BY ROLLANDE GIRARD
PARIS - During the last week of January, the international team of supporters of the Marxist magazine Nouvelle Internationale set up a literature table and spoke to workers leaving their jobs at the end of the day at GEC- Alsthom, a company of some 800 workers that produces industrial transformers. A socialist who works at the plant and who has been using Nouvelle Internationale and the Militant to campaign against imperialism's war drive against Yugoslavia came out to join the team.
Three copies of Nouvelle Internationale no. 5, which has the article "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War," were sold. The sizeable literature table with signs and posters attracted a number of workers.
One worker, Gérard Mahé, bought a French translation of the Militant editorial denouncing the NATO war drive against Yugoslavia. He said he was particularly interested in the question of Yugoslavia because his wife is from that country. The next day at work he told a Militant supporter how much he liked the editorial and agreed with the characterization of the war as not in the interests of the workers. He expressed interest in buying a copy of Nouvelle Internationale no. 4, which is devoted to the Persian Gulf war, or the issue on imperialism's march toward fascism and war.
The volunteer salespeople also set up literature tables at several political meetings this week, including a Cuba solidarity activity in a suburb of Paris, a meeting of activists against homelessness, and a speaking engagement at Nanterre University for Robert Hue, head of the French Communist Party, that was attended by 800 people, mostly students.
Ernie Mailhot, a volunteer from Miami, gave a presentation on the Cuban revolution at Las Rambas Bar. Emilie Panisset had organized the conference at the bar after she attended a Militant Labor Forum on the fight for the independence of Quebec. About 15 people participated in the discussion that followed the short talk.
Some people disagreed with Mailhot's view that the Cuban road presents the alternative working people should seek to emulate. "It's human nature," that's the problem, said one, who at the end of the meeting bought Nouvelle Internationale no. 5 to read the article "Defending Cuba, defending Cuba's socialist revolution" by Mary-Alice Waters
Isabel Martínez, one of the participants, said she really liked the discussion. "We started with Cuba and then talked about communism in general," she stated. "People were really motivated."
Team members also visited a sit-in in front of the Health Ministry to denounce the attacks against the health- care system. The four protesters invited Nouvelle Internationale supporters to sit down for a coffee. On the basis of discussions about the social crisis, Erick Rabette and another nurse protester bought copies of Nouvelle Internationale.
"The government plans to close the doors of hospitals across France," explained Rabette. He said the proposed government reform plan is "the biggest attack yet against public health. No government has yet dared" to attempt such drastic cutbacks. He explained that the details are still being discussed, but a key element of the plan is to close many of France's public hospitals by "forcing them to compete with private hospitals."
Abderrafik Zaigouche, a student at St. Denis, stopped by a table there. He bought 540 francs (US$108) worth of books, the entire five-issue set of Nouvelle Internationale, the book Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, several pamphlets on Cuba, and a book by Malcolm X. He said he really likes Che Guevara because "he was not only good in theory but in action." He said he wanted to "compare Cuba to Algeria in order to find a solution to the situation in Algeria."
These results bring totals to more than $7,000 worth of communist literature sold since December 16, including 368 copies of Nouvelle Internationale.