Who Will Succeed Franco?
Serge, Victor
Who Will Succeed Franco? By Victor Serge An Interview With Indalecio Prieto MEXICO CITY. —Franco's seat will soon be vacant. The general to whom Hitler and Mussolini entrusted the conquest of...
...Diego Martinez Barrio and I, despite a barrage of Communist calumny, were accorded a cordial reception In Cuba...
...I hope we go through another tunnel...
...The same sort of categorical language was employed by Prieto recently before an audience of more than 2,000 Socialists and Republicans and received their support in the form of vigorous applause...
...The mother thought, "How, well I have brought up my daughter...
...In order to gain power," he said, "the Supreme Junta, the phantom organization of the Communist Party, appeals to the generals, to the clergy, to the parties of the right which carried on the war against the Republic, to the Carlist monarchists, those very monarchists who massacred 25,000 workers and who declare themselves true to the tradition .of absolutism...
...Working underground and threatened by pbalangist persecution, the republican parties have repelled all invitations to collaborate with the "totalitarian Communist Party...
...With regard to this elaborate political plot lmiale.tio Prieto, formerly Defense Minister of the Republic and a well-known Socialist, recently said to me: "We do not want a Lublin Committee for Spain, (her., is no need of a Spanish Tito...
...We are fully informed of them in advance...
...They violate the Spanish Constitution, which forbids political activity on the part of army officers...
...There will not be anything like order or justice in the world without genuine independence of peoples...
...These great groups of Spanish workers and republicans call to us and expect us to take up our tasks In France...
...From Africa the syndicalist trade union movement (CNT) sends us a message of sympathy...
...Several others are either dead or in exile...
...H AVE we the right to speak for the people of Spain...
...Thus the Communist Party —and its distant supporters—pretend that they are all set to furnish the future government of Spain...
...We do not wish to be forced again to engage in the tragic struggle of the Republic against Communist domination...
...Not one has turned traitor...
...In their declarations they carefully avoid the use of the word republic...
...In France, on the other hand, the Communist minority, discredited but provided with ample funds and effective means of publicity, set up at the conference of Toulouse a committee to support the so-called Supreme Junta, a Communist invention" which is weak...
...The agents of the Communist Party are making attempts to hinder the reunion of members of the Cortez...
...The Italian thought, "That was fun...
...Everywhere in Latin America the vital and dynamic representatives of Republican Spain are with us...
...The attempt of the Communists in France to get their hands on the Spanish republican movement resulted, in this important center of Spanish republicanism, in this violent and decisive reaction...
...All of the political points were made crystal clear...
...Julian Beateno died in prison...
...The general to whom Hitler and Mussolini entrusted the conquest of Spain in 1°.'(6 cannot survive his masters...
...Of the survivors, not one has weskened...
...I shall kiss my hand again and then slap my dear ally, the Nasi...
...But the Polish Socialist patriots are called fascists by the Communist Party...
...What we want is democracy with clearly defined aims ant methods which remain in control of the people...
...Reports of an underground convention have been received...
...Let me add that attempts at infiltration are doomed to failure...
...The conference of the Spanish Socialist Parly, meeting in Algiers, sends us word of its approval...
...Spain was—and wishes to be—a republic under civilian control...
...In a compartment of an international train there sst four people: a Nazi officer, an Italian officer, a mother and her daughter...
...Suddenly there was the sound of kissing and a resounding slap...
...39 of them were shot by Franco...
...Whether Socialists or Republicans, we refuse, in our struggle for power, any collaboration with the Communist Party...
...Then silence...
...It included the majoritySf the Spanish refugees now in Mexico...
...In the meantime, it is arranging to assemble in Mexico the deputies of the Cortes who sre on this side of th* Atlantic and thus to •establish here a sort of government-in-exile...
...Prieto's position and his entire course of reasoning received the support, not only of the audience which heard him, but of the Mexican press...
...Military men are to serve it It is not their place to govern...
...For years no one has spoken so sharply in Latin America about the open struggle between democratic Socialism and totalitarian Communism...
...representing the majority of Spanish voters, the msjority of the Cortes, the majority of the underground, the majority of the refugees, has asked of the French government permission to move its headquarters to France...
...The Socialist Party and the General Union of Workers (UGT), organized underground in Spain, unite in giving us support and send' the news that they are with us and that over there the former splits in th* movement have come to an end...
...Largo Caballero is in a Nazi jail...
...Here, as at Toulouse, they apply the methods, of imperialist coercion...
...And The Committee of Liberation represents the immense majority of the Spanish population...
...The Committee of Liberation, now in Mexico...
...We hope that all of them will soon disappear...
...Not one Socialist or Republican of any note took part in the intrigues at Toulouse...
...The train entered a dark tunnel...
...In I«:i6 we had 99 Socialist deputies...
...The daughter thought, "I would never have suspected that mother would make such a hit" The German thought, "Obviously that passionate Italian is making love to the pretty girl...
...It hss been years since I have participated iVauch an enthusiastic meeting...
...The objections to the transfer of our headquarters have not arisen in France...
...Everyone pretended to hav« hesrd nothing...
...Franco, ruined by corruption, oppression, snd the misery which he has caused, will fall...
...We Spanish Socialists will pledge our faith to the Polish Socialists who participated in the Government-in-Exle and would not consent to the betrayal of ther country to a foreign domination...
...A recent arrival serves as witness to underground activities of the guerrillas in Galicia—having been on a train which was held up by rebel guerrillas...
...but why did she slsp me instead of him...
...The French Government and our Socialist comrades over there have replied sympathetically...
...And who had charge of things there we know very well...
...In'some quarters there is still talk of s transitory revivsl of the monarchy, but the general opinion is that such a revival has slight chanc* of success...
...Alvaro de Albornoz has met in Montevideo and elsewhere the warmest support...
...They ally themselves with the enemies of liberty...
...Very well...
...This is the conviction of the Spanish refugees and of the masses of people in Spain who make up the great underground movement and with whom we have well-established methods of communication...
...For lack of other support, the Communist Party intends to collaborate with all sorts of reactionaries...
...From various sources I learn that all of the traditional trade union and political organizations hsve been revived in Spain...
...For nearly a year we have been planning to move, first to Algeria, then to Paris...
...We have had abundant experience of its disloyalty, its hypocrisy, its subordination to a foreign power, its never-ending venality...
Vol. 27 • December 1944 • No. 51
