Revolutionary document found

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32430, 17 October 1970, Page 17

Revolutionary document found

(By

HILARY BRIGSTOCKE,

of "The Times.” through N.Z.P.A.)

MONTREAL, Oct 14. Towards the end of last year Montreal police carried out a number of raids on separatist hideouts in the city. They found a remarkable eight-page document entitled “Strategic Revolutionaire et Role de I’Avant Garde,” which called for the setting up of an independent Socialist Quebec through revolution, and rejected all democratic methods. This document so worried Mr Lucien Saulnier, the chairman of the Montreal Executive Committee, that he went to Ottawa with a mass of evidence that revolutionaries were in fact at work in the province. Danger signals His object was to persuade a Parliamentary committee to establish a Royal Commission

to investigate subversion in Montreal. Some members of the committee thought that his claims were absurd, and took the line, as indeed others did, that “it couldn’t happen here.” This was in spite of danger signals going back to 1963 that included bombings, killings, robbery and other manifestations of terrorist group activity. Now the kidnappings of Mi James “Jasper” Cross, the British diplomat, and Mr Pierre Laporte, the Quebec Minister of Labour and Immigration, have shown how justified were Mr Saulnier’s

In the light of Quebec’s history. the series of outrages, leading up to the threats to kill the kidnap victims, are perhaps not surprising. After the despotic regime of Mr Maurice Duplessis ended with his death in 1959, there came the “quiet revolution” under Mr Lisage’s lib-

eral administration from 1960 to 1966.

• But it was altogether too quiet for the radicals, who saw the battle in simple economic terms as one between the haves and the have-nots: To some extent, they regarded language and culture as secondary issues, a convenient base from which to work for their own ideals.

The strategy document found last year described Mr Rene Levesque’s separatist Parti Quebecois programme “as paper sovereignty approved by the parasitic petite bourgeoisie who only aspire to take over from the English the management of the interest of American imperialism in Quebec.” The document went on “True independence is inseparable from global revolution and its triumph will always demand a war to the finish against imperialism as in Vietnam and Guatemala.”

However, the Quebec Liberation Front (F.L.Q.), which was behind the kidnappings, does not appear to have based itself on Maoism and Castroism, although some of their characteristics are the same, and they pay homage to these two leaders.

Urban guerrillas The F.L.Q. and other revolutionaries in Quebec, seem to regard themselves as an activist organisation seeking to wage “urban guerrilla warfare.”

In March, 1963, the first Montreal bombings made news. Since then deaths through the bombings and “shoot-outs” have numbered only six. F.L.Q. attacks have been mainly directed against institutions like the Montreal Stock Exchange and the communications centre at the Canadian Defence Headquarters in Ottawa.

The kidnappings are a sinister development, and forebodings have been aroused by a suggestion in one of the latest F.L.Q. manifestos that the next stage could be assassination of political leaders in Quebec and Ottawa.

The revolutionaries clearly have been frustrated at what they have regarded a slow social and economic change in the province and seem to have decided that it must be speeded up by more revolutionary tactics. The F.L.Q. represents the “strike arm”

of a fast-growing group of New Left front organisations with strong international overtones.

10 or 12 cells

The organisation is believed to comprise about 10 or 12 cells which work independently, with one person liaising between them. The cell that kidnapped Mr Cross was called the liberation cell, and the one that kidnapped Mr Laporte was the Chenier cell. This latter unit apparently takes its name from JeanOliver Chenier, who led the unsuccessful revolt by French Canadians against British rule in 1837.

French Canadians that the time has come for real change. Revolutionary activity seems practically to have become part of the Quebec scene and what is worrying people is what form it may yet take in coming times.

Many of the political cells are concentrated around the French-speaking University of Montreal, the University of Quebec and other academic institutions, including McGill. Each is thought to contain four or five members and many of the total complement are Maoists, Trotskyists, and Leninists. How far are the terrorists financed from sources outside the country? The fact that the F.L.Q. has been responsible for robbing banks, firearm depots and supermarkets, suggests that it needs to obtain resources on its own account. It has described these robberies as a form of “voluntary taxes from the enterprises that exploit the workers.” It may be suspected that the plan for the kidnappings was formulated in part behind closed doors at an antiVietnam war rally in Montreal about two years ago. Security authorities were concerned about the rally being held in Montreal :at all, in view of the presence of certain extreme radicals, including some from underground groups in the l United States. i Are new methods needed i to deal with this situation? . Is fire to be met with fire? : There is some sentiment i that the events of the last ■ few days should stimulate the authorities to bring about ’ justice reforms and the im- : provement of social and ' economic conditions in • Quebec, which is now sufferi ing from high unemployment. > The methods of the F.L.Q. . are condemned by most . Quebeckers, and there is a ’ feeling among the younger