WILL THERE BE A FRANCO-STALIN PACT?
ALBA, VICTOR & MAURIN, JOAQUIN
Ten Years of Franco: WILL THERE BE A FRANCO-STALIN PACT? By Victor Alba New Leader Correspondent in Latin America By Joaquin Maurin MEXICO CITY. RUSSIA'S REAL ATTITUDE toward Generalissimo...
...For that reason, she was not invited to Washington to sign the North Atlantic Pact, which in turn furthers the strategy of Moscow...
...And with them fell Petain, Laval and Tojo, all allies, direct or indirect, of Franco...
...Not 6nce are th'e destinations of shipments mentioned...
...The Communists themselves denounced Zoroa to the police...
...Therefore, the political climate of western Europe is hostile to the Falangist dictatorship...
...If a totalitarian regime took steps to bring about an evolution toward democracy, it would be condemning itself to oblivion, and this Franco is certainly not prepared to do...
...Newspapers, magazines, books, theatrical productions and films are all subjected to a rigorous double censorship, political and religious...
...This goveminent — the dictatorship 0f Gemeneralissimo Francisco Franco — is at once an anachronism and an internatio;Mortal scandal...
...Furthermore, Stalin and France complement each other...
...The Kremlin knows this very well, and for trie faason it is in no hurry to see Franco fall...
...on the contrary, she does it with the perverse intention of forcing the United States and England, if she can, to vote for Franco...
...ITEMs Meanwhile, in Spain itself the Communists slowed down their underground activity to the point where they merely propagandised Russian policies...
...His great triumph lies in the fact that he has succeeded in presenting the alternative: Franco or the communists...
...Joaquin Msurin„ former member of the Spanish Parliament, and a leader of the POUM (Party of Marxist Unity) — a socialist organisation strongly opposed by both communists and Trottkyites — spent ton years in Franco's Jails...
...S This makes the Kremlin rub its hands with satisfaction...
...Madrid, McNeil pointed out, had just purchased in Warsaw 500 airplane motors, which indicated that Spanish plane production is following Russian aircraft design...
...Library collections have been repeatedly destroyed or expurgated...
...When Spain lost Cuba, Puerto RfcRJco and the Philippines — the last vestig»s of her Empire— in 1898, she a was left with an old and defeated army which, instead of decreasing continued to grow in true bureaucratic style...
...But the WFTU refused to take any action of a practical economic or trade union character against Franco...
...But Hitler and Mussolini, who fostered the rise of Franco, were swept away...
...How much traffic is there between Spain and the countries behind the iron curtain...
...RUSSIA'S REAL ATTITUDE toward Generalissimo Francisco Franco was thoroughly exposed in the closing days of the UN Assembly when Hector McNeil of Great Britain demonstrated the hypocrisy of Poland's proposal of an economic boycott against Franco by disclosing the close economic ties which exist between Fascist Spain and Communist Poland...
...When Poland raises the Spanish question before the United Nations, she does not do so in order to hasten the fall of Franco...
...ception of Spain and Portugal, are democratic in structure...
...its totalitarian character can only become more and more marked...
...And when It comes to a choice between Franco and the communists, they choose Franco as the temporary evil...
...Primary and secondary education are monopolized by the Church: the higher centers of learning and the universities are controlled by the Falange...
...By World War I there were more generals in the Spanish Army than in the German, and one officer to every thirteen soldiers...
...Spain's exclusion from the Atlantic Pact weakens the Pact, for it means that the key to the western Mediterranean is not in the hands of the democratic bloc—a situation obviously advantageous to Russia...
...with Hirohlio until 1945...
...Franco's chief hope is to play off the West against Russia and Argentina, and for this reason makes repeated efforts to wriggle into the Marshall Plan and the Atlantic Pact...
...and Argentina...
...In Spain, as in Russia, there is a supreme chief, a single party, thought control, a police state, rigorous control of the nation's economic life, a labor organization at the service of the party, a total absence of fundamental liberties, and systematic persecution of the democratic opposition...
...and since that time he has arrived at a working relationship with Peron...
...But this is just one example...
...DE RIVERA'S DICTATORSHIP collapsed in 1930...
...It holds out thanks to the indirect aid which it receives from the Kremlin, on the one hand, and to the weakness of the democratic opposition on the other...
...Communism is holding up . Franco as the rope holds up a hanged man...
...Voltaire, Rousseau, Darwin, Balzac, Flaubert, Hugo, Tolstoy, Zola, Anatole France Gorky, Hemingway, Sartre, and, of course any literature of a liberal or socialist character, are verboteri...
