The Pitfalls of Power Politics

...We also suggested the relaxation of international trade barriers to facilitate a freer interchange of goods and services of all nations, based on a complete rejection of isolationism, ruthless expansion, and imperialism...

...Whether one agrees with the exact formulation of Churchill's strictures against the Communists or not, it is apparent that there is a vast inter-Allied struggle now going on in Europe...

...The very same people are violently opposed to any intervention by Great Britain in the affairs of western or southern Europe, as in Greece, Belgium, Holland, Italy...

...While greater responsibility should to matched with a proportionate share in the leader-•Wp of the new world organization and in the formulation ef its decisions, this, however, should not exempt 'oar or five Great Powers from the equal rule of law...

...I hold no brief for the British Empire or for British imperial policies...

...But a certain Great Power has vetoed with characteristic "realism" the formation of such regional units...

...but we have every right to know when American national power is being pledged, without having to wait for knowledge of it until the statesmen of other countries fall out, as in the case of the Bevin revelation...

...The people of Italy are starving...

...Labor could never accept or endorse such a caricature of a new community of nations...

...It is even more inequitable to allow its ?~J2 TOt* *° nuIlify *"y complaint against it...

...One does not need to he an historian to realize that the whole history of the European continent, in marked difference from that of the New World, was the history of perpetual birth and downfall of great empires...

...Bevin, had undertaken the main task of restoring law and order in Rumania and Britain hatVaasumed a similar task in Greece...

...Why this difference...

...Of course, we do not expect military information to lie divulged...

...Matthew Woll discusses the viewpoint of organised labor en the crucial problems we face...

...More than that, one of the Great Powers hss proponed the unbelievable provision thst each of the so-called permanent members, that is, eseh of the four or five Great Powers, shall have the right of veto in eases where it may be accused of aggression, and that its own vote shall be sufficient to annul any contplaint against it by another member of the community of nations...

...NINE MONTHS ago the American Federation of Labor, at ita postwar planning forum, presented a comprehensive plan for the prevention of future wars and for the Advancement of the welfare of labor in every country of the world...

...It' is true thst small nations could strengthen their position by forming largeNregional federations and pooling their economic, strategic and military resources...

...The creation of a European Federation, a kind of United State* of Europe, would certainly be another way out...

...TbERE kre certain pessimistic voices now heard in ear country which declare that the Dumbarton Oaks proposals have been torpedoed by inter-Allied disunity in the liberated countries...

...This plan called for the transformation of the structure of the United Nations into the basis for an international organisation for the preservation of peace, in which all nations, large and small, would eventually participate...

...At its recent convention held in New Orleans, the Americsn Federstion of Labor approved the Committee's comments on Chapter IX, to the effect that thia proposal, "which arranges internal economic and social cooperation, is couched in vague political terms that imply the designation of persons of political experience to this sgeicy, which must deal with industrial and labor matters requiring specialised experience and competence...

...More than that, every word of criticism on Russia issued by anyone, even by labor leaders...

...In Bulgaria a bloody purge waa conducted by the occupying Red Army, a purge compared with which Greek blood-abed seems small, and Ruaaia installed there a government of her own choice...

...there have been hunger riots in Rome, and unless there is a drastic change in policy on the part of the AMG, we may witness the most sanguine outbreaks on the Italian peninsula...

...the "ihiall states are doomed, and there is therefore no sense in protecting them against the Great Powers...

...But even that is not always true...

...The shadiest sort of power politics is the order of the day...

...It seems that the statesmen have fallen out over the apoils—and the tragic aspect of it is that victory is by no means fully in our hands...

...The draft constitution of the new international organisation makes the General Assembly, the only agency in which the smaller nations are fully represented, a mere advisory body, deprived of any real importance or influence...

...If that happens tht American people, in despair, may return to isolationism once more—and that would, I am indited to believe, be ruinous...

...Una it running out...

...It must be admitted that this is a very difficult problem...

...At the same time, every European state, from the smallest to the largest, would enjoy in this federation an equal degree of freedom, and of cultural and national independence...

...We are told: only big economic and military concentrations can survive...

...Yet it cannot be denied that Communist policy in the liberated countries has been divisive, provocative and dangerous to the csuse of the United Nations...

...But the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals go much further...

...In Belgium and Greece, leaders of the resistance movement, who in most instances are avowed Communists, have refused to lay down their arms unless their political demands are met...

...In Belgium, which it a hub for Allied communications and supplies for our armies now fighting on German aoil, Communist disruption may well have a disastrous effect on our fortunes of war...

...Athens is now a bloody battleground in a completely unnecessary armed struggle between the left-wing ELAS and the British troops and the forces of the Greek loyalists...

