ees

Italian cOmmunist leader
_ raps American intervention

ae the following inter-
Ra G took place before Alcide
withonteon formed his cabinet,
tinniet the Socialist and Com-
ie ped cia it sheds light on
Bove; ground of the Italian
: Tament crisis.
T= Italian government crisis
a oe and I didn’t have
ope of getting to see
7 ety Togliatti, general sec-
.S tary of the Communist party.
i eee enon papers were head-
ene crisis and I knew
ay had plenty to worry

a the youthful secretary
: fag his head finally, smiling
Fe Y eagerness, and led me in-
Togiatti’s office.
ae is a huge room, austere,
. nated by a long conference
ee Togiiatti sat at the near
ae He is surprisingly short
ugh broad-shouldered, | and
. ote ed hidden in the big
re, But when he began to
ea he filled that solemn
wi with his vivid personality.
oe at did I think of Italy, he
ae It was pretty wonderful,
ie paioes thinking of the people
~ their constant struggle
See fascism.
o € economic
avery,

situation is
H very difficult,’ he said.
ao explained how Italy had
oy ane in an unreal econ-
Se ng the last two years,
‘get ti s on Allied ‘supplies to
ong.
: too Now, he went on, “Italy
thet learn to stand on her own
den Must develop her own for-
We've le . . . its hard, but
ae pee, Fae it.”
that: SS common knowledge here
aa American pressure was be-
Alcide de Gasperi’s second
ae from the _ premier-
*) 48 it was behind the first
yy, SsPeri crisis in January.
blea eeuington has never trou-
its © deny the widespread con-
res that American economic:

By HELEN SIMON

the fact that a loan could best
-be guaranteed by a government
which includes’ the Communists
and therefore has popular con-

PALMIRO TOGLIATTI

fidence and a decisive program
or reconstruction.
“Can they do it?,, I asked
Togiliatti. :
“We might be even stronger
if we were outside the govern-

ment,” he smiled. “Then we
wouldn’t share the blame for all
the hardships in the country.”

The twinkle vanished from be-
hind his heavy glasses.

“It Would be entirely undemo-
cratic to remove us,” he said.
“On June 2 the Communists won
third place in the Constituent
Assembly. Since the Socialist
party split we are second only
to the Christian Democrats.

“On Nov. 10 the big cities voted
Communist—Turin, Genoa, Ven-
ice, Florence, Bologna. . In
some regions we are strongest
among the peasants. Sixty-one
percent of the 6,000,000 trade*
unionists voted for the Com-
munist slates and programs and
23 percent for the Socialists. Our
party has the most outstanding
intellectuals—the best writers

PREsipenT TRUMAN'S ad>
pane on June 11 to a joint

ana US Of the Canadian Senate
tha: « Ouse of Commons confirms
Wlan, fars held by many Cana-
“ing aati Canada has become
ciday cably entangled in the sui-
adventures of American

renee

™periatism, ;
;
dent © count Canada,” said Presi_
ee. Truman at Ottawa, “in the

pew of those who share
That eblectines and ideals . . .”
Stic s clear enough. “WE”—big
Yankee imperialism, count
Recon in with us in what has
“2€ universally known as the
ea doctrine’—a doctrine of
the on and interference in
States fairs of other nations and
a - A doctrine which says

Buy © peoples of: Yugoslavia,
ae Romania, Hungary,
You, oslovakia — we don’t like

hang vermment, if you don’t
a it we'll do our damndest
You a, : you into submission. If
atom n't change it—we have an
chan bomb Which may help you
Trin your minds. That is the

Bee an doctrine’ to which Can-

is committed.

aD,
‘a ° the peoples of China the
|e’ is a planned continua- ‘

| “We unk Canada in ...

aic 4
7 a to Italy depends on ouster and painters.”
ap 4 he Communists from the gov- “But the French Communists
"i , pnt. * have great strength too,” I ven-
i hat's the demand—despite ~ tured.
E

|

tion of civil war—American aid
to Chiang Kai-shek to perpetu-
ate militarist-fascist feudalism
upon a people struggling for a
democratic mode of liffe.

To the peoples of Japan and
the U.S.-occupied areas of Ger-
many the Truman doctrine, en-
forced by occupational troops
represents a special form of ‘de-

- nazification,’ which discards the

husk but retains the kernel of
Hitlerism.

