IN FALSE UNITY THERE IS NOT STRENGTH BUT WEAKNESS
DALLIN, DAVID J.
The Abym ThatCannot Be Bridged In False Unity There Is Not Strength But Weakness Ity David J, ItaMn Assoa MT HAVE kept my note* entered daily I in the prison of Buchenwald. I have read now sgtin...
...Two years ago, the division between Socialism and' Communism in Europe (iwa» an almost invisible line...
...4 ecu- ship th* 'Marin* W*If* landed st Calcutta...
...In Eastern Europe occupied by Soviet armies unity slogans have a function which is even mere important from the Communist point of view...
...These words are a typical expression of the feeling prevailing at that time throughout the Socialist world...
...Resistance movements which for a abort while survived th* war have now disintegrated...
...We gave ihem out oa the mala ttreet and also ia town, where hundreds of soldiers cams in every hew, and they were sure well received...
...Socialist Party descended, step by step, from the peak to the .depth of despair...
...A Socialist-Communist merger is a "historical necessity" solely from the point of view of those determined to msintsin power in the hands of a small minority...
...After the lapse of half a year it became obvious that this policy was a mere maneuver...
...Everybody in Rumania knows what it means when Vyshinsky, the notorious prosecutor in the Moscow trials, "refuses to tolerate" the independence of a political party...
...The perpetually moving searchlight of history is now focused on this spot of the political scene, th* dividing line between political freedom and dictatorship, between national independence and imperialistic expansion...
...Did they not fight for the same cause—liberation from Hitlerism...
...Elections to city councils and other organs of local self-government are scheduled for the near future, and the German people, after their experience with the Red Army occupation methods, show little sympathy for their own Communists...
...At present few Socialists believe ia the possibility of "organic unity" with the Communists except those who are in fact camouflaged Communists or prisoners of the Fmonies And Leon Blum has now evolved tfceidws of creating a West-* era bloc to oppose tha Soviet Union...
...The Communist prett accuses the leaders of the new movement of potential Fascism...
...Controlling cells of Communist leadera were to be preserved despite professed unity and collaboration...
...W* were th*r* to pick up z.500 GI's...
...In Czechoslovakia, for instance, this conviction nearly brought about a merger of th* Socialist and Communist parties...
...In Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Socialists were prone to believe that Soviet collaboration with the West indicated that Communism had taken a radical turn toward democracy and that, consequently, liberation from th* Nazis would bring in its wake the establishment of political freedom...
...After Mussolini's fall the Italian Socialist Party wat reborn under most, favorable auspices...
...A long road of bitter disappointments lies between his Buchenwald illusions and the concept of a Western Bloc...
...Collaboration with the Socialist parties, a united electoral campaign, and a tingle list of candidates, serve to conceal the real state, of things, the unpopularity of Communism and of Soviet policy...
...The Communist Party's new policy of collaboration with Socialists at first seemed strange, and soon became suspect...
...It serves only to inflate the importance of the Communists in postwar Europe...
...Collaboration between socialists snd Communists in the resistance movements wss based upon their common struggle against Fascism snd Nazism...
...We laid over 49 hours which gsve as s chsnce t* distribute a. few thousand pamphlets en bringing the Gl'e back haeae...
...Thit it a warning that a new Fasciat movement may arise wherever democratic parties are unable to pursue an independent policy...
...This was the case throughout almost th* whole of Western Europe—first in Italy, in 1948, then in France, in 1944, then in Belgium, Holland and the Scandinavian countries...
...The consequence wss that quite unexpectedly a new popular movement arose which rapidly acquired an enormous strength...
...There may be a seed of truth in this accusation...
...Under the German occupation it often seemed In the occupied nations that the struggle between Socialism snd Communism had been something artificial and irrelevant Were not Socialists snd Communists thrown into the same prisons and concentration camps...
...I have read now sgtin what I wrot* when I learned about the dissolution of • tha Communist International...
...it is a wall dividing the Big Three...
...The Socialists insist—in most instances unreasonably— on the inclusion of Communists in tha transition cabinets...
...It is now clear that all this Communist talk about unity was sheer hypocrisy...
...The division ¦ has i steadily ¦ grown wider and deeper until >it has become an abyss...
...A chasm divides Socialism front Communism, and no bridge can be built across it...
