FRENCH POLITICS
677
French, the reason may be that the Germans have more important mat–
ters to attend to; though that does not quite explain why the intellectual
level at present is so much below that of the Weimar Republic; or why
the whole country gives the impression of aiming to become a bigger
and better Belgium; or why it is now unfashionable to have taken part
in the anti-Hitler resistance....
But let us return to France and her troubles, beginning with last
summer's phenomenal strike wave, which provided such good copy for
local and foreign journalists, and so much occasion for gloom in political
and military quarters.
Everyone has heard by now that the explosion was set off by a
series of stupidities on the part of a government which had just begun
to adopt a reform program, but had forgotten to explain its essentials
to the public. On the eve of what nearly became a general strike, the
Prime Minister, M. Joseph Laniel, an amiable elderly Conservative with
a good Resistance record and an almost complete lack of political sense,
needlessly angered the trade unions by telling them that he did not
want economic questions "argued in the marketplace." This was fol–
lowed by further blunders, culminating in the promulgation of a draft
decree on retirement ages whose obscure wording was probably due to
haste. In any case the advance mimeographed copy submitted to the
civil servants' delegates on the statutory commission had a blank space
which allowed the postmen to suspect that they would be regrouped
with sedentary workers, whose retirement age is 63 instead of 58. In
fact the decrees were not intended to alter the retirement ages of post–
men or any civil servants; they provided only an option for those wishing
to stay longer, though they did introduce civil service rules in the na–
tionalized industries. But before anyone had had time to explain, the
Bordeaux local of the pro-Socialist Force Ouvriere group of trade unions
had decided to strike, thus starting a blaze which swept the country
with incredible speed-so much so that it took the Communists two
whole days to climb on the bandwagon! It has now become common
knowledge that, as the saying goes, "only a spark was required" to let
the tinder alight, but the odd fact is that last August no one had an
inkling of this truth. The unions were talking about the expected
rendez–
vous d'Octobre,
i.e., concerted pressure after the end of the parliamen–
tary holidays, with the aim of extracting major wage increases or forcing
the government to resign. They may still get their way on both points,
but in the meantime France has been treated to a display of spontaneous
working-class activity which has already left its mark on the public
mind. It is immaterial
in
this context whether or not the Communist-
