Democracy is Stronger Than Before the War
SHUB, DAVID
Democracy is Stronger Than Before the War Extremist View That Democracy Has Collapsed Held Untenable— Free Republics Today Exceed Pr?-War Number — Dictatorship Made Inroads Only in Countries...
...Their plan provided for a strong authoritarian central committee, to be chosen by the congress, responsible only to the congress and independent in intervals between congresses from the affiliated trade unions...
...Realizing the hopelessness of obtaining the approval of the congress for affiliation with the Red Trade Union International, the Comnmnists proposed that the reunited trade union federation be affiliated both with the International Federation of Trade Unions and the Red Trade Union International...
...The road would have been opened to the realisation of the Communist aim of transforming the free trade unions into a totalitarian organization...
...The congress defeated the Communist p« assonai by a vote of 5,700 to 2,609...
...Red Trade Union International Rebuffed tjm> ¦" ¦¦ ¦¦ - T.z...
...no political schooling and no experience in self-rule and where the parliamentary situation had degenerated to a point making it impossible for any party to carry , sat hn program, the people became (finlkeiuned with the democratic lysana and began to long for "a Sfate* hand...
...Humanity has always Sgasai the names of the fighters "•martyrs for freedom and de"•OOey...
...The crisis which confronts ta», world today is net a crisis of e>(J mocracy, bot a crisis of gosstO" ment in general...
...Roosevelt...
...The congress voted to approve both the CGT and People's Front programs...
...The experience of recent **jb has shown that it is much y* to lose democracy than to "•sfa" it...
...Italy was more hV arai, but its parliamentary syxtcl* was young, the king being veStad with more power than in oSjpn ronstitutional countries...
...Nevertheless...
...The ideal of political democracy is a free nation of free citizens...
...The most glori¦n snuggles, the noblest acts of •^sacrifice were inspired by deJSJjjey...
...Freedom, he says, is no longer the beautiful, innocent maiden for whose sake the generations of the last half of the 19th century fought and died...
...The fact that the Communists promised to abide by this program, which is an emphatic repudiation of everything they fought for ever since they split the French trade unions 15 years ago, is proof of their own realization that they have definitely failed to achieve their original purpose of capturing the trade union movement in France...
...Compared to the program* of the People's Front, the De Man plan, like that of the CGT, is distinctly revovo lutto nary...
...We added: "The L.S.I...
...In line with their totalitarian objectives they sought to combine their proposal for a rigid centralist administration of the trade unions with their...
...This h lit a crisis but sn expansion of onoteraey...
...Despite his own statement...
...Norway became an independent democratic state only a few years before tht war.- Holland, Sweden and Bea mark did not became full potinosi* democracies until a decade or before the war...
...The method of Jaur?s is the method of democracy...
...in the sphere of organization, tha Bureau felt that it would be better at the present moment to refrain from sending such an article...
...Lenin bad the dubious honor of being first to destroy a democratic regime and to replace it with one based upon foree and violence...
...In the light of the documents quoted above, we declare, however, that our reports as to the facte were "correct in all essentials," to paraphrase Comrade Adler, and that we reserve the freedom to comment on the facts as we see fit...
...What did they do ? Did they put forward a plan of their own ? They did not, for the simple reason that they have never-had any serious plans to propose and have always confined themselves to general "revolutionary" slogans...
...Copies of the letters were sent by Comrade Adler to The New Leader and the Jewish Daily Forward, which also carried the information in question...
...In North America there were only two democratic countries, the United States and Canada, In South America there was only one democratic country: Argentina There was also a democratic regime in Australia, but not a single democracy in Asia and Africa...
...s, 'This is revealed with unmistakable clarity in the program approved by the congress, backed by an overwhelming majority of the membership...
...It is s system of government in which elections to the law-making bodies are carried.oOt not by the government,' but by the various independent parties and groups, and in which the rights and liberties oi each individual citizen, without distinction of class, race or origin are guaranteed by law and pro tected by the government...
...tar?es Refuses Request " 'I am happy to be able to report that at the last meeting of the National Executive Committee, July 13, 14 and 15, an amicable settlement was reached between the Mattonai Executive Committee and tan New York State Con» mittee, which has eliminated the danger of a split in the Socialist Party of the United States.' "The dangers which at that time seemed to be eliminated have now emerged again in a much more serious form...
...P*rience has also shown that *J*nnuuatic government must not j|aweak government...
