SOCIALIST APPEAL JULY 6, 1940 SOCIALIST APPE AL Vol. IV, No. 27 Saturday, July 6, 1940 Published Weekly by the SOCIALIST APPEAL PUBLISHING ASS at 116 University Place, New York, Telephone: Algonquin 8547 AFTER HITLER CONQUEST Rumania Move May OF FRANCE WHAT NEXT? Herald Stalin Policy Switch Editorial Board: FELIX MORROW ALBERT GOLDMAN General Manager: GEORGE CLARKE Subscriptions: 00 per year: 1, 00 for six months Foreign. 00 per year. 50 for six months. Bundle orders: cents per copy in the United States: cents per copy in a foreign countries, Single coples: cents. Reentered as second class matter December 1939, at the post office at New York, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Fight with the Socialist Workers Party for: JOB AND DECENT LIVING FOR EVERY WORKER OPEN THE IDLE FACTORIES. OPERATE THEM UNDER WORKERS CONTROL. A TWENTY. BILLION DOLLAR FEDERAL PUBLIC WORKS AND HOUSING PROGRAM THIRTY THIRTY 30. WEEKLY MINIMUM WAGE 30 HOUR WEEKLY MAXIMUM FOR ALL WORKERS ON ALL JOBS. 30 WEEKLY OLD. AGE AND DISABILITY PENSION EXPROPRIATE THE SIXTY FAMILIES. ALL WAR FUNDS TO THE UNEMPLOYED. PEOPLE REFERENDUM ON ANY AND ALL WARS. NO SECRET DIPLOMACY.
10. AN INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY.
11. WORKERS DEFENSE GUARDS AGAINST VIGILANTE AND FASCIST ATTACKS.
12. FULL SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC EQUALITY FOR THE NEGRO PEOPLE.
By ALBERT GOLDMAN Taking advantage of Hitler and Mussolini preoccupation with their task of dealing a kerockout blow to the British Empire, Stalin demanded and obtained the return of Bessarabia, the province which Rumania had seized from the Soviet Union in 1918. The fact that together with Bessarabia Stalin obtained the northern part of Bukovina is almost conclusive evidence that his demands were motivated by a desire to prepare defensive positions against the attack which everyone expects Hitler to launch against the Soviet Union as soon as he is through with or as soon as he makes peace with England.
If it is true that Stalin is also demanding control of the mouth of the Danube it would only strengthen the theory that he is trying to seize as many defensive positions as he possibly can while the seizing is good.
To gain control of the Danubian estuary would be bearding Hitler in his den.
Did Hitler know of and acquiesce in Stalin actions? Speculation is rife as to whether there was an agreement between the two permitting Stalin to take Bessarabia and Bukovina, or whether the latter took what he wanted without asking his friend Hitler.
The statement issued by the German Legation in Bucharest to the effect that the occupation of Bessarabia was instigated by Cripps, the British ambassador to Moscow, and was nothing but a British trick to involve the Balkans in the war, conflicts with the attitude of the Berlin officials, which is, that the whole matter is one entirely between the Soviet Union and Rumania. The inference of this differentce between Bucharest and Berlin is that Stalin acted with out as much as notifying Hitler. This inference is strengthened by the haste with which the Germans in the occupied territories made their exit.
But the answer to the question as to what extent the move into Rumania was made by Stalin with the knowledge and consent of Hitler does not affect its defensive character, that is, that primarily it constitutes a further preparation of Stalin to defend himself against Hitler. The sudden despatch of tens of thousands of troops into Latvia, Lithuania and Esthonia a few weeks ago was clear evidence that Hitler phenomenal success has Stalin considerably worried.
Lewis and Wheeler Two weeks ago John Lewis was defending Herbert Hoover and was opening the way to collaboration with the Republican party. This week he is saying at the Townsendite convention, Tuesday) that the Republican party failed By LUND time, to the extent that the Nazis will try to to accept its opportunity to become a party of (This article was written immediately after utilize the natural resources and the industrial the people and that the only Democrat who can France had capitulated. Objective conditions machinery of the nations defeated by them, the defeat Willkie is Senator Wheeler. And if have prevented earlier publication.
