TRENDS
OAK, LISTON M.
TRENDS Storm Over Britain Decline But Not Defeat Battle for Production World Leadership— USA or USSR? By Liston M. Oak Britain's Crisis and the Need for Social Unity THE storm which delayed...
...Socialists Are Not Miracle-Men Bkita IN'S economic difficulties are in realif^r a world crisis," according to Sydney Gampell, financial editor of Reuters...
...Athens collapsed before Rome arose...
...Britons who expected to wake up in paradise the day after electing the Labor Party to power are disappointed...
...in the same period beginning August 1, 1045, the figure was only 3,760,000...
...Our fate is inextricably linked with that of the only other thoroughly democratic major power, whatever its government, Tory or Labor...
...The Sparta of modern times is Germany...
...Russian expansion Is not due te Soviet power but rather to the i disintegration of nations'on the periphery ef the USSR...
...America has the competitive advantage and is exploiting it fully regardless of anything except immediate profits...
...The workers have not nsponded enthusiastically to the appeal fr.r strict discipline, no wage rises, no ?ti ikes, longer hours, less absenteeism, ami other drastic measures to increase pioduction — which is the only way Britain can escape bankruptcy under any government...
...It will take 1360,000,000 to prevent collapse in Greece in the next three years...
...an we afford, for either economic oi political or military reasons, to let Britain down...
...I commented on the strange fact that a Socialist government looks to capitalist America to take ever world leadership — in Poland, in Greece, in Palestine and on various other issues...
...But the USA occupies a special historic position...
...Sympathy strikes were called in protest against the use of the Army to break the strike, to the great satisfaction of Communists and Tories alike...
...A totalitarian government in such a'crisis would resort to measures like compulsory direction of labor and industry...
...What we need to achieve is a new social unity in solving social problems...
...The bloody Tories are responsible for the bloo<iy mess we're in...
...Private enterprise is "coasting along" and taking few risks, in distrust of the future...
...They are too confident that somehow Britain will again muddle through...
...Weakness, disorder, chsos In Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia, give the Communists their opportunities...
...Britain's only hope of establishing trade and dollar equilibrium is in selling in the dearest market and buying in the cheapest, but America expects her to do the opposite...
...Even Michael Foot, who calls for a "Socialist foreign policy," was hesitant about appealing to the UN Seruiity Council for action to defend Poland's right to independence...
...America now has the "responsibility for world peace and security," Marshall said, which Britain had in the 19th century...
...By Liston M. Oak Britain's Crisis and the Need for Social Unity THE storm which delayed me for five days in Berlin and four days in London brought intolerable suffering to Germans and caused a paralysis of British industry...
...If Britain collapses it will seriously affect the entire world, leading probably to a depression like that of the decade following 1929...
...The peace treaties must quickly be signed, so that hundreds of thousands of soldiers can come home...
...The export drive has bogged down...
...Recently Secretary Marshall drew a parallel between the fall of Athens in 404 BC, and the decline of Britain...
...But the difficulties should not be minimized...
...The "left-winjr" group in the Labor Party, led by Zilliaeus and Crossman, echo the same sentiments as the British Communists — withdraw soldiers from foreign countries, especially from the Middle East, cut down production in the war industries, and adopt a pro Soviet foreign policy...
...Britain spends annually on the armed forces almost as much as was borrowed from the USA...
...In this period, advocates of the intensification of the class struggle are thinking in 19th-century terms...
...But 1 think that the attitude of the porter in my hotel was fairly typical...
...They had cause for confidence as well...
...ws may not he ready to accept it — but Soviet Huasia is...
...The 80th Congress is making this difficult...
...Strikes and collective bargaining, would be outlawed, hours lengthened, an incentive pay system and the speed-up established, the standard of living reduced...
...Production Is insufficient for the minimum home markets...
...Biitain in her extremity relinquishes world leadership to the USA...
...Thus we have the edifying spectacle of Communists and Socialists and trade union leaders making the same sort of appeal that capitalists would make if they were in power...
...Britain, whose national existence depends upon exports, at present is not ^producing a cent's worth of exports," l.'ampell writes in the NY Tim...
...If help is refused Greece, the Greek Communists, supported by the entire Slav federation of eastern Europe, will win the civil war...
...Governments as employers face problems similar to those of capitalists as employers — with the vast difference that theoretically at least the whole nation will share motf: equitably in the benefits of increased, ' production, in the distribution of goods and other forms of wealth...
...Russia WIN Fill Vacaum The problem Is parallel In other countries...
...The latter feel that as the government party they cannot be as outspoken on this and other issues as the opposition can be...
...Soviet Russia will take a long step toward the domination of the Eastern Mediterranean...
...The economic recovery of Europe and Asia Is essential to that of Britain, and there are few signs of such recovery...
...Zilliaeus is ijiiite i iirht that maintaining 1,200,000 men in ttie armed forces and 500,000 in war plants is a drain that Britain can ill afford...
...The Ixindon Bureau of the Union for Democratic Action said of this situation: "More men and women must be put to useful work...