...All this seems, I know, to be the' production of fear-born fancy...
...Afterward, the Communist parties of France, Italy and Belgium held meetings — but again, no practical move was made against Spain...
...it entered the countries occupied by the Nazis...
...Eighty-six per cent of the Spanish people, according to General Kindelan, are against Franco...
...Meanwhile— Ledesma Ramos, a young intellectual, translated Hitler's National Socialist creed into Spanish National Syndicalism, hoping thus to attract anarchists and syndicalists, and to give Spanish fascism a foundation among the masses...
...History, geography and politics'are decidedly against Franco...
...Moscow has always preferred a fascist condition to a democratic one, for the former creates instability and facilitates communism's agitational and conspiratorial aims...
...Economic and military necessity do not exclude the possibility of a fulledged pact between Stalin and Franco any more than they prevented, in 1939, an alliance between Stalin and Hitler...
...Had the Axis won World War II, as Franco expected, the Falangist regime would have been consolidated and Spain would have been a satellite of the Third Reich...
...Spain under Franco cannot become a member of that bloc...
...The oft-repeated statement that external pressure only strengthens the Franco regime is not true...
...Both are totalitarian...
...In 1934 the Ramos and the de Rivera groups merged, but their effectiveness as an organization was not greatly increased thereby...
...Should there be another world war, probably the principal theatre of operations will be in Europe, and the Mediterraneon will be vitally important The key to the western Mediterranean is Spain...
...But Franco's non-Communist opponents have met with far different treatment...
...Spain is situated geographically in the western part of Europe...
...The proclamation of the Spanish Rei <£uWic coincided with the irresistible* Nazi upsurge in Germany, which culminated in Hitler's seizure of power in January 1933...
...Rather, it waits until the time when Franco's place may be taken by La Pasionaria or some other Soviet creation...
...His Blue Division fought against the Russians on the side of the Axis until shortly before the war's end...
...The majority of Spaniards oppose a government which has reduced them to hunger and deprived them of their liberties, without which life is nothing but moral slavery...
...The existence of Franco gives Moscow a weapon with which to discredit the democracies, especially the United States, Great Britain and France, which because of complicated circumstances are obliged to maintain a certain relationship with Franco...
...Yet the Franco regime holds out, like a tree that remains standing after its roots and branches have dried up...
...Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of the ex-dictator, decided after visiting Mussolini in 1933 to organize a fascist movement like Mussolini's, and the latter offered to finance the publication of a newspaper in Madrid...
...Communism would be an incurable disease...
...But when (i temporary situation is unduly prolonged, there is grave danger of putrefaction...
...A glance at the items listed below reveals the existence of a veritable network of associations between Madrid and Moscow, by no means necessarily via Warsaw...
...The possibility that the cold war might slacken and East and West arrive at a temporary - period of collaboration terrifies Franco...
...Only a few years ago Stalin, supposedly antiNazi, made a pact with Hitler...
...Teaching in all fields is of a totalitarian character...
...By 1917 the danger inherent in this military hypertrophy was beginning to tell, and the A/my, restless within the confines of its barracks, began to conspire against the civil power...
...The fact that the Soviet bloc publicly declares itself the irreconcilable foe of franco should deceive no one...
...Stalin had an understanding with Mussolini and Hitler until 1941...
...Each -|in* tenia comes to an agreement with Russia and reduces its Spain-bound shipments, Franco feels the squeeze...
...Franco made war on Russia...
...SPANISH FASCISM was predicated on the perpetuation of Nazi-Fascism in Germany and Italy...
...A totalitarian regime can march in only one direction...
...Logically, Falangism should have collapsed in 1945, when the Nazi and Fascist regimes were defeated...
...They point to the possibility of a pact between Stalin and Franco similar to that which formerly obtained between Stalin and Hitler...
...ITEM: Economic relations between Madrid and Moscow are carried on through two points of contact: Iraq, with which Spain renewed relations in 1947...
...It is no secret that Moscow has sounded out Madrid with a viaw to establishing a friendly policy...
...Calvo Sotelo, a former minister under the dictatorship and a man of intelligence and ambition, carried on a campaign of agitation both within the Spanish parliament and on the outside, seizing upon the weaknesses and mistakes of the Republic to discredit the democratic system and exalt the totalitarian regimes of Italy and Germany, Together with Generals **Sanjurjo, Mola and Goded—Franco occupied a secondary place at this time— he planned the military-fascist insurrection...
