THE DOUBLE
CRISIS
We have declared that the party system in France, as it now
functions, is in no condition to take measures for the public welfare._
These charges have been made for months. Even to this day,
as you and I well know, though they are trying once again to put
the old race between prices and wages into temporary order, the
fundamental problem of the French economy remains untouched.
As
for the political parties, one cannot repeat too often what
you have been writing for years: if you call the Communist move–
ment a political party, it is absurd to call the others political parties;
and if you call the others parties, you have to find another name
for the Stalinists.
The Stalinist party, whether we like it or not, is not one of
the components of democracy; it
is
something entirely different.
Kicking over the checkerboard
is
not just a peculiar way of playing
checkers. In actuality, and certainly since the war, real democracy
has ceased to exist in Europe. No real democracy can exist where
the Communist party is strong. This is so true that democracy sur–
vives only in those countries where the Communist party is not power–
ful enough to twist political life.
Many people think, after the failure of the strikes last November,
that the Stalinist party has been crushed. They are very wrong.
I'll discuss it again with· them this spring.
To reestablish a vigorous democracy is precisely what we wish
to do, but we do not conceal the fact that it will have to be fought for.
We maintained from the beginning: "We have no faith in
programs, but only in objectives. Let us define our objectives one
after another, reach them as fast as possible, and then go on to what
follows. To put it another way, let's begin by doing what we say."
You can imagine how annoying this is to the program mongers.
We declared that we wanted to restore a free and secret ballot
in the General Confederation of Labor: it has been restored. We
declared that we wanted a government without Communists: and
there are no more Communists in the government. We said that we
would unite the country around the idea of public welfare: and
the idea of public welfare has been taken up today by the Third
Force, even though half of its members believe themselves Marxists,
and had to make the ideological choice
1
between the idea of class
and the idea of public welfare.
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