France: The New Poujadists

Last year, workers and students combined to create the most violent upheaval that France has endured in two decades. The very existence of the Fifth Republic was threatened as unions called crippling strikes and students took to the barricades. Now that most stable element of French society—the small businessman—is beginning to vent his violent discontent. In recent weeks, shopkeepers have paraded through Paris, burned tax forms in Lyon, fought police in Morlaix. In Nice, they refused to pay increased gas and electricity rates. Capitalizing on the discontent, the Communist daily L'Humanite has sided with the petit bourgeois tradesman against...