Nazis will themselves become inevitably dependent upon the native peasants and workers. Only Wheeler is not nominated by the Democratic In the wake of a number of other and smaller after the victory, do economic difficulties always convention, why then, says Lewis, like a really European states, France is being transformed in begin. It is impossible to attach soldier with a dynamic leader firmly and unflinchingly pointing risen to unprecedented military heights, with all rifle to each Polish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Belgian, French worker and peasant. Nationalthe concrete way which must be, which is the the ensuing opportunities for world plunder. What socialism is without any prescription for transonly road, why then, then it will be time for then follows?
forming defeated peoples from foes into friends.
From the side of all sorts of semi international The experience of the Germans in the Ukraine organizations of labor, organizations of labor, organizations like the Townsend clubs and others line of argumentation: Successful uprisings in ists one may expect approximately the following in 1918 has demonstrated how difficult it is to utilize through military methods the natural to consider what to do.
conquered countries, under the Nazi heel, are wealth and labor power of a defeated people; and That bold leadership for you!
impossible, because how swiftly an army of occupation is demoralized ment will bei Periods of war pitilessly bare all the realities drowned in blood by the mediate revolutionary movein an atmosphere of universal hostility. These conquerors. There is even less reason to expect a very same processes will develop on a far vaster of the society we live in. The relationship be successful uprising in the camp of the totalitarian scale in the European continent under Nazi occutween the capitalist class and the labor bureauc victors. Favorable conditions for revolution could pation. One can expect with assurance the rapia racy, ordinarily concealed by numberless devices, be created only by the defeat of Hitler and Mus transformation of all the conquered countries into solini. Therefore, nothing remains except to ald powder magazines. The danger is rather this, that has to be uncovered as these labor lieutenants of England and the United States. Should the Soviet the explosions may occur too soon without sufficapitalism spring to obey the orders of the ruling Union join us it would be possible not only to cient preparation and lead to isolated defeats. It class to prepare for war. The AFL and CIO heavy military and economie defeats. The further 18 in general impossible, however, to speak of the bureaucrats automatically, unquestioningly, en dévelopment of the revolution is possible only on European and the world revolution without taking into account partial defeats.
dorse the war program and especially its immedi this road. And so forth and so on.
Hitler, the conqueror, has naturally day dreams. of becoming the chief executioner of the proleLewis, as the most left of the labor bureau. Nothing New In This Argument tarian revolution in any part of Europe. But this This argumentation which appears on the sur does not at all mean that Hitler will be strong crats, can permit himself no greater liberties face to be inspired by the new map of Europe is enough to deal with the proletarian revolution than to flirt with the Republicans, to demand in reality only an adaptation to the new map of as he has been able to deal with imperialist the acceptance of the candidacy of a cheap capi Europe of the old arguments of social patriotism, democracy. It would be a fatal blunder, unworthy talist demagogue like Senator Wheeler, and then e. class betrayal. Hitler victory over France of a revolutionary party, to turn Hitler into a to mumble something about considering what Salist democracy, even in the sphere of its own has revealed completely the corruption of imper fetish, to exaggerate his power, to overlook the objective limits of his successes and conquests to do if he doesn get Wheeler.
tasks. It cannot be saved from fascism. It can True enough, Hitler boastfully promises to establish the domination of the German people, at And if he permits himself no greater liberties only be replaced by proletarian democracy.
the expense of all Europe and even of the whole than this now, when the country is still at peace, present war with the fate of imperialist democ world, for one thousand years. But in all likewe can imagine how cravenly Lewis will come racy, it would only assure itself a new series of lihood, this splendor will not endure even for to heel when the capitalist masters actually emdefeats.
ten years.
bark on war. For victory sake England has already found We must learn from the lessons of the recent past. Twenty two years ago not only the defeated herself obliged to introduce the methods of dicTo trust Lewis, to lean on Lewis, to expect tatorship, the primary pre requisite for which countries but also the victors emerged from the anything from Lewis, in the coming period of was the renunciation by the Labour Party of any war with their economic life disrupted and were war and social convulsion, would be to deliver political independence whatsoever. If the inter able to realize very slowly, to the extent that the American workers into the hands of their national proletariat, in the form of all its organ they realized at all, the economic advantages acizations and tendencies, were to take to the same cruing from victory. Therefore the revolutionary enemies. These are strong words. But unless road, then this would only facilitate and hasten movement assumed very great proportions in they become part of the understanding of the the victory of the totalitarian regime on a world the countries of the victorious Entente as well.
