The Turn of Events - A Review of Global Fronts
The Turn of Events - A Review of Global Fronts From THE NEW LEADER NEWS DESK v The Second World Wot entered its fifth year September 1st—although the second aniilmmy id* ftwwtmi partjcipation...
...He promised *Jto persevere in oaf efforts to asset Marshall Stalin,'' suggesting than Stalin haft hitherto declined to meet wish British and nsserican chiefs of state, bat he softened this thrust by reminding bis listeners that Statin bad been busy directing a vast and Buecessful defense...
...Labor could wage and eventually succeed in its struggle for its political rights, including the right to build up independent organizations—trade unions and political parties...
...I. Virtual S»hi*/anoa of ^ayeasearg, key Nazi chemical center, in the heaviest air raid raids on Naples, all Swath Italy airfields...
...Not in every country was the situation of labor so extremely complicated and difficult as in Germany...
...the key to all the differences about anegaBr hidden aim...
...One-third of Russia was swiftly overrun, valuable installations of all kinds, including the great Dnieprostroy Dam, were destroyed, and the death toll of civilians as well as Russian troops rose from the hundred thousands to the millions.' So while Russia ia currently earning a place in history by driving the Nazis back, it is certain that history will sward the credit for this feat to the Russian people rather than to the Stalin regime, which will be judged as crassly inept in bringing to the Russian people this gigantic blood-bath...
...Although a public program is lacking, tbstt are apparently a number of hidden purisms, and it is these hidden programs, apparently, that are bringing the leading powers of the United Nations to a point of acute strain...
...2. Russian capture of Tagarog, Nazi southern anchor just west of Rostov, and contused Russian sdrance* along the entire Ssejfc IJJkrfdne frest, wjtii tike bettored Germans slowly retreating toward their Dnieper Elver defease Has, Samleask was tiujeeAsaed and the fctsmpii were edging nearer Kiev...
...Many of those journalists show by their accumulated writings that they find merit only in these American developments which tend to enlarge world mffuence of the Russian Government...
...And then the period of "sitzkrieg" opened in whs wast, with Russia slyly crowding Germany even as she supplied her with mw materials...
...since the modern dictatorship became a most important alternative, the historical trend has been towards the elimination of any middle way...
...toihw^ out production in time of peace as well as war...
...She dntlaied ''war against Finland, helped herself to half of Poland and a slice of Rumania, and began to pity a disturbing political rose in the Balkans Russia feels powerful enough, it ia evident, to take a strong line toward anyone and everyone...
...There was also,' of course, a terrible economic Crisis and a tremendous growth ra German nationalism...
...ridofiaegO...
...So the choice of the labor movement has become increasingly clear...
...The Chamberlain government of England had, furthermore, done much to nurse Gorjiany hjteh to military power, feeling (hat the Hitler regime was an effective counterpoise to Bolshevism...
...underworld chief, had engineered the nomination of Magistrate Thomas A. Aureuo as the Democratic, candidal* for Justice of the Supreme Court...
...The Ides was that a Socialist Party must remain in the opposition until it would conquer an absolute majority and therefore become able to govern alone...
...The fate of democracy and of the labor movement in liberated Europe wiS depend on the carjacity of European labor to unite its forces to reconquer aad to maintain free, democratic, liberal irunntoticms...
...It is not bmeing upon anyone, commits no nation...
...AU Governmeatt Lock laaicjhf For its mis judgments, however, the Stalin regime is probably no more to blame than other governments...
...They prepared as best they could, snd the blow fell on June 22nd, 1941...
...The electoral statistics reflected fin development of the German social Crisis without expressing its whole complexity...
...The crucial point was that in some cases ho democratic government could be 'formed without Socialist participation...
...The Norwegian Labor Party very rapidly developed a strong feeling of broad social responsibility, coming to regsrd itself more and more as thp'rlmreoentative of the whole people, rather tiiari of a single class or group...
