The Disintegrating of the Spanish CP
The Disintegrating of the Spanish CP Letter from Jesus Hernandez Tomas to the Central Committee of the Party ThE revealing decameat reprinted here from UmmU ml July U »»««. wea written by...
...Since there are in this country no genuine Socialist organizations, this sort of camouflage for a totalitarian party is not without its it.conveniences...
...can you eonetantly be calling for unity when at 'amt 'tote you practice tke meit lavage and parti•Mjpolitiet that the party has ever known...
...or to hold a party conference to judge the correctness of the 'line' that the Executive Committee in Mexico has imposed on the party...
...Never before has our JjWtjr been so confused and inconsistent as it is now...
...came next and took on the name Socialist...
...Marksoska Fisher, Eagene Lyons, David Dallia, nor even such books ef factaal reporting ss that by Jobn Scott...
...As soon as an International Socialist movement is reorganized and prepares to hold an international congress, such false-face groups as this one will demand representation and start to dominate the Socialist movement by boring from within...
...This blaadaring not only continues, but increases...
...Repeatedly I have met workers or intellectuals and carried on conversations like this: "The USSR is the leading country of the world, the only one that is genuinely progressive and liberal...
...MEXICO CITY, June 17, 1944 II ^—vNCE more I find myself obliged to write to I I y°u, and although I do it unwillingly, yet ^-"^ something stronger than my desire to remain silent urges me to it...
...Don't you see in this the silent murmur of discontent from the rank aad lie...
...Once the opportune moment arrives, i will re quire nothing more than the stroke of a pen to transform this new "Socialist League" into a party— while the outmoded Communist Party ca i be either dissolved or preserved to serve some special purpose...
...But this, .as can be easily aeen, means nothing to you...
...But to hold meetings such as these two that I have proposed really does very little...
...ktaiat wa« one af tkoae wka organised terror against these Socialists aad Aaarckista af tke POUM, the left-wing of tke SP, aad tke CNT-FAI, who had refaaed to accepts blindly tke line handed down by Moscow...
...The Communist Party of Costa Rica changed itself into the Popular Vanguard...
...I ssy that a Central Committee or a party conference ean change this situation, because you have lost touch with the sentiments snd aspirations of the rank and file, and you cannot see that they are disgusted snd discontented at finding themselves placed in such a position...
...Mexicans have not had the privilege of reading Wilikm Henry Chamberlin...
...It was distinguished by the most reactionsry policies and by complicity in a long list of the notorious crimes of the period—such as the assassination of Andres Nin, Kurt Landau, Erwin Wolf, Camillo Berneri, and other militant anti-totalitarians...
...In a little more than a year we have had four transformations...
...and instead of forming a block with the Radirsl forces...
...We nave already had a bitter and bloody experience with this sort of maneuver...
...It is clear that the directives of the "deceased" Comintern hsve been carried out with rigorous discipline...
...How can 'you talk seriously about organizing a united party of the proletariat when we are unable to fee among ourselves on such urgent problems ss the *^n«gle for the raconquest of the (Spanish) Republic...
...It is sdded evidence tkst honest liberals and democratic Soeialiats cannot cooperate in any united front with Communist totalitsrians...
...And you know that all the old co-workers of Lenin, the founders of the regime—with few exceptions—have been shot...
...Os saluda...
...The fault lies not with the militant party members but in the nature of the discussions that are carried on at such meetings...
...Would you admit that tens of thousands of men, a whole revolutionary generation, would commit treason together...
...you think anyone is going to place any belief in I*** sincerity when you issue s document calling fcaatieally for „ powerful military leader to solve the PMNems of Spain...
...Ruaeia and published in the United State, has been translated into Spanish and published here...
...T*»y by day we are drifting farther and farther •*»rt from our closest allies, so instead of winning over *sse who are indifferent to our plan for National Unification we are antagonizing those who are most sympathetic to it...
...For more than a year and a 'ilt it has been impossible for journalist* writing Independently snd critically of Russia, of Communism snd of relsted subjects to contribute te Mexican publication...
...Except for the fact that certain censervstive dsilies have recently printed certain articles by Max Eastman aad Carlton Beala, the Communist-totalitarian propaganda has had a monopoly af tke meal areas...
...that instead of fusing the Socialists with our move¦ent...
...The Cuban CP...
...it demonstrates hew even its unaerapulous lesders such as Heraandes ran themselves become victims of GPU methods, as Mumim comments editorially...
...That is merely proof that they were traitors...
...I'olonia I'opular, the Mexican representative of the Polish Underground, has just published a reply in tho form of a very couitaous but serious and well-documented letter to Lombardo Toledano...
...Such are the ideas which are becoming common property...
...But now I see that you are capable of going beyond erven those limits in your insane desire to drag the character of a party militant hi the mud of unsupported accusations "The latest villainy—the most contemptible and treacherous, for it was done under cover of my silence which 1 maintained out of respect for the (Communist) party is that circulated by Araronada and Angelm, naturally with your previous consent, that 1 am in, contact with Trotskyite groups and undesirable elements, and that my book on the Russo-German War is being edited by the Trotskyites...
...All that is necessary is to play a number of tunes at the same time...
...Our situstion would be quite different if you would take sll that insane passion you expend in the fabrication of infamies, and all that time which you force the party to squander in meetings discussing the concoctions attributed to me, and use it for the examination aad study of the reasons why the party finds itself each day more and more isolated from its natural allies —the Socialists, Republicans and Anarchists...
...It is notable that since 1941 not s single book, not one psmphlet hss been publisher here which advocates the opposite position...