...Popular sentiment in fsvor of Communism has lessened in Eastern Europe and the only free elections" which have taken place so far (in Austria and Hungary) resulted in defeat for the Communists as well as for the Soviet Government...
...These articles are actually a history of a great disillusionment Today Leon Blum says: "There is no doubt that many Socialists have become suspicious about organic <unity„" and h* describes, the road l,v , whicji h« and, - the...
...In Western Europe "unity" serves the Communists as a device for getting seats in coalition governments...
...But after Fascism and Nazism have been defeated, cooperation between democratic Socialism and dictatorial Communism has become an evil...
...An electoral campaign in which the Communist Party opposed all the other parties would be dissttrout to them...
...The Stslinist National Maritime Union, which was selected by Moscow to launch tb« "Brkeg th* Ufa Heme" program, carried the feflewlag letter ia Thm Pilot, nmu official organ: "On Jan...
...We also gave •a* of th* soldiers s thousand pamphleta which he probably sent out to the Q\'m la the tew as a round Caleattav...
...Thit Is the, pattern for such nations in Eastern Europe as occupy a strategic position either on the road to Germany (Poland), or on th* rbad to Turkey and th* Mediterranean (Bulgaria and Rumania...
...The movement embodied in 1,'Uomo Qualunque (The Common Man) has not yet consolidated into s political party, but the hundreds of thousands of the readers of this and affiliated, new* papers represent a new trend in Italian politics...
...In Germany the Communists are now In a predicament and their newspapers in the Soviet zone carry the slogan in huge letters: "Unity is a historical necessity...
...And when the holocaust was over, and freedom from foreign domination was achieved, th* trend toward the left which manifested itself in many nations seemed to imply the hope that unification of the two parties was both feasible and useful...
...Th* Socialist Party solemnly renews its offer of unity to the Communists, which it had already made during the underground struggle,'* states a resolution carried by the first postwar Congress of the French Socialist Party in November, 1944...
...A great opportunity presented it - Who . twbiaef fb* "Irfttf the ••ys Home" Orlv...
...They are dissatisfied with *,jid disappointed by the subservience of ojtjter parties to the Italian Communists and to Soviet policy...
...It aimed not at the creation of a united movement, but at winning influence and final control over the adherents of democratic Socialism...
...Where the Communists succeeded in prevailing upon the Socialists to adopt this tactic, their candidates in some in-ctances were elected by the votes of Socialists...
...They realize through whose fault a peace treaty has not yet been concluded with Italy, and they are) well-informed about events in ^fta^EtffcX their drifting in Soviet warn nflcsnnot appeal to them...
...The boys asked us loads of question* and we set them right in the proper pitch...
...This line continues even further...
...Instead they chose lo harness themselves to the Communist chariot...
...Most rommisssions set up for the purpose of unity of action leading to eventual merger have now been dissolved The French "Delegation de Gauche" ceased to exist a few weeks ago...
...How recant are these events and how archaic they already appear...
...From thi* day on, I wrote in these note* the word: Unity...
...With these words, Leon Blum, leader of the French Socialists and the most prominent personality in the world Socialist movement, started a Series of articles in Populairr...
...It is for this reason, for instance, that in Rumania the Socialist leader Petrescu was informed by Andrei Vishinsky, the Soviet delegate, that "Russia will not tolerate a Socialist refusal to combine forces...
...It is oxygen for a dying organism...
...self to the Italian Socialists to develop 'into* strong party, perhaps even to ¦ become the leader of the majoiity of the , Italian people...
...Ia Eastern Europe, too, a similar mood was felt on the eve of the Russian inva-sion and victory...
...They know about the pressure exercised from Moscow through Belgrade...
...nf Thus the new movement'' Akjes the wind from the Socialist sails, ^Tlie Socialist party, by its eotnpromte-et any prize policy, alienates million* tft- people who might have become Its devote supporters...
...How senseless seemed the former animosity between the two trends within the labor movement...
...His party actually collaborated with de Gemila's Republican Party (MRP) in op-PeaHiM to the Communist...
...Socialist parties which persist in the policy of "unity" have re-reived, in Italy, an answer to the question of whst fste awaits them...
...There is no doubt that free elections in Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Rumania would lead to similar results...
...They are well-aware of the circumstances' of Tito's rise to power and of his claim to Italian territory...
Vol. 29 • March 1946 • No. 10
