BY ERNIE MAILHOT
PARIS - "What you're saying about Yugoslavia sounds right to me. I want this book for sure, and this one on Iraq, I guess I should get that too." This was the response of a striker marching in the labor demonstration here December 16 against Prime Minister Alain Juppé's plan to cut social security. The young worker had just come over to a literature table of socialist books and periodicals featuring the Marxist magazine Nouvelle Internationale, a French-language edition of New International. He bought the two issues with the articles "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War" and "Opening Guns of World War III."
The table was one of four set up at the march by an international team of 23 supporters of Nouvelle Internationale from Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, New Zealand, and the United States. The socialist workers and young socialists staffing these tables were involved in wide- ranging discussions on imperialism's drive toward war against Yugoslavia and the working-class response to depression conditions around the world.
Communist workers in Canada have launched a special Can$12,000 fund to send supporters of Nouvelle Internationale to sell the magazine in France. Nouvelle Internationale is edited by volunteers in Montreal, and is the product of worker and student translators across Canada and in other parts of the world.
The four teams at the Paris demonstration sold 66 copies of Nouvelle Internationale, dozens of copies of the Militant newspaper, and a number of books published by Pathfinder Press. One woman, a student, bought the entire set of five issues of Nouvelle Internationale.
"I didn't know you could sell books like this in the United States," said one rail worker. He was talking to one of the salespeople who was wearing a small placard reading "U.S. worker in solidarity."
A student with his father, a state worker on strike, was happy to see the volunteers selling Nouvelle Internationale. "You mean you're not here on holiday, you came to support us?" he asked. Like many others, they had first noticed the signs on the literature tables saying: "No to the Juppé Plan - No to France, NATO War Drive against Yugoslavia - Defend the Socialist Revolution in Cuba."
Team members were invited to a meeting of rail workers at the Austerlitz rail station. Five copies of Nouvelle Internationale were sold there December 17. "Just the fact that there are people ready to come from other countries because they understand this fight is important," said one rail worker.
Two other sales teams went to university campuses that day, at St. Denis and Jussieu in Paris. Each sold seven copies of Nouvelle Internationale as well as other books in French, including three copies of Malcolm X: The last speeches and Socialism and Man in Cuba by Che Guevara.
Elizabeth, a student from Jussieu, joined the campus sales team for the several hours that it was set up at the school. She had met team members the night before at a meeting supporting the homeless takeover of the George Pompidou cultural center. One member of the international team had spoken at the daily rallies organized by the homeless there.
At St. Denis the response to Nouvelle Internationale led to a class being organized that afternoon on the imperialist war drive against Yugoslavia. One young woman who bought a copy of the magazine featuring "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War" explained she didn't support the strike but was open to looking at this point of view. A number of Haitian students came by the table and were especially interested in Cuba and literature against U.S. imperialism. A Mozambican student bought books by Malcolm X and Thomas Sankara.
As of Tuesday, December 19, after participating in another labor demonstration of many thousands, the international sales team had sold a total of 124 copies of Nouvelle Internationale, overwhelmingly issues no. 4 and no. 5 dealing with imperialism's drive toward fascism and war. The team has sold over $2,000 worth of socialist literature so far.