...So, after three years of confused conflict—s conflict that might aptly be called "The War of a Thsussed Faces"—a review of political events is distinctly in order...
...and Czechoslovakia ? What of an end to barefaced discrimination against officially expressed mlomity people*, such as the Jaws in Earone sal, tim Negroes is the United States aad the polyglot peoples in the French aad Brisk* African possessions...
...Is it only to win s shooting eoatest snd than to grab the marbles...
...Now...
...In saying that, one does not mean to minimize the mistakes of ^Socialist parties, for instance of the German Social Democrats...
...England and the United States had transferred much war material to Russia, and in the Mediterranean bad dealt important blows, shattering the regime of one As* nation aad standing ready to move in and occupy it while at the same time contending with Japuen, with whom Russia is at peace...
...Norwegian labor today considers itself an integral part of a democratic state and is recognized as such by the other elements of the population...
...That situation bad very important ideological consequences...
...What happen, after defeat and depoeitKH.- Who seeeosgi Hitler is Europe...
...TlWs.V&efc's Eveotsi v asamy *e*jaga swwa eveena ox Mm pas* ween were: X.'lfckmg, Minister Churchill publicly asked for s thrce-pewer conference, with Statta representing gnosis, aad, reminding th...
...The Allied governments must have a program...
...Before 1914, the majority of Socialists rejected the participation of a Socialist Putty in any governmental coalition...
...England and the United States are in a mood to make sions never thought possible ten yeajT*ayo.~%t it hv.e big question......whether Rmi...
...The implication, for some, may welt have been that the democracy belonged to the asanas rather than he a necessary integral part of the end...
...This program should annulate in general what sort of n nisi ssmnst will be tolerated in the defeated states ehf it meat deal with questions concerning the dhv position of heavy industries, the treatment of Axis leaders, etc With victory in total war, in other weeds, goes total responsibility...
...What of a World federation What of a Danubiss Economic Federation that would include Poms...
...The growth of the labor movement became an integral part of the general development towards democracy...
...eft reasonable...
...AFTER World War I, in many European countries, labor became directly responsible for democracy, actively participating m' the functions of the democratic State...
...Later this implication became a dogma of some tendencies in the Socialist movement...
...And the mast powerful tabor organisations en the- European continent were those in the "sutsi absolute" German empire, and not in the French republic...
...Instead of healing cleavages, the War had deepened them, and with the approach of Labor Day...
...18*3, it was clearly evident that the world wan in a dangerous political impasse...
...At the same time, England had dealt grievous air blows at Nasi war industries...
...Whether the differences are going to reach a show-down stage one cannot foretell...
...As matters stand, then, the war all around apparently is a fight for the status quo ami little else...
...The shirking of tehn responsibility can mean only indirect collaboration with established war-making elements within the Axis...
...1 of Hitler, while it sounds vary entrancing, really means very little...
...England awd the United States, at some point, wil have to state, ia binding form, what they want from the war The military defeat of the Axis forces and the...
...It was possible to recognize only the relative value of democracy, which often was characterized as "the inset favorable ground" for the development of the labor movement and for tits struggle for Socialism—"the most favorable" one tgit not 'the only...
...new crapping up...
...We shall also ha very glad to assqeietc Roasian representatives with oa in the political decisions which arise out of the victories the Aaglo-American forces have gained ia the Mediterranean...
...world th.t a "second front" had once existed fa) France sad had been destroyed (while Rassia stood en th...
...With an end to tarf,^ harriers and cartels...
...Review of the War An England and a France conscious of their own military weakness capitulated to Hitler at Munich in 1938 and agreed to the separation of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia...
...Bat at the same time the Prime Minister showed as had no intention of conceding that Russia was either carrying the burden alone or that she was actuated by altruistic motives...
...Nevertheless, it is not as serf-evident as one takes for granted that democracy is of vital importance for the labor movement...
...In the Far East,'too, so far as sal be aims'and, only the statue que is ceaind the Japanese out of the Dutch East Indus, Malaya, Burma, Thailand snd China...
