French communist resistance members make nationalist appeal

By Alex Lantier
19 May 2011

On May 14 France’s daily of record, Le Monde, published a political appeal to unify the French nation around the values of the welfare state, issued by former members of the French resistance. Thirteen people—including former Gaullist intelligence officials Raymond Aubrac and Stéphane Hessel, and ex-leader of the Stalinist CGT (General Confederation of Labor) union Georges Séguy—signed the appeal.

It was issued from the Glières plateau in the Alps, the scene of one of the first major guerrilla actions in March 1944 against French-collaborationist and Nazi troops. During this operation, coordinated with Allied governments, the Glières plateau was briefly held and then evacuated by Resistance fighters. Most of them were turned in by collaborationist Frenchmen as they fled, however, and then deported or shot.

Le Monde’s decision to publish the Glières appeal is part of a broader campaign in the political and media establishment to promote Resistance fighters and French nationalism. Hessel’s book Time for Outrage has sold 1.5 million copies in France. It was translated into Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Greek; translations are underway into Slovenian, Korean, Japanese, Swedish, and other languages. The Nation magazine published an English version on its website in March.

The response to Hessel’s book, with its denunciation of the “power of money,” reflects rising popular sentiment that a struggle must be mounted against social inequality and the dictatorship of the major banks over the needs of working people. However, it also indicates the unresolved issues of historical and political perspective facing the working class.

Behind the observations made by Hessel and other members of the Resisting Citizens of Yesterday and Today (CRHA)—the group issuing the Glières appeal—lies not a perspective of social struggle, but of national unity and accommodation with the ruling class. This is not only utopian, but chauvinist and hostile to the proletariat...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/fran-m19.shtml

Reading this seemed to indicate a reactionary nature. Was I correct in thinking that this letter by 'socialists' supports a 'welfare state'?