American workers, they will run the mortal danscale. Under the conditions of the world proleThe only thing lacking was a revolutionary party tariat renouncing independent politics, an alliance capable of heading the movement.
ger of frittering away the great opportunities between the user and the imperialist democwhich lie ahead, still concealed in the smoke of racles would signify the growth of the emni Crisis in Germany Too!
the battlefields, but there, ahead of us, soon cap potencer of the Moscow bureaucracy, its further The total, e. all embracing character of the able of realization.
and its inevitabiy making concessions to imperpresent war excludes the possibility of direct ialism in the economic sphere. In all likelihood enrichment at the expense of the defeated countries. Even in the event of a complete victory the military position of the various imperialist countries on the world arena would be greatly over England, Germany in order to maintain her conquests would be compelled in the next few changed thereby; but the position of the world years to assume such economic sacrifices as The Voorhis Bill proletariat, from the standpoint of the tasks of would far outweigh those advantages which it the socialist revolution, would be changed very might draw directly from her victories. The liv The Smith bill, which became law when little.
ing conditions of the German masses must in any Roosevelt signed it on Saturday, sought to out Revolution Must Be Prepared For. case worsen considerably in the next period. Million upon million of victorious soldiers will find law the publishing and other activities of all labor In order to create a revolutionary situation, on returning to their homeland an even more organizations which advocate the overthrow of say the sophists of social patriotism, it is neces poverty stricken home than the one from which the government by force or violence, or by any titler, it is necessary to support the imperialist sary to deal Hitler a blow. To gain a victory over they had been torn away by the war. victory other mcans. Now the government is backing a that lowers the living standard of the people democracies. But it for the sake of saving the does not strengthen a regime but weakens it.
bill, which was adopted without debate Monday democracies the proletariat renounces inde The self confidence of the demobilized soldiers by the House, which strikes heavy blows against pendent revolutionary politics, Just who would who had scored the greatest victories will have been raised in the extreme. Their betrayed hopes utilize a revolutionary situation arising from Hitevery labor organization with international affiliwill turn into sharp dissatisfaction and embitterations, whether it advocates changes in the gov tionary situations in the last quarter of a cen ment. On the other hand, the Brown Shirted castel ernment or not.
tury. But there has been lacking a revolutionary will rise even higher above the people; its arbiThis new bill, introduced by Congressman tion. To renounce the training of a revolutionary party capable of utilizing a revolutionary situa trary rule and profligacy will provoke ever greater hostility. If in the last decade the political Voorhis of California, Roosevelt spokesman on party for the sake of provoking a revolutionary pendulum in Germany has, as a result of the the Dics Committee. Dies himself is backing situation is to lead the workers blindfolded to a impotence of belated democracy and the betrayal the bill. would make it obligatory for a labor massacre.
of labor parties, swung sharply to the right then, organization to file the names of all officers, the own country the defeat of one own imperialist From the standpoint of a revolution in one as result of disillusion in the consequences of the war and of the Nazi regime, the pendulum address of all meeting places of branches, the government is undoubtedly a lesser evil.
will now swing even more sharply and decisively time of meetings and the name and address of Pseudo internationalists, however, refuse to apply to the left. Dissatisfaction, alarm, protests, any member or contributor to the organization, cratie countries. In return, they interpret Hitler this principle in relation to the defeated demo strikes, armed clashes will again be on the order of the day for Germany. Hitler will have too if the policies of the organization are deter victory not as a relative but as an absolute ob many worries in Berlin to be able successfully mined by or at the suggestion of, or in collabora stacle in the way of a revolution in Germany. to fulfill the role of executioner in Paris, Brus.
sels or London.
tion with. an international political organiza They lie in both instances, tion.
Consequently the task of the revolutionary proWhat the Nazis Now Face letariat does not consist of helping the imperialOstensibly aimed at the Bund and the StalinIn the defeated countries the position of the ist armies create a revolutionary situation but ists, these provisions also apply to the Social masses will immediately become worsened in the of preparing, fusing and tempering its internaDemocrats, the Socialist party, the CIO extreme. Added to social oppression is national tional ranks for revolutionary situations of which oppression, the main burden of which is likewise there will be no lack. through its participation in the congresses of borne by the workers. Of all the forms of dicta, The new war map of Europe does not invalidate the Latin American Federation of Labor. the torship, the totalitarian dictatorship of a foreign the principles of revolutionary class struggle. The AFL (as an affiliate of the International Federa conqueror is the most intolerable. At the same Fourth International does not change its course.
tion of Trade Unions) and, of course, to our selves as the American section of the Fourth derous monthly of Lombardo ToInternational.
