French government fears rise of left

By Paul Henley BBC News, Toulouse

French protests have been peaceful, but anger is growing

"Sarkozy is right to be afraid of us," says Marine, a 22-year-old student and member of the League of Communist Revolutionaries in Toulouse.

"We are the ones who are going to break the rules and the control of the old system. We are the new alternative".

Across Europe, victims of the economic slump who are losing their jobs in their tens of thousands are furious that public money is being doled out to the banks.

In some countries, they are more willing to vent their anger.

As huge crowds took to the streets across France this week, in a national day of protests and strikes, the far left points to a boost in the number of its supporters in times of financial gloom.

The French communist movement has remained a significant political force even in the decades when their cause was less than fashionable abroad.

We are seeing a radicalisation... Inequality is growing in Europe and inequality is always the cause of revolt Stephane BorrasProtest organiser

Now, France's communists believe they are staring at the proof that capitalism has failed, once and for all. And they see an opportunity.

Marine and her fellow party-member, Hugo, who is 18, do not envisage a violent revolution.

"There is no need for guns or bullets," says Hugo, "just a realisation that the situation is not fair, that all the state's money is being spent on the people who need it the least."

Stephane Borras, who is one of the group's organisers and a candidate to lead a new party that is being formed under the banner of anti-capitalism, says attitudes are changing.

"We are seeing a radicalisation, perhaps the beginning of a very big movement. I am not a clairvoyant, but I live in France, I have a lot of contacts with a wide range of people and it's not just leftists, not just militants who cannot accept the injustice. Inequality is growing in Europe and inequality is always the cause of revolt".

Desperate times

All three campaigners stress the need to forge an effective alliance between the workers and with the downtrodden youth of the suburbs because, as they put it, "that's what the government fears the most".

Up until now, the rioters of the "banlieues", who made headlines with the damage they caused to parts of Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon and Toulouse a couple of years ago, have failed to find effective common cause with the students and intellectuals of the left.

But as times get more desperate for more people, that could change.

We need to learn from the past - our job as criminologists is to read the books and notice that something is going on Alain Bauer

Certainly, ministers in Paris are wary of some form of insurrection.

Recent intelligence reports talk about an "elevated threat" from an "international European network