Prisoners see
wives beaten.

LONDON
The Franco regime’s refusal to allow a British delegation to enter
Spain to plead the case of 11 Spanish Socialists held in jail since last
February has been assailed here by Morgan Phillips, general secretary
of the British Labor party. Phillips’ statement coincided with a charge
made by the International Brigade Association that 32 Spanish workers
recently arrested in Madrid by
Franco’s police had been tortured
—three of them by being forced
to watch their wives being beaten.
Speaking for the Labor party,
Phillips ‘said: ;
“That the Spanish government
should be afraid to admit two
delegates of the Labor party is a
grim comment on the condition of
Spain under the Franco regime.
The Italian and French crises
shows, how far gone NATO is in
its own irreparable crisis.

refused admission to Spain were
Saul Rose, secretary of the Labor
party’s international department,
and Percy Knight, national organ-
izer for the National Union of Sea-
men.

Decision to send them to Spain
was made by the Labor party’s na-
tional executive after it had con-
sidered the plea of 11 Socialists ar-
rested on a charge of “organizing
an illegal party.”

The International Brigade As-
sociation reported that among

spirit of New China

Students express

This exuberantly happy Pp
and énergy of a nation of 475

structors are assisting.

U.S. demands forcing
French, ltalian crisis

sis hasn’t ended with the election of Rene Coty as president after 13 bal-
s ended with the appointment of Professor Amintore Fanfani, supported by

The French political cri
lots. Nor has the Italian, crisi
the Christian Democrats.

i hing about the French and Italian situation is that it adds up to a crisis of US.
Simao es Saat military expert of the New York Times finds (December 24): “It will

foreign policy. Hanson Baldwin,
be almost impossible to base any
viable politico-military policy Up-
on France as she is today.”

And Baldwin looks at France,
and bewails: “. . . the crumbling
of a cornerstone upon which all
our military policies in Europe
have been based... .” This “con-
fronts the West with some night-
mare choices.” One choice, Bald:

win mentions is “to rearm West,
Germany,” outside the European)

Defense Community.

That’s not really a choice, Bald-
win finds, because this “might pro-
yoke reactions from the French.
Thus the holy crusade for which

. German militarism would be reviv-
ed would be shattered within its
own ranks. .

Baldwin isn3t a sentimentalist.
Since the U.S. needs France for
its military plans he suggests the
need of making a drastic change
within France itself. This either
through “a* virtual political, social
and economic revolution” (read,
counter-revolution) or if “another
Napoleon unifies and uplifts the
French people.” Nor should the
menace of U.S. State Department
intrigue and subversion — within
France be underestimated. ,

The New York Times finds little
more consolation in Italy than it
does in France. ‘“‘There are dis-
integrating forces at work within
the Christian Democratic party,”
says a Times editorial on December
23, about the difficulties of Premier
Pella’s Christian Democratic gov-
ernment coalition. The coalition
rests on right. wing support, specl-
fically from the Monarchists. But
Italy’s majority is opposed to the
right.

The Christian Democratic party
is torn within itself because the
country is so determinedly left and
the government can’t rule if it
comes out openly as a servant of

the right. ae
_ The Times describes the Chris-
tian Democratic party as “an amor-
phous. conglomoration, with one
foot in the trade unions and an-
other in big business.” Essential-
ly of course it is a big business
party. But it has to masquerade as
a people’s party and tries to main-
tain its own trade unions.

Pella had.a shaky majority in
parliament and along came So-
cialist leader Pietro Nenni and
suggested to Pella how he could

get a stable majority in the gov-

“million peop!
students are from Tsinghua University, Peking,
more than 10,000 students are learning the skills

i
}

icture of Chinese university students seems to capture the inspiration
le building a new life after centuries of oppression. These

which has become a

they need to build their land—in peace.

polytechnical institute at which
Soviet in-

ernment. Take the Socialists into
the cabinet and pursue an inde-
pendent course as an independent
nation. :

At this point the U.S. occupation
forces in Italy became’ worried.

C. L. Sulzberger cabled to his
uncle’s New York Times (Decem-
ber 20) reporting:

“Mrs. Clare Booth Luce, the
United States Ambassador to

ltaly, has asked members of her
staff to prepare a’ confidential
study on the implications to the
United States if a Communist or
a fellow traveller should ever re-
ceive important office in a future
Italian cabinet.”

With unconscious humor Sulz-
berger then describes the regard
the U.S. government has for the
sovereignty of other countries. He
writes:

“The United States is officially
committed to non-interference in
the internal affairs of other na-

tions, but the question is asked:
could it permit the selection of
a man known to be a fellow trav-
eller as foreign minister in an

Allied country?”

The French and Italian crises
have developed as a crisis of U.S.
foreign policy because the policy
was based on using those countries
as pawns in a military alliance.
However, the people of those coun-
tries have no intentions of permit-
ting this to happen. The majority
of the working class in both France
and Italy supports the Commun-
ists. . :

In fact, one reason there has
been as much support for the right
wing as it received in the French
voting for president. is that the
electoral law perverted the elec-
tion results. The majority in
France is left, but the election law
deprived the Communists of their
proper proportional representation
in parliament.

