Communists Fight For Key Positions

Chronicle (Levin), 6 December 1947, Page 5

Communists Fight For Key Positions

(N.Z.P.A.

—Muier

" Convriaht)

Received Friday," 7 p.m, LOXDOX, Dec. 5. Violent battles with troops and police were reported from all parts of France on Tuesday night as Communists trifed id sCize key points to prevent.the bac-k-LO-work movement among non-Commim ist slrikers, From the northerh erfkllieids to the Ki\'iera, from Britanny and Boi'deaux to the cities of the east, tne fltory was pf riots and sabotage, skys the Dail)- AlhiPjs Paris eorrespondent. The worst storm eentres appeared to be JHar.seilles and the Jtiviera resorts where French eoloured troops are beihg used for the hrst tirpe sinee the ribts liegan. One Paris newspaper last night deScribed the situation in Marseilles as " bordering on revolution. " / C'ommunist dynamite squads blew tfp three high-tension cables bet'ween Bor deaux and Bayonne and in the Liile area so-called motorised comitiandos were reported to be drivi hg i'ftlih va 1lage to village beating up miners wanting to return to work. The TLmes' Paris eorrespondent says manvv are asking whethhr. the Government 's emergency Iegislation for Ihe protection of thd right to work, which was passed by the A'aticJnal Assembly early on Ueeember 4 (it has still to pass Ihe Council of ihe Ifepublie, the successor to the old Henate, before it becomes law) is adequate to deal with the situation. The Oovernment is believed to be oplimistic on the grounds that the Pomniunists have been be'aten in ihe Assembly and in their failure to rally a general strike iii Ihe eounlrv, but the 1act remains that probably over 1 ,500,000 men are still on strike and that sabotage conti uues. Mor has any calculation yet been rnadc on what the strike will have cosl the national economy. Two strikers were ldlled and several strikers and police woumled when the police tFied to remove strikers occupying the N'alence railway station. The strikers were still in occiipation to night. more than 100 were injured and 325 arrested in clashes in Paris and ten large provincial towns. The Communists appear to be trying to cut oH' the French liiviera' and Alarseilles area from the rest of France by the occupation or sabotage of railwavs and telephone exchanges and the barricading of main roads. The Alinister of the Interior, Al. Aloch, sent two special administrators from Paris with special p'owers to act in the Alediterranean coafital area without consulting Paris, "in the event of grave developmenls. " The French Communist leader (M. Thorez), addressing miners in the Pas de Calais coallield, saiti: "The workiiig class and the people of France have chosen to light; they will Secure the triumph of ihe freedom of France and of the licpublic. " Al. Thorez compared tlie "crime of Arras" — the sabotaging of a train near Arras on Deeember 3 with 21 deiiths — with the Keichstag lire w hich Goering used as an excu.se to supprCss C'oiuuiuiiism in (lermany. Al. Torez s'aid the (lovermnent had emliarkcd on a policv oi' slrike-brettk-ing at the orders of American capitalism and through hatred of the working ciass. Al. Thorez, assertiug that the strike was for economic demands, 'said the cost of living index was twice the wages index. I'he Associated Prc-ss Paris eorrespondent quotes Al. Thorez as saying that tlie Commuiiist.s did not uppose American uid for France, but did oppose conception of tlie Alarshall plan which eridangered France 's independcnce and houoilr.