The Workers Abroad
Powers, John
The Workers Abroad Details of Spanish Election Assure Majority for Republican-Socialist Coalition—Socialists Debate Participation in Azana Government— Victory for Political Action By John...
...The bloody suppression of the heroic uprising grave the impression, at first, that the reaction had .triumphed and that fascism had won another victory in Europe...
...This was the now celebrated uprising of 'October, 1934...
...But Italy "has throughout taken the exactly contrary line...
...Shaw and Mr...
...Is somebody seeking a new 'lull' in the hope of itutegg the December intrigues...
...Collective Civilization Collective security is only a talking point...
...Had he said to the League ]in effect:—"To correct this AbysI sinian disorder ia your job...
...The Workers Abroad Details of Spanish Election Assure Majority for Republican-Socialist Coalition—Socialists Debate Participation in Azana Government— Victory for Political Action By John Powers An Analysis of the Situation in Spain ALTHOUGH a complete picture of the new political set-up in Spain resulting from the election of February 16 will not be available until after the by-elections of March 1, which will determine a number of contests in districts where no candidate polled the required plurality of 40 per cent, it is possible new to measure clearly the extent of the R*public*n-Socialist victory...
...Neither Bernard Shaw nor Nomas Angell, Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of the world's leadjar authorities on international problems, requires any introduction...
...Shaw says:— "The business of the League of Nations is to police the world and put an end to the existing . international anarchy...
...Which, coupled with the widespread discontent with the government's jShssriinisiy measures, resulted in a revolution in public opinion...
...In the subsequent general election for a Constituent Parliament, held in June and July, 1931, the republican- and Socialists, supporting joint lists of candidates, won a brilliant triumph...
...the left tendency, led by Francisco Largo Caballero, leader of the 1934 uprising, who resigned recently from the party chairmanship, and the centrist tendency, of which Andaliceo Prieto is the chief spokesman...
...It means surrendcrtnfl the fact of threats the rirkt tf organize our defense cooperate y, to make such alliances aa we tj deem necessary for that defaiajf Having successfully faced h) States, the aggressor may wall § encouraged tomorrow to face am, to demand, say, the termination ti our alliance with, or position a, Egypt, our command of the Me...
...At the present writing, the left-republican, Socialist and radical coalition has 260 mandates...
...own candidates, and remained the strongest party in the country, it lost nearly half of its seats in Parliament...
...For neighbors to agree t* m the crime possible by aupnbt the indispensable tools, taat them, ofycoorse, aceeesonac to ; parties ffi rt...
...Members of the Rand Best Club will be given free adnsaswr to this and other lectures af o» jf the privileges of membmhir i the club...
...Is it on such foundatin* :hat that "collective rivilisaUie," if which Mr...
...This does not mean, of course, that Socialists of all tendencies are not ready to resist by force any attempts at violence on the part of the reactionaries...
...Branches are urged to keep thi evening of March 20 open to enable their members to attefei Tickets, which will.be 60 eta, ¦ the reserved section and 25 eta.hr general admittance, can be obtained at the Rand School Bo* Store...
...That is hows* British Empire has grown from a group of trading settlements its present dimensions...
...This is the question now being thrashed out in the Spanish Socialist Party...
...In Germany, the policy of coalition, which made possible the maintenance of the republic for fifteen years, was wrecked by the sabotage of the Communists, who preferred coalition with Hitler in Parliament and outside of Parliament, against the republican government...
...It comes to its neighbors and asks them to supply the tools necessary f°r this act, instruments without which the criminal purpose cannot be carried out...
...Actually, however events took a different course, proving once more how 'dangerous it is to measure political developments bearing superficial common characteristics with a hard and fast yardstick of doctrinaire theory, without taking into consideration differences of character, tradition and facts...
...The entry of the Socialists into the government awaits adjustment of their own internal differences...
...such an intervention...
...If the League States now refuse to be parties to Italian aggression and stand by the principle of thirdparty judgment (indispensable to any system of policing), it will amount, says Mr...
...What the Leagtt stands for is collective civilization...
