Bourgeois law under attack

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From the streets of St Pauls in Bristol to the streets of Copenhagen; from the streets of Holland to the streets of Switzerland; in Paris, Miami and Seoul, Korea, the pressures of the economic and-social crisis of capitalism is producing repeated riotsviolent explosions of working class anger that challenge the 'norms' of bourgeois legality.

Korea -A thirty year old unemployed man was killed in Paris on May 13 when police charged a group of students demonstrating on the campus of the University of Paris-Jussieu in the Latin Quarter of Paris.

The trouble began at about 4 p.m. after a dozen or so students had overturned a bus in the rue Linne and set it alight.

Soon after the police entered the university campus from three sides to be met with a hail of missiles and causing general panic. Paris-Jussieu is not one of the universities on strike and most of the students were working normally:

The young man who died, Alain Begrand, was killed when a roof he had climbed onto to escape the police gave way. He died of a fractured skull. But even Begrand's death was not enough to stop the orgy of police violence with baton charges continuing.

Later in the evening a demonstration of 3,000 people marched in protest against the police repression, more missiles were thrown and a car was set on fire. In all, eight people were arrested.

In the provinces demonstrations and other forms of protest from students in sympathy with those in Paris were immediate.

In Caen, for instance, there was a demonstration through the middle of the town after which about 200 students went off to the University Rector's Offices and smashed windows. A desk was also burned.

New impetus These incidents come at the end of several months of struggle on the campuses over restrictions on immigration and overseas students enrolement Recently the struggles appeared to have reached a new height with moves coming from Grenoble to co-ordinate the actions of the students towards a general strike on the campuses.

In the last week, however, the prospects for a continuaton, let alone expansion of the struggles, have begun to look bleak.

Nevertheless, whatever the outcome of the present militancy it has given new impetus to the movement towards the formation of a centralised student body.

In Paris, at the University of Nanterre, a few weeks ago, some 600 delegates participated in an important congress called to discuss the setting up of a central-. ised union of students.

This was the first meeting of its kinds since the students' organisations were broken up by the state in the aftermath of the 1968 struggles.

But 13 May is not only important because of Begrand's death.

The same day was also the occasion of generalised strike action by the French trade union movement in protest at proposed changes to social security benefits.

The attito sation HAID SVETIC SITT The South Korean dicta-, torship reinforced its martial law restrictions last weekend and arrested opposition politicians in the wake of massive riots in the capital, Seoul.

Crowds of over 50,000 battled it out with riot police, after student leaders spelled out demands for a package of democratic demands.

As police lost control a police bus was commandeered by the main, Stalinist-led trade union, the CGT, but was supported by the CFDT and others.

Though there were apparently tewer on strike, the ettect ot the strike was much bigger than the TUC day of action in Britain with transport heavily hit, power cuts affecting large sections of industry and newspapers failing to appear.

Unlike the British press, the media fully listed the scale of the action.

The division of the left which was so marked on the 1 May demonstrations-with the Communist Partv and the and driven straight at their lines -killing one policeman and injuring many more.

Now the country's security chief General Chon Too Hwan has arrested 18 student leaders, the opposition leader and others.

Any respite gained by such measures seems certain to be temporary and Korea is now firmly added to the list of headaches facing Us President Carter. Socialist Party organising different marches-appeared less evident during the 13 May strike.

As the Giscard regime presses home its attacks on the whole working class, the necessity for united class action to defend jobs, wages and living standards becomes increasingly clear-as does the necessity for a revolutionary leadership to spearhead such a struggle and spell out the necessary demands on which to mobilise workers in the fight for a workers government.

Miami The black ghetto areas of Miami erupted in riots last week in the wake of the decision of an all-white jury to acquit four policemen who had clubbed to death a black insurance salesman.

The National Guard was called into the city to seal off a 20 mile area after black workers and youth had driven police out of some areas, and set fire to police cars.

Seventeen people were killed Giscard and over 100 injured riots, in which racist whites added their gratuitous ' iolence to that meted out to blacks, Hispanics and Orientals by the forces of the state.

With unemployment sharply on the increase in the US and 18% inflation, tensions in the black ghetto : areas not just in Miami but in every city must now be reaching breaking point.