...Beta"' in China and Japan, countries ti) he process of profound traeste» -nations, swashbuckling mOienf elements occupy the centre of *» stage, but those familiar wKh So situation in these countries kot» that the deeper social processes at work in these countries are nanV ing for the advancement of a mo** iemocratic social and political so der...
...Holf-Wit Attach The arguments of the Communists and ^of Communist-inclined Socialists that democracy does not promote the interests of the masses is essentially false...
...It js not merely a question of the right to vote...
...democracy can, if enough men and women will it persistently, march toward Socialism, is defeatist and doctrinaire.'' While it is possible to have democracy without Socialism, Socialism without democracy is impossible...
...Thert was no universal suffrage in Graat Britain until after the war...
...However, for a variety of reasons', frequently discussed in tha \"ew Leader, and into which as Have no space to enter here, atri ocracy subsequently broke dean, and was completely abolished hi...
...The proposals pressed by the Communists at the congress reveal in glaring light the hypocrisy and falsity of their united front propagaada...
...In one letter, dated February 25, Comrade Adler expresses regret at the publication of the request on the action of the L.S.I, with reference to its refusal to accede to the request of the N.E.C...
...Another proposal offered at the congress was that the reunited federation refrain from affiliation with either of the two internationals pending their amalgamation, in accordance with Moscow's united front maneuver...
...It is not by the collapse of the capitalist bourgeoisie, but by the growth of Labor that the Socialist order will gradually install itself in 'our society...
...were substantially correct...
...Having opposed it consistently as a "reformist" proposal, they found it difficult to vote for it...
...In jjM land the people had no control ore* the government by which they wen ruled...
...By David Shub J7ROM both the extreme right and the extreme left we have heard much in recent years about the "crisis of democracy...
...Is democracy on- the decline t The answer is definitely—no...
...All Socialists agree with Hugh Dalton, of the British Labor Party, who in his recent book "Practical Socialism for Britain" declares: "Political democracy will only be fully alive when married to economic democracy in a society of equals...
...jlar sovereignty existed only ht a few countries . After r the war the sitastbe changed radically...
...A dictator, once in powes, can be eliminated only bv revolution...
...But are the the Communists and fascists really right when they maintain that democracy is bankrupt and that dictatorship is certain to triumph, sooner or later, in all countries, f We need only compare the political orders existing in various countries before the World War with the present situation to see how false is the claim of the enemies of democracy...
...They proposed that their representatives in the central committee of the trade union federation consist of persons occupying prominent positions in the totalitarian apparatus of th...
...The congress defeated this proposal by the aforementioned majority and reaffirmed its freedom from any politica interf?rence...
...Bolshevism not only destroyed freedom and the young democracy of Russia...
...Stw1 problems have arisen com[iHmr nasini h before the war...
...action in question, we stated, was a refusal to grant the request of the N.E.C, for moral support in the coming Presidential election...
...Democracy Stronger Democracy did not break dona irij any of the countries where ft had exisbad before the war...
...While approving the extremely moderate, "reformist" program of the People's Front, with which both the Communists and the CGT are affiliated, the Communists opposed the plan of action of the CGT, which is similar to ie De Man program of economic- planning adopted by the Belgian Labor...
...V-, Mooorcby Predominano In Great Britain the mid?n classes received the franchise **rnk 75 years before the war, and...
...The CGT has always proceeded on the principle that the emancipation of the workers could be accomplished ony by the workers themselves and not by any dictorial central committees...
...In this letter you asked for some words of greeting for the journal to be published in connection with the convention in Cleveland, which is to be held in the last week in May...
...As Ferdinand Lassale is reported to have said: many a scoundrel has broken his neck by trying to be iust a bit too clever., This is the inevitabe fate confronting the Communists in France, the fate that has already befallen them in other countries...
...Australia and New Zealand he» become fully democratic statin, and the democratie ideal has none progress in Asia and Africa...
...Communism and the ?cossais crisis were material contribuas factors in bringing about this sitssjRon...
...We rightly interpreted the request as "a round about way of obtaining the International's indorsement of the left wing faction in control of the N.E.C, and thus misleading the party members in this country into the belief that the faction which supports secession and suspends charters in high-handed Stalinite fashion has the approval of the International...
...from power...
...it helped and encouraged the reactionaries of the right to destroy freedom and democracy in other countries...
