessed the meeting will corroborate this. What does this cooperation of the police with the fascists signity!
The fad of the matter is that the deliberate collaboration of the police officials with the fascists was at least as glazing, if not more so. than in 1971. That is why we are surprised by the different stance you have taken. Why do you think that on this occasion it is only a matter of guaranteeing freedom of speech and why do you vehemently demounce *chie provocateurs and professional demagogues who pracrise wanton violence apainst servants of the state who are only carrying out their duty within the framework of our institutions'? There can only be two explanations. Either you really believe that it is a matter of defending free speech, an opinion you share with Chief of Police Lenoir: you think that the meeting was simply ideological in character, and was not likely to disturb public order.' This is false. We are dealing with a campaign to influence public feeling in an openly racist and anti-semitic direction. Something with this character is intolerable, and illegal even by the standards of capitalist law which the police are supposed to uphold. Only a few days ago, militants of Ordre Nouveau from Nice carried out such a campaign in Grasse. This consciously and deliberately helped to spark off racialist incidents, such as we have not seen for a long time, and came very close to causing the lynching of a North African worker.
On the other hand, the Independent FoderaThe Communir League's bookshop after the police had carried our dimir search non of which you are secretary, may have been motivated by the fact that this time the damages were greater, the balance of suffering Jess tavourable, on the side of the police, But you and your colleagues should ask ourselves aboat the attitude and the responsibicy of the Ministry of the Interior and Police HeadquarCers.
First of all, by their open collaboration with the fascists they wore out the patience of the demonstrators, Secondly, on severa) accasions police cars or individual policemen tound themselves isolated along the route of the march. This happened so often that one must ask if they were not being used cynically as bail in the hope of setting off serious incidents. Attacks on two police vehicles... have been exploiled by the sensationalist press. The driver of the first car, perhaps panic-stricken, burned. But many eye witnesses can confirm that it was the marshals trom the demonstration who rushed to the aid of the police, even when one of them drew he pistol in panic. It seems to us that the authorities responsible deliberately placed the police in exposed positions and exploited the incidents that resulted to create a witch-hunt atinosphere against the revolutionaries. At a time when the authorities are using Ordre Nouveal against the revolutionary groups, the bosses" union of the CFT against scrikers, they are also attempting to strengthen the fascists currents within the police.
Things must be spelled cut, We clashed with policemen who were engaged in physically protecting a fascist meeting. We are not among those whe believe that the police force can be reformed. We believe that the police is an instrument of repression created by the capitalist class for its own use. Asa result we think that the police by its very nature must support the bosses against the workers, and protect fascists against revolutionaries, But we don t hold each individual policeman responsible for the role of the police as a whole. There are among them the sons of workers, small farmers, shopkeepers, who have joined the police not out of choice, but because they were driven to it through unemployment. The authorities are today counting on the fact that the indignation of the police will better pee pare them to intervene against the workers... Finally, in sumeration, two questions. Do you think it is a normal state of affairs that you are required to protect fascists and inter vene against strikers who are fighting for better wages and working conditions? Do you not think that those who disfigured Richard Deshayes and ure still unpunished to this day. those who in increasing numbers toss live grenudes into crowds of demonstrators, those who beat and murder in the police stations or those who use their jobs as a cover for white slave trafficking and drug smuggling, are primarily responsible for the discredit of the police?
Political Bureau of the Communist League
On June 28th, 1973, the French government, after a special cabinet meeting, announced the dissolution of the Communist League, the French section of the Fourth International, and prepared to prosecute its leaders in a 'special Court for State Security. This is one of the few instances since June 1968 that a revolutionary organisation has been declared illegal. As such it constitutes the opening of a new attack on the revolutionary movement as a whole and reflects the gravity of the social and political crisis which is confronting the French ruling class.
The attack on the Communist League comes on the heels of the latter's combative opposi tion to the French fascist orgarisation Ordre Nouveau (New Order). This organisation attempted to hold a mass meeting in the centre of Paris to mobilise support for an openly racist campaign directed against immigrant workers. The Communist Leogue was vital in ensuring a vigorous counter-demonstration in the course of which the police openly appeared as the defenders of the Ordre Nouveau. At the end of the day nearly seven hundred fascists, dressed in black uniforms and black helmets were escorted by armed policemen in their black uniforms and riot shields to a place of safety. This is the first time since 1934 that the French police has come to the aid of the fascists in such a blatant way. Ordre Nouveau has, over the last year, been particularly active not only in hounding and planning attacks on immigrant workers, but also in serving as strikebreakers for the French bosses by openly attacking picket lines The International Marxist Group, the British section of the Fourth International, salutes the militants of the dissolved Communist League and congratulates them for their initiatives against the fascists. The rise of a new extreme-right is not simply a French phenomenon. It is a process which is taking place in a number of countries in capitalist Europe and is a result of the growing instability of the capitalist system on both an economic and political level. As such it has to be seen in the light of the increasing repression and attacks on democratic rights which the bourgeois governments themselves are launching throughout Europe. The banning of a Maoist group in Brandt's Germany, the new laws against immigrants in socal. democratic Sweden, the legal harassment of strikers in Britain together with the role of the army in Northern Ireland, the rise of the MSt in Italy, repression in Switzerland, are all pointer's to the growth of the strong state in a period of capitalist decay. In this situation the attack of the French government onthe Communist League does not come as a surprise. For the last two years the growth of the Communist League as the largest and most poverful organisation of the revolutionary left in Western Europe has been worrying the French bourgeiosie. The role of the Communiste League, earlier this spring, in the massive mobilisations of school students against the army and its actions in defending these mobilisations against the lascists is public knowledge. It was only a matter of time before the Gaullist regime intervened. The fact that they have acted against the French section of the Fourth International because of the latter's initiatives against a taseist orga nisation is an indication whose importance will not be lost on the working class movement in France. Alreacy protests are pouring in from many quarters.
The action cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. The iMG appeals to all working class organisations including the Labour and Commuhist Parties) to support a campaign in this country to get the ban on the Communist League lifted, We call, in particular, on all socialists and revolutionery organisations to join in our actions on this question which include a picket of the French Embassy this weekend, a public meeting in the following wook and a demonstration on Saturday 7th July International Marxist Group, British Section of the Fourth International - 29 June 1973