ge WELVE years ago on
_ December 16, George

Dimitrov, great Bulgar-
ian Communist, made ~his
final speech before the Nazi
court at Leipzig which tried
to convict kim of complicity
in burning the Reichstag.
He turned the tables com-
pletely on Hermann Goer-
ing and his other fascist ac-
cusers. It was Nazism that

stood exposed before’ the

es with Nazism defeat-
ed in world battle and with Go-
ering in the prisoners’ dock at
Nuremburg, it is fitting to re:
print excerpts of Dimitrov’s
memorable speech:
S ,
I AM defending myself as an
accused Communist. I am de-
fending my own Communist
revolutionary honor. I am de-
fending my ideas, my Commun-
ist convictions. I am defending
the meaning and content of my
life.

Therefore, every word pro-
nounced by me before. the court
is, so to speak, flesh of my
flesh and blood of my blood.
Every word is an expression of

. my most profound indignation
against an unfair charge,
‘again the fact that this anti-
Communist crime is ascribed to
Communists

@
I MUST decidedly take excep-
tion to the statement that
I have pursued the aim of prop-
aganda. It may be argued that
my defense before the court
has had a certain propagand-
ist effect. I admit that my
conduct in court may also serve
as an example for accused
Communists. But this was not
the aim of my defense. My aim
was to refute the charge that
Dimitrov, Torgler, Popoff and
Taneff, the Communist Party
of Germany and the Commun-
ist International had any rela-

tion to the fire.

I know that nobody in Bul-
garia believes in our alleged
complicity in the burning of the
Reichstag. I know that, gen-
erally speaking, hardly any one
believes this abroad. But in
Germany the conditions are
different: here, such a strange
allegation may be believed. I
therefore wanted to prove that
the Communist Party did not
and does not have anything in
common with participation in
such a crime.

If we are to speak of prop-
aganda, then many speeches
here bore a propagandist char-
acter. The speeches of Goeb-
bels and Goering also had an
indirect propagandist effect in
favor of Communism, but no
one can make them responsible
for the fact that their speeches
had such a propagandist effect.

Not only has the press vili-
fied me in évery way—this is
a matter of indifference to me
—hbut in connection with me it
has also called the Bulgarian
people “savage” and “barbar-
ous;” I have been called “an
uncivilized Balkan type,” “a
savage Bulgarian,” and I can-
not pass over this in silence.

It is true that Bulgarian fas-
cism is savage and barbarous.
But the Bulgarian working
class and peasantry, the intell-
igentsia of: the Bulgarian peo-
ple are by no means savages
or barbarians. The only sav-
ages and barbarians in Bulgaria
are the fascists. But I ask you,
Mr. Chairman—in what coun-

| Dimitrov’s Speech At The

Leipzig Trials

George Dimitrov turned accusez, metand bested the Nazis in a Leipzig

court. And the Reichstag Fire frame-up failed. Said Dimitrov: ”
work, mass struggle, mass resistance, the united front, no
acts. Such is the alpha and omega: of Communist tactics ...

try are the fascists not bar-
barian and savages?

I have no reason to be
ashamed of being a Bulgarian.
I am proud of the fact that 1
am a son of the Bulgarian
working class ..

Se

T has been alleged here that

the burning of the Reichstag
was to have served as the sig-
nal for an armed uprising. At-
tempts were made to provide .a
basis for this in the following
manner:

Goering said here in court
that at the moment when Hit-
ler. came to power, the Com-
a lone communist P A TWO..
munist Party of Germany was
compelled to inflame the feel-
ings of its masses and to ven-
ture on some act or other. He
said: “Fhe Communists were
compelled to do something —
now or never!” He said that the
Communist Party had already,
for years on end, been issuing
the appeal to struggle against
National-Socialism and that at
the moment when the National-
Socialists seized power, there
was no other way out left for
the Communist Party of Ger-
many than to act — now or
never. The prosecutor of the
Supreme Court has tried to
formulate this proposition more
exactly and even more clever-
ly.”