...The number of vote* do not explain why an important part of the Cm lean working classes were indifferent or even hostile towards democracy...
...and England was driven from the Continent The Mussolini regime, jackal-like, entered the war ewJJwmUmeVW' & & *n ltdT Js^s^smawG?e- ^^^P^Pmmm B^OQflm)wma?dQsw9^1'w " •» of England became severe by September, 1940, and continued for months, while Russia made no move to assist England, which depended upon the United States alone for assistance— without which she could not have survived...
...After the war, this general principle became unworkable, because many labor parties became too strong to remain in a permanent opposition...
...It did, however, in masterly fashion, remind the Russians that others had also done a food deal to keep the Nazis thoroughly occupied and that they faced their present enormous task ia part because, of their dillydallying np until Jane 22, 1941...
...All that remained to produce consistency was for the contending armies to become deadlocked...
...The Social Democrats had only 121 seats and all Republican parties Hwjpl had no more than 220...
...Lone Waif Russia, it ia plain, is pursuing bar own ends, and is becoming emboldened with each military sunless, being unable or unwilling to concede that her recent successes ware made possible by air and land blows against the Nasis in the when rim mJrirSSPSt9f^mmSk, and supplying them with important raw materials for use against -^sgWely...
...government that it maintained its pow^r until the invasion iB May...
...whom Rossis hsd sought to make her snomnHoss Poland was rapidly subdued by Germany...
...of the whole people...
...Russia is willing to see iiiilsisad the Reich and its army, although it wants as more of Hitler England and the United States will accept the House of Savoy and Bsdorhe to Italy, as they has* indicated end spurt from this apparently seek only the re-constitotien el all the small, synthetic pre-war European states...
...The power-driven machine has not yet been brought under rational social control, snd there is no sign on the horizon that it is apt to be brought under control in the near future...
...enee, the democracies were weak in that they had so projram to offer...
...What was significant was that he found it necessary to make it st all...
...2. Disclosure by District Attorney Frank S. Hogsa of New Turk City that Frank CosteUo...
...FeJt erf France Bet Belgium, Holland and France fell before the German assault in June and Inly, 1940...
...Nowhere did the State try to make itself "totalitarian" and to exclude every form of spontaneous—more or less independent —organisations...
...1940, and that after the invasion the new government of the National Coalition was formed under the same Socialist leadership...
...And the lack of that word swfcr...
...movement...
...II instead of 100 Communists there would have been 100 democratic representatives of Labor, there would have beer a clear democratic majority of S^sganui mm...
...W other countries, in many cases Under much more complicated conditions, the labor movement will face the same problem...
...At that time, of course, "dictatorship" in Marxian and Socialist theory was very different from all the practices of dictatorships we hare, come to know...
...The Turn of Events - A Review of Global Fronts From THE NEW LEADER NEWS DESK v The Second World Wot entered its fifth year September 1st—although the second aniilmmy id* ftwwtmi partjcipation was three months off—and there was still no agreement either among the principal anti-Ante allies nor among factions within the parliamentary democraciOB as to what ail the shooting was about...
...On the other hand, we have learned that tbooe who seek to tnetroy democracy, first attempt to wreck the manses dent labor organizations...
...The Russians, si Brat complacent at directing the war to the wast, were later obviously appalled by the easy conquest of France, the spectacle of Dunkirk, and hastily tightened their defenses...
...occupied before the outbreak of war...
...But m every single case it would be possible to show the measure to which the stability of democracy depended on the strength aad on the poetical attitude of the workingcms...
...4. Assassinstion of King Boris of Bulgaria, wttk signs of Bulgarian revolt multiplying...
...Churchill's speech indirectly made it obvious that Britain and the United States were at odds wflh Russia...