Jedano. He is also the head of the publishing department of the The bill now goes to the Senate. Every labor Stalinist Universidad Obrera. Unorganization which doesn want to have its memder orders of the CrM he pubbership lists in the hands of the capitalist class lishes a special weekly bulletin, must fight it tooth and nail. Most of the American 11 the reaction, possibly Trotsky Mexican Labor News, distribuberal organs which burned himself but by no means Stalin. ted free in the United States.
their fingers by defending the Meanwhile the Mexican police In the inner staff of Lombardo Stalinist version of the Moscow have uncovered the assailants.
Reads a Richman Brothers clothing ad: No longer trials were careful enough not They are by accident agents of Toledano the authority of Harry Block is based upon the fact does even a workman need swelter in summer! See to repeat their performance Stalin.
that he is considered the agent What when the news broke of the atnow our new summer weight suits at prices even infamous reptile of the Soviet Embassy in Washworkers can afford to pay. How wonderful is the tempted assassination of Leon breed these radicals of the Na ington in relations with the CTM.
capitalist system it can provide sometimes even Trotsky.
But the weekly Na tion But they will not escape the head of the Soviet agency in tion did repeat its perform their punishment: we shall teach Washington is Oumansky, who the producers some of the product they made!
ance, publishing in its June the American workers to appre made his diplomatic career as an issue an article, Mexico ciate them as they deserve to agent of the GPU. Consequently STATE OF THE NATION Phantom Conspiracy, from its despise them. Coyoncan, Harry Block is the confidential San Jose, Calif. State college co eds have organized regular Mexican correspondgo between for two agents of the an Archashoot club to deal with any stray paraent, Mr. Harry Block Block GPU, Oumansky and Lombardo By JOSEPH HANSEN said the attack had all the chute troops. They will use bows and arrows. Some of them explained: When they come we ll puncture earmarks of a put up job and Who is the author of the Na Toledano. No wonder that Harry tion article on the attack upon Block defended the dirty theory the parachutes, then watch them fall and break their was at particular pains to absolve the Stalinists. Leon Trotsky? Harry Block is a of self assault in the pages of citizen of the United States. His such a prostituted magazine as wife is Malu Cabrera, daughter the Nation.
PATRIOTISM By LEON TROTSKY of the Licenciado Luis Cabrera, a Meantime the majority of the McMahon, San onio oil man, says: One see that the Nation, whic very rich and very ctionary assailants have been apprehendof the greatest immediate dangers is a bottleneck in besmirched itself through its at lawyer retained by the oil com ed. All are members of the Comthe defense industries, due to labor laws. Any labor titude in regard to the Moscow panies and landlords of Yucatan. munist Party and agents of the leader who opposed amending our labor laws. judicial frame ups, has hurried At the same time, Harry Block GPU. They are the colleagues of comes close to being a traitor. And any senator or again this time to support the is a close collaborator of Lom Oumansky, Lombardo Toledano, representative who panders to these labor leaders who fantastic and stupid versions of bardo Toledano, the notorious po and Harry Block. It will be inwould sacrifice the defense of the United States in the GPU in connection with the litical agent of the GPU in Mex teresting to learn the reaction of order to build up their personal power, union dues, attack of May 24. Everyone it ico. Harry Block is the managing the Nation editorial board etc. is betraying his country.
seems is guilty, General Almazan, editor of Futuro, the foul, slan now, June 18, 1940 It is the defensive aspect of the move by Stalin, as against Hitler, that will keep the petty bourgeois democrats of all varieties from going into hysterics!
and demanding either that the democracies take strong action against the Soviet Union or else that the Bessarabian workers take up arms against the Red Army.
When Stalin sent the Red Army into Finland It constituted an invasion of a small democratic nation and the petty bourgeois democrats reacted so violently that they were willing to take up arms to help defeat the Red Army. Some also claimed an intention to use their arms against the Finnish army, but all were for the defeat of the Red Army.
But the petty bourgeois democrats cannot get all heated up about Rumania as they did about Finland.
Although a small country, it can hardly be classed as a democracy. We can therefore expect that the democrats of all types, while ceremoniously referring to their theory of Stalinist imperialism and of the partnership between Hitler and Stalin to divide the British Empire if not the whole world will, however not raise much of a howl all of which indicates the democratic roots of their opposition to the Soviet Union.