...Democracy stame the meet dominant farm Of government in Europe...
...Bureau are confidential" and that "no report is published apart from the official communique...
...Democracy bas made even great 'T progress on the American S8*> " .inent...
...Germany and Austria...
...They have not given up any st*"their original purposes: capture of the movement by establishment of a Communist dictatorship over the trade unions by means of eentrefist administration governed by the Communist Party, and destruction of the International Federation of Trade Unions...
...Party, a plan providing for gradual economic reconstruction along definitely Socialist lines...
...Canada has become a fair iemocratic country...
...The interval between last September and the congress at Tolouse was devoted by the Communists to intensive efforts and propaganda for the adoption of their "line...
...Mexico is 01 -he way to becoming a true daan* racy, and several new demoeratit -tate* have been added in inani America...
...L.S.I...
...In many countries with some form of democratic rule democracy was a weak organism and had not been firmly rooted...
...Executive : Abramowitch's Report "It was decided to inform the National Executive Committee of the American Socialist Party, which requested the L.S.I...
...American reactionaries perceive a dictatorship in the New Deal of Mr...
...This truth has been emphasized more than eveT by the experience of the unfortunate peoples who have fallen under the sway of dictatorship in our own period...
...Both fascists and Communists have been untiring fn their predictions that dictatorship will supplant democracy everywhere...
...We submit that in the light of Comrade Adler's own letter, the reports published in The New Leader and the Jewish Daily Forward concerning the action of the US J. on the request of the N-E.C...
...The Workers Abroad Reunion of French Labor Unions Marks uefeat for Communists—Tolouse Congress Rejects All Their Proposals and ' Affirms Traditional Principles and Program—Upholds lf.T.U...
...Uctatorship Discredited ( flare is no absolutely perfect Seasuhental system and there ••Or will be such...
...This crisis is tim result of the tremendous cxpamOOI^ and increased complexity off ting f unctuous and tasks of governatoti...
...da, IO Before the war, the preraifiag rovemmental system was, tasteore, sot democracy bat nssnncniny either of the limited or aeonta institutional variety...
...At its meeting on August 16th, 1985, the Executive of the L.SJ...
...it must be lSJJj energetic and must be unaWPS-ef all enemies of democy *ho seek to utilize democratic J™** to destroy democracy and ¦JJS fatare belongs not to fas2,and dictatorship, which today ^¦•«mpletely discredited and S^bJet?y on the defensive, but ***aoeraey...
...The L.S.I...
...That oar comment was not unjustified by the facts is demonstrated by Comrade Adler's own version of the situation...
...There is no democracy where there is no freedom of speech, conscience, press, assembly and elections...
...Communist Party...
...We now have before us two letters addressed, by Friedrich Adler, secretary of the L.S.I., to Senior dealing with the matter...
...We welcome such an investigation, for we have no doubt what the verdict would be...
...In this manner the ComntaaJsta tried to achieve their old objectroe of making the trade unions a rubber stamp for the Communist Party, which, in turn, is the rubber stamp of the Comintern...
...The question is who controls the govern ment and is there ample opportunity to change such control whenever a majority of the people may deem it necessary...
...As for the workers who still continue to follow them, they will be made welcome in the reunited French labor movement, where, it is to be hoped, they will be curved of the illusions upon which the Communists have fed them and will become once more members of the free, independent Iemocratic community of labor...
...Japan was even more distant" "rom democracy than c za rist Bat...
...Universal suffrage existed only in a few countries...
...It approved the proposal of the CGT, which has always championed the principle of democratic federalism, the principle governing the structure and administration of the free trade unions in all countries...
...This clever proposal, we are sorry to say, was borrowed by the Communists from Otto Bauer...
...But in countries where ikowci atic ideas and institutions vers deeply rooted, or where the spedai conditions which in some anatries had influenced the develossent of anti-democratic tendenza did not play a role, the government crisis has been solved blesseer» tie methods and means...
...Ta*#*?us the "revolutionary" substitute they had to offer for the united front of the French trade unions...
...If this were true, capitalists and reactionaries everywhere would not be seeking to limit and destroy democracy, the instrument so essential in the struggle for human emancipation...
...in present-day Poland there a -nore freedom for all classes of tin copulation than was the ease sa'ore the war...
...Tab is true of Great Britain and *e British Dominions, Scandinavia, ftaace, Belgium and Czechoslonaaar -In all these countries desne?aey has asserted itself vicOBspsly...
