Maoism in the Developed World

The second Maoist group to be established in France in the 1960s was the Marxist Leninist Center of France (Centre Marxiste-Leniniste de France—CMLF), organized under the leadership of Claude Beaulieu, who had been expelled from the PCF in 1963. In January 1964 he established a monthly Bulletin d’information Marxiste-Leniniste. Subsequently, Beaulieu, as president of the Clichy Committee of the Franco-Chinese Friendship Association, attended the 1964 May Day celebration in Tirana, Albania, where he met Jacques Grippa, head of the Belgian Maoist party.

Beaulieu’s tendency took organizational form in March 1965, when “various groups in the Paris region” established the Marxist-Leninist Center of France. In June 1967, the group changed the name of its publication to Tribune Rouge, of which Beaulieu was political director. Other identified leaders of the CMLF were A. Dupuy and P. Prado. In April 1968, he Monde estimated that the CMLF had about 100 members.

Relations between the CMLF and the PCMLF were anything but friendly. When the French Communist Movement, Marxist-Leninist announced that it was transforming itself into the PCMLF, Tribune Rouge strongly attacked the “Bergeron—Jacquet clique” and the PCMLF replied in kind, charging that the Centre were PCF agents.[167]

The CMLF opposed the Chinese Cultural Revolution, aligning itself with Liu Shao-chi. In 1970 it was reported to “be isolated internationally—except for a possible degree of support from the pro-Chinese Communist Party of Belgium.” It was said that it “plays an insignificant role domestically,” and “does not appear to have been involved in the May events, and was not banned by the government in June.”[168] No further information is available about the CMLF after 1970.

Gauche Proletarienne-Parti Communiste Revolutionnaire

The third element in French Maoism “originated among … students at the elite ENS (Ecole Normal Superieure) in Paris, who from 1964 had initiated a study of Marxism under the direction of professor Louis Althusser.” This group formed the nucleus for the formation in December 1966 of the Union of Communist Youth, Marxist-Leninist (UJC, M-L).[169]

The founding of the UJC, M-L was noted in the then Maoist newspaper Challenge of New York City. It claimed that “Most of the founding members were formerly members and leaders of the French Communist Party-dominated youth organization.”[170]

Testimony differs concerning the attitude of the UJC, M-L during the uprisings of May 1968. One source says that “During the May events the brunt of the UJCML’s policy and activities were directed towards the working class, and the group’s militants appear to have been active in the factories.”[171] On the other hand, the Trotskyist publication Intercontinental Press claimed that “Denouncing the ‘adventurism’ of the JCR (Jeunesse Communiste Revolutionnaire … ) and the March 22 Movement, which it said ‘were sending students in to be butchered’ the UJCML repudiated confrontations with the forces of order and did not participate in the night of the barricades, May 10.“[172]

In any case, the behavior of the UJC, M-L in the May events led to its being formally banned by the De Gaulle government on June 12, 1968. It was reported soon afterwards that this banning order “does not seem to have changed the UJCML’s modus oper-andi unduly, since even when it was legal the group operated in a semi-clandestine manner, as exemplified by its policy of not publishing names of its leadership.”[173]

After the May events there was “severe self-criticism” within the organization, and in September 1968 it “split into multiple tendencies. A part of its cells joined the L’Humanite Rouge circles.” Others became part of the so-called “Mao-spontaneis” groups. But the majority of the old leadership reorganized in October 1968 as Gauche Proletarienne (Proletarian Left).[174] The name of its fortnightly periodical Servir le Peuple was changed to La Cause du Peuple.[175]

The leadership of the Proletarian Left was assumed by Alain Geismar, one-time secretary general of the National Union of University Teachers. The group “rejected all forms of electoral participation, advocating instead violent disruption in the attainment of their goals.”[176]

The Proletarian Left took a frankly insurrectionist line. Henri Weber, writing in the Trotskyist publication Intercontinental Press, discussed their position, saying: “The line developed by Gauche Proletarienne can be summed up easily. It is based on one implicit postulate. Since May 1968 France has been passing through a revolutionary situation. The revolutionary crisis of May did not go all the way because of the betrayals of the social fascists. But the general strike opened up a revolutionary situation which is continuing. Today the people are systematically utilizing revolutionary violence to impose their will or to break the repression.”[177]