In Greece and Turkey the Tru-
man doctrine to “combat com-
munism” is being interpreted in
mass hunger, degradation and
death. Not a child in these

- countries receives an additional

crust of bread by virtue of the
doctrine but every child is men-
aced by an additional rifle—by
an additional terror.

Above all the doctrine is aimed
against the first land of Social-
ism—the great ally in the pa-
triotic war against Hitlerism—
the Soviet Union. It is the doc-
trine of American reaction on
the _ warpath, provocative, arro-
gant, brutal.

_ And, according to President

Truman’s address, Canada is in
“the forefront of those who
share these objectives and
ideals.”

“We are better placed than the.
French because of our alliances,”
he replied. “The Socialists, even
those of Giuseppe Saragat’s
splitoff, would refuse to take
part in a cabinet without us.
So would the smaller left-wing
parties, And the Christian Demo-
crats are allied with us in the

General Federation of Labor.”

Not a few Communists I spoke
to here had credited Togliatti’s
brilliant leadership for this re-
markable ability of the Italian
Communist Party to make and
maintain alliances. But Togliatti
was quick to ward off any un-
spoken thought.

“Alliances emerged not be-
cause of any great intelligence,”
he insisted. “They grew because
we have almost two and one
half million Communists—inclu-
ding 500,000 women—and each
member has friends in other par-
ties, people who know and re-
spect him or her for leadership
in the fight against fascism, and
for a better life.”

Some American businessmen,
military and diplomatic officials,
Togliatti told me, make the “ab-
surd mistake” of trying to trans-
plant American-style anti-Com-
munism into Italy.

“They say, ‘In America we
kick Communists out of civil
service and you should too,” he
mimicked. “They don’t seem to
understand that perhaps they
can get away with it in America
because your Communist party,
unfortunately, is still small, but
that here there aren’t enough
machine guns to enforce anti-
Communist laws.

“Besides, the Italians know the
Communists saved the state, so
how can they be banned from
state employment—and from the
very many municipal and nation-
al posts to which they have been
elected?”

“But suppose the American
imperialists try to do so in Italy
what was done to Greece?” I
asked.
billions of’ dollars and military
equipment on a huge scale?”

“Italy is not Greece,” Togliatti
declared. “There are only 6,000-
000 Greeks, remember, but there
are 45,000,000 Italians and this

“Suppose they pour in.

AUN.

Short Jabs

aL) ol z Bill

°
ISTORY unfolds before our eyes. Events which, with the driving
forces and motives behind them, constitute history are hapenning

_every day. To know what the events mean, we only need to have

is a highly industrialized coun-—

try. é
“Fascism could crush us yes,
but it would turn against your
country. It would again be the
story of Mussolini and Hitler.
Can such things happen twice?”

ae

No similarity

Members of housewives’
associations in Canada
should not be confused by

_ the publicity given to the
National Housewives’ Lea-
gue of Great Britain, which
is being condemned by
members of the Labor cab-
inet. The League is a tory-
organized and inspired out-
fit, gotten together by well-
to-do women as part of
Mr, Churchill’s campaign
to defeat the labor gov-
ernment. It has nothing
in common with genuine
associations of Canadian
housewives such as those
which are sponsoring the
visit ‘to the cabinet this
month.

The composition of the
British outfit explains why
many good British house-
wives got a bit irate at
the  Churchillian-inspired

_ ‘demonstrators’.

some understanding of the driving forces and the motives. We will
then know without any coaching, why
President Truman is dumb as an ox about
the jury-freeing of 28 murderers of a poor
negro but roars in wrath like a wounded jackal, about “outrage”
when the Hungarian people decided they did not want to be
“assisted” like the Turks, and made a change in their government.

The Hungarian people, by the way, have good reason to know
what American “assistance means, since it was the Americans who
placed them under the heel of the first, and most lengthy in
time, of all the fascist regimes—that of Horthy. :

But it is an event nearer ‘home I wish to deal with and the
motives underlying it. At Banff last week, took place, the annual
conspiracy of the Canadian Manufacturers’ Association, described:
in the “truth-loving” press as a convention, but in reality, a
gathering of brigands and high-jackers conspiring in the concoc-
tion of schemes to rob the Canadian people in the mass.

Lacking the courage of bank-robbers who use rods and sawed-
off shotguns, the CMA conspirators use other weapons, weapons
bearing the stamp of legality, like Bill 39 which is designed to
destroy the trade union movement and enhance the profits of the
plunderbund that calls itself the CMA.

