By JOHN WEIR HOSE of us who lived through those decades of mounting ter- ror, then the years of the hor- ror of World War Two that ended with Victory for Man- kind and the dawning of a New Hope just 25 years ago must not permit ourselves to forget a single jot of it. And the younger people must know that record, © or the terror that is mounting in our own time will seem like the ravings of insanity, while actually there’s a history and a deadly logic to present events, however mad they appear. On March 8, 1945 fascist Germany— the Third Reich which Hitler had pre- dicted would live a thousand years— lay lifeless and prostrate, its armed might smashed to smithereens, its braggart leaders dead or scurrying like rats to escape punishment, much of the country in ruins. Who can forget that day—V-Day! Rejoicing burst like a rush of waters through a dam. Bells pealed, whistles blew, horns hooted, people thronged the streets, yelling, laughing, .embrac- ing . . . Even the mother who was still sobbing for the son she would see no more: smiled through her tears at the thought that his sacrifice helped to save his children from a similar fate when they grew up... That was V-Day, not only the cele- bration of victory over the Germany of Hitler with all its foulness, not only rejoicing that the greatest carnage in history was ended, but a day of tri- umph because humanity had been ex- plicity promised — in the Atlantic Charter, in the Yalta and Potsdam agreements; in the Charter of the Unit- ed Nations—“to save succeeding gene- rations from the scourge of war’ — lasting peace and all peoples decide for themselves how they would live. THE TERRIBLE COST World War Two snuffed out the lives of 54 million people and. left dozens of millions maimed and crip- pled. Whole countries lay devastated, cities and villages in ashes, the heri- tage left by the genius and labor of many generations destroyed. And who can count the ravages wrought by -hunger and disease, the ‘*cars and heartache? How does one _ price wrecked happiness? The Soviet Union, which bore the brunt of the fighting and suffered the most in the war, mourned 20 -million in dead alone — as much as the whole of the present population of Canada. Poland lost six million, Yugoslavia a million and three-quarters, France over 600,000, the United States over 400,000, Great Britain 375,00 and Canada 38,000 dead. Six million Germans paid for Hitler’s madness with their lives. And the war in Asia and the Pacific, with its toll of other millions, was to continue yet for another four months. THE ROOT CAUSES The common people’ have always paid the price of war. But it was re- served for the “enlightened” capitalist civilization of the 20th century in the person of its most rabid imperialists, the fascists, to invent “total war,” war not only between armed forces but against the whole people, and geno- cide, the extermination of entire na- tionalities. The German nazis sought to enslave the Slavic, French and other nations, killing half the population, destroying their cities and their seats of learning and culture, liquidating their intellectuals and reducing the survivors to semi-literate slaves of the Nordic “master race.” They murdered six million men, women and children of Jewish nationality—the foremost selected for extermination—in death camps and gas ovens. This nightmare did not come as a PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1970—Page 6 ; jad ee May 8, 1945—people in throughout Canada, celebrate the war's end with a burst of rejoicing. bolt from the blue. It unfolded like a bad nightmare over the years, progres- sing step by step until the blood- chilling climax. The causes for it lay in the capital- ist social system, which is based on greed and in which the owners of capi- tal must expand or bust. In the back- ground was the centuries-long rape and conquest of vast territories and populations in Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas (and parts of Eu- rope itself) by half a dozen imperial- ist powers, which then turned snarling on each other to redivide the loot, with World War One as the result. And ‘in the foreground was the vic- torious socialist revolution in Russia and the building of a new socialist way of life on one-sixth of the earth’s surface, which spelled eventual doom to the sway of the old order over the other five-sixths as well—and drove the imperialists to frenzied attempts by reckless military adventurism to turn back the clock of history. The seeds of the Second World War were sown before the First World War had ended. At the Versailles Treaty the Anglo-French-U.S. allies dictated harsh terms to Germany, those of vic- torious imperialist powers to a defeat- ed one, which was bound to be chal- lenged when the relationship of forces changed. But the centre of Western policy—through support of counter- revolutionaries, direct armed interven- tion, economic blockade, “non-recogni- tion,” boycott and every conceivable form of discrimination and hostility— was enmity to the Soviet Union. ‘A Germany defeated was neverthe- less not to be permitted to “go com- munist,” German imperialism had to be maintained and its aggression aimed at the East, even though this meant reviving a rival and unleashing a Hitler on the world. “IT CAN’T HAPPEN” Looking back, it seems amazing that the decent people of the globe let it happen, since every step of aggression leading to world war was carried out before the staring eyes of the world. But