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What's behind the

strike in France

MES. Maiy MacGregor, a London - tourist who was stranded in Paris last weekend because of mle wave of strikes there, is a Puzzled and annoyed woman.

She was one of thousands of Titish holidaymakers who were

_ ‘Ste to return home last week- £nd but were unable to travel because of the strike which ‘had

_ “fought the French railways to a Standstill,

Mrs, MacGregor’s reaction to all this was to declare: “I am Sick to death of these unstable

- Suntries. From now on I will Never leave British soil.”

But it’s no use anybody’s try-

‘ing to dismiss what is happen- ,

‘ ‘Ng in’ France today in this fash- as For the strikes there are “nindication that the French Ple are not going to put up vg much longer with the sort Na Sovernments which they have i the past few years. Ate British tourists know, ance is a lovely country with Baty of good food, with hard- Srking peasants’ and farmers, Skilled

workers and _ thrift housewives, : :

There is food in abundance—

hose with the money—but

f Working man, large sections

As the Middle class, and profes-

er wt People are finding it hard- ' 8nd harder to live.

For five weeks at the begin-

‘ With Of the summer France was is sing a government and then rabbiy name was produced like a “volt out of a conjurer’s hat— € that was going to put

Ing right and solve all the Problems.

“trv annumnssusC LY

Art and

‘Soe cnmenmiisninntoninoin eae

? vou ever read the advertis- Or “ Posters on the trolley? Merciafen to the singing com- S? They’re the real art Ver: poetry of capitalism. Ad- Wage a S0es hand-in-hand with hin S avery and exploitation, a a twin brother. Got a Mis ma Pneumonia? Feel » «el high? Hungry? Over- Wer, 20Ke? Too much money? Sal} relieve you! Take a pill! on sbi &@ powder! Rub’ some Gq T feet, back, chest, head! 1S, swallow that! Dy- C Us up! First class ser- + °mfortable surroundings! “t Your Spirits! at Boredom!

Spearmint

nating Relieves Mono- Ves You A

= Nice Little Lift! Tightens Up rahe enn

Dull Moments!”

Casy it is? You're because the landlord t with all your cash. Monotonous because tT 80 down—always up, it, malcontent! Chew and you'll feel like a ing to have an op- an’t pay the hos- ew some gum. things it will re-

company needs

bi Up R Neve

By SAM RUSSELL

The name was Joseph Laniel. He is a millionaire textile boss around whom an attempt was made to build a myth that he was the workers’ friend. Just how friendly was shown when the French National Assembly went into recess.

He then disclosed that during the summer holidays, when he thought people would be far too concerned about having a good time to take much notice, his government was going to intro- duce a whole series of decrees.

They would have the effect of slashing the standards of living

of five million employees of na-

tionalized and municipal services.

They came to the conclusion that M. Laniel, for all his pater- nal patter, was trying to pull a fast one.

‘

He proclaimed he was trying to cut government expenditure, but said not a word about end- ing the unpopular war in Indo- China, which is bleeding France white.

He spoke fine words about e- building the war-ruined parts of France, and _ building more houses everywhere. But French people can see only the construc- tion of huge aerodromes and military bases for the American troops in France, while special provision is made to build houses for the families of these Ameri- cans.

While there are proposals to increase taxes on the ordinary worker in offices and factories,

By MEL COLBY

“Are Money?”

“TI borrowed the Financial Post from a neighbor,” writes a Mari- time reader, “and found it so in- formative that I decided to sub- scribe. I had no idea that such a publication could be obtained for $6 a year—thought it would cost a lot more.”

When his subscription expired he probably started to borrow it from the neighbor again. Don’t blame him.

“It?s As Simple As ABC.”

“Ever thought of going into business for yourself .. . or of

You Making Enough

buying an interest in some busi-

ness other than your own? Most of the ones, we think you would be interested in are listed on one or more of the Canadian Stock Exchanges . buying a few shares of a steel company puts you into the steel business . . a few oil shares and you are in the oil business. Similarly, you can become part owner of a tele- phone company or a bank .: . a manufacturing business, a chain store... .”

x * * See how simple it is? Just

ask yourself which you like best: you owning the bank or the bank

cyan LB

nothing is done about the whole- sale evasion of taxes by the rich.