...In fact, democracy has aootained itself successfully in •U countries where the social, political and economic foundations, •anaary for democratic progress ¦¦1 been retained...
...In Hitler Germany all citizens have the right to vote, as they did before the advent of Hitlerism...
...A certain distinguished authority on government once declared that after lecturing for twenty years on the subject, he was unable to give a satisfactory definition of democracy, bat that be had learned to recognize a democracy when he saw ose...
...The unity of organized labor in France has now been achieved not on the basin of Communist doctrine and policies but on the principles and policies of the International Federation of Trade Unions...
...Our masters are in Moscow," said Mussolini...
...Concern Over Party Situation in This Country...
...The world has chsnged tremendoosh...
...In line with the ideas and tactics laid down by Lenin when he built kis dictatorship in the Russian Bolshevist Party, preparatory to dictatorship in the state, the Communists demanded a rigidly centralized form of organization...
...tria-Hungary...
...These are Csscho Slovakia, Spain and Finland...
...Understands "I can state that the report of Comrade Abramowitch, which he wrote on his personal responsibility, correctly states the facts in all essentials," Comrade Adler writes...
...The Socialists and the CGT are affiliated with the People's Front because they honestly believe it to be » 2?8UP instrument for the defense of democracy in France...
...Specifically, the reunion accomplished is between the free National Trade Union Centre (CGT) and the Communist National Centre (CGTO...
...By John Powers THE reunion of the French trade unions which was finally accom. pushed after prolonged efforts and negotiations at the joint congrass of the free and Communist union centers h?ld at Tolouse, March 2 to 5, marked a resounding defeat for the ideology and tactics of Communism...
...several countries...
...This purpose is in harmony with the immediate *ieed of Moscow's foreign policy in...
...The members of the Bureau took the view that any intervention from Europe should be avoided at the present moment, and that if it were necessary to adopt an attitude, this decision should be left to the Executive of the L.S.I...
...He says also that the meetings of the L.S.I...
...tria-Hnogary...
...This principle was affirmed by overwhelming majority at the Tolouse congress...
...We are of the opinion, however, that the first result of this dispute will unfortunately be, a serious weakening of the Socialist movement in the U.S.A., and in our letter of July 16th, 1935, we gave an urgent warning against this danger...
...But even before the war there was much talk of "the crisis of democracy" and the "failings" of democratic government...
...That the L.S.I, understands the situation in its proper perspective js demonstrated by the correspondence herein quoted...
...At the Tolouse Congress the Communists found themselves burdened with their long opposition to the plan of the CGT...
...On September 26, 1936, n joint meeting of representatives of the two organizations adopted a general declaration designed to promote their amalgamation...
...By a vote of 5,463 to 2,513, the Tolouse congress voted to retain affiliation with, the International Federation of Trade Unions...
...Germany and Ans...
...Executive knows how to distinguish between Socialists and pseudoCommunist adventurers...
...Your letter, and these enquiries, were discussed at the meeting of the Bureau of the L.SJ., and the Bureau was unanimously Of the opinion that we in Europe are unfortunately unable to share the optimism shown in your letter of December 26th...
...party purposes...
...The*»** problems require everywhere straif government, capable of mainar'quick decisions and enforcing Sod speedily and effectively, m those countries where the ayus of the population has had little sr...
...The four great anti-democratie countries, Germany, Austris-Hue?ary...
...Govern¦eat every where is confronted with the necessity of reconstructing its ¦aemaery in order to cope sueeessfiily with the economic and social psjafcats of our day...
...The stories published contain serious inaccuracies," Comrade Adler says, in an obvious effort to soothe Senior's frayed nerves...
...The L.SJ...
...the fascisC is certain that fascism is the natural heir of democracy...
...In The New Leader of February 15 there appeared a note in the Workers Abroad column telling of the rebuff administered by the Labor and Socialist International to our "militants...
...on the situation and his admission that Comrade Abramowitsch's report "correctly states the facts in all essentials," Comrade Adler ventures to say in bis letter of March 6th that in The New Leader and the Jewish Daily Forward reports "there were additions and distortions which gave the report quite a differen character...
...No Surprise Attack "They commit a serious error who look for the sudden downfall of capitalism and the sudden accession of the proletariat to power as the result either of a great political collapse of bourgeois society, or a great economic collapse of bourgeois production," wrote Jaur?s in his "Studies in Socialism...
