THE THIRD FORCE AND EUROPEAN UNION
Topalovich, Zivko
The Third Force and European Union By Zivko Topalovich BRUSSELS. Toward the end of February the second congress for the unification of Europe was held at Brussels. This event, no matter how...
...NO EUROPEAN Socialist party except that of France belongs officially to the European movement...
...To this simplification of the situation it is easy to respond, as Winston Churchill did at Brussels: The only means of avoiding a third world war is a solid union of the free peoples of Europe...
...This attitude has provoked a sort of revolt among the French Socialists...
...Efforts in the direction of a union of European Socialists led to disappointing results...
...that they should extend a helping hand to these nations already cut down by Stalinite imperialism...
...The Vatican has given its official support and the Pope sent greetings to the Congress of Brussels...
...One advantage of this constellation of powers, it is maintained, would be that countries like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia might bo offered the chance of separating themselves from the eastern bloc without being forced into an alliance against Russia, This conception of the third force U leading the Socialists to enter the European movement...
...THE OLD CONSERVATIVE...
...Then the French Socialists decided to rally to the support ol the European movement and carried with them a great part of their Belgian an I Italian comrades...
...and that they should utilize the support of the great American democracy...
...The most important Socialist party in Europe, the Bi itish Labor Party, persists in the notion of the possibility of an entente with the Russians and is not by any means willing to undertake the defense of a union of the western nations which still remain free...
...It is true that Leo;i Jouhaux, the old French labor leade., was elected President of the movement at Bi ussels, hut a truly representative delegation of trade unionists was lacking...
...the Satellite countries, the Socialists among them, have been assigned a very modest part within this movement Nothing but further experience can tell whether it will be possible for the European unity movement to reconcile the conflicting political forces which make it up and* to create a genuineagreement on a course of action...
...Strangely enough, it has been the Communists, with their pretended propaganda for peace, who hive contributed most to the popularity of this movement...
...THE THIRD FORCE in Europe, democratic Socialism, though bitterly opposed to Bolshevik imperialism, has been slow, tentative and timid in its approach to this European movement...
...They have their own ideas on the project...
...Most of the Socialists in countries of Western Europe yearn for an arrangement providing that Russia will keep the territories already occupied but kindly abstain from touching lands not yet taken in...
...The supporters of the USSR proclaim that all activity looking toward unification of the nations of the continent is a move in the direction of war...
...Actually "the European movement", a.s it has been called, has of itself neither cohesion nor stability...
...But somo leftist" Socialists, so-called militants, who do not submit to party discipline, have joined it individually...
...This event, no matter how reasonable and realistic its promoters may be with regard to its significance, had tremendous repercussions in tho European press...
...Determined to defend itself and to become sufficiently armed- which would be impossible without Americun support -this force might be able to maintain a policy ot armed neutrality...
...Churchill, had the courage three years ago to declare certain evident truths: that to stop the Communist avalanche the free peoples of Europe must unite...
...They an- convinced that Europe can avoid tin- third World War only by the organization of "the Third Force of the world...
...Some Socialists say without shame: "Perhaps Bolshevism suits the people who are under the Russian boot, but it is not for us...
...The Russians, naturally, scorn this sort of "passive collaboration" as well as the notion of fixed division of Europe "spheres of influence...
...It is Soviet expansionism which brings the nations face to face with the decision of defending themselves in union or being picked off one by one...
...It is their theory that, if around Europe there could be called into action the liberated peoples of North Africa, of the Near East, of Southern Asia— nations hostile to both Communist domination and to armed aggression against the USSR, a powerful third force might be formed...
...The trade union pet - pie under the influence of the Socialist-, were in doubt...
...The characteristic fact about this European movement is that it is dominated by two chief forces: that of the bourgeois conservatives represented by Winston Churchill and that of the Catholics represented by the various clerical parties in Belgium, Holland, France and Italy...
...In the countries occupied by USSR the Socialists adopted a policy of collaboration with the Communists which ended in the liquidation of both democracy and Socialism...
...And which was more significant a nuncio of the Pope accompanied by several priests took an active part in the deliberations...
...In the course of time they will certainly come to play an important part in its development For the present the refugees fron...
...These scattered supporters are joined in the Socialist Movement for European Unity...
Vol. 32 • March 1949 • No. 13