At the annual conspiracy last week at Banff, the ghost of
Blaylock stole the show, according to press wires reaching us.
Blaylock’s ghost spoke through the tongue of R. W. Diamond, his
successor at the Trail smelter. The voice was the voice of
Diamond but the words were the words of Blaylock. :

To drop the metaphor, the policy of the Consolidated and of the
CMA is a consistent one. No matter whose the voice, the plunder-
ing of the workers is the objective.

And how did the ghost of Blaylock, through the histrionics
of Diamond aid in the annual conspiracy of the CMA. Here is
part of his reported contribution. He “urged the CMA delegates
to assume their individual responsibilities, to cure social problems
by devoting more time to human relations in industries and by
accepting public office. We must realize,” he said, “that the present
unstable situation presents a virgin field of opportunity for those
individuals and groups with uterior motives who He in wait in
our society for the opportunity of striking in a foul way, of tear-
ing things down, of taking away from all of us those things that
are good. .~ .  pelakirsege

“They are making the most. of their opportunities. ‘They will
provide their brand of leadership. They know the score. They are
clever, but they are ruthless, unprincipled and immoral. They
gain a following because, so often, theirs is the only form of
leadership offered. Unless their activities are eurbed, unless they
are weeded out from our society they will ruin our country and
our people will become slaves. Already there are ugly sores on
“our social body, sores that can become cancerous.” ,

CMA conspiracy

S° the ectoplasm of Blaylock voices in the dulcet, earthly tones
of Diamond, the hopes, the longings and the intentions of the
CPR and the other boodiers of the CMA. But Mr. Diamond, we
ask you, is that a nice thing to say about the smelter workers of

Sed os _ Trail, the plant workers of Warfield,
23 million dollars

the miners of Kimberley, of B.C. Silver,

of Yellowknife; the longshoremen of
New Westminster, who in 1946, so generously donated to your
struggling Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. the magificent
contribution of $23,323,168.44 net profit, the equivalent of $7.12
per share; 23 million dollars on a 16 million dollar investment;
seven million dollars more than the total capital of the company;
$7.12 for every $5.00 share. /

That certainly must be what you mean by “the things that are
good” that you are afraid somebody is going to take away from
you, You are afraid, too, that “our people will become slaves.”
Just what do you call the men who toil and slave to provide the
CMA buzzards with the kind of wealth referred to above, while
themselves live on the verge of want—insecurity for themselves
and their families. Maybe it would not be a bad idea for “our
CMA people” to take a turn at being slaves.

You think the union leadership is “ruthless, unprincipled and
immoral.” Just what adjectives do you have in your vocabulary
for the people who take this money from the miners and smelter
workers by holding the club of possible starvation over their heads
instead of using a_gun like any other stick-up man?

And Diamond thinks the union leadeship gain that place in
the confidence of the workers, “often because there is no other
form” available. Well, Blaylock made a good try with’ his classical
example of a company union, stooge union—the Workmen’s Com-
mittee—an opiate, a soporific, meant to keep the miners and
smeltermen like cattle that have been pole-axed'.so the butcher
can do his job on them. That really was “striking in a foul way.’
_ he differences between what Blaylock offered the Consolidated
workers and what they have accomplished through their own union
should open the eyes of even the most stolid. They have reduced
hazards of the occupations involved, they have increased their
wage scales and cut down their hours of work; they have made
life more worth living. All this achieved through their union
and through their union alone’ k

While denying all rights to organize to their employees where
they are not forced to do otherwise, the “honorable and god-fear-
ing” gang of cut-purses who constitute the CMA are an object .
lesson to every worker who suffers from capitalist. exploitation
by the fact that their conventions are a proof of the fact that
they realize the benefits of organization. And their organization
does not function only at annual conspiracies but is in session —
365 days a year. ae

And Mr. Diamond, a word: in your ear. Since you admit there
are “ugly sores on our social body,” we can agree with you and
ask you, “Who put them there?” We can answer that too. It was
those who run the country, both ends of it—the CMA and their
hirelings. : : :

The CMA spirit was well expressed by one of their kidney—
Isaac Taylor, partner of a chain of general stores in the Yukon.
In an interview in Vancouver, he said, “Where people are mining,
we don’t mine. And where they are digging for gold, we don’t dig.
We sell them shovels.” | ;

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5