SOCIALISTS AND THE DEFENSE OF THE WEST
Braunthal, Julius
Socialists and tie Defense of the West In HUSSIA ITtfJUr between the wars, Soeiahsrt* were Benin's a so Stalin's greatest enemies; long before the -Great Purges, there were trials of Socialist...
...The Socialists now stand for arms against Russia...
...THE NEED FOR THE PACT arose from the military weakness of Western Europe—-a serious threat to peace...
...Without the consent of the Socialist parties of Western Europe, the Atlantic Pact would not have been signed, nor would it have been ratified by the various parliaments...
...The history of the European left between the two world ware was characterised by sincere efforts by the So-* cial Democrats to bridge the gap between Socialists and Communists, and to unite the Second and the Third Internationals in a new, world-wide Socialists workers' international...
...regime was not endangered from within, for the majority of the people approved of it...
...More* over, the fate of the reborn Czechoslovak republic was tied indissoluble to that of Russia...
...It was founded on the democratic basis of universal suffrage and general elections, a mulflpl£perfy system, the principle of majority rule, the right to recall delegates and to elect new ones — rights which the French workers lacked...
...and "the first to shatter the barriers of wealth and prejudice to the abstaining of higher education...
...the country lacked a powerful democratic tradition, and a strong middle class did not exist...
...modern industry and capitalism just developing...
...The inevitable outcome of this development is the Atlantic Pact...
...When the British Labor Government failed in its continued endeavor to reach an understanding with Russia, it reluctantly accepted the idea of securing peace by force of arms...
...They had never existed for the peasants of Russia, Rumania or Hungary...
...The Atlantic Pact resulted from this failure...
...They used the weapons of intellectual debate as long as it was possible to use them...
...the large rural estates had been divided among land-poor peasants, all economic life had come under state planning...
...By JULIUS BRAUNTHAL THE ATLANTIC PACT was a turning point not only in the political history of the Western world, but also in the history of international Socialist thought...
...Only after the equilibrium of military strength is restored can there be a basis for an understanding with Russia...
...The latter aims at subjugating the peoples of Europe to the dictatorial power of one nation...
...the first to substitute a planned •economy for economic anarchy...
...This intention was animated in part by political motives—because the split paralyzed the force of the working class throughout the world...
...Czechoslovakia achieved her social revolution by democratic methods...
...The Czechoslovak Republic, however, remained a sovereign state...
...Soviet Russia it reserved the freedom to decide its future on the basis of its own judgment...
...The resolutions of all international Socialist conventions declared the intention of all Socialists to resist the military intervention of capitalist countries against Soviet Russia...
...For the Russian experience indicates that this "dictatorship ft the proletariat" must develdp into a "htorarehicet investiture...
...From the start, the venerable thinker of German Marxism, Karl Kautsky, held that the conquest by force of an agrarian country to create a proletarian government, could only lead to more force to retain that power...
...His story of how their slow change in attitude came about should be of more than academic interest to every one interested in the struggle against communism...
...it regarded itself, erroneously, as Russia's peer and partner...
...These states had been dominated by Fascist or crypto-Fascist governments before the war...
...Some thought, for these reasons, that only a dictatorial regime could successfully maintain the revolution while others felt that in a period of revolution and civil war the only choice was between a terroristic communist dictatorship and a terroristic counter-revolutionary dictatorship...
...In the other countries, governments were actually appointed by Moscow...
...it was not the Communist revolution which made them lose these rights...
...However, by consenting to the pact the Socialist parties of Western Europe have shown that, if and when war cam*t, they will no longer proclaim their solidarity, as they ones did, with Russia, but will fight againsf her as an ally of the VJ5Before the Czech putsch, many Socialists, particularly in England, had resigned themselves to the establishment of communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe...
...The three Baltic countries were directly incorporated into the Soviet Union...
...efforts were made at the start for a unified International...
...And nothing could be more alien to Marx's spirit than a social order which does not tolerate intellectual freedom, and which ignores the working people's democratic righto If the Communist claim that man-, kind can arrive at Socialism only by paestng through * Soviet-type "dictatorship of-the proletariat" w4r« eenrect, Marx's whole structure of thought would collapse...