...to give it moral support in the coming Presidential election, that before taking any steps it would have to await clarification of the unfortunate internecine strife, which, to our regret, has manifested itself in the American Socialist Party...
...The question is : who makes the laws of the land what are the rights and oblige tions of the citizens and have they at their disposal the machinery to change the laws...
...The organized workers of France have always guarded jealously the independence of affiliated labor organizatione, local, sectional and regional...
...Yet, to deny the reality of political democracy even when only half alive, to deny, for instance, that an Englishman today breathes freer air than a German is halfwitted...
...This is the big difference between democracy and dictatorship...
...Democracy Defined Democracy is a system of government in which the legislative power is in the hands of the people, with the government elected and controlled by the people...
...The three cardinal questions acted upon by the congress were centralism versus federalism in organization and administration, relation of the trade anions to political parties and to the government ,an...
...In 1914, there were eight democratic countries in Europe: Greai Britain, France, Belgium, Holland Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway...
...w the past twenty years...
...The People's Front is a political instrument- designed to unite all anti-fascist parties, including the most moderate of the moderates, for the purpose of keeping the fascist...
...The same can he mil if Rumania...
...The CGT, like all trade union federations affiliated with the IJT.T.U., and like our own American Federation of Labor, never regarded its central administrative body as a dictatorial machine to which the rank and file was to be expected to pay unquestioning "loyalty" ' and obedience...
...The great Socialist leader and thinker, Ferdinand Lassalle, pointed out some 70 years ago that democracy might be compared to a spear that cures the wounds it causes: democracy may lead, also, to a victory for reactionaries, but as long as the democratic order remains the masses may always utilize it for higher purposes...
...The CGT was always a free federation of individual national trade anions, each of which elects its own representative to the federation's central committee, with the functions of the national congress confined to working out general principles and programs affecting the labor movement as a whole...
...The Tolouse congress would have none of it On all points the Communists were defeated...
...Those who do not completely accept them and those who do not take the decisive result of the labor movements of a century very seriously...
...The French workers are not made that way...
...The plebiscite held in Germany last Sunday was a travesty on democracy, as are also elections to the Soviets under the Communist dictatorship in Russia...
...Communists Expose Their Double Dealing The question may be asked) why did the Communists, seeking dictatorship over the labor movement, oppose the plan of the CGT while approving the far less radical program of the People's .Front 1 Their attitude on this question exposes, perhaps more than anything eke,, their double-dealing...
...Let us, first, make clear, however, what we mean by democracy...
...precise and certain methods of social transformation and progressive o r g a n i za tion which they entail...
...Iy—Russia...
...1 ' Adler Confirms L S. I. Refusal To Give Help to Militants Letters From Secretary of International Substantiate Essential Facts of New Leader Reports But Take Exception to Form-—Correspondence 'Reveals L.S.I...
...As an article of greeting in the journal for the Cleveland convention could not avoid some mention of the difficulties of the Socialist Party in the U.S.A...
...It cannot be denied that the anti-democratic movement of our time began not in Italy, where fascism came into power in 1922, but in Russia, where Bolshevism seized power in 1917...
...Comrade Adler, makes the correction that the action in question was taken not by the Executive of the L.S.I...
...Russia and the Ottoman Empire were defeated and new dens:ratic states arose from their es» teat...
...Modern political science supplies us with a clear answer of what is democracy...
...Mussolini is merely repeating Lenin...
...Unfortunately for Senior, there is little solace to be found for the "militants" in what Comrade Adler goes on ta> say, confirming in substance the accuracy of our information...
...Some years ago Mussolini declared that democracy and its slogans belong to the 19th century, that they are a thing of the past...
...France: the maintenance of a democratic gonanrnrnent with which Soviet Russia has concluded a military alliaS^lgainst Hitler Germany's threat to the life of the Communist dictatorship in the Kremlin...
...those who revert to the Communist Manifesto so obviously superannuated by the course of events, or who mix remnants of old thought that no longer contain any truth with the direct and true thoughts suggested by present reality, all such Socialists condemn themselves to a life of chaos...
...Yet no one - will maintain that Germany is a democracy...
...h the past twenty years...
...international affiliation...
...Not having any substitute plan to propose but feeling themselves obliged to oppose the CGT plan they proposed approval of the program of the People's Front...
