European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1947, Darmstadt, Hesse Economic unrest rules French politics by Howard Katzander squeezed Between High prices and Low frenchmen Are caught by a powerful left and fast rising each of whom offers the nation its own particular Brand of salvation Paris the Spring that tin pan Alley and the poets sing about has returned to brow legged Young Iris in windswept skirts Are again cycling recklessly through traffic along the champs ele Gantly coiffed mannequins and the richly dressed women of the upper bourgeoisie nibble daintily at Crisp pts tries in Black Market Tea shops or sip Champagne in Chic bars during the aperitif the flirtatious ele Gance of the eternal Boulevard Ier has reasserted itself and All Over the City net life is but behind the facade of the Gay boulevards and the Lush night the face that most foreigners see in bitter struggle of the Post War Yean goes bread queues have reappeared for the first time since the grim Days of december meat has once again disappeared from the legitimate Market discontent the fighting a losing Battle to make meager wages cover the High Cost of is at new the eternal government changing Only in degree from North to is at a new the return of general Charles de Gaulle to the political Arena has brought a new and disturbing Factor to the his Active bid for sup port of his drive to supplant the interminable procession of coalition governments that have marched across the horizon since the liberation is gaming it is also stirring old one Paris an exiled Spanish Republican of volatile who lives always on the Brink of political has now stocked her room with a huge Supply of potatoes against the Day when French workers Are forced to Man the barricades against the Powers of French she daily anticipates a gaullist but at the de Gaulle and his new Supra political rally of the French Raster element do people or ref Are Over As this is being France is facing its greatest crisis since hitlers army was at the Gates of the master political puppeteers of once again have pulled the strings by which they have dangled the rate of the nation since the whatever the immediate outcome of the communists dismissal from the Cabinet of Premier Paul Gray bearded socialist it must now be obvious that the lines Are being Ever More sharply drawn for the eventual showdown Between the left and the right and it is obvious that in or out of the govern the communists Are still in the Drivers seat in they Are still the largest single political con trolling five million votes at the last they Are still the largest single Block of votes in the National Assembly although have no where near a but it is not from the voters alone that the communists draw their athwart All French Indus her her very life lies the Shadow of the and the Cut today is essentially a weapon of the communists in the developing struggle for Cut is the Gentral do the great French labor federation which numbers some six million to understand its Power in it would be necessary to think of the Al and the Cio As one great federation which had organized All american Industry and White Collar and had As affiliates unions of All Public employees from the police to War department stenographers and the White House a dumpy Little Man with tightly curled Black a Chap line que moustache and owl like Horn rimmed is the Power that directs the he is Benoit a one of the cats two general Frachon is the Man who could pull the switch that would bring the general strike and eventual chaos to observers in the capital no longer ask will he pull the switch the question today is when the events of the past few months indicate that the hour May be the communists have been building steadily toward a losing no Opportunity to discredit the socialist party with the the latest crisis was a new step in the development of that the communist today dominate i the political lineup in voting strength and in the close below them is the movement Populaire Republican for Eig minister Georges Bidault War born party of the the socialists Are third with the other parties trailing some distance immediately after the both the communists and the mrp traded heavily on the wartime underground records of their but such issues Are longer a Factor in the development of the two the socialists have declined slowly but steadily both in voting strength and prestige since the except for Brief continued on Page 22
