The Dangers of Liberal Fantasy
WOLL, MATTHEW
The Dangers of Liberal Fantasy By Matthew Woll LIBERAL journalists brought Bp on the fantasies of Mr. H. G. Wens are fond of calling; their M~J intellectual doodling s, more pompously than...
...They forget, or have not token the triable to watch, M* role *f interference ia the oatittcs of liberated Italy...
...It follow* a straight and awe re hen lino which leave* no room for msdmmms on Mm part of any hones, siiervsr that •mm* momma, In Ms future ismtiini with the Weatom World, to mmfins Ma mwuenii aad his power within On Ml« ssammj...
...In either ease, {he restoration of free, democrat*) trade union movements will be either tremendouslj handicapped or rendered actually impossible To aaderstand the fall implication* of thte impending struggle one must bear ia mind the chaagee effected by the Nasi* in ths economic life ef Europe...
...to prevent the democratic rights of American labor from jeopardizing production for the Soviet Union during that period of tremendous Soviet-American trade predicted by Eric Johnston, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, anil other new friends of Russia in the business world...
...the fixing of the amount of profit mark-up that anybody purchasing goods from the government could charge to somebody else to whom he resold goods...
...to snfegnoH the real mtornst* of th* psmpk a* ¦ whole...
...thete ssjgesl The Soemt Unto, by **rte» of ? JjJj^MMIBBe whorh ha* boon set M Italy...
...They forgot, or never took the trouble to learn, that Statin disrupted Spanish densocracy aa the price of Soviet military aid, paid for with a large share of the Spanish gold reserve...
...nnd (this one nf my amendments wa* aemptedl requirement that good* he said in the small...
...If that ia so, then who captures control of government will ipse fscto cspturs control of ths nntionsl economy...
...Indeed, the co-called dissolution of the Comintern and the subsequent reorganization of if* constituent parties resulted from a development which is anything but reassuring for democracy...
...On no...
...And even when dressed up as prophecy and ¦addled in the market place they are still intellectual aoodlnigs...
...Next come those wishful thinking liberals who like to believe, in spite of Teheran and its disastrous after math of Soviet unilateral political action and democratic retreat, that Stalin has no ambitions outside the former borders of the Soviet Union...
...that is to say, they are not French or Belgian or British or American patriots, but Soviet patriots...
...Hew, the one thing about fantasies under any title it that they hare a great deal more to do with what is la the mind of the dsydresraer than with any objective fact...
...Mo attempt to sotobHsh there •he kind of Soviet -dominated popular f realism ef wMeh all Mm deesorrstir reamtrioa had ample aad better inpiiliaii before the war...
...ami Mutt his sole design where the great Western democracies sre Concerned is to continue the close collaboration made necesssry by the war...
...And if Stslin, through his fsnsticslly devoted foreign legions, succeeds in getting control, we may judge by the enelsved condition of Russian lsbor whst chsnce the tortet at Western Europesn lsbor, which hsve so heroically resisted Nazi enslsvement, will hnve to renters democratic trade unionism...
...Unless both the Western government) and the Western peoples face the prospect honestly sni squarely, democracy will lose the struggle by default Up to the present tin j, to put it bluntly, the democrat...
...I* n m*a*ur* far more like...
...It is • fight lietween the "big business" philosophy on the one band and ths general interest of the common people of America, including small business, agriculture, and the rank and Ale people of the country generally, on the other hand...
...the retention by the government for future notional defense needs »f pleats useful only for the production of an.....mil ion nf wnr...
...that he really hopes to see a democratic Europe emerge from this war...
...The amount of this kind of thing thst goes an »bo«t the future relation between the democracies and the Soviet Union is tremendous...
...In proof whereof they point to the dissolution of the Comintern and the "con •version" of the Communist Psrty of America into an "educstionsl association...
...Pwtowd end t to* do not aid the democratic force* in Europe to resist it, wa shall find ourselves ia ths saaltisn est having defeated one form of totalitarianism only to roe the vacuum created by its collapse filled by another form of totalitarianism equally inimical to democratic rights and democratic processes • •' * The Communists of Western Europe who plsyed so important a defeatist role at the beginning of the war have, to be sure, participated in the resistance movement—but only since the invasion of ths Soviet Union...
...from the date ef Ms asm safisd recognition of the Bhsmgaa govemmsni...
...OnE of the phenomena of our period which is likely to seem most curious to the future historisn is this willful self-hypnosis of Urge segments of the Western peoples in their attitude towards the Soviet Union...
...We may expect, moreover, an attempt to force labor to extend into the postwar period the no-strike pledges made to our government for the duration of the war...
...their M~J intellectual doodling s, more pompously than originally or accurately, "The Shape of Things to Come...
...as Qwtory ¦owe recently eommented...
...Now what are the implications «f all this for the democratic trade union movement...
...It is time foi both to realize the urgency of intelligent understandini and energetic action to the end that after this costlj snd devastating war for freedom "government of th« people, for the people, by the people, shall not perisl from the earth...
...They find it more comfortable to cherish a smug confidence in intentions certainly not manifested in any action of the Soviet Union to date...
...what is mora more mWy...
...Behind the Reconversion Battle Some People Want Unemployment By Jerry Voorhis Congressman from California ThE lines sre being drawn more ciesrty every dsy her* in Washington in the struggle over legislation for the postwar period...
...An extreme and ironical example of this self-deception about the Soviet system was Vice-President Wallace's remark made while in Siberia, of all places, that "men born in wide, free spares will not brook injustice," and would not "even temporarily live in slavery," while throughout Eastern Siberia, even as , Mr...
