NEWS FROM THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL FRANCE LCR special congress THE LIGUE Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR, French section of the Fourth International) held a special national conference on the weekend November 21/22. The meeting was to ratify the Central Committee's decision to withdraw the LCR's own presidential candidate, Alain Krivine, and participate fully in the campaign of Pierre Juquin, leading figure of the rénovateur current that has recently left the Communist Party [see /V 128].
This proposal was in line with the decision of the LCR's national congress in May. At that time it was decided to present Krivine as a candidate, but to be prepared to withdraw if a candidature emerged that would be able to mobilize broader support on a clear basis of fighting the right, defending the demands of workers and students and not repeating the experience of the left government of 1981-86.
Although many delegates at the special conference felt that the Krivine campaign had not been launched forcefully enough (with a majority voting for a balance sheet motion in this sense), most of the organization enthusiastically endorsed the decision to participate in the Juquin campaign.
The conference demonstrated an evolution in the discussion since the Central Committee meeting in October. Although there were eight different positions presented in the local general assemblies that elected delegates, at the conference itself a commission including representatives from all the currents in general agreement with the decision of the CC, worked to produce a unified resolution. This reaffirmed the decision and laid out how the LCR would both participate in the 20 Juquin campaign, including in the support committees that are beginning to spring International Viewpoint • December 7, 1987 up, and also put forward its own positions.
This resolution was supported by 78% of the delegates. Only one current, representing around 10% of the organization, opposed participation in the Juquin campaign. Differences on how to participate in the campaign, and at what speed it could provoke a recomposition in the French workers' movement — going as far as the emergence of a new organized revolutionary force — led one grouping to abstain in
The resolution adopted by the national conference affirmed:
— The positive nature of the Juquin campaign and its possibilities of creating a dynamic of unity and recomposition within the workers' movement. It noted the clear differentiation from the CP and SP and the defence of the demands raised by workers, student and other social movements, in the struggles of last winter for example.
— The LCR would devote all its forces to the success of the campaign and would try to ensure its success as a militant and activist campaign around three major
• supporting demands such as defence of wages and of the social security system; immigrants' right to vote and to choose French nationality; independence for Kanaky; for disarmament;
• preventing the candidate of the right from being elected; calling on all the left candidates to be committed to stand down in the second round in favour of the best placed; for a workers' government;
• not to have the same experience as in 1981-86 (the period of the CP/SP government); for a real change and not management of austerity; no coalition with the capitalism and opens the road to socialism.
- The debate on this balance sheet of the left government is continuing and will continue during the campaign.
— A broad support movement should be built through pluralist, open, activist committes in localities and workplaces. Members of the LCR will contribute to launching such committees using methods such as local appeals — as has already been done among railway workers and among goverment employees. The purpose of these committees is not to start building a new organization, but to build a campaign.
- Presidential campaigns tend to be very personalized. This obviously leads to particular problems. The Juquin campaign was not launched on the basis of a clear platform, as the LCR would have wished, and so it is necessary to continue open and democratic discussions with all the forces involved in order to ensure that a clear statement of position is issued: either as the candidate's manifesto or on another
- This campaign will be the occasion for testing out the possibility for building a new revolutionary force in France. This is a debate that is bound to occur in the committees. This discussion should not be a main theme of the campaign, because this would put off independent activists attracted to it. But insofar as this debate arises, members of the LCR will participate in it, explaining that our objective is a new revolutionary party with a mass influence.
— The LCR will wage a campaign on the same themes as it proposes for the Juquin campaign, with its own propaanda material, fundraising and public meetings with Alain Krivine. It will discuss with the other organized political forces involved in the election campaign on questions of joint activity and the possiblities for building a new orga-
A high point of the national conference was the address from Pierre Juquin, accompanied by two members of his national
Philomena O'Malley