French Stalinists try to hide fron

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OTiC.GP With France's general dection now less than six weeks away, it is as unclear as ever which party or group of parties will emerge as victor; what government France will have after March 19 is thus very much in doubt.

The former components of the French Union of the Left are fielding separate candidates and not a joint sate as they did in last year's municipal elections.

The two major components of the popular front bloc -the Socialist Party, led by Francois Mitterand, and the Communist Party-led by Georges Marchais-split last autumn, ostensibly on the question of updating the Union's common progran me.

Since then there have been few moves to knit the Front together again, but at the beginning of this month the split was significantly deepened.

No decision The Communist Party announced that they could not make any decision on supporting Socialist candidates on the second round of the ballot until the first round results were known.

This decision is a marked departure from previous practice whereby the CP and SP had an arrangement to support each other's candidates on the second round, thereby maximising the vote for the "workers' parties"

This break-up predictably infuriated SP leader Francois Mitterand who denounced two days after it was first formed in June 1972!

Hot on the heels of the split in the Union is a split in the governmental forces. On January 11, Gaullist leader Jaques Chirac announced that his party, the Republican Assembly, intends standing a candidate in every constituency, even in areas where members of President Giscard's party are standing.

This decision brings to an for Giscard's forces have already been pointed out by Interior Minister Poniatowski, who pointed out that it is now possible for no government candidate to proceed to the second round of the ballot since a minimum of 10% is needed in the first round in order to proceed.

This, though, has not deterred Chirac, despite the fact that he has indicated he will support governmental President Giscard is now trying to put together a "centre-coalition" between his own party and Mitterand's Socialists which would exclude both the CP and Chirac's Gaullists.

In his latest speech, however, with which Chirac has expressed satisfaction, Giscard defended the continuation of the present majority (which opinion polls clearly show is in fact a IMrI French workers on the march combined vote for the left of 49%.

Shelter

This would probably give the CP and SP a parliamentary majority if they both stood down in favour of the other in the second round of the elections.

Their refusal to agree to do so indicates that neither the CP nor SP leaders intend to be pressed into an alliance which would produce government independent of the bourgeois parties.

Their counter-revolutionary perspectives require them to shelter behind some form of coalition with the bourgeoisie.

CP-SP government

Workers must answer this by rejecting the Stalinist and reformist leaders' calls for "social peace" during the election campaign, by demanding throughout the labour movement that the mass workers' parties break with the bourgeoisie and be prepared to form a CP-SP government independent of all capitalist parties.

The battle over policies, if such a government were formed, would create the conditions for the exposure in struggle of the reactionary Stalinist and reformist leaders and ior the winning of advanced workers to a revol utionary programme.

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