FRENCH EXPECTATIONS
237
dissidents of the Socialist Party, lost the bulk of its membership and lead–
ers as a result of internal crises. Now it has only a few scattered groups .
left. The two microscopic Trotskyite groups have merged, but together
they numbered only a few hundred members throughout all of France,
including five hundred in Paris. The Revolutionary Syndicalists, once
very active, are now dispersed in the CGT and have not really resumed
their activities. The
Federer et Liberer
group, which is composed of mem–
bers of the revolutionary left of various tendencies, has only one mem–
ber in the Consultative Assembly.
It
should be noted that the anti–
Stalinist left has lost many qualified active members whose ideological
weakness predisposed them to collaborating with the Nazis. Thus, in the
CGT, the old miner Dumoulin and the bureaucratic team Belin-Froide–
val all deserted to the Nazis; among the writers men as remarkable as
the two pacifists Felicien Challaye and Emery did the same. It really
seems as
if
not a single French publication, with perhaps the exception
of the confidential Trotskyite publication
Verite,
can now allow itself to
criticize totalitarian regimes and the international policy of the Soviet
Union.
One of the striking traits of French opmwn 1s 1ts traditionalism.
The old political formations which have been resurrected use their good
old language of the past. Few new names have yet come to light. The
secretary general of the Socialist Party, Daniel Meyer, and the leftist
Catholic George Bidault, must be mentioned among the new political
leaders. Thorez, Marcel Cachin, Marty, Jacques Duclos, Florimond
Bonte, Frachon, have resumed their activities within the Communist
Party in France. But for the time being, there is neither any striking
ideo,logical rejuvenation nor any change in personnel. And the vital
problems of social reorganization have scarcely been stated. Intellectual
life must, without doubt, first be resumed, and the masses must really
be called upon to state what they want through elections and union
activity before men and ideas can be brought forth. But above all, one
must first do away with the anxieties of cold, of privations and of the
war that goes on.
The spectre of terror has disappeared. There were some 150,000
arrests, which is no great figure, and very few executions. Those who
called for a prompt and pitiless cleansing, either in a spirit of retribution
or for political reasons (it was nothing but a claim to power), came up
against insurmountable barriers. The price of life remains very high in
France. An execution is an event and, after the Nazi massacres, this is
a most healthy psychological trait. Furthermore, such terrorism would
have threatened the majority of Frenchmen who do not in any way feel
guilty of having been subjected to German occupation and the Vichy
regime. Finally, a large number of the true pro-Nazis declared that they
had helped the Resistance, that they had played a double game, and