As for us we shall continue to state that a workers state has a right and a duty to take advantage of the conflicts and difficulties of the imperialist world in order to extend its base and strengthen its defensive positions. And we shall continue to attack the bureaucratic methods of the bureaucracy of the degenerated workers state when these methods alienate the sympathies of the working masses and thus nullify the gains made by virtue of the acquisition of territory and defensive outposts. To the Bessarabian workers and peasants we say: Join your brothers in the Soviet Union in the struggle against imperialism and against the Stalinist bureaucracy.
Patriotism at a Price The final argument which induced the French cabinet to capitulate to Hitler was that unless they surrendered the country to Hitler there would be a proletarian revolution in France. We have this on the authority of Elie Bois, former editor of the Petit Parisien, who tells the story in a June 30 dispatch from London to the New York Times. It was General Maxime Weygand himself who led the capitulators. Weygand first described the military difficulties of the French armies. Then, Bois tells. Then, referring to the Russian debacle of 1917 and the Soviet menace, he said, We must not let it. come to that. This gave the defeatists in the Cabinet their chance to come forward, since the Commander in Chief not only justified but actually covered them. Didn he tell them that, according to an Admiralty report, there were riots in Paris and that Maurice Thorez, Communist leader, had occupied the Elysee Palace. Bois tells this story indignantly indignant because it turned out, he says, that there was no revolutionary danger in Paris. He is not a bit indignant at the iundamental attitude taken by the cabinet that surrender to Hitler was preferable to a proletarian revolution.
This revelation of how the French cabinet preferred a foreign invader as against the victory of the French working class serves to underline one of the central thoughts expressed in the Fourth International Manifesto on the war, which we published last week. We quote from it. The bourgeoisie never defends the fatherland for the sake of the fatherland. They defend private property, privileges, profits. Whenever these sacred values are threatened, the bourgeoisie immediately takes to the road of defeatism.
That was the way of the Russian bourgeoisie, whose sons after the October revolution fought and are once again ready to fight in every army in the world against their own former fatherland. In order to save their capital, the Spanish bourgeoisie turned to Mussolini and Hitler for military aid against their own people. The Norwegian bourgeoisie aided Hitler invasion of Norway. Thus it always was and always will be. Official patriotism is a mask for the exploiting interests. Class conscious workers throw this mask contemptuously aside. They do not defend the bourgeois fatherland, but the interests of the toilers and the oppressed of their own country and of the entire world. The theses of the Fourth International state: Against the reactionary slogan of national defense it is ecessary to advance the slogan of the revolutionary destruction of the national state. To the madhouse of capitalist Europe it is necessary to counterpose the program of the Socialist United States of Europe as a stage on the road to the Socialist United States of the World.
And it becomes clearer with the passing of every day that all of the defensive positions acquired by Stalin cannot possibly compensate for his crime in entering into the pact with Hitler. He thereby not only lost the support of millions of workers who considered the Soviet Union as the champion of the struggle against fascism but he also enabled Hitler to gain complete control over Europe, making certain of an attack by him on the Soviet Union without the slightest fear of any interference by France.
The factor of contending imperialist states on the European scene, a factor of tremendous importance to the safety of the Soviet Union, has been wiped out by the pact and, by the consequent victory of Hitler. Nation Backs GPU That Stalin realizes the danger of his situation is evidenced not only by his movement of troops but by a more or less clearly indicated change of line on the part of the Stalinist parties, change of line that has a meaning only if Stalin is cautiously preparing a shift towards the democracies. For the past two months or so the Stalinists have been attacking German imperialism as well as Allied imperialism and now they have launched a campaign against the Munich men in the English cabinet and for a people government to continue the struggle against Pitter.
an It may not be long before the Stalinists will discover that there has been such a change in the constitution of the English government that to support the democracies against Hitler will become the sacred duty of the working masses.
NOT SAID NOW War brings many collateral disasters. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, suffer. We think we shall be wiser and cooler the next time, if there is one; and we shan Editorial, New York TIMES, August 9, 1929.
necks.
Says Raymond Clapper: We are in a most serious crisis. We do not know at what moment Japan will strike at the Netherlands East Indies, and menace our supply of rubber and tin. If that action comes, we shall have to decide at once, within a few hours, whether to fight or to accept a Munich in the Far East. Step right up, boys, who ll be the first damfool to risk his skin for some rubber and tin?