11RXNdQ

The Constitution of Contempt* 49
invites us to meditate on the respective powers of a president and an Assembly which
have not yet left the realm of the imagination. France is getting bogged down in a
horrible war, prices are rocketing, industry is seeking markets. And they are offering us a
Constitution! Apart from that, nothing; silence or words with a double meaning, which
analysts hasten to interpret each in their own way.
No, it is not our support that the general asks of us, it is our obedience, and no more.
Why then should you obey him? France has been adult for 150 years. What need has she
of a father? Take care, it will not take long for us to return to the silliness of childhood;
adults are only too keen to do so.
You will reply that you know all that, but that we must admit this defeat, since General
de Gaulle is the only man who can bring the rebellion in Algiers under control. He, bring
it under control? When it is he who gave it power and who maintains it?
In France, this government knows how to be authoritarian: it has already learned how
to make the police charge crowds and seize opposition newspapers. But as far as Algeria
is concerned, you would look in vain for what distinguishes it from the Bourgès-
Maunoury government.
If you were to vote for de Gaulle, what would you give him that he does not have
already? He enjoys total power. Over three months he could have done everything and he
has done nothing. On the other hand you are reinforcing the resolve of the reactionary
extremists. Count on them to proliferate beneath this great shadow. And hope that you
have not elected the Neguib of some new Nasser who will suddenly unmask himself.
Everything is false. Lies and violence, blackmail, terror, ambiguity, everything in this
referendum is designed to violate people’s consciences and to devalue the vote of its
opponents.
If the ‘yes’ vote were to win, consider what would follow. But even without taking the
future into account, it would be unworthy to vote under threat. Since we have not been
able to avoid this rigged election, there is only one response that we can make: ‘no’. But
let us not fall into the final trap. Let us not be the ‘spirit that always refuses’. They have
deliberately forced us into a refusal pure and simple: let us group together and give a
meaning to this refusal. Let our ‘no’ to monarchy mean ‘Constituent Assembly’. To
General de Gaulle and those around him we will say: ‘On one point we agree with you:
the Fourth Republic is dead and we have no intention of resuscitating it! But it is not up
to you to create the Fifth Republic. It is up the French people themselves in their full and
entire sovereignty.’