...Caballero and his followers have taken the position that Spain was threatened by an imminent triumph of fascism—a contention certainly not strengthened by the results of the election of February 16—and that the workers of Spain should unite in an uprising for the establishment of what Spanish left-wingers loosely term a Soviet regime...
...Signer Mussolini speaks thus because it is no policing but possession which he want*: "Expansion," "Empire," sources of raw material, space for the expanding Italian population—all of which, to give him his due, he has quite frankly avowed...
...Their action was another evidjSOB* of the growing political maturity of the workers of Spain, their twice in the direction of the policy and ideology of Social Democracy fCommunists are bringing up the rear...
...For to delay an action to end the war is deliberately to po> long the war itself...
...Smarting under a series of repressions, wholesale arrests, widening of tb» censorship, the closing of their halls and offices and dismissals from employment, the workers broke out in revolt...
...The victory of the republican-Socialist elements in 1931, resulting in the fall of the monarchy and establishment of .the republic, was made possible by the cooperation of all advanced forces...
...On February 16 they went to the ballot box and voted Sffe^the republiean-Socialist coalition...
...Essentially, this was a victory for political action...
...Is somebody hoping that if oil sanctions can be put off until April, the rains will intervene and cm the League the trouble of acting at all...
...Moreover, they are divided into various splinter groups, with Trotskyista predominating...
...It is to be hoped that the decision will be in the affirmative, and that the great victory of February 16 will not be frittered away by doctrinaire argument and inclination to go off on dangerous and destructive tangents...
...One recalls typical proclamations:— "The judges of our necessities and the guarantors of our future are we...
...Bernard Shaw—who describes the Italian invasion *J Abyssinia as "an advance of civilization'—is so impressed with Ot| need of ch-iiw^ the lawless Danakils, "who kill each other ? prestige...
...Warning against any attempts by a minority to force its will upon the majority in a country like Spain, wher$ the conservative elements have shown a marked power of resistance, Cabellaro's Socialist critics foresee another reactionary wave as a consequence of any attempts to solve Spain's social and economic problems by the artificial application of force...
...The sordid story of the brutal and savage repressions practiced by the reactionary government in suppressing the October uprising and the excesses of the apparently triumphant reaction, which continued for many months after the uprising had been crushed, produced a sharp revulsion of feeling...
...While the Socialist Party pojled 1,700,000 votes in the constituencies where it had put forward its...
...Upon the decision reached will depend the party's entry into the government...
...In Spain, as elsewhere, the Socialists cannot afford to ignore the lessons of history...
...The entry of a group led by Robles into the government was regarded by many Socialists as a challenge to the Socialist and labor movement...
...To call such an advance of civilization U act of aggression on the same footing as an unprovoked bombsBr ment of Venice by the R.A.F...
...From the point of view of European QTA which is the more dangerous: barbarism in the African ntountaa or cynical repudiation, with complete impunity, by a Enron state of obligations and roles, the observance of which is indispenftobk if any sort of a European order ia to replace the present international anarchy...
...What is the game?' | Because of the acuteness of the question and the pnndpks involved we begin below a symposium on the problem of oil sanctions from various angles...
...Angell appeared in i recent issue of the London Times...
...There ensued a period of political - "uncertainty and instability...
...The one and only ns> son I have ever seen advanced f« refraining from the oil sanction 1 that it might cause the aggress* io attack the organized society <i Europe...
...Shall we best protect that socioi ay letting potential aggress*] know that from the moment ih»j :hreaten attack, defense of it vff ?ease...
...The left tendency has b'en the dominant one heretofore...
...Repeatedly she has said to the League:—"This is not your job...
...that he seems to have overlooked the needs of Euro™, that respect...
...i Very well...
...No Socialist who respects realities can fail to perceive the lessons of events in Spain in the past five years...
...What Mussolini Wants Throughout this dispute Abyssinia has asked again and again for third-party judgment, undertaking in advance to accept its findings, Italy has as repeatedly rejected third-party judgment...
...The chah-my will be Lewis Gannett, w«ll-knt*i book critic of the Herald Tributa Mr...
...Shaw, to "stabbing Italy in the back...
...more than anythingewp would strangle Mussolini's war adventure within a short time sal bring him to his knees...