...Until a short time ago it maintained contacts with the communists, encouraging their belli gerance and bringing discredit upon itself as a consequence...
...Six years of mililary dictatorship followed, during which de Rivera strove to create a Spain in Mussolini's image...
...THE NAZI AMD FASCIST regimegg+have been destroyed, but a government created by them still standili in aouthwestern Europe...
...For if today the overwhelming majority of Spaniards arc against the communists, it is by no means certain that they will continue to be so...
...Jaume Miravitlles and I have called attention before to the unholy alliance of Stalin, Peron and Franco, and of the canny coup d'etats which have rapidly followed one another here in Latin America as a result of their understanding...
...The United States is a democratic country which abhors totalitarianism, whether red, as in Russia, or black, as in Spain...
...Students are regimented in the fascist style by the Spanish University Syndicate...
...The prospect that the communists, whose crimes during the Spanish civil war wore still fresh in everyone's mind, might replace Franco terrified Spain, and the Franco regime was thus strengthened...
...Franco, however, is aware of the tenuous position he occupies between P*SoA and Stalin...
...And Franco's friends in other lands have likewise disappeared—Mussolini, Ciano, Hitler, Laval and Tojo...
...Secondly, a democratic regime in Spain would naturally form partrof the Western bloc...
...Around Christmas, 1947, Franco's Ambassador to Rome, Sangroniz, conducted talks with the Russians at Zurich and the Spanish embassy in Rome...
...A year later the monarchy, which had identified Itself with the dictatorship, was also overthrown...
...When the Second World War ended and the Franco regime was tottering, the communists, in the summer of 1945, organized a "liberating army" which was to cross the Pyrenees from France into Spain...
...Franco's police offered them very little opposition...
...Mussolini's "March" on Rome in October 1922 greatly influenced Spain, and was a contributung factor in General Primo de Rivera's coup d'etat, September 13, 1923...
...Leaders of the non-Communist Confederacion Nacional- Trabajores and Union Generale Trabajores, have been imprisoned...
...but ninety-six per cent, if not more, are against the communists...
...Franco is a calamity, but a passing one...
...Exclusion of Franco Spain from • the Marshall Plan and the North Atlantic Pact has contributed enormously to the weakening of the regime, The increase of discontent within Spain is clearly shown by the fact that generals, aristocrats and businessmen who formerly sided with Franca aTe now openly declaring their opposition...
...when the Nazis occupied the Rhineland and the Fascists concluded the conquest of Ethiopia, Hitler and Mussolini, feeling themselves strong, began preparing to play their Spanish card, thus taking another step toward their hoped-for domination of all Europe...
...And if he had done so, it would not have been necessary to fire a single shot to insure the fall of Franco at the end of the war in Europe...
...They have also been responsible for the betrayal of many non-Communists...
...But look at the figures for Spanish foreign trade...
...The Kremlin was not blind to this fact...
...The writer is aware that these are serious charges to make, but he would not put them in writing were he not certain that proof of them exists (this proof is safe in the hands of underground groups) and that* such treachery is typical of the Communists...
...Argentina, under Peron, operates quite openly as a go-between...
...The U. S. S. R. may, through this interchange, receive more merchandise for Spain (which in turn, as we have seen, is able to acquire planes and other goods which enables it to perpetuate its strangle-hold upon the Spanish people...
...Large numbers of Republicans, anarchists, Catalonian socialists and liberal intellectuals have been arrested...
...The purpose of this was to prevent Spain from falling under the influence of the United States...
...But Franco, like any other totalitarian leader, will never be overthrown simply by a movement against him inside Spain, since the police state makes this impossible...
...General Kindelan, who was Franco's aviation chief during the civil war and later Air "Minister, has said repeatedly that twenty-four out of Spain's twenty-seven million people are against the Franco regime...
...Author of several books on Spanish social history, he is now visiting the United States and collecting material for a work on American democracy...
...It is said that Russia, holding possession of considerable quantities of Spanish gold, guaranteed Franco's credit with Argentina...
...IN THE SPRING OF 1936...
...In the event of a new world war, and the probable invasion of western Europe by Russia, the Red Army would enter Spain as a liberator, just as...
...said of the Peron-Franco accord: "This is a preliminary agreement which may serve in the future ai the basis of a wider understanding, the purpose of which will be to assure the neutrality of the Spanish countries in a conflict between the U. 8. 8. R. and the U. 8. A." In the year since the Franco-Peron pact, Franco has asked for — and received — a loan of $25 million from the Chase National Bank...