are we not witnessing the same “escalation” leading to even more Ominous consequences in the present time? : Before launching on the road to world conquest, the fascist dictators had to be placed in seats of power — first Mussolini in Italy, then Hitler in Germany, not counting the lesser ones. The financiers, armament makers and politicians of the Western democracies (read imperialist U.S., Britain, France) supplied the sinews of war and their good offices. But where is there a dic- Toronto, ay in Spain or Greece, Saigon or Taiwan, Latin America or South Africa, that is not there by the grace of U.S. and/or British guns, money and diplomacy? Before setting out to conquer the world, the fascist dictators first had to conquer their own peoples. Nationalist frenzy was whipped up to drown out the voices of reason. Storm troopers and concentration camps, monstrous provocations such as the Reichstag fire, and murder at home paved the way for aggression abroad. But is not the U.S. Establishment (military-gov- ernment-monopoly complex) today un- leashing what amounts to civil: war against decent democratic and anti- war black and white Americans along- side of escalating its military opera- ‘tion in the far corners of the earth? UNDER ANTI-COMMUNIST FLAG The road to World War Two was paved by anti-communism. The Rome- - Berlin-Tokyo Axis was the NATO and SEATO of 40 years ago, the spearhead of the global “fight against commu- nism.” When Mussolini marched his legions into Ethiopia, it was “against the Comintern.” When the Japanese militarists occupied large sections of China, it was “to save them from com- munism.” When Hitler and Mussolini hurled their armed forces into Spain to place their puppet General Franco in power over the corpse of the demo- cratically elected Republican govern- ment, when Hitler gobbled up Austria, then when he was handed Czechoslo- vakia on a silver platter at Munich by Chamberlain—all this was in the name of anti-communism. At the League of Nations the Soviet Union in vain sought to get support for universal disarmament, vainly pro- posed sanctions against fascist Italy for its aggression in Ethiopia, in vain called for collective security against the threat to all humanity that came from Hitlerite Germany and the ‘Anti- Comintern Axis.” The Soviet Union provided military assistance to China and itself defeated the Japanese invaders when they tried to encroach on Soviet territory. The Soviet Union assisted Spanish demo- cracy until Tory Britain under Cham- berlain and “social-democratic” France under Blum closed access for aid to Republican Spain. When France reneg- ed on its pledge to protect Czechoslo- vakia, the Soviet Union proposed to come to its aid single-handedly, but the “liberal” and “social-democratic” rulers at Prague refused. Anti-communism made the Western imperialist democracies and their ap- pendages accessories of the fascists in engineering the Second World War. ae ‘ternational went back on their ple ge ~ north Poland and go across Galicl Is it not guiding U.S. policy today? SPLIT WORKING CLASS World War One took place because most of the leaders of the Second It to oppose imperialist war by a genet! strike of the workers of all countries World War Two took place becaus the working class was not yet umllx’ enough, since it was split by the anti communism of the Right Wing soci democratic and trade union leaders; take powerful joint action to prev fascism and war. oe In Canada, as in other countries there were large numbers of peOP ; who perceived the peril and tried 4 fight it. The League for Peace and mocracy was an expression of anti-fascist and anti-war unity. Fi Norman Bethune and his mobile bl00" transfusion unit and the fighters of ' Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion (hal whom lie buried beneath Spanish sod) fought a valiant battle in Spain. But the lesson wasn’t learned time. Workers’ and anti-fascist unit) this ‘wasn’t realized in Germany unti was too late—the united front tween Communists, social-democt! and liberals was too often formed om! when they were all in concentratl® camps. When a George Meany today for Nixon in the criminal U.S. a88/% sion in Indochina, or when an Me Coldwell signs a Commission Rep?” claiming “Quebec separatism” and a ternational communism” to be thé chief sources of “‘subversion” in Cr ada, they demonstrate that they 4 learned nothing from history am a line up consciously on the side of tht worst enemies of mankind. as After Hitler swallowed up Czech? slovakia it was clear. to all that fuse was lit. The Soviet Union pres for a military pact with Britain © France that would either prevent ff . ther aggression by nazi Germany 4 put a quick end to it should it st#” Negotiations opened in Moscow. H0¥ ever, Britain and France sent seco” rate delegations that had no powel The talks dragged on and on. The a tish cabinet papers for 1939, publish® this year, tell the story. | “Chamberlin wanted Russian nelP if Hitler attacked Poland,” Mark AY nold-Forster sums it up in the Mer chester Guardian. “But Chamberl@! did not want to commit Britain 1 4 to Russia’s aid if Hitler attae Russia.” i) Then ‘on August 14, 1939 the SOV” representatives asked if the Red A ) would at least be permitted to oe make contact with the enemy in roots | ; So Heving driven the Hitler legions from the Volga to Berlin, where they “ dealt the death blow, a Soviet soldier plants the flag with the hammer and 5!¢ on the ruins of the Reichstag.