...Socialists, or Democrats, is regarded as a major crime and the culprit is systematically smeared and labeled as a pro-Fascist snd pro-Nazi...

...However, at soon as Soviet power politics ar* involved, national unity is cynically discarded, no matter what else is Involved...

...In any case, that teas the way Europe achieved it* miraculoue cultural and epiritual contribution* to tht progret* of mankind...

...There, are *? •*°'l»«ons concerning dependent peoples, the colonies *bt Axis countries, and other backward areas, which J* not be capable of self-government for some time , Some method of international trusteeship • ¦•¦a be etsablished for this purpose...

...th* place of small nations in the world security setup...

...Russia, toasrding to Mr...

...ns Dumbarton Oakg proposals, together with the JjWasttei amendments, offer a hope to a world which danger of bleeding to death...

...Our liberal "realists" are loud ia their demands for national unity at long as their political damnada art granted and at long at unity ia consistent with th* international policies of tht Russian government...

...IVhAT should occupation authorities who are responsible for keeping order do in such cases...

...the possible federation of Europe aa an alternative to domination by the Big Three or the spheree-ef-influence policy...

...Belgian Communists, in their desire to maintain a private army to be used against the legally constituted Belgian government, art prepared to plunge that country into eivil war...

...How can the progressive and the dangerous featuree of modern nationalistic development in the Old World be reconciled...

...intervention of Britain, Ruaaia and th* U.S.A...

...Finally, we emphatically denounced any attempts by any nation to apply unilateral solutions to territorial and other problems affecting world peace...

...The Italian government dare not make public the terms of Italy's surrender, for fear of provoking civil war...

...Seen from this sngle it can be said that the history of Europe is the history of the rise of national states...

...It it hardly equitable to allow any one of these P»w*rt to cast a vote in an instance where it is accused M aggression...

...Next week Harry D. GMeoaae, president of Brooklyn College, will carry on ia our symposium on American foreign policy, with aa article arguing that "Good Foreign Policy Means Responsible Action on Time...

...They say that civil war in Greece and Belgium, and Seviet unilateral action in Poland, all indicate that the Big-Three have no real faith in the proposals mostly-agreed upon in Washington...

...The Dumbarton Oaka proposals should be amended •a see* a way as to provide international machinery to prevent precisely the sort of tHng thst is now toing on in the liberated countries...

...However, this does not necessarily absolve us of the responsibility of making justified criticism of the many omissions, failures and shortcomings of the draft in its existing form...

...The American Federation of Labor Committee on International Relations wholeheartedly endorses the principles of the Dumbarton Oaks proposals, particularly of the plan to set up a Security Council for maintaining world peace...

...In practice, such a provision would mean that each of the Great Powers would be free to engage in aggression whenever it felt itself strong enough to risk conflict...

...As small nationa will never dare to attack a Great Power, nor involve themselves with a small nation allied by bilateral agreement with a Great Power, these proposals would leave the small nations entirely at i he mercy of all of the Big Four or Five...

...But not a single liberal realist protested against Russia...

...The convention approved the suggestion, if not demand, that the ILO become an integral part of any new plan to deal with social and economic matters...

...Bat they will recoil, I am certain, from any participation* la a struggle for naked power by one group of Bahama led by the British Empire and another group ef nations headed by the Russian Empire...

...However, these same liberals have never uttered a word in opposition to the intervention of Russia in the internal affairs of Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria...

...It is not difficult to agree with Winston Churchill when he says that "the last thing that resembles democracy is mob law with bands of gangsters, armed with deadly weapons, forcing their way into Greek cities, endeavoring to introduce a totalitarian regime...

...Aa it often turns out in history, a really progressive process may at a certain state become more of a liability than an asset...

...There, sfter nearly four years of all thewPrors of German occupation—hunger, privation, disease, mass executions—no sooner were the Germans driven out than the Communist-dominated ELAS tempted to overthrow the legally installed government...

...the preeent struggle between the United Nations over the spoils of war...

...TfllS artiel* is part *f the speech delivered by th* vie* president of the American Federation of Labor, who ia also chairman of the Internationa) Labor Relations and Postwar Problems Committee of the AFL, before the American Labor Conference on International Affairs, on Dec...

...Consistent with the pledges contained in the Atlantic Charter, the new international organization should be genersl m seeae, unlimited by the present formula that ¦snaatwraWp should be open to sll pesce-loving aastta.'' Permanently to exclude any state is to ?¦¦anger the new order...

...important omissions and weaknesses of th* Dam-barton Oaks plan...

...Sir Norman Angell, William Green, Robert M. Maclver, and others will contribute to future issues on this subject...

...j|er« are other flaws, particularly in the absence of constructive proposals which are vital if we •w to be ruled by law and not by force in the postwar There it no mention in the existing proposals she need for a lessening of the staggering burden ¦mament whieh now crushes humanity...