...While the Labor and Socialist Internatij2| and the International Federation of Trade Unions, reflecting fin opinion of the organized working class throughout the world,Ǥ pressing for the imposition of oil sanctions, the governments coa~ tinue to delay...
...All parties entering the People's Front, including the Communists, pledged , themselves to support of this program as essential to cnecking the forces of monarchism, fascism and reaction and developing the framework for further progress...
...In the last Parliament they had only one...
...The victory of this coalition emphasizes once more the efficacy of cooperation between progressive and Socialist parties, the policy which has brought such salutary results in all democratic countries, where it has definitely halted the advance of fascism, checked the elements of political, social and economic disintegration and kept the rdad clear for Socialist progress...
...Childs will also be beard in ¦ fifteen-minute broadcast cwi WEVD that same evening...
...Both the Beisteiro and Prieto groups in the Socialist Party believe that the need at present is to consolidate and strengthen the republican-Socialist front and to take the fullest possible advantage of the victory at the polls...
...In the election of November, 1933, they marched together only in a very few constituencies...
...As in other countries, they are jumping on the aUst bandwagon...
...A nation decides to do something which over its own signature it has recognised as criminal...
...or of Portsmouth by the Italia Fleet, is a most dangerous abuse of language and confusion of thought...
...Eden in the early days was wont to speak very frankly in Geneva of the need for speed, to insist that action of tht League must, above all things, not be dilatory...
...The Socialists emerged from the election the largest single party in the People's Front, with more than 80 mandates, a gain of approximately 26...
...The position now is that we must either stab Italy in the bstjf while she is at grips with the Danakil or else let them fight it ona In the latter case, if Italy wins, well and good, no thanks to us m the League...
...November...
...Shaw and Norman AngeM Debate Oil Sanctions J Dramatist Against Interference by League in MusssM ' Enfs African Adrentore — Leader of Peace,M MoTeosent Says Fate of Europe Depends on Curbing Fascist Italy J| f\N March 2, the Committee of Eighteen of the League of 2^3 V tions (the executive of the Sanctions Committee) will mSM in Geneva to consider the imposition of oil sanctions on FssS Italy...
...Are we to ignore Europe in order to reform Abyssinia * Mr...
...For if political methods are never to change, if what one country did in the seventieth century is to be taken as justifying similar conduct by another country in the twentieth, then let us give up all idea of improvement of any kind, of a League, of a new order, of peace...
...only we, exclusively we, and nobody else...
...The election in Spain marked a peaceful revolution for the second time in five years...
...That is a question to wjhich the people of this country, and ef others, are entitled to have an answer...
...In view of the disposition of parties comprising the People's Front (or republican-Socialist coalition) it is rather ridiculous for Communists and their apologists to claim that the Spanish election was a victory for the "united front" of the Communist variety...
...Their future in Spain is a- bright one...
...Any gains registered by the Communists were due entirely to the support of their candidates by the voters of the People's Front, in accordance with the understanding reached Id the campaign for united action at the ballot box by the People's Front parties...
...Mr...
...Cabinets came and fell in quick succession, with the tendency increasingly in the direction of the reaction...
...With the eWtoral . system favoring combined lists, the republican-Socialist 'forces divided and the parties of the Right united on this occasion, it was the latter who carried off the victory...
...But if the Danakils prove unconquerable withal* reasonable time or at a reasonable expense, must we not rally s^ League to the rescue of Italy and civilization and thereafter civS* the shores of the Red Sea on European and not on exdusrsBf Italian terms...
...the need, first of all, of civilizing the civilizcr...
...Tools for Crime Just what behavior is the phrase supposedTo describe...
...Commenting on the delay in putting them into eftW the London Daily Herald, organ of the British Labor Party, aatjf in an editorial on February 12: ~3 "Who is responsible for this deliberate wasting of time...
...It is obvious, however, that the victory of the republican-Socialist coalition, which is the substance of the People's Front, can be maintained only on the basis of continued cooperation of the progressive and Socialist elements...
...From the first he has taken the position that in this quarrel the League has no locus standi, that it is solely Italy's 1 affair...