...When Czechoslovakia, for example, was invited to join the Marshall Plan, her government decided —with the agreement of the Communists in the coalition —to accept...
...Their policies—• foreign, military, domestic, economic and educational—are decreed by the Russian government...
...The Social Democrats have opposed the Communist system from the beginning of the Bolshevik revolution—but they fought it with intellectual weapons...
...Socialists, Communists and Czech National Socialists—sincere democratically-minded intellectuals and middle classes — formed the coalition Following the rural property reform it gained a following among the farmers...
...finally, the Russian working class, numbering relatively few was, in thought and behavior, still part of the sural community from which it came...
...Some Social Democrats regarded communism merely as a particular method to realize the socialist idea—a method forced on the Russian working class by the distinctive historical, economic and social conditions of the country...
...To iheae, needless to say, The New Leader has been preaching—with some defsee of success—-for twenty-five years...
...Intellectual freedom, political liberty and personal security under the law are the heritage of Western Europe...
...As late as the winter of 1938, the British Socialists protested against plans of the then Conservative British government to assist Finland militarily in her defense against Russia, although they considered Russia's move an act of aggression...
...Between those wno held these views and those Socialist parties which followed Kautsky's analysis, (e.g., the majority wing of the German Social Democrats and the Socialist parties of Sweden...
...Czechoslovakia today is, Ilk* the Soviet Ukraine, a Russian province...
...This image of the Socialist revolution differs essentially from the Communist image of a European revolution...
...R TRWa regime were to be overthrown by a Stalinist uprising, nothing would basically change...
...The Stalinist regime today still hides behind the fascinating catch-word of the "dictatorship of the proletariat," and it conjures the spirit of Karl Marx who first formulated this phrase...
...This is a sig nificant historical fact...
...But Moscow rejected the Marshall Plan and forced Prague to repudiate its own decision...
...They rejftfded Sovi* Russia as the first country to succeed in substituting common ownership for the private ownership of the means of production...
...Julius Braunthal, newly named executive secretary of Comisco (the democratic socialist international), was long a follower of Otto Bauer, one of the most renowned "militants...
...Yugoslavia is threatened even with invasion and war...
...To the workers and peasants of Czechoslovakia, Germany and Switzerland, however, as well as to the workers of the European West, these are tangible experiences and are intrinsic to the Socialist ideal...
...TRUE, there was no unanimity among the Social Democrats regarding these expectations...
...In full freedom—freedom of the press, of assembly and of political organizations —the people of Czechoslovakia, voted into power after World War II a coalition of parties advocating social revolution...
...Czechoslovakia did not endanger Russian securioThere had never existed^* feeling of hostility against R»**sia among the Czechs...
...since it so gravely misunderstood the Stalinist theory of the sovereignty of Communist states, since it refused to integrate Yugoslavia into the Russian empire.Nts is now treated by Russia and her safeiJUes as a "Fascist" enemy power...
...SeWOPEA* sttCkttLlSTS have always wished for a Europe united in a federation of free and equal Socialist states, led by the nations with the most highly developed civilization and economy...
...True, sueh great MmitU ee Karl Kautsky, Eduard Bernstein and Rosa Luveawtorg wen* jonoog the first foes of the Bolshevik terror...
...The Communist putsch followed...
...Jt seemed understandable that the So^et Union would want to bring these border states within its sphere of influence...
...But outside the Soviet Union, it took many Socialists, a long Una Xtt jearjQ the tragic lesson of the Soviet state...
...They will use the weapon of force if add when they are menaced by armed aggression...
...What Czechoslovakia's fate would, have been if she had sought to defend her independence can be seen from the experience of Yugoslavia, m her peiitteat organization, her eeeaernic structure and her ideology, Yugoslavia is entirety a eemmimist stale...
...The social structure was agrarian and only recently feudal...
...Poland, Hungary, Finland and the Baltic States) however, there were few differences of opinion about Russia's historical achievement...
