Speaking to a sparse and somewhat sullen crowd in Lowell Lecture Hall, Ernest Mandel, a noted Belgian Marxist editor, last night claimed that student demonstrations have started to trigger a worker's revolution.

Banned from France for his revolutionary activities last spring, Mandel, editor of the leftist weekly "La Gauche," said the French general strike in May was possible only because of the "mass character" of the preceeding student demonstrations. The workers reacted with what he described as "an element of competition," and with the conviction "we can do it even on a broader scale."

"Worthy of Louis XVI," Mandel termed the belittling comments toward student action in France. These "vanguard youth," he said, have been working constantly over the past five years, united in the struggle against "capitalist imperialism."

Using exhaustive Marxist analysis, Mandel claimed that the United States is no exception in the trend toward socialist revolution. It is merely lagging behind Western Europe and Japan, he said.