...In i*29, one year before the great electoral success of the Nazis, I repeatedly wrote that the Fascist danger in "ttaMah1* form did not exist m Germany, but that the way of the German Fascism could rather be tAnt of the nmimtiph an^ fkhrification of democracy, and that the greatest danger would be if German democracy weald become unable to function- Unfortunately, thi* danger was not realized by a' great part of German labor—and that was the most important reason why after September, 1930 (the great electoral success of the Nazis), it was no longer possible to form any democratic government...
...In 1936, the Norwegian Labor Party carried 70 out of 160 seats in Parliament and formed a pure labor government, which, being a minority government, continually had to fight lor a parliamentary majority...
...Eventually Hie Ctariiisiie began complaining that Russia waS not supplying goods in agreed upon quantities...
...The war is badly in need of a specine program, which would spell out for the petM of the world, in words of one syllable, exatfll what the leading governments have in aa both about the means of victoriously termbsthsj the conflict aad facing the responsibilities e? peace...
...The Russian message fell on fertile soil all over, particularly as sicary beset millions were unable to discern that the Russian pattern of a good life promised existence in a model political prison where basic material needs would be met'at the*oost of individual freedom **Sr*f' dWswaw a4ddo«^, wdl T^ea* damneoo^ao msYo'll t^ _ ^ ooa roasts ess me oe memoes mi nave mm program, and still talk ia generalities and platito.de...
...In a letter to Eduard Bernstein...
...Preferably, it should be a Unites 'Na...
...Of course, the conditions in the Scandinavian countries may be considered, exceptionally favorable...
...In his recent address to the American Labor Conference on International Affairs, the Norwegian Socialist Finn Moe said: "Norwegian labor is attempting to transform the present-day political democracy into an economic democracy without abolishing the dentocratfc righto of the working masses themselves...
...Grave errors were committed...
...What of all-out production oa the beans of enough for sj|J9 On these snd ether vital question*—set a ward...
...tions program, with Russia participating a a and approving it...
...Although the Kremlin displays obvious pa* litical blemishes, England and the .-..tec States also have (heir major faults...
...Norway's experience has been particularly significant...
...What of a United States of Europe...
...Labor and Democracy in Europe By GEORGE DECKER Fis a political axiom today that a deep interdependence exists between the labor movement and democracy, it seems impossible to imagine an independent labor movement in a country stripped of democratic institutions...
...agreed that another front in northern France was desirable as soon as it was assured of success...
...Space does not permit us "to analyze the experiences of the other European countries, considered from the same point of view...
...I lllm...
...An Independent labor movement cannot exist under any dictatorship, even if the propaganda offices call it a "dictatorship of the proletariat," or a "dmtatorsbip...
...In Germany, Hilferding pointed out the existence of the Fascist danger as early as m 1927 (in the "*ParteHag" hi Kiel...
...All governments, without exception, are still subject to stone-age attitudes...
...True, there is the "Atlantic Charter.'* Bat the "Atlantic Charter" is nothing more then % statement of general principles...
...Without that, democracy could not function and therefore could net survive...
...Another Hitier' While the victor need not be at all partieuku as to what persons hand over the sword of surrender, the victor must be very precise as, to what he wants to follow surrender The, victor cannot profess to be disinterested sad' aloof about post-war governments, for the reason that the victor cannot bo indifferent towers' such huge segments of the world as Italy, Gar, many aad Japan...
...However, before World War I, most Socialists were firmly convinced .that their struggles ware part of democratic progress...
...Prims Minister Churchill's adroit Canadian speech of August 81 did nothing to clarify the picture...
...Russia felt aggrieved, both by this attitude of the English government snd by the failure of England and France to go to war over Czechoslovakia—a war in which Russia would have joined if only to enlarge Russian power in the Balkans and Central EurofihT' «W»ph jfegdj* to extend its influence over Europe was revealed all to clearly in Spain in 1936...
...Norwegian labor knows its responsibility to democratic 'principles...
...One at -.ho** faults is...
...to the ojstsnpteyed she preached fntt owp^Tonaril...
