BELGIAN LABOR WINNING THE BATTLE OF COAL AND FOOD OF
BROUCKERE, LOUIS DE
Toward European Socialism Belgian Labor Winning the Battle of Coal and of Food By Louis ie Brouckere EUROPE am suffeied gieatly in th* court* of thi* long war, and ah* ia itili toffering. Never...
...The denazification of Germany and the destruction of Germany's war potential are discussed from loo narrow a point of view—in terms merely of tons of steel, of how much industry to leave in Ger* many, of how much to permit Germany to produce...
...We now have about at much food per head of population as our English friends...
...Until 1941 these groups maintained connections with leaders of British labor, and even after they were Isolated in the final years of the war they did not give up Free Trade Unions for Germany their straggle...
...Rut this has now subsided and the problem of the king can be regarded as being definitely settled...
...What I saw confirmed my conviction that a bona-flde trade union movement can be a most decisive force lit the denazification of Germany and in the rebuilding of German democracy...
...I was very glad to And old, experienced trade unionists, who had turvived repeated arrests, impritonmentt and terms in concentration camps, hard at work at-this task...
...It has shown its capacity to govern by finding practical solutions to the problems which have arisen...
...And the world, secure at last from the danger of a third World War, will be able to march on toward a truly great destiny, that of democratic Socialism, of peace, progress, and abundance...
...I am thoroughly convinced that the best and most reliable forces for the democratic reconstruction of Germany are to be found in the labor and Socialist elements who have proved their loyalty to democracy in the indomitable fight they have waged against totalitarianism throughout the past decade and a half...
...Thus the regency ie still exercised by his brother...
...But I know we can concert to these principles the workers who art today Communists, and so create the conditions for a genuine unity...
...Only by building democracy can we make sure that Germany will not make war again...
...T» succeed in .spite of this, great political strength will be needed...
...The elections will be held on February 17...
...I certainly hope that the labor movement of this country will encourage the Socialists and trade unions of Germany in their task of building democracy in that country and really destroying Nazism and everything that made Germany a threat to civilization...
...I found in Germany quite a number of Socialists and trade union leaders who have been anti-Nazis right along, who fought Hitlerism all the way through from the beginning until the collapse of the Nazi regime...
...It is showing them that experience has now proved the urgent necessity of giving banking, transportation, the electric power industry, the coal industry and many others a Solider and happier organization than that achieved by the initiative of big business men—whose lamentable inadequacy we have just witnessed...
...We are producing enough cloth so that no one need any longer go without the absolutely indispensable minimum...
...Like most of the continent of Europe, Belgium was occupied for a long time by Hitler's troops...
...ThE country is now facing th* big problems of th* futui e. Having provided for th* immediate present, it must set out with ardor and courage to prepare step by step the new political and economic regime, a regime which will make possible a more genuine abundance, a greater degree of social justice, and a more lasting: peace...
...The most urgent business, in Belgium as in the whole of Europe, is to restore the elementary conditions ' of life: to find food and clothing, to rebuild the houses, to restore communications and to strengthen the currency and put the producers back to work...
...This is a promising development, but it is not enough...
...they must encourage and aid them...
...But it has won them under difficult circumstances, and it has won them in spite of the fact that part of its efforts, which it intended to devote entirely to immediate problems, has been deflected by an irritating and difficult political question, the question of the king...
...How could it be so organized except by the intervention of the consumera themselves, that ia to My, of tha whole community...
...In most parts of Europe organized labor has acquired an entirely new force...
...We have restored the soundness of our currency, thanks to very heavy sacrifices, but sacrifices which were not mad* in vain...
...There are very few indeed who dare to discuss it realistically...
...The Vsn Acker Government has won the bsttlc of the King as well as the battle *f coal...
...Tomorrow it can be an active and capable majority...
...And to build democracy means to build a labor movement—a sound labor movement—in Germany...
...I shall not attempt to predict their outcome...
...The technical means of production at our disposal have become enormous, but they cannot be fully utilized, they cannot render the services expected of them, unless the production finally reaches the consumers^ is organized for the purpose of meeting their needs, for them...
...This will for democracy, order and peace now dominates all those nails of Western Europe which I have been able to visit...
...Never ha* ah* known to dreadful a situation since the time of the Thirty Yeare' War, which ia already to far back in history...
...But the experience also showed the members of the resistance groups how difficult and painful that struggle is and how important it it to avoid it If at all possible...
...Thousands of men died in the "maquis," many more suffered imprisonment and the most horrible tortures rather than submit to lott of liberty...
...In such matters prophecy is especially difficult after a war which has changed so many things...
...The government felt that it could not approach thit part of its task, which will have such a profound effect on the future, without having first consulted the country in general elections...
...Those whe have studied tha situation in Western Europe closely recognise that this demo, cratic solution of th* social problem it possible, but they do not hid* the dim...
...I don't dare believe that they can...
...I was glad and quite surprised to learn the extent and vitality of the underground labor opposition to Nazism during the dark days of the Hitler regime...
...Hut no one proposes that...
...This is all very important of course, but to me it seems that the problem of denazification and the future of Germany is closely tied up with the reestablishment of democracy in Germany...
...However, policies are now being clarified, and some improvement is to be noted...
...One necessary condition it that tabor mutt achieve unity, genuine unity, based fiot on an illusory compromise between irreconcilable tendencies, but on a precise understanding on certain principles: on genuine democracy, and on real national independence...
...The big problem which has arisen and BOW awaits solution la the problem of whether the democracies will succeed i„ reorganising society within th* frame, work of individual liberty...