...In the last analysis, that division turned the German revolution into a failure, and as many Socialists foresaw—a long time before Hitler's rise to power—produced the ultimate triumph of Fascism...
...on the.contrary, Czech nation alists have looked at Russia with ' brotherly fondness since the Prague f Pan-SUivic Convention of 1848...
...They were not bent upon the division of the Socialist movement into two enemy camps...
...this coalition actually carried out its program...
...While the alliance with capitalist America might possibly slacken Europe's progress on the road to Socialism, it is at least no threat to their independence...
...Such a weakness, like a partial vacuum, would tempt the Russians to move, or allow their internal force to rise...
...He thought Russia would be forced by the pressure of the masses to move toward some forms of democratic self-government as soon as the need for dictatorship the defensive weapon against foreign menace, and the tool of economic reconstruction—diminished...
...Notwithstanding its close friendship with...
...long before the -Great Purges, there were trials of Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks...
...But there JSJSM jjhjr Jlflrinliitii who until recently could go no further than lijiiejfcnj Use evils of "Western imperialism" and "Soviet socialism...
...and higher education had been made accessible to the children of workers and peasants...
...Czechoslovakia was already a Socialist republic before the Communist putsch of February 1948: banking, mining, steel production and all industrial units employing more than 200 workers had become state property...
...But Marx himself explained his meaning, without leaving room for misinterpretations...
...While they held those views, many Socialists hoped that when Russia would cease to feel threatened from abroad, she would develop along democratic lines...
...Lenin, and the Communist International which he founded, promoted that split...
...Following World War I Social Democrats did not want a split rn the Socialist ranks...
...The attitude of 'the Socialist International toward the threat of war against the Soviet Union followed logically from these beliefs...
...But Moscow was not satisfied witl, friendly governments around it...
...Like the democrats of the eighteenth century who-declared their solidarity with revolutionary France, despite the Jacobin terror, the Social Democrats of all countries declared their solidarity with revolutionary Russia, despite the Red terror...
...The "dictatorship of the proletariat," which he posed against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, was for him exemplified by the Paris Commune of the year 1871...
...they use the weapon of Socialist achievements, as Jong as freedom of Socialist activity is not in danger...
...Against her an economic blockade is being maintained...
...On the other hand, Otto Bauer, the theoretician of Austrian Socialism, despite his critical attitude toward the Bolshevik dictatorship, was more sanguine...
...This misunderstanding was soon corrected...
...Nothing could be more alien to the spirit of the Commune than the substitution of universal suffrage by a hierarchical investiture," Marx wrote in his Civil War in France...
...most EXPERIENCE* convinced the great majority of Western European Socialists that an alliance with capitalist America was a lesser evil than Europe's submission to Russia...
...But the Yugoslav government mistakenly considered itself the government of a sovereign state rather than an agency or satrapy of Moscow...
...This Socialis...
...Perhaps a stalemate between Russia, the respecter of power, and Western Europe, will be pdssible when the West overcomes its military weakness The Socialists of Western Europe have no other choice but to resist Russian expansion...
...In addition, the Socialists wished for a new unity on ideological grounds...
...It had to turn the sovereign states of Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, even faraway Albania, into satellite states, colonies, or provinces...
...Since the Yugoslav government resisted Moscow — which it was bound by duty to obey...
...But the march of events, more than any other factor, has snapped the "left-wine" and "militant" socialists out of their pro-Soviet doldrums...
...The Atlantic Pact vote by the Social Democratic parties of Western Europe finally repudiates this old stand...
...CZECHOSLOVAKIA* unlike Hungary, Rumania, or even Poland, is not a "backward country," but a highly developed industrial nation with an old, splendid civilization and deeply-rooted democratic traditions...
...Following the expulsion of three million Germans from its borders in 1945, Czechoslovakia could only feel secure from a new German danger as an ally of Russia...
...and the peasantry—more than a hundred million strong—lived in the repressive atmosphere of illiteracy and primitive poverty...
Vol. 33 • March 1950 • No. 9