...Have they the ri| to refuse to participate in, to 3 mote what they regard m offense which strikes at th« ^ foundation of law and order, security, including their own', curity...
...In Italy, Mussolini came to power because the Socialists, misled by the Communists, would not join in a united front with the liberal elements to keep fascism from power...
...Shaw speaks, ia to >e made secure * Author of Book on Sw«osj at Rand School March § Marquis Chi Ids, author of tat xjpular book "Sweden, the Middh Way...
...On February 16, the great majority of the Spanish people demonstrated once more that they are against the return of the monarchy and in favor of republican progress along advanced social and economic lines...
...By no stretch of the imagination can it be argued chat the victors of February 16 have any mandate other than to pursue a policy of strengthening of the republic and fundamental social and economic readjustment in line with the needs of the Spanish people...
...First things first...
...three Tendencies in the Socialist Party For .the moment, the Spanish Socialists are holding aloof from direct participation in the new Azana government resulting from the elections, although they are giving it their support...
...Of its candidates, 170 were radical republicans, 124 Socialists, 14 Communists and 2 syndicalists...
...The Socialists are, of course, free to press for a more comprehensive Socialist program in Parliament, insofar as social and economic conditions in Spain may make such a program possible...
...Whether they will actually enter the government remains to be seen, although it is impossible to conceive the^consolidation of the progressive forces in Spain without Socialist participation in the government of the country...
...J Angel's Reply to Shaw Replying to Mr...
...All experts agree that oil sonctions...
...At present we have on the shores of the Red Sea a roadies, lawless region inhabited, so far as it is inhabited at all, by paj* nacious braves who kill each other for prestige and attach the ssst prestige to the killing of one European as to three of themsehti...
...The real purpose of Italy's war is to make that policing impossible, as, indeed, Signor Mussolini has declared Quite frankly over and over again...
...Exposures of corruption in government circles, acute disagreements in its own ranks and the realization on the part of the progressive and Socialist elements that their defeat had been due primarily to the abandonment of the united republican-Socialist coalition opened the road to their comeback...
...The lessons of Italy, Germany and Austria must not be forgotten...
...It appears no longer dc jbtful that the parties of the People's Front will have a clear majority of the 473* seats in the Cortes, or Parliament...
...A Stab in ffce lack...
...It is not possible for a modern civilized state to tolerate tfc* sort of thing on its frontier...
...Tackle it and we will cooperate," Italy could, with a little patience, have had all that is vital in the way of political and economic security...
...There is the so-called "right" tendency led by Professor Julian Beisteiro, who was president of the Constituent Parliament...
...Caballero's critics in the Socialist Party point out that the destruction of the republican-Socialist coalition in 1933 was essentially responsible for the advantages gained subsequently by the reactionary elements and that the uprising of 1934 could have been avoided if the progressive-Socialist elements had kept together...
...What is the purpose of it...
...Opposing any sanctions or any interference with MussoBsi Mr...
...If the League of Nations cannot or will not undertake to replace it by civilized conditions, then its nextdoor neighbor must tackle the job single handed...
...Unfortunately, however, their cooperation was not continued...
...Yet their combined weight shattered the House p* posals and dislodged the Minister...
...It is to aid and abet the aggressor by enabling him to continue using the most formidable weapon wbka he has...
...The Socialists, though beaten, continued their propaganda, and the more .progressive and militant republicans likewise resumed the offensive...
...There are three tendencies in the Spanish Socialist Party...
...The decisive sanction is clamored for by the groups what are for war at any price with Mussolini—the pacifists because k* has drawn the sword, the Liberals because he has made short wa* of laissez-faire guaranteed by the British Pariiameatary system, 1st Imperialists because they are afraid he will get astride the SeS Canal, the Communists because he has produced Fascism as a ri*s to Communism, the Labor Party because he has taken the orgs* zation of the proletariat out of the hands of the trade unions, su a considerable body of raen-in-the-street, because he has bullied as* frightened them or because, confident that any Englishman can l«* any three Italians, they object to the swanking of a sanguinSff foreigner...
