French Communist Party leader Georges Marchais announced today that he is ready “and waiting” to meet Avital Shcharansky, the wife of the Soviet Jewish activist serving a prison sentence. A Communist Party communique said Marchais is expecting Mrs. Shcharansky at his office Friday afternoon. The announcement did not say whether the date and place have been jointly agreed upon.
Mrs. Shcharansky said last month that she would like to meet Marchais to ask for his intervention on her husband’s behalf but that he has refused to see her. Today’s announcement, prominently carried by the French Communist daily, L’Humanite, apparently answered her demand.
Marchais last month released a message from Soviet leader Yuri Andropov saying that Anatoly Shcharansky has stopped his hunger strike. Andropov’s letter was in reply to a telegram from Marchais asking for details concerning the Soviet activist’s health and his chances to be freed from detention.
With only a few days to go before the French municipal elections, the first major electoral test since the June 1981 leftwing parliamentary victory, Marchais is apparently trying to improve the image of the Communist Party. His meeting with Mrs. Shcharansky is scheduled to take place two days before the municipal vote, March 6.
Meanwhile, some 100 Jewish demonstrators last night interrupted the opening performance by the Soviet Georgian Republic’s official Ballet company. The demonstrators, who had purchased tickets or obtained invitations, distributed leaflets and carried placards calling upon the Soviet Union to permit Jewish immigration to Israel and to grant full religious and cultural rights to Soviet Jews.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