The argument here produced,
ascribed as it is to the Com-
munist Party, is not a Com-
munist argument ... The sup-
pressions of the party, the
breaking up of the mass organ-
izations, the loss of legality —
all these things of course were
severe blows to the revolution-
ary movement. But this does
not by any means signify tha
all is lost... -

The leading minds of the
German Communist Party
eould not reason thus — that
now everything is lost, that
it is either one way or the
other, either an uprising or
ruin. Such foolish thougtts
could not be entertained by
the leaders of the Commun-
ist Party. The German Com-
munist Party was perfectly
well. aware that illegal work
would cost numerous victims
and demand self-sacrifice and
daring, but it knew also that
its revolutionary. force would
strengthen and that it would
prove able to carry’ out the
tasks confronting it. It is there-
fore altogether out of the ques-
tion that the German Com-
munist Party at that time
should have wanted to stake
all on one card. The Commun-
ists are fortunately not so
shortsighted as their opponents,
and they do not lose their
heads even in the most diffi-
cult situation ... Such a party
does not play at uprisings and
revolutions. Such a party can-
not officially say one thing to
the millions of its followers and
at the same time secretly do
the opposite. Such a party, my
dearest Doctor Sack, does not
know double bookkeeping!

Such a party, when it speaks
to the millioh-stronge masses of

PACIFIC ADVOCATE — PAGE 10

_an_ all-inclusive

the proletariat, when it adopts
its decisions on tactics and on
the immediate. tasks, does so
seriously, with a full sense of
its responsibility . . Mass
work, mass struggle, mass re-
sistance, the united front, no
adventurist acts. Such is the
alhpha and omega of Commun-
ist tactics ...
e

ie has been proved that the

burning of the Reichstag was
the pretext, the prelude to a
widely conceived, annihilating
campaign against the working
elass and its vanguard, the
Communist Party of Germany.
It has been irrefutably proved
that responsible representatives
of the Government had no idea
that a Communist uprising was
coming on February 27-28 ...

In this connection another
proof is provided by the emer-
gency decree of the German

- . . mass
edventurist

es

Government of February 28,
1933. It was issued immediate-
ly after the fire.

I must say that on the basis
of this emergency decree not
only Communists but also So-
cial-Democratic and Christian
workers have been arrested and
their organizations suppressed.
I would like to emphasize that
this emergency decree was di-
rected not only against the
Communist Party of Germany
—though; of course, against it
first and foremost — but also
against other oppositionist par-
ties and groups. This law was
necessary in order to introduce
an extraordinary situation and
it is directly, organically con-
nected with the burning of the
Reichstag...

.

At the end of February thé

political situation was such
that a struggle was going on

- Thyssen and Krupp

. establish in the count;

al Front ... A st a
going on between the

industry), who for man
on end had financed th
al-Socialist movem
their competitors who
be pushed into the backs :

Thyssen and Krupp Way

principle of autocratic x
absolute domination unde
virtual leadership, couple
a considerable cutting q
the living standard of the:
ing class, and for this 7:
it was necessary to ¢
revolutionary proletarig
Communist Party in thi
was striving to form ;
ed front in order to ay
forees for defense a:
attempts made by the}
a lone Communist —
Socialists to destroy #
movement. ... But inf}
and March the task of
ing the united front di¢
any means signify an y
or preparations for it; q-
fied only the mobilization —
working class against §-

(Continued on Page! :
See DIMITROV —

‘World Government’ Or Unity Of

Big Three
D

URING the early period of the war, when Hitler was already master of j
part of Europe, and Great Britain was under terrific fire, a movement dey
headed by an American journalist, Mr. Streit, called “Union Now.’’ Much pi

was given it in the press and in Canada, quite a number of people supported it

Streit proposed that the English-speaking countries band together. Quite magnan |

ly he also suggested the inclusion of Belgium, Holland and other countries. They
have one government, afriff, currency and so on.