...The offender, address] 52 States (some of them hear "If you refuse :o becorn* n partners, to furnish me the ta«J for pulling off this job, ! 3B4ij attack you alL" Surrender to Threats Is it the part of political wj, dom, wise from the point of vi» of our own future security (I . nothing of oourage, justice, m rality), to yield to tbeaa tarathr A great many who have ahnj preached the right and duty of ttU defense argue that because ta aggressor has threated te aafc j hot for us if we organise onr a*, fense collectively (on the prinej|athat is, that an attack on cot n an attack on all) we should cU don such defense, yield, coufssi the complete impotence of tot as* method...
...Now, it is just such motives that the League exists to disaJS" and defeat...
...As we indicated last week, even the syndicalists and anarchists, heirs of the old BaJnminist movement is Spain, fell into line...
...Upon the Communists they look With the disdain once so caustically expressed by Proudhon...
...Actually the Socialists received only 60...
...In Austria, the Socialists, pursuing the same policy, were anxious to join in a coalition when it was too late...
...It is mine...
...The commgaf program of the People's Front called for a wide and comprehensive amnesty (put into effect immediately after the election with the release of some 30,000 political prisoners), the defense of liberty, radical reform of the courts and the machinery of justice, basic reforms' in agriculture and industry, development of public works, more social control of banking and finance, development of labor and social legislation and the advancement of popular education...
...The French, with their instinct for civili* tion, naturally recoil from it...
...Perhaps in no country are the Communists so unimportant a political factor as they are in Spain...
...Shaw wrote: The business of the League of Nations is to police the wtsU and put an end to the existing international anarchy...
...Little encouragement for action was seen fevjQ statement in the House of Commons on Monday by Foreign "a ister Eden...
...The Communists may have a half dozen seats...
...Keep your hands off...
...In 1931, it will be recalled, the monarchy was sent Into exile as a result of the republican-Socialist victory in the municipal elections...
...The restoration of this united front brought ' the victory of February 16...
...The statements of Mr...
...They have certainly repudiated Communism and dictatorship...
...terranean...
...Their attitude hat -SMtrjbuted materially to the weakening of the anti- reactionary front, ¦at tbejEt-.too, have not remained immune to the bitter lessons of ssSBjeriance...
...Had not the other parties of the People's Front lived up to this agreement, the Communists would have made no showing at all, for they are an insignificant quantity in Spain, ass-in most atker countries...
...Child* will jive in New York...
...Where is that voice now ? Is the Secretary of State a cosvert to the gospel of go slow ? "The case for speed is overwhelming...
...So do all of us who possess that** stinct...
...The People's Front contested 310 seats in the election...
...He wants, he or his spokesmen have told us so often, to be free to do in the twentieth what Britain did in the seventeenth or eighteenth century: build up a great Empire...
...9 Oil sanctions were approved in principle at the begirmine^g...
...The Clerical-Fascist group, led by Gil Robles, remains the largest singe party in the Cortes, but is overshadowed by the combined forces of the republican-Socialist-radical coalition...
...One of the litigants, she claims the right to be the sole judge...
...Thu a :he only lecture Mr...
...Friday evening, March 9t for the Rand Book Club...
...These elements have ; retained a considerable influence over the minds of many thousands /iff Spanish workers, particularly in the trade unions...
...If in the inevitable connw between civilized mankind and Danakil mankind the League shea*" organize a deadly intervention on the side of the Danakil, it wooa reduce itself to the most revolting absurdity...
...Shaw, Norman Angell declared: .|j Mr...
...Tht same holds true of Lord Arthur Fonsonby, a former Labor undersecretary for foreign affairs, and Tom Johnston, an outstanding spokesman of the Labor Party...
...What is the case for delay...
...What we call the application of oil sanctions would be j...
...The number of Socialist -votes cast should have netted 100 mandates...
...He conceives the League as the real enemy of that project: which, let us hope, it is...
...Disunity Aids the Reaction " ¦' What followed is well known...
...Fierce and uncompromising lovers of liberty, they have always opposed any action on" the political field or any programs designed to' promote the power end prestige of the state...
...will speak on his book i: .ht- Debs Audotorium of the Raad school...
...Summarised they are...
...The by-elections, it is hoped, will add to this number...
Vol. 19 • February 1936 • No. 9
