main towns of France.
iness.
movement has achieved a new stage with this campaien. reaching out to or me students own demanus.
strations, the French Government had been forced to retreat by delaying the down was a sympton of the nervousness or tne regime, wach was snown in tne recent local elections to have lost majority support in the country. students were not fooled by this manoeuvre, and have shown their determination to force the total repeal of the reform'.
arca last week in a nauonal delegate con ference representing all the colleges on stake. when canca ror a natonal started discussions with the leaders of federations in France, to seek their support and link the student struggle with the current wave of workers' struggles against unemployment savage repression in the streets of Paris, age police attacks since the events of May '68.
The evolution of the French student hitherto uninvolved colleges on the basis Even before last Thursday's demonapplication of the reform' to allow consultation with all concerned". This climbBut the A series of unlimited student strikes, often supported by the teachers, culminstudent strike. Student leaders have also the CGT and CFDT, the two main union The Government's reply has been police stations. A massive march of 40,000 college and school students in Paris last Thursday came up against one of the most savOn the same day tens of thousands of students marched through the These demonstrations mark the high point of a campaign for the repeal of a proposed reform' of the university system which would tailor further education in France more closely to the needs of big bus DON'TT SEE YoU iN 68) PELOU often prepared by provocations carried out by small squads of fascist thugs.
Several students were injured by gas grenades fired directly at the demonstrators, and hundreds of demonstrators were beaten up in police vehicles and This recourse to repression reflects the regime's isolation on this issue • even the university rectors have now come out against the reform'. But if the regime is increasingly scared of a new May 68, so too are the Communist and Socialist Parties.
Their perspectives are entirely elec toral. They come forward with no dem ands capable of seriously tackling the problems confronting the working class. Instead of using the students' fight to drive forward the struggle against the Government, they are attempting to limit it by constantly counterposing negotiations to any action. In this situation Rouge, the new daily paper of ine renen rotskyIsis. Has occonne one of the chief instruments in organ ising and extending the campaign.
The French regime is now in serious trouble. The latest cloud on its horizon is the threat of a further struggle against closure at Lip, the watch factory whose occupation in 1973 evoked a mass res ponse inside the working class movement. Like their Portuguese, Spanish and Italian comrades, the French workers are set to make a powerful contribution to the unfolding of the European TeVOlLuOn