...Because of a denial by Clarence Senior, national secretary, that the request of the "militants" was denied by the L.S.I., we reprinted on February 22 from the "Socialist Messenger" the following report of the L.S.I, action, in question, written by Raphael Abramowitch, a member of the L.S.I...
...It is not by an unexpected counter-stroke of political agitation that Labor will gain supreme power, but by the methodical and legal organization of its own forces under the law of democracy and universal suffrage...
...He writes in part: Adler's Letter "On January 6th our Secretariat received from you a letter dated December 25th, 1935...
...By reaffirming their devotion to the program and- principles of democracy both inside and outside the labor movement, the French workers revealed a political and idealogical maturity which remains a firm barrier against the intrigues and machinations of the Communists...
...The number of free, dfl -ratte countries is today each larger than it was twenty years ago...
...Executive, however, saw through the maneuver and tabled the N.E.C, memorandum with the statement that it could not grant the latter's request pending an investigation of the situation in the American party...
...They reveal that having failed to capture the French trade unionr movement by splitting it from the inside and attacking it on the outside,.they hare now decided to return to the movement in an effort to eopture it by "parliamentary" methods...
...Poland, Austria, Latvia, Bulgaria and Jugo-Slavia are pointed to as examples of "the collapse of democracy...
...Poland is, indeed, far from behg a genuine democracy today...
...The Communists in France are trying to accomplish it under the camouflage of the People's Front in the political field and the united front in the labor movement...
...Hitler in Germany, Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin in Russia, and Mussolini in Italy achieved this by force and violence...
...On the question of the relation of the reunited labor federation to political parties and to the government, the Communists were defeated fry a vote of 5,508 to 2,609...
...but by its Bureau, i.e., the executive body of the Executive—a rather minor error, we venture to suggest...
...Monad has always been striven* democracy...
...And to deny that politica...
...In Belgium, for example there was no universal suffrage until after the war...
...Tati ver...
...Under this plan, had It been adopted, the French trade unions would have ceased to be the democratic organization which they have always been...
...This statement is supported by Comrade Adler himself 4n a subsequent letter to Senior, dated March 6th 1936, in which he says that he "unfortunately did not know of the existence" of Comrade Abramowitch's report in the "Socialist Messenger" when he wrote his letter of February 25...
...rf^tljl There was no political democracy/ in the three lsrgest countries af Europe, Russia, Germany and An...
...The noted Italian historian and soeiaV agist Guglielmo Ferrer?, pointai out recently that the triumph st* dictatorship in various countrh» was not the result of a crisis af democracy bat of the crisis of astiV arch y. Dictatorship has cesse hos being in countries which were stil under an absolute or limited amoarchy—Italy, Jugo-Slavia and Bs4raria—or in countries where asas* irchy existed in 1914—Russia, Poland, Hungary...
...England" war a democracy before fhe war, although not all persons could vote, and France is a democracy, although it has no woman suffrage The Soviet Union, on the other hand, will remain a despotism, even though Stalin should permit all citizens the right to vote in Soviet elections...
...All of which is a polite but unmistakable refusal of the N?.C.'s request, coupled with a rather clear demonstration that the L.S.I...
...The rank and file would have been deprived of any direct influence upon the central committee had the Communist proposa] prevailed...
...Left Reaction After the war came the left reaction against democracy, which proved more dangerous than the reaction on the right...
...What is being sought and imbu...
...This request was made to the L.S.I, through the national office of the party...
...The democratic •Bans, however, possesses the ¦SO faults and the greatest po¦etienties for its own im'prove¦sat Only under a democratic •>*•»« it possible to bring about Vjoaocratic social order without "•baai and unnecessary suffering...
...was able to dispense with a discussion of the situation in the U.S.A., which was on the agenda, as we had learned of the following development from your letter of July 25th, 1985...
...For this reason the People's Front has the blessing of the Communists...
...The Communists u, affiliated with the People's Front and lend it support msotar as it is an instrument for the protection of the Communist electorship in Russia, but in the labor movement, as they demonwraao^atthe xolouse congrega, they continue their efforts for the eswufwhuient of their own dictatorship and the destruction of the democratic organizations and Socialist policies of the organized workers.c In doing so they continue to play the role of the handmaidens of fascism...
...OS, rosy say that Europe and the raft if the world are more democratic today than they were before tat war...