' M. Laniel announced that his government was going to hold a series of cabinet meetings at the height of the holiday season to put his decrees against govern-: ment employees into operation. Then the French man-inthe street realized that if today it was the government employees who were threatened, tomorrow it would be him.

And so the phenomenon was produced of one of the biggest strikes France has ever seen, right in the middle of the sum- mer holidays—much to the an- noyance of Mrs. MacGregor.

As in the Renault Motor Works strike earlier in the year, the main feature of these strikes has been the growing unity between all sections of the French trade union movement — the CGT (which corresponds to the Brit- ish TUC), the Force Ouvriere (the Socialist trade unions), and the CFTC (the Catholic trade

~ unions).

Together with his plans for attacks on living conditions of the French people, M. Laniel and his government have also plans for attacking and attempting to reduce the influence of the big- gest political party in Franch — the French Communist party.

He plans a whole series of .

“constitutional reforms” which have as their main aim to try to prevent the voice of the five million French people who vot- ed Communist at the last elec- tions from being heard in the French parliament.

poetry of

OUUUINAYEVOLUUSOUGSISNAGDEVGSREUONDENUGVESUAOONEDGAEUOLAUGDUSRUSOAOUSEAVENSRAGBUUGSOAESESA TEGAN GEOG

owning you, and then go out and buy a bank. But, just a moment! We musi already own a chain store. according to the size of the bills we’ve been paying. And a telephone company. Let’s be satisfied with what we have and let someone else buy the oil well.

Dollars & Sense

Sponsored by

The Bank of Toronto

“How do you feel about ad- vertising? Do singing commer- cials revolt you? (We just chop- ped up the radio.) Does the blat- ancy of some advertising get on your nerves? (You're getting warm.)

“But before you and I get to- gether to destroy advertising, we have to face the fact that ad- vertising has contributed sub- stantially to making our comfort- able way of life . . . blah, blah, blah, blah... .

“That, of course, is because it is advertising that has brought about the mass demand for new and better goods and services . . . blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. . . .

“As you know, wages and sal- aries have risen so much more

than prices . . . blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah. . . . “T think we’d better hold on to advertising. Don’t you?” No.

1 es)

But M. Laniel is discovering, as French prime ministers have discovered before him, that if is impossible to govern without the people.

While he continues to ignore the main solutions for putting French finance on a sound basis —the ending of the war in Indo- China and the ending of subser- vience- to the United States — France will stagger from crisis to crisis.

What the French ruling class is aiming at, and M. Laniel rep- resents.that class before anything else, is a solution at the expense of the French people. The strikes ‘are the proof that the French people are not going to stand for such a solution.

The strikes are showing that the idea of unity which brought such good results in the Popular Front period of 1936 is gaining ground in spite of attempts by the leaders of the discredited French Socialist Party to sabo- tage such unity.

France is today one of “these unstable countries” because it has had a succession of govern- ments attempting to govern in defiance of the people.

The government has attempted to hamper the activities of the CGT by arresting Alain Le Leap,

one of its general ‘secretaries, and issuing a warrant for the arrest of the other general secretary, Benoit Frachon.

It is still keeping under arrest Andre Stil, the editor of the Communist party newspaper, Humanite. _ The only charge against him, as against the oth- ers, is that they opposed and campaigned against the war in Indo-China.

In the past fortnight, a youth leader, Louis Baillot, was releas- ed. The naval petty officer Henri Martin was also released after three years in jail for Opposing the war in Indo-China.

The strikes show that the ar- rests have not diminished the militancy of the French working class. ¢

Though Mrs. MacGregor may not understand it, they are an assurance. that the French peo- — ple are on the march to end a situation where the country can be classified as “unstable.”

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