Grasping the Nettle

The Communist leaders of France's coal strike, which in less than a month had cost the nation 3,000,000 tons of coal, last week tipped their hand. From Communist headquarters came a statement: "The miners' struggle is not only to secure legitimate wage adjustments, but also a struggle for the defense of national independence . . . threatened by American imperialists striving to drag our country into war."

Translated out of Communist jargon, this meant that the strike leaders were admittedly striving to block the recovery of France, to torpedo the Marshall Plan, and thus to abet the purposes of Moscow.

Wearing their sheep's clothing when they first called the strike, the Reds had asked for wage raises to meet the cost of living, which had begun to soar again with the recurrent cabinet crises of last summer. Non-Communist miners and even the general public could sympathize with that. Premier Henri Queuille's government offered wage raises amounting to about 15%. But the Reds stalled, and last week in some areas they. called out maintenance crews who manned pumps and ventilators in the mines.

Mines that were flooded and filled with dangerous gases meant that miners would be out of work for months (even if the strike were settled), and much more coal would be lost. No one would benefit but Moscow.

Premier Queuille, trying to take a gingerly grasp on the nettle, got stung. He ordered troops, police, and republican security guards to seize mines threatened with damage; but, fearing civil war, he ordered them not to shoot. The government forces were outnumbered by strike mobs and in most places were beaten back with a heavy toll of injuries on both sides. Near St. Etienne, strikers tried to oust government forces from a mine already seized (see cut). At Firminy, where panicky security guards started shooting, against the government's orders, 40 strikers were wounded, two killed.

At week's end enough mines had been flooded to make it necessary for France to import 1,000,000 tons of extra U.S. coal this winter, thus using up EGA credits earmarked for fats, cereals, cotton. The French press screamed for action, and the Queuille government finally decided to grasp the nettle firmly. Forty thousand troops and police reserves were mobilized and ordered to shoot if they met resistance. They seized twelve big mines, and the Commies, intimidated at last, put up almost no fight.

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