“The s story is repeated in our ence-flowering automobile industry. Ford is entrenched in Cologne and Ant- Werp and has ousted French competition.” France under the Marshall Plan By JACQUES DUCLOS ees HE Marshall-Plan was meant not as an instrument te aid the recovery of Europe, but for the economic domination of Europe. It is a strategic plan for the establishment of American overlordship. As far as France is concerne i all Plan interim aid for France amounts to $1.1 billion for a year. this is a little more than 200 bil- lion francs, The French military budget contains expenditures in the amount of 400 billion francs. Add to this the deficit of 100 billion francs. This deficit could fasily be eliminated by a mutu- ally advantageous trade with the Oviet Union and the Eastern de- Mocracies—all economies comple- Mentary with that of France, in- Stead of being competitive, as is the case between France and the United states. The Marshall Plan rces us to deflect our foreign trade from these natural chan- Nels and is thus directly respon- Sible for our unfavorable balance of trade of 100 billion francs an- Nually, F Thus, what do we have? On the he side of the ledger we have the “sift” of some 200 billion francs, Which oh the other side brings Us into the red to the tune of 300 ilion franos. ¢ And this is only the financial Side of this unhappy affair. We Must add the incommensurate 8nd immeasureable moral loss Suffered by France, In the mind °f Truman and Marshall this is ®n unknown quantity or zero; in © mind of all Frenchmen it is Priceless and invaluable. . Tam talking about the loss — €mporary ,to be sure—of the ec0o- Romie independence of France. he equivalent of Marshall Plan ™ports must be deposited in Francs at the Bank of France. his sum is at the disposal of ‘triman and Hoffman, adminis- 'rators of the plan, Its ultilization “Pends on what they decide. he purse strings are in foreign ‘ds, , i Aid can be discontinued at the discretion of Harriman and, Hoff- me; the wren future. 381 © same gentlemen decide at Own will with which coun- We can or cannot trade. their tries i) ihe Marshall Plan aims at the Olesale destruction of our old, established industries. Take the airplane * industry. The French were pioneering in that field. We were actually the country first to construct airplanes. The Marshall Plan does not brook such rivalry, and, as a result, our airplane in- dustry is placed in jeopardy. The same story repeats in the case of our once-flowering auto- mobile industry. Ford. is en- trenched in Cologne and Antwerp and has ousted French ccompeti- tion. Now let there be no mistake. We are in favor of aid, but not at such price and under such con- ditions. e The devaluation of the franc could serve as another illustra- oe THE dangerous illusions fos- tered by official CCF support for the Marshall Plan and ERP become apparent when Jacques Duclos’ report on their effect on west European economy, and on France in particular, is compar- ed to the complacent CCF view as set forth in Across Canada, CCF monthly bulletin published at Ottawa. Duclos shows how home in- dustries ‘are being restricted, fin- ancial structures impaired, en- ’ tire economies warped, with in- avitable interference in the pol- itics of the countries concerned, to insure policies acceptable to Wall Street. CCF leaders, however, prefer to ignore the harsh facts now becoming apparent in the work- ing out of the Marshall Plan. Nothing but “communist propa- ganda”, they say, deploring the fact that ‘some socialists have been influenced to echo this So- viet propaganda.” Ascribing: to rapacious American imperialism the benevolent desires of pro- d, let some simiple figures talk. The so-called Marsh- At official parity, tion. The whole affair was a plot to undermine the pound sterling. At the instigation of the USS., the recent Schuman government and its minister of finance, Rene Mayer, engineered the devalua- tion of the franc as an entering wedge into the delicate structure supporting the precariously main- tained pound sterling. The _ hectic, last-minute de- marche of Sir Stafford Cripps, for the British government, was of no avail. In the opinion of the Ame- ricans the pound sterling is over- valued and should be corrected in order to make American superior- ity, particularly in the British Em- pire, fully effective. They fore- cast enhanced export trade posi- tion in the wake of the devalu- gressive Americans to give un- conditional aid to stricken Eur- ope ,they seek to lull CCF sup- porters into their own dangerous complacency with the idea that no Strings are attached to ERP. “Ever since the announce- ment of the Marshall Plan over a year ago, communists, at the behest of the Soviet Union, have been shouting that it would mean the subjugation of the - countries of Europe to Amer- ican imperialism,” states the lead article in the July issue of Across Canada. “And unfortun- ately some socialists have been influenced to echo this Soviet propaganda. “From the start the CCF has supported the idea of American aid to European recovery, in the conviction that this was the only way in which the terrible con- ditions of the European peoples