|

Eliminating all its embellish-
ments, it was a frank appeal
for U.S. imperialism to actively
intervene and become the centre
of a bloc, composed of the
English-speaking nations, their
and other Empires, in face of the
threat of German fascist im-

_ perialism. In essence it was an

appeal for U.S. imperialism to
take over. But at the same time
it was aimed at continuing the
isolation of the USSR from
world affairs; implicit in all its
statements was the continued
reiteration that the Soviet Union
was not to be included in “Union
Now.” -

However the plans of mice and
men “gae aft agley.” German
and Japanese imperialism had
their own plans of world dom-
ination. The USSR was attacked
by German fascism, followed a
few months later by Pearl Har-
bor. In place of “Union Now.”
coalition ‘was
formed, the coalition which fin-
ally smashed both German and
Japanese imperialism and their
aims of world domination. And
today, when the world is faced
with the grave and complicated
problem of winning the peace,
which can only be assured on
the basis of continued unity and
unanimity amongst the Big Three
that won the war, voice are rais-
ed, this time with new words to
an old refrain World Government.

But instead of the forgotten
Mr. Sreit and his “Union Now,’
it is Mr. Bevin, British foreign
minister, followed closely by An-
thony Eden, who are singing the
tune. Mr. Bevin stated recently:

“Delegates to the United Na-

tions Organizations will fail to

‘complete their duty’ unless they
devote themselves to the further
task of creating the right of the
peoples of the world to elect their
own representatives and send
them to a World Parliament.”
When asked, “How will you ar-

range such a World Parlia-
ment?” Mr. Bevm blithely re-
marked: ‘These difficulties are
trumpery compared with the
great possibilities that lie
ahead.”

Mr. Bevin is quite prepared to
have “the peoples of the world
elect their own representatives
to a World Parliament. But he is
not so ready to accord some of
them the right to elect or estab-
lish their own governments and
achieve their independence. After
all, that is what the Hindu, In-
donesian and Indo-Chinese people
want, to mention but a few. Even
in Greece, Mr.- Bevin § suffers
from reticence on the subject,
not to speak of the other Balkan
countries.

Clearly then, Mr. Bevin has
something else in mind. The in-
nocent Mr. Bevin is not so. in-
nocent as he would like to ap-
pear and is obviously endeavor-
ing to sell the public a “bill of
goods.” That is why it is well to
inquire as to his motive.

It should be borne in mind that
when Mr. Streit put forward
“Union Now” it was an effort
to sugar coat the aim of U.S.
imperialism to take over the
imperialist sector of the world,
threatened by German fascist
imperialism. Today, when Mr.
Bevin advocates World Govern-
ment, it is an attempt on his
part to find a basis for man-

|

a

oeuvring and for establi
bloc on the part of Bri |
perialism, in face of th |
of U.S. imperialism on 9°
and the USSR on the o' {|

' World Government | |
much nicer to the ear }
discredited Western
United States of Eur -
might win greater
amongst the gullible. . |
Bevin was not altogethe {
for in Toronto only a i4
ago a new society was -
entitled “World Govern? |
sociation.” Its objecti4
stated to be the “creat’4
democratic government 4
international level to
that peace may be e§:
and war and the cause |
prevented.’ =

While advocating We =
ernment, Mr. Bevin cc:
ly forgets and hides the -
countries throughout ¢ -
are at diferent stage:
velopment. On one hant
the capitalist world. On|
there is the socialis |
Within the capitalist wi -
is the strongest imperi:
er in the world, the U |
onial countries still in ‘|
subjection, British in~
weakened by the war,
imperialism which has _
through two wars to 2:
ant position in world —

Therefore, in the r¢
and not the phantasy ~
the minds of some p!/

(Continued on Pag
See BIG 3 UN,

FRIDAY, DECEMBE