...On April 14, 1931, the Republic was proclaimed...
...Ten Years of Franco: WILL THERE BE A FRANCO-STALIN PACT...
...When fate decided in Stalin's favor, Stalin could have declared war on Franco Spain as he declared it on Japan...
...Without the communist danger...
...And the notorious Communist, Augustin Zoroa, was arrested and executed because he had fallen out of step with the Communist party line...
...But at that criticaf^moment Stalin granted Franco his life jor the simple reason that the fall of Franco would have meant the establishment in Spain of a democratic republic, and Stalin did ?tot want that...
...All three of the generals who once vied with Franco for leadership, Sanjurjo, Goded and Mola, met violent deaths...
...ITEM: A year after the closing of the French-Spanish border — an act engineered by the Communist-controlled French Confederation of Labor — Franco made a speech in Madrid in which he promised that Spain would remain neutral in case of war, and added: "It is not because Spain rejects the two opposing systems [Russian and American] that Spain feels obliged to declared itself hostile to those who endure those systems...
...ITEM: When Peron seized power, Admiral Moreno, Peron's Ambassador Extraordinary to Buenos Aires, held talks with the Russian commercial attache in the presence of Peron's secretary, the Spaniard Figuerola, which were said to have concerned the gold given to Russia at the end -of the Spanish Civil War by the then Spanish Premier Juan Negrin...
...It is this which has enabled him to remain in power...
...The overthrow of Franco must at the same time be used to defeat the communists...
...Those who hoped for an evolution of the Franco regime toward democratic forms were mistaken...
...Calvo Sotclo, Ledesma Ramos and Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, who introduced fascism into Spain, all perished in the storm they helped unleash...
...Although "the Franco Government it was . . . established with the active support, and only with the active support of Hitler and Mussolini" — to quote the exact words of American SeSecretary of State Dean Acheson — . the situation in Spain at the time was a i a decisive factor in Franco's success...
...but not democratic pressure...
...From then until 1923, it made the normal functioning of democratic government totally impossible...
...The communists, on their part, have helped give reality to this alternative...
...Iraq serves merely as an agent for the sale and purchase of commodities (for which it receives substantial commissions...
...The Falange regime, as impartial journalists and observers visiting Spain in recent years have testified, has made that country the most miserable in western Europe...
...A month later, in April 1947, Franco advised the West that he would adhere to it in a war only if Gibraltar were ceded to him — a condition he knew in advance would not be acceptable...
...In the ten years since the totalitarian regime came to power, not a single book or theatrical presentation worthy of note has appeared...
...LIQUIDATION OF FRANCO is thus a question of utmost importance for world democracy...
...This is what is happening in the case of Franco, who is keeping Spain divorced from the democracies and is turning the Iberian Peninsula into a potential breedingground of communism...
...FATE SEEMS to have protected Franco...
...Thus the people of Spain give passive support to the Franco regime, and thus is explained the survival of Falangism...
...Franco would long ago have disappeared from the scene...
...Franco, in his difficult situation, needs to keep harping on the same anti-communist string to- keep himself momentarily afloat...
...Communist pressure, yes...
...Thanks to a number of strange circumstances, Franco came to occupy the leading place among the rebel forces, and around him, the Caudillo, the Spanish fascist synthesis took shape as the Falange Espanola...
...ITEM: At Prague, June 1947, the Soviet-dominated World Federation of Trade Unions adopted resolutions against Franco plainly calculated to place socialists and laborites in a difficult situation...
...ITEM: In March 1948, Franco and Feron reached an agreement which involved Russia...
...On April 6, Evita Peron's newspaper, Democracia...
...The Franco regime is hated throughout the world, and when democracy compromises with Franco, it is bound to be discredited...
...To the extent that Spanish democracy organizes itself against Franco and against communism it will gain prestige within Spam and* respect ahroedr Franco's fall must not mean the return of the communists, but rather a full guarantee that the legal means at the disposal of a democratic regime will be used to keep them from imposing their will...
...The possibility of an agreement between Stalin and Franco must not be discounted...
...All of the western European nations, with the ex...
...It is true, and unfortunate, that Spanish democracy has not in the past known how to organize an effective democratic opposition to Franco...
...THE MORAL AFFINITY between Stalin and Franco is clearly evident...
...Fascism is a magnet which attracts communism...
Vol. 32 • July 1949 • No. 28
