France's Next Crisis
The tension over controls which began to tighten a fortnight ago when the Rassemblement des Gauches, one of the constituent groups of the present governing coalition, voiced its discontent in the Assembly, has been worked up through a protest by the smaller shopkeepers, with the cautious support of the Communists, to a general outcry. At the. same time, discontent with the lag of wages behind prices has grown from a plain refusal of the steel workers to accept the Government's policy to a go-slow movement by gas and electricity workers, culminating in an abortive strike. The trouble with the movement is that everybody must join in. The Communists will
not let any working-class discontent go untended. The Christian trade unions can only assert themselves against the Communist elements by competitive bidding for higher wages. The way in which small9fficials operate controls is just as easy to criticise in France astlionsiais country, if not more so. But corresponding to the rising discontent is M. Ramadier's evident determination not to do any- thing to assist the inflationary spiral. He has said that war-time powers will be used to break strikes, and on Monday at La Rochelle he declared "We shall say ' No ' to a rise in prices." But he has still to contend with the malcontents within the Socialist Party who do not like the present break with the Communists, and with the possibility that the Blum policy of forced price-cuts may not work after all. It Was always a bold move and there was always a strong chance that it would not come off. Socialist leadership since last December has been a delicate bridge over a political and economic abyss. But it may yet remain standing. In the face of the threat to the constitution embodied in the well disciplined oppor- tunism of the Communists and open contempt of General de Gaulle, M. Ramadier acquires a powerful ally in a President of the Republic who is also its determined defender. He also gets the support, mostly tacit, of all moderate Frenchmen and all believers in the Monnet Plan. And the arbitration-process now initiated may achieve its end. He should survive a little longer.
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