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From International Socialist Review, Vol.29 No.4, July-August 1968, pp.3-4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
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(The following statement by Pierre Frank, secretary of the Parti Communiste Internationaliste (Internationalist Communist Party – the French section of the Fourth International) was issued June 13. Pierre Frank was one of the first revolutionists arrested after the Council of Ministers decree.) |
I learned from a press agency that the Parti Communiste Internationaliste [PCI] has been placed on the list of organizations whose dissolution has been decreed by the Council of Ministers. I have had no official notification of this measure but it does not surprise me.
The PCI, it should be remembered, was built in the underground during World War II through the fusion of various Trotskyist groups of that time. It has been active in public life since the liberation. Among other things, since 1946 it has run candidates in legislative elections many times.
Our members were persecuted and arrested during France’s war with Vietnam and again in the war with Algeria. The government measure, which has struck at various revolutionary youth organizations along with us for allegedly organizing commando groups, is a completely arbitrary administrative directive. The government does not dare to present its case in the courts, where it would have to formulate exact charges and present evidence.
The government move coincided with the frenzied campaign which the leaderships of the PCF [Parti Communiste Français – French Communist Party] and the CGT [Confederation Generale du Travail – General Federation of Labor – the CP-led union] are conducting against the “leftists.” These leaderships have not protested at all against the repression which can turn in their direction in the future.
We are studying the legal aspects of the measure and are reserving our right to challenge it. We are confident that many labor and civil liberties organizations will speak up against the dissolution measures taken by the government against a series of vanguard organizations, and will struggle against these decrees until they are abrogated.
In any case, the Trotskyists, who have undergone many repressions before, will emerge from this attack stronger than ever.
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