...They forgot hie civil war against the Soviet people which wiped out all possible nuclei of resistance to his dictatorial regime...
...They behave as if the Bolshevik Government hsd no history and no previous policy by which its present behavior stay be tested and its probable future behavior charted...
...Clayton, international cotton broker, to be free to soil sll surplus property, including land, government-owned plants and everything el**, just aa rapidly a* possible, to sell them in Inrge lota at whatever price* ran be quickly obtained and to giv* little heed to what the effect of the*e sale* is on either the strengthening of monopoly or any other factor in our national economy...
...At ths 1LO Conference in Philadelphia last spring, detegstee from occupied Europe were agree** that this situation wo*Id mean postwar government control of production and trade...
...The Senate bill, mi the other hand...
...They explain away hie pert with the NasJs which enabled Hitler to unleash the war...
...Some of us put up the best fight we knew how in the House to try to include in the House bill such safeguards for th* people s* requiirment* of congressional approval before government-owned plants are sold, requirements that the Antitrust Division be given an opportunity to state Whether or not the sale ef plants or patent* would increase monopoly power...
...In one or tww instances we wore sun smnfoi...
...First there ere those "gsmblers with liberty," as they were brilliantly characterised in a recent issue of the American Mercury...
...Certainly there ia nothing in this record, past or eVmmvt, to indicate the slightest change In Soviet ambitions with regard to the root of the world or Soviet tonics In Mm pursuance of that ambition...
...The design is clear...
...hut by nnd latg* the Hmta* bill i* whet I would call a "tog basin***" hill...
...In Europe the determined attempts of the Communists to rapture control of postwar governments -already foreshadowed by their present policies—open two possibilities...
...Already one Communist-coi trolled union has announced that it will continue this pledge...
...They sre resdy to compromise our Constitutional guarantees of pel sonsl and political freedom for the sake of the "economic freedom'' which they fondly believe to be ex amplified in the totalitsrisn economic system of the Soviet Unioh...
...We may expect in this country to see an attempt by the Communists to extend after the war the bureaucratic control over both industry and labor which the war has made necessary...
...Like the Communists in America, they are "June 22nd patriots...
...Supporters of the House bill spparently want th* Administrator of Surplus Property Disposal, W. I...
...They disregard the tragic history of fshoh fsiiot rstations from the date when be ¦od Hitler divided Poland between them...
...Wallace was speaking, there were concentration camps for political prisoners and labor ramps going at full blast...
...ie a "big Bta*AAam»^tMTav*n ¦aauaMn,a*>^ra***aaerf **>^uA*ssar aaaf aaeomm* flan asm 4**uSBamsm**nm*>fi nu*inrfil| IBemWlmrflPm^ J p*Mlvl VI wsff/W, |f| sal J JmHSffeMflspTel it m pnttmnMf 4mmcm*m to ttw ftitvfv kmpum of Aito^fmfmi, tartmmMnf tlit Im^m *jf vvvc* i4ngto fvtvfetI moot eanosMly bate, ks that Wo moat reawtotrly or thw asmaapj moot of setose, pnrtsromstvy agvsrut-lorel setose, or the owe* sjfl mumi of the mmsaV...
...Either they will be strong enough to succeed without bloodshed, or they will inevitably precipitate violent internal struggles for power—struggles in which, unfortunately, the governments of the Western democracies cannot, in the light of their policy to date, be depended upon to throw their weight to the democratic side without tremendous popular pressure to thai end...
...Naturally I hope the fienote peoeisioa* wiN proved, for many of them *re amsnot the eanrl *ammmm*ate I tetod to got the Mmme to escrow to...
...all this to the end thst the world may have peace and the Soviet Union sources of credit and of the capital goods necessary for its industrial rehabilitation...
...Th* fight will come woe* low eoafersnr* reports en thoee two MB...
...etorn^l -« IwL *l sweJ* mm Oval m , | afl •m ia» •*«» raaoo m "bet I bsmev* tosenrv wIM...
...It would be folly to assume that a mere change in the names of their organizations means the slightest ehsnge in their allegiance or their activity in behalf of the Soviet Union...
...They Ignore his current interference in Bslksa sffsirs through the partisan movement headed by bin creature, Tito...
...is that the Atl.ntir sensor...
...This is the fight on surplus property disposal...
...fa*) meWieesl toTito *. am ire* *•*).* m*^»m^'emme> mmsT^"***"''' ™ They do not want Ceagieas to pane effective legis-Islmn which wsuld provide as nearly aa legislation ran for an orderly reconversion and for on effortive maintenance of our country'* buying sower in the postwar period...
...theii governments as if they had no power...
...subject is tknt more confusion, more wishful thinking, more re-htcienet to Uok at /acts, more intellectual doodling, lAax en that eaestten of vital importance to the future */ democratic society...
...peoples have behaved as if they had no vision...
...This, aa anynas eaa see...
...mandatry requirements for wide public notice about snything available (at sale hefor* sale take* plarr...
...With stolen government sssets they hsvs bought a controlling shars in the industries ef the occupied countries, which wilt revert after ths wsr not to the former owner* but to the restored or newly crested governments...
...Such, in the cold light of psst and current history is likely to be "the shape of things to come," in th< postwar period...
...Ibis outrageous proposal that labor surrender its right to strike after the war has been justly repudiated by AFT, President William Green and other leaders of American labor...
...prertM-al lot...
...The wishful thinkers may be clsssifted under two gsaernl heads...
Vol. 27 • September 1944 • No. 36