...From time to time we receive from the two sides involved in the organization dispute requests for articles and greetings, in connection with which the impression is sometimes given that it is not so much a matter of desire for s demonstration of solidarity with the American labor movement, to which we should, of course, be glad to respond, as of a mere demonstration of solidarity for one of the two sides to the dispute in New York...
...The only difference between our interpretation and his lies in the domain ?f language- We appreciate that as secretary of the L.S.I, he is obliged to be a little more polite than we feel like being when we discuss the havoc wrought in the Socialist Party by the irresponsibles in control of the N.E.C...
...cannot be bluffed, as the N.E.C, tried to bluff it, that the "militants" are about to set the country on fire with "the greatest Socialist campaign in he history of the United States...
...for a short period and had had an opportunity to establish itself lias...
...The unity negotiations were begun last year...
...Whoever accepts these truths, which have now become necessary, will soon understand th...
...In democratic esaatriee there is no serions stoept being made to challenge the rtadity of the democratic prindak...
...This led to the mergence of dictatorship in these csuSrias...
...The Communists are convinced that democracy will everywhere be replaced by a Soviet dictatorship...
...Net e Crisis of Democracy Dictatorship has triumphed 01 countries which have recelasse* tb» monarchist form of government or where democracy had existed esmf...
...How foreign the interests of the trade unions are to the Communists'Was demonstrated also in the discussion by the congress of the soeiai-econcmic program, which ended in a "compromise...
...a, workers not until much later...
...The democratic countries experienced a wide extension of os> mocracy, while the people every, where acquired more power, influence and control over government,, oolicy than they ever enjoyed onfore...
...Democracy is Stronger Than Before the War Extremist View That Democracy Has Collapsed Held Untenable— Free Republics Today Exceed Pr?-War Number — Dictatorship Made Inroads Only in Countries Without Deeply Rooted Traditions of Freedom—The Future Belongs to Democracy...
...Russia, Italy, Germany...
...In the present situ-ation we do not wish to take sides in the dispute concerning the organization in New York...
...The dictatorial reeks» -et up recently in Paraguay tank* Colonel Franco is regarded as a 'reakish and passing pb enow ten Political tendencies in South AaajjPr ca are not in the direction af OJP tatorship but definitely in the oV rectioB of democracy...
...Jean Jaur?s, the immortal tribune of French Socialism, pointed out thirty years ago that "true humanity can exist only where there is independence, active exercise of the will, free and joyous adaptation of the individual to the whole...
...The Bolsheviks assert that "genuine democracy" exists only in the Soviet Union...
...j^Sf?ecy has clearly demon' "at it is the best and most Perm of social life and »der democracy can soke individual attain to forms...
...J are new democratic forms ta conformity with new needs...
...Nothing would be more certain to promote the cause of fascism in France, as has been amply demonstrated elsewhere, than the destruction of the freedom and independence of the trade unions...
...This was the period, however, when democracy was opposed only by the ruling classes and their theorists, the adherents of monarchy and despotism...
...Which is exactly what may be said of the reports in The New Leader and the Jewish Daily Forward...
...Nor was it intended to publish anything on the question," Comrade Adler adds...
...We must, therefore, "¦*** to value and to treasure it...
...Both the ideology and technique of our contemporary anti-democratic movement came from Lenin...
...The fact that the Communists- were obliged to declare themselves as ready to abide by the decisions of the congress is worth nothing as a promise—Communist promises being what they are—but it does serve to emphasize their own moral and intellectual bankruptcy...
...The congress at Tolouse was to make this a reality after working out the structural and administrative program...
...Genuine pep...
...On ?t contrary, it has grown stronger ind more complete in these lines Three new democratic countries art tow added to the older deiiHitiiaahn if Europe...
...The world has become weary of freedom, Mussolini would have us believe...
...That the organized workers of France, eager for genuine working class unity, understand the maneuver was demonstrated at the congress of Tolouse...
...You gave as a reason for your request the importance of the Presidential election, and you said that the task of the convention would be 'to fire the opening gun in the greatest Socialist campaign in he history of the United States.' "Similar letters from you have also been received by various Socialist parties in Europe, and our Secretariat has been asked about the position of the Socialist Party in the U.S.A., with regard to which very disquieting reports have been published in the press...
...Political freedom and political equality are the foundations of modern democracy...
Vol. 19 • April 1936 • No. 14