...You consider it more important to throw mud at a member »se has just arrived in Mexico from the USSR, with the mission, among others no less important, of imposing certain elementary standards of morality and modesty on the leaders of the party in exile, and to set straight the party line which your sectarianism is discrediting...
...Don't you know that this new Comintern has taken over the doctrine of Lebenaraum, of the need of a sphere of influence...
...They have justified the double murder of Erlich and Alter in Kussia...
...Doesn't it mean anything to you that our party has reached such a condition today that hardly aayeao attends the meetings, which have to be suspeaded fve or aix times in succession for Isrk af a euorum, aad when they do meet, only fifteen er twenty percent are present...
...In Europe new committees follow fast upon one another's heels—''Free Austria," "Free Germany," "Free Yugoslavia," "Free Hungary," "The Garibaldi Alliance," and more than a halfdozen Spanish organizations aet up to encourage the same sort of ideas here among influential refugees...
...I refer to the so-called Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia, established in 1936, which was directed by agents of the Comintern...
...But you know, of course, that it is a totalitarian state...
...It will be the hour of judgment, the time to settle accounts and to demand's reckoning from everyone...
...inMead af grouping the Republican forces around the Supreme Council, hardens them against it...
...After covering me with insults and slander I had believed that you finally reached the lowest dephta of infamy...
...I think it hardly necessary to remind you that whoa our mission to Mexico was decided on in Moscow, that decision was not motivated by any mere dasira for travel...
...It would be a difficult task to convince a Sorialitt or Republican with whom we have yet to reach an itttderetanditig, that lie should give hi* support to an organization in which he will find monarchists today and, perhaps, fascist*, tomorrow...
...Mexican Communists in New Disguise By Victor Serge MeXICO CITY -As 1 reported in The New Leader several months ago, the Communist Party of Mexico and its trusted friends, Lombardo Toledano and Narciso Basols, took the initiative in founding the Mexican Socialist League and the Mexican Sncialst Youth...
...Tkis prominent St...
...Tkey maintained their belief that a sorial revolution akoald ha carried on parsllel with the civU war against the faaciata...
...Not one of the critical and reallalir studies dealing wit...
...O, revolutions have a tradition of devouring their own...
...Communist totalitarian propaganda has made astonishing progress during recent times and has produced among the people of this country a dsngerous state of mind...
...The party will return one day to the principles of democracy (sic) which at present are all but txtinguiehtd in parly circles, and with the return to these sacred principles we shall also witness a greater respect for the truth when sll this secret intrigue concerning the case of liernsndez will be brought to light...
...The program of the new Mexican "Socialist League" is, of coarse, moderation itself...
...Dyonsio Enemas, General Secretary of the Communist Party, is the head of this movement...
...militant party workers express by •heir apathy their diagust with auch a policy, which jaatead of uniting its friends, alienates them...
...It was done, among other reasons, to correct your blundering interprststion of the policy of National Union...
...Heraaaiaa had kaea eipalled from its ranks for -a.viatioes and vitiation af discipline...
...Oh, this is nothing but a transitional stage...
...A young engineer came out frankly with the statement that the health of Europe depends upon an understanding between Germany and Russia...
...I say to you again : go on as you please...
...These neo Socialists, or, to be more exact, these Communist totalitarians concealed beneath a neocamouflage, have no records in the Socialist world other than the calumnies with which during several years past they have covered the genuine Socialist refugees who have come to Mexico...
...He was Minister ef Edaeatiea ia tke Loyalist Government ml Spain, as a representative af tke (emmunist Party, daring tke civil war...
...You could not have gene further in deliberate treachery nor have fallen lower in the sense of responsibility befitting party leaders...
...wea written by Jeans Hemsadet Tern as, and adirasasd ta the Central »remittee of tke Spanish CaaiMaaist Party...
...Translated from Mnndo, July 19, 1SJ44...
...and instead af attracting its allies, repels them...
...ha had been detained for a while in Seattle aa route by the U. S. State Department, to the groat indignation af tke Americsa Communists and fellow-travelers His mala mismoa seems ta hsva beea ta organise la Mexico a branch of the "Supreme Cauacil (Janta) af National Unification" of all Spaaiah ami fascists Thia Supreme Coaacil has been a supreme lop, In Mexico snd in England and Spain, consisting solely of Communists and monarchists, plus a few liberal Spanish Catholics, who are "innocents...
...of the United States became an innocent "political association...
...And furthermore, I believe that thia situation cannot be remedied except by an open meeting of the Central Committee in which all the Latin-American members take part...
...Finally the CP...
...It is more convenient for certain politicians to have two disguises...
...Hernandez admits this, warning that the Council may perkspa contain faaciata , tomorrow...
...At present, this "Mexican Socialist League" conducts a ceaseless csmpsign against Polsnd...
...The idea of a Supreme Council was hailed with enthusiasm when it was first promulgated, but tip to the present we have not been able to get even one of the political parties-in erile to give us ill tupport, "And one thing at least ought to be clear: if we cannot form a solid block of all the Progressive anil Liberal parties it is shear folly to even think of making plans to bring in the Conservatives...
...This document presents sn interesting portrayal of the inner life ef the Spanish Communist Partyin-eiile...
...e antagonize them by appearing friendly with the reactionaries and conservatives...
...e "WhERE will all this end...
...Are you going to abdicate the hudership of the class struggle and hand over to some "fang-man the task of completing s mission, which in ^Junction with our allies it is our duty to fulfill...
...It has been a year and a half since we started our drive for nationsl union snd more thsn three months since the Supreme Council came into existence, yet we have not been able to draw together any of our allies...
...this policy acta us at odds with them...
...Heraaadea arrived ia Mexico City a few months age from Moscow, whither he had fled when Franco waa in Spain...
Vol. 27 • October 1944 • No. 43