...Republican «nd Democratic endorsements of Aarelie Were withdrawn...
...It was to the enormous political credit of thi...
...Before World War I, the alternative to democracy was not dictatorship, hut either, as in the eastern countries including Russia, an absolute monarchy, or, as in the whole Central and Western Europe, some form of the constitutional Eschisatas* (Rule-of-Law State), Which at its worst could he called "semi-absolute...
...The justness of the Churchill summary, however, was hardly the significant factor...
...The Nazis and the German Nationalists tofetiier obtained 247 out of 583 seats, that is...
...The tendency developing towards the Rechttttaat seemed to be general, tsarist Russia not excluded...
...The outstanding lesson of the past twenty-five years is that no government has had the insight necessary to cope with the technological forces loose in the world today...
...The vital fact remains, nevertheless, that the United Nations are at odds, with Russia making a strong bid for European leadership in competition with the Anglo-American wing...
...MM...
...In Africa the legions of Rommel started their march toward Cairo...
...Russia at that point, there is no doubt, wanted to fight England and France were unable to fight, and EnglantTwas still ruled by a government that believed in "business as ZmLW^^ W France was in a turmoil over long-delayed social reforms, and Russia...
...Russia did'have a program...
...Before World War I, a strong labor movement existed in many European countries which did not have free) institutions...
...Berlin sad Ruhr industrial towns...
...Norththtfcsa, the experience of thjase countries, in each of which the socialist Party became the governing party, also is of very great general interest...
...Major domestic sews events W the week ware: 1. Vehement denial by President Roosevelt sad Secretary Hall of analyses by a small group of journalists purporting to show that the State Department is interested to seeing Russia "bled white...
...Points made by Churchill wore: Britain had carried the burden of the war alone from the eohspse of France to the Nazi attack oa Russia nearly a year later...
...But we clearly see the coasequsnees...
...much less thar the majority But together u.-itk 100 Communists, there was an anti-democratic majority, which hindered the formation of any democratic government...
...he said, a • • e AsmeasemeM of Stalls There was every indication in the Churchill speech that Britain and the United States weald less oner backward to appease Stalin, as they had ones leaned over to appease Hitler...
...Ws see that m Germany free institutions could only be successfully defended and maintained by united efforts of the great majority of working classes...
...Russia bristles with programs, and has already offered Germany cap Is which the German state ail German army weald he kept intact if Hitler aad his faction were **iw»<v^ _ . o >." a ^PSl w'ofwef*Sl&9%m*i* revealed its desire for penetration into Europe^ more clearly tary' position in Finland, {*> complete sway over the Baltic states' and (8) important^pre«»h m^s4em3^^M^m^| tT agree to m^m^Sm^t <^7*foaei»e^ .. what she had been denied by Britain snd . Frsnee...
...But democracy could not survive when several anti-democratic / minorities together formed a strong majority against H. AnImportant part of Labor was actively participating at "sabmpjte?* The last elections before Hitler's coming to power took place in November, 19S2...
...Enfels wrote that the democratic republic was "the specific form of the dictatorship of the proletariat...
...1 V racial minorities she' preached racial equality...
...amsnjtt, nmasMrading as French Communicator had djons"a|wh' to increase the turmoil as simjjnr "Bzmjfa grtHf elsewhere had allowed escape no bppocja/wy uf creating social division...
...as we have mdiested, the lack of a program, either domestic or foreign, What, bluntly put, is the purpose of the war from the Angle-American point «f view...
...Even in Tsarist Russia, the labor movement had some opportunities—of course, very limited—to exist and to develop...
...The Socialists were forced to draw new lessons...
...5. Danish revolt, ia which the small Danish Nsvy was scuttled and the Cabinet and King arrested...
...Appropriate methods of new policy were found, especially in the countries where the task of the Socialists was extremely difficult because of anti-democratic' activity of the Communists...
...A* W*mt*t free trade...
Vol. 26 • September 1943 • No. 36