The crisis is deepened because
even the business interests of both
France and Italy are no longer
willing to go along as mere pawns
of U.S. State Department policy.

This explains in part the rifts
within the Christian Democratic
party of Italy. It explains the ac-
tions of a Daladier in France and

ie

“The Labor party will continue
to exercise vigilance on behalf of
Spanish Socialists, trade unionists
and democrats who are attempting
to assert their fundamental human
rights.”

The two British Labor leaders

AMINTORE FANFANI
Italy’s new premier

are opposing the European De-
fense Community.

And both in France and Italy
the Communists and the left have
been promoting a policy of work-
ing class unity which finds Cath-
olic, socialist and Communist work-
ers fighting side by side. But they
go much further than that. They
have advanced a policy of national
unity, combining all forces from
various social groups, who oppose
the policy of national suicide, the

prisoners being tortured in Fran-
co’s jails was Wilson Battle, on

whose behalf 124 British MP’s have
signed an appeal for clemency.’

Telesforo Torres, a working-class
leader who has already served a

term of imprisonment for opposi-

tion to the Franco regime, was
subjected to an interrogation last-
ing 36 hours. He was denied food
and water for the whole period.

Then police ordered his wife
brought in and compelled him to
watch while she was beaten. Two
other prisoners were also forc-
ed to watch their wives being
beaten. °
Another imprisoned democrat,
Luis Arrebal, was reported to be
dangerously ill following a six-hour
beating while bound hand and foot.
He has also been injected with a
drug causing complete loss of
speech and sight.

A conference on Spain and Span-
ish political prisoners is to be held
in London in February, called by

] the International Brigade Associa-

tion. Its purpose is to examine
ways of extending more help to the
victims of fascist terror.

Communists plan
Empire meeting

LONDON

After consultation with brother
Communists and Workers’ parties
in countries within the sphere of
the British Empire, the British
Communist party’s executive com-
mittee has endorsed a proposal
that a conference of representatives
from these parties be held in Lon-
don April 21-24.

The conference will afford the
opportunity for an exchange of
views to strengthen cooperation
for peace, national independence

policy which would revive, for ex-

of many even on the right who

ample, a new German Wehrmacht.

and socialism, as the common con-
cern of all: peoples of the Empire.

‘People’s purchasing power must be maintained’

British Communists plan to combat slump

By PETER ZINKIN
LONDON

Plans for averting the effects of
a U.S. slump were considered by
the executive committee of the
British Communist party at a meet-
ing here last week.

Outlining the plans, J. R.. Camp-
bell, editor of the London Daily
Worker, proposed ending of all pur-
chase tax on essential goods, higher
children’s allowances and pensions
for the aged. and bigger reliefs
on earned income. The workers
must take powerful and sustained
action to force substantial wage in-
creases, he said. Were the em-
ployers to succeed in preventing
wage increases, this would only
hasten the coming of the slump in
Britain.

“Because of the threatened Am-
erican slump, it is in the interests
of the majority of the British peo-

ple that purchasing power should

be maintained,” he continued.

Campbell said that “most econ-
omists are now agreed that there
will be some depression in the
U.S. next year. Some fear that it
will be a large depression and most
hope that it will be a small one.

“Even a small U.S. slump
would cause unemployment and

affect trade in ‘the rest of the
capitalist world.” :

During the past year the strug-
gle for markets for exports had
grown more furious. The U.S. had
become a big trade competitor of
Britain, followed by the U.S.-dom-
inated states of West Germany and
Japan.

As a result, U.S. big business
came, into conflict with many of
its satellites, especially with Brit-
ain. Should the U.S. slump de-
velop these conflicts would grow
and could lead to an alteration

in the relations between the U.S.

and its client states.

~ More business men would join
the already growing pressure on
the British government to break
through the U.S.-imposed bans on
East-West trade.

“The difficulties of the capital-
ists are the opportunities of the
working class,” he declared. The
growing conflict of interests be-
tween the Western Powers had al-
ready caused gq split to appear in
the Tory ranks.

The working class could lead the
majority of the people in a success-
ful united struggle for peace, inde-
pendence and better living stand-
ards, Campbell said. :

U.S. bans on East-West trade
should be broken, he said. Peace
by negotiation should be demand-
ed with increasing vigor.

- Stating the need for banning the
atom and hydrogen bombs, Camp-
bell said: ;

“There should be an immediate
reduction of British armaments
without waiting for any general
international agreement for an all-
round reduction in arms.”

Campbell said that plans for
combatting the U.S. slump could
be accomplished by building unity
of all section of the labor move-
ment, but the permanent solution
to economic difficulties would only
be assured when Britain had taken
the road to socialism.

William Lauchlan, secretary of
the Scottish committee of the Brit-
ish Communist party, warned that
a slump might lead the imperialists
to increase the drive for more arms
and war as a way out of their dif-
ficulties.

The British people would have
to strengthen their whole fight for
peace and better living standards
to defeat this danger, he said.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 22, 1954 — PAGE 3