[On September 11, three members of the French…]

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On September 11, three members of the French National Front - roughly similar in politics to the British, group of the same name - won seats on the town council at Dreux, west of Paris. One of the new coun cillors is Jean-Pierre Stirbois, general secrețary of the National They won their seats as part of a joint slate with the mainstream right-wing parties, the RPR and the UDF. In the first round of the election, on September 4, the RPR/UDF slate had won 43% of the vote, the Left 41%; and the National Front 17%. The right wing and the fascists It seems that the NF votes came mainly from working class areas. 25% of the population in Dreux are immigrants (who do not have the right to vote), and the former Socialist Party mayor was blamed for 'giving preference' to them.

Socialist Party and Communist Party leaders voiced their horror. But only a few days before, on August 31, the SP/CP dominated government had announced new measures against 'illegal immigrants' The election of the left government in 1981, was followed by a liberalisation in immigration law. But now the governappeal unless they can afford to pay their fare back to France for the hearing.

The main union federations, the CGT and the CFDT, supported these measures. And even before 1981 the Communist Party had been agitating about too many' immigrants in CP-controlled municipalities. One CP mayor led a gang of thugs who smashed up an immigrant workers' hostel.

With the main left parties thus helping to promote the idea that immigrants are "a problem" is it surprising that some of the most desperate and hard-pressed French workers turn to National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen won 11% of the vote in a working class area of Paris.

This does not mean that fascism is round the corner in France. Although only one major leader of the RPR/UDF - Simone Veil - has publicly dissociated from the Dreux alliance, the RPR/UDF leaders have repudiated any notion of an ovèrall national alliance. And the NF remains a relatively small force.

But racist aftacks are likely to increase - unless the French labour movement heeds the warning of the Dreux result. AFTER years of undeclared South African intervention and sustained sabotage and guerrilla activity by the pro-imperialist forces of Jonas Savimbi's unita, the Angolan regime is currently struggling to hold on to power and control over large areas of the country.

Foreign diplomats have been warned that their safety cannot be guaranteed if they venture more than 15 miles from the capital, Luanda.

Savimbi's systematic sabotage. of communications and other economic targets - inflicting an estimated $6 billion ol damage - has combined with the slump in crude oil prices to devastate the weak Angola economy, which is still linked to the major oil monopolies.

It is partly the attempts by the Dos Santos regime to mend its bridges to the USA, the other imperialist nations, and South Africa, which have laid it open to the current military offensive.

A condition of "normalised" relations with the USA and South Africa is the withdrawal of an estimated 20-25,000 Cuban troops, who have remained in Angola as a prop to the MPLA, since they helped defeat imperialist-backed FNLA and UNITA guerrillas in 1976.

While the Angola regime has flirted with the idea of a Cuban withdrawal it has effectively paralysed any military response to UNITA by the Cubans: and this same vacillation has minimised possible Soviet military and economic aid. All the time, Savimbi has been drawing increased South African and imperialist support.

The longer Dos Santos prevaricates, the more the odds swing in favour of Savimbi and his Western backers toppling the MPLA and establishing a pliable, pro-Pretoria regime, which would ride roughshod over the workers and peasants of Angola.

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