...The employers also are fighting old battles...
...The fuel shortage is less terrifying than the shortage of dollars and cr-dits from the USA...
...Socialist reform is tried only when capitalism is approaching collapse...
...If Greece goes Communist, Italy will not be fur behind...
...The Republicans and bourbon Democrats seem determined, like the Communists, to wage class war...
...And even if the Government's export target Is hit, Britain will still be short by $1,400,000,000 of paying Co'- 80 percent of the prewar volume of Imports...
...Britain can't afford it...
...Even if that theory is false in Soviet Russia, it is true in democratic socialist lands, and particularly Britain...
...That way leads to to-^ talitarianism...
...That is expressed in terms of labor-management coopera- ' tion to increase production even in capitalist countries — a new kind of class collaboration on the basis of mutual compromise...
...particularly the manning of unpopular industries...
...The Tories gleefully blamed the Laboritea for the worst weather since 1W4...
...The unions defend what is known ' here as "featherbedding" ^and there is a lot of wastage of labor...
...BRITAIN has notified the USA that she cannot allocate to Greece the funds necessary to reestablish order there...
...Of course not...
...Everyone—union officials and members, management, and government— had much cause for hard thinking...
...Commitments abroad will further increase the deficit, with catastrophic consequences, Gampell believes...
...In Italy, France and Poland coalition governments call for discipline, da, termination and hard work to make racialist measures effective in reviving the war-shattered economy, Eff-threaten, ing inflation ean be defeated in no other way...
...The people of those fog-bound isles are tough, determined, vigorous...
...The mines should have LtTii nationalized twenty years ago.'" However, my impression was that few Britons fully realize the seriousness of the < i mis, of which the emergency caused by bad weather was only a symptom...
...And then, probably, Fiance...
...They came' through the Battle of Britain without a whimper and they will come through the battle for pioduction...
...If Americana fail to faes their responsibilities, and If Congress cuts appropriations for the armed forces, and if Britain is compelled to cancel commitments abroad, Russia and her 12,000,000 Communist agents will seize world leadership...
...It Is impossible to evsde the consequences of histoiy, and there is no way in which the United Slates can stand safely aside and mind its own internal business snd enjoy its own blessings, while sll about it ths world sinks info disorder and squalor, and the violence of a desperate Struggle for mere existence...
...The proportion of women in industry (already high by American standards) must be further increased...
...One-fourth of the labor force is in "non-productiVe" work j This may mean that labor must give up its opposition to the introduction of foreign labor, which could solve many stubborn problems...
...Walter Lippmann wrote recently that negative resistance to Soviet aggression is not enough...
...But the Labor Government is attempting to Solve its problems by democratic means...
...But for Britain to repudiate her commitments abroad means the creation of a vacuum that Soviet Russia will fill if the USA does nut...
...Lord Keynes warned the British Gov* ernnteat before be died that tt was an* dertakhvr fatal commitments in the rehabilitation of Europe and the Far East...
...1 talked to many MP's, both Labor and Conservative...
...Workers who don't understand this may win a battle for higher wages and lose the war against poverty...
...Turkey will be caught in a pincer movement...
...They nie to blame for the problems the Socialists haven't solved...
...in the Hellenic era no such power had emerged...
...And Socialists cannot work miracles...
...Ths ability of all sections of the community to pull together wight prove to be Britain's great asset...
...He damned Emanuel Shinwell for lack of foresight and for incompetence, but when I asked him if he would vote for the Conservatives ;n the next election, he was indignant...
...Britain's position on the international scene is weakening, but it would be an error to assume that Britain is finished as a world power...
...As ths British Commonwealth il weakened, America becomes the main citadel of democracy...
...The Labor Government handled the shipment of food in the same way Mayor O'Dwyer would handle a similar situation—by using soldiers...
...In the crisis faced by the nation, British workers generally maintain old attitudes toward the boss — the government— and its call for increasing production...
...The USA will probably, be forced to declare u moratorium on British economic commitments—but too little and too late to avert chaos...
...the Persia of 1947 is Russia...
...They posses an endurance that is impressive...
...And as part of the picture, the British workers may defeat the purposes of their own Government by tenaciously adhering to the 19th-century idea that the government and the employer is always the enemy...
...While I was in London ti uck-drivers went out on an outlaw Hi i ike...
...I agree with Frednick Voight that even if the British Empire changes its character, merry England still haa a -vital role to play, and cannot be casually written off...
...Perhaps the fate of democratic Socialism depends on the outcome...
...Man-day* lost In strikes In the seventeen months beginning January 1,1919, were 40.000,000...
...If in Greece Britain and the USA play the same sort of weak, vaiilliating role as the USA has played in China, the victory will go to out enemies...
...The balance of power will 1m- unbalanced...
...It is ironic that some Tories are more staunchly defending the cause of Polish independence than are the Laborites...
...The decline of Britain vastly increases American responsibility, and as Lippmann comments: "Nor Is thsre any escape from thst responsibility...
Vol. 30 • March 1947 • No. 10
