This was also implausible – after all, France had a free press – and they settled finally on the idea that Gaullism was the reactionary instrument of ‘monopoly capitalism’ (Pompidou’s previous banking career came in useful here). Other Marxists tried to develop a more sophisticated approach, arguing that Gaullism represented the dynamic elements of French capitalism opposed to the backward-looking protectionist and rentier interests clinging on to Algeria.1 The Communist Party viewed this theory as heresy because it implied that Gaullism had a progressive side.