...We ar* producing enough glass to that there are again windowpanes in our windows...
...In the American zone the trade unions and the Socialist elements are not getting the necessary facilities for educational work in developing democracy...
...All these contributed effectively to the Allied victory...
...in the Russian zone, newsprint is being provided to the trade unions but the Communists are getting more than the Socialists—at the ratio of five to one...
...In thort, curing the misery which has attacked almost the whole world is something which interests Americans for other reasons betides those feelings of human sympathy which we have intpired in you...
...Organizational and educational activities, such as labor schools, must be assisted, and the olde*, more experienced workers enabled to get In touch with the youth so ss to win them over to democratic ideals...
...For how could you preserve Anw'""n ."-nitwit...
...because if we permit ourselves to be governed by our emotions we must come to the conclusion that the Germans simply must be destroyed—we must put them in the gas chambers which they built—and solve the problem that way...
...Our occupation authorities must not merely tolerate the efforts to rebuild a democratic labor movement in Germany...
...The real problem is to build democracy...
...Many of them were inverted ia the movement to overthrow the Nazi retime that threw th* Reich into-each convulsions in July 1*44...
...Unfortunately, the American occupation authorities have been very slow in recognizing this crucial fact...
...No matter how aroused one may be over the aavage atrocities committed by the Nazis againtt the Jews and the other people they held in subjection—and I have seen the horrible things that tha Nazis have done in Europe—we cannot let our policy be determined simply by emotion...
...In May, 1940, King Leopold stepped out of the war by making himself a voluntary prisoner of the (iermana, in defiance of the advice of bin government, by which he was constitutionally bound...
...One may say that the present government, under the leadership of Socialist Premier Achille Van Acker, has won in turn th* battle of i he franc, tha battle of food and the battle of coal...
...If we are seriously concerned with the re-education of the German youth, what eould be more important than that 7 The best hope for winning the youth away from the Nazi ideology lies in the labor, trade union and Socialist movements...
...When that has been done, perhaps in the very near future, there will be in Europe not only a large and very effective force for social change, but also a great force for peace...
...Hyrs ¦' • on an ever increasing volume of production, if poverty -were allowed to reduce foreign markets to insignificance...
...The democratic spirit was greatly strengthened and revived, and with it the will to make every effort ki see that democracy is preserved in an orderly fashion and without violence...
...The solution will encounter the dec perate resistance of the big interests, and experience has taught ua that they will hesitate at nothing, not even at treason or at preparations for war...
...It gives reason for entertaining high hopes for the future...
...Can the Socialists lead the Commu...
...But the population never gave up resisting, refusing to work, fighting isolated detachments in the woods, destroying the enemy's communications...
...It can be furnished by organized labor...
...We have already made remarkable progress In Belgium...
...cultlet...
...The enemy wanted to reduce the population to a veritable state of slavery...
...I spoke to some who have had their nearest ones executed because of participation in the attempt to ovethrow the Nasi regime...
...TrlE very moment that the Hitler regime disappeared, they set to work to rebuild a democratic labor movement...
...Th* ill-advised supporters of King Leopold started s violent csmpaign of agita* tion...
...The country itself remained an • Allied power...
...In their inexperience and indifference, they have given little serious attention to the problem and on occasion have even permitted themselves to be misled into approving programs calculated to hamper the development of unionism or to minimize its role in Germsn life...
...Our production of coal, the key to our whole industrial recovery, now amounts to 80 percent of what it was tiefore th* war...
...They have still not gotten around to supplying the slowly rising Gerrasa lsbor organizations with newsprint and other facilities for carrying on estential democratic activities...
...Above all they thowed that those who place a sufficiently high value on liberty to be ready to accept every sacrifice when liberty is threatened can struggle against even the most scientifically organized tyranny...
...Unions are being.organized and district labor federations have been permitted by the authorities...
...Free Unions Bent Hope for Germany By Charles Zimmerman Charles Zimmerman, Vice-President of ILGWU, has recently visited several European countries, among them Germany, on behalf of the Jewish Labor Committee MOST people discuss the problem, whet to do with Germany, from an emotional point of "View...
...But I should at least like to indicate what is at stake, and how the Socialist Party is making its appeal to the electorate...
...Quite contrary to the impression of most of us here in America (hat the labor elements had been completely dispersed and cruahed, I found that considerable groups of Socialists and trade unionists hsd continued organized, systematic underground work, despite mounting difficulties and dangers, up to the very moment of the final collapse of Hitlerism...
...The work they are doing to rebuild their unions and labor groups is a most essential con(tribution to democracy and the peace of the world...
...There can be no other way...
...It it a difficult task, lull one which is making headway everywhere...
...The government, supported by all the political parties, with the exception of the Conservative Catholics, judged that King Leopold's decision had made it impossible for him to continue to reign...
...nists of Belgium, or any country, to really accept these essential pre-conditions of unity...
...The most important thing is to understand what Europeans have learned from these eventa, how they can work their way out of their present miserable conditions and how, if they show the necet-tary ttrength of will, and if they find in the rett of the world the understanding, the sympathy and the help which Will be indispensable to them, they can make progress towards a magnificent future...
...I spoke to people who were directly Involved in that movement...
...However bitter may be the feelings of the moment, at the remembrance of the dreadful atrocities committed by the Nazis, everyone understands that ultimately normal economic, social and political life will have to be re-established in Germany—and re-established it must be on a sound democratic basis...
...I shall not describe thit terrible ordeal...
Vol. 29 • March 1946 • No. 10