...When the plan foraValing with Greece was agreed upon by the British tahnet, it was taken to Quebec and submitted to Pmstdent Roosevelt, who agreed to it and initialed it...

...The nationalist evolution is a double-edged phenomenon...

...It is only fair to say that the powers which will have the greater responsibility for maintaining peace and of punishing aggressors should have greater influence in a Security Council charged with these obligations and responsibilities...

...This proposed international organization, we urged, should be empowered to use whatever means might be necessary, including an international police force, to prevent the outbreak of war in the future...

...The question might well be raised as to whether France in 1940 was a very large empire...

...The Roman Empire of the Caesars, the Empire of Charlemagne, the Spanish Empire, the Empire of the Mongols, the Turks and the Hapsburgs— all of them, after a period of flourishing, fell to pieces and out of their debris new, smaller and nationally more homogeneous/ states arose...

...It is the samadtfl Greece...

...A few days ago, Ertest Bevin, British Minister of Labor, told his Labor Party colleagues that British action in Greece had been taken with the knowledge and approval of Russia and the United States...

...fk» American people appear to be perfectly willing to support most of th* Dumbarton Oaks proposals, esatasKnt with the principles of the Atlantic Charter...

...There is some truth in the observation that the bigger a nation the better it can develop its resources and protect its borders...

...In Italy, one political crisis is followed by another...

...The British Labor Party, in its 1940 program, made constructive proposals to Oils effect...

...It is said the time of small free democratic nations is gone...

...This development undoubtedly waa a progressive one...

...If that be a real democratic policy, why does not Soviet Russia take the same courae in Bulgaria and Rumania, in Poland and Hungary...

...It is contrary to the principles of international j democracy, these liberal "realists" claim, to intervene in the internal policies of liberated countries...

...Inequality is the principal characteristic and most striking feature of the Security Council as it is to be created...

...If, 1944...

...If Dumbarton Oaks proposals are to have any reality, «ia necessary for the rule of unanimity to be replaced *t • two-thirds majority of the permanent members ¦ *e council...

...The real center of gravity it transferred from the general community of all nations to a small body, of which four or Ave great powers will have sole, exclusive and absolute control...

...The problem ie how to bring about more unity and harmony among the variety of nation* and ttate* in Europe and Attn...

...Organized labor has always sponsored the democratic solution of this problem...

...thaler the present proposals, the projected Security Council grants excessive power to four or at the most Ivtgreat Powers...

...If these proposals **> °nd if.no effective public opinion is aroused against 7*<ac^ *'"/« now going on in the liberated European JJJ"™**, then the future for world peace is dark indeed...

...Can an occupational army confine itself to passive registration of armed revolts snd surrender the occupied territory to the group which has at the moment more mortars and 75-millimeter guns than the other group...

...In Belgium this ba> i..,t ** street fighting between the government and the Comma, nist led demonstrators...

...The fart ia that Russia is forming In Poland a government of her own, without any regard for the wishes of the majority of the population and for the legal Polish government in London...

...Just capitulate before the coup d'etat...

...ia the affair* of other nationa...

...In the forties of the twentieth century there is no room for small nations...

...If we analyse more closely these contradictions in the new theories, we will find underlying politicsl motives which explain the inner inconsistencies of these trends apparently so reslistic and objective...

...the civil war ia Greece...

...And unless^lrastic action ia soetv takM, w* may well find ourselves partners to soastthing resembling international chaos...

...They comment on the de Gaulle-Stalin pact, which seems to by-pass Dumbarton Oaks...

...They point to the secret understandings, such as were revealed the other day by Ernest Bevin...

...Thus the small nations will enter the General International Organization as atomized small particles without real force, without legal protection against the arbitrary action of any Big Power or even of a Small Power which has a mighty protector in the Security Council...

...The co-existence on the small continent of Europe of about 25 absolutely independent and sovereign states with divergent and, more often than not, contradicting interests, rivalries, economic competition, permanent border conflicts, etc., has gradually become a very real danger to the peace of Europe and of the world...

...Or shall we admit that the rank of a Great Power can be attributed only to nations- with populations of more than 130 millions...

...Cynically, the Washington Conference is referred to as the Dum-bastan beex...

...The prophets of neo-imperialism accept without murmur and even with lively approval the open annexation of the Baltic State's by Soviet Russia, the transformation of Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and perhaps also of Hungary and Austria, into satellites of Russia as a progressive process...

...And perhaps in a few weeks, before a second uprising...

...Such a federation would represent a concentration of economic, strategic and social resources which would, beyond any doubt, enable the European continent to reach a much higher degree of welfare and of political, economic and social security than Europe now possesses...