Polemic on General Line of International ... - From Marx to Mao

free peoples’ ” 1 and that “the French Union will permit the regulation,on a new basis, of the relations between the people ofFrance and the overseas peoples who have in the past been attachedto France”. 2 In 1958, when the French Union collapsedand the French Government proposed the establishment of aFrench Community to preserve its colonial system, the leadersof the CPF again followed suit and proclaimed, “We believethat the creation of a genuine community will be a positiveevent.” 3Moreover, in opposing the demand of the people in theFrench colonies for national independence, the leaders of theCPF have even tried to intimidate them, saying that “anyattempt to break away from the Union of France will onlylead to the strengthening of imperialism; although independencemay be won, it will be temporary, nominal and false”.They further openly declared:The question is whether this already unavoidable independencewill be with France, or without France and againstFrance. The interest of our country requires that thisindependence should be with France. 4On the question of Algeria, the chauvinist stand of theleaders of the CPF is all the more evident. They have recentlytried to justify themselves by asserting that they had long recognizedthe correct demand of the people of Algeria forfreedom. But what are the facts?For a long time the leaders of the CPF refused to recognizeAlgeria’s right to national independence; they followed the1Léon Feix, Speech at the 15th Congress of the CommunistParty of France, June 1959.2Maurice Thorez, Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the New Termat the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Partyof France, October 10, 1955.3Léon Feix, Speech at the 15th Congress of the CommunistParty of France, June 1959.4Raymond Barbé, “Black Africa in the Age of Guinea?”, DémocratieNouvelle of the French Communist Party, No. 11, 1958.211