could be improved and the Eur- opean economy as a whole re- built. Naturally, the CCF em- phasized its determination that such a program of American aid ~ ation. The British resist this man- euver to the best of their ability. The devaluation of the franc was merely an American ruse in the struggle and it was executed without any regard to the conse- quences as far as the French eco- nomy is concerned, or even as far as the danger of economic chaos in Western Europe is con- cerned. Py e < This was the second body blow dealt to British prestige. The first was the devaluation of the Italian lire, after which the pound sterling could not maintain itself any longer in the free market in Italy. Now Paris is much more im- portant as a financial center than Rome. The upshot of the whole manipulation is that in the French free market only three foreign cur- rencies are negotiated: the dollar, the Portuguese escudo and the Swiss franc. The pound sterling was simply ousted from the free CCF fosters dangerous illusions ‘must not interfere with the democratic right of the Eur- opean peoples to control and de- termine their own social and economic policies.’ The CCF was happy that all the democratic socialist parties of the west Eur- opean countries declared the Same objective im their support of ERP.” [ The article contends that there is now “further evidence that, as far as the present Amer- igan administration is concern- ed, the application of ERP aid will be carried out on sound and unobjectionable lines,’ in the Economic Cooperation Agree- ment between the U.S. and Britain which shows “there are absolutely no strings attached to it and that the con- ditions are of a general charac- ter and of such a nature as to merit the support of the British people.” Elsewhere, the article holds that reports make it “clear that agreements between the USA market, both in Italy and France, That means the pound sterling is at the mercy of the official Italian and French rate which, in turn, is dictated by U.S. interests. The so-called stabilization in France established three differ- ent parities: the offical parity, 214 francs to the dollar instead of the Previous 120 francs; the free mar- ket rate of 300-305 francs, and the black market rate of 350-400 francs to the dollar. The Schuman government pro- mised a great improvement in French foreign possibilities. Act- ually, however, the deficit in the French balance of trade in the first quarter of 1943 increased by 15 billion franes as compared with the first quarter of 1947. This is - the situation as far as exports are concerned. As for imports: France is com- Ppelled to buy coal from the U.S. and pay 214 instead of the previ- ous 120 francs to the dollar. For the coal imported from the Rubr, again dollars must be paid. This leads to an increase of the price ‘of coal in France, In order to bridge the gap, the government must pay subsidies. If subsidies were to be discontin- ued, prices would rise and the initial export-stimulating advan- tage of devaluation would be an- nulled. If subsidies have to be paid, an increase in the budget deficit is unavoidable. It is a vi- cious circle. e The Marshall Plan was devised with a total disregard of French interests as well as French tra- dition. Vis-a-vis Germany, the French people are interested in two things: security and repara- tions. The London agreement, re- storing as it does the basis of German militarism, menaces di- rectly the national security of France. The French people see Hitler’s shadow rising behind the U.S. generals in Western Ger- many. * The reparations question has been unceremoniously buried. In- stead of receiving reparations we have to pay dollars for Ruhr coal. According to the London agree- ment the heavy industry of the Ruhr is being restored to its for- mer owners. There is no control of production, only one of dis- tribution which needless to say, is entirely illusory, actually an in- vitation to the Germans to lie about their production figures and circumvent the prohibition of re- armament, No matter what the French goy- ernment might promise to the Americans, there is absolutely no doubt the French people will not become a partner in this crime. and France, Italy and other ERP countries, follow the same pattern as the one with Britain.” The CCF’s narrow insistence that because conditions “of a general' character” are contain- ed in the formal agreement, no specific demands have been or will be made evades the re- alities and poses the question for CCF supporters: What is sound and to whom is it unob- jectionable? The fact that Am- erican imperialist demands dam- aging to the French national economy were made and con- sidered “sound and unobjection- able” by a government headed by French Socialist Leon Blum in no way alters their disastrous effect upon the French people. Similarly, ‘the fact that CCF leaders decry as “communist propaganda” all criticism of their support for the Marshall Plan only makes it easier for the King government to impose on the Canadian people Amer- ican demands that menace their standards of: living and security. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 6, 1948—PAGE 5