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BERLIN

On the spot report

‘JN WHAT way can the Na-
tional Democratic Party be
compared with Hitler’s nazis

and their beginnings? How far

is it right to call this as yet
small party neo-nazis?

Hitler’s nazis, at the first gen-
eral election they contested in
1928, polled two percent. At the
first election contested by the
N.P.D. (in 1965), it polled 2.1
percent.

Since 1965, when it was
founded, it had by November
this year risen to 23,000 mem-
bers: Its poll in the two “Laen-
der” (provinces) last month to-
talled half a million.

If a general election were held
now it would undoubtedly poll
between one and two million
votes.

To start with, one thing
should be made clear right away.
This is the nazis in soft slip-
pers.

Just as Reagan in California
learned, under guidance of an
expert public relations firm, to
present himself more smoothly
after the debacle of the brash
Goldwater, so the N.P.D. under
shrewd management have learn-
ed to present themselves more
carefully, with due regard for
the climate.

All the herd of sacred cows
fostered by the Western allies
and Bonn ever since the war are

French

By SAM RUSSELL

French Communists and the
non-Communist left yesterday
announced the terms of an his-
toric agreement to fight Gaul-
lism together in next spring’s
parliamentary elections.

It was hailed by the general
secretary of the French Com-
munist -Party, M. Waldeck
Rochet, as: “a victory for all
those who are for the unity of
the democratic forces in France.”

Agreement. was reached after
three meetings, totalling 11
-hours, between Communist lead-
ers and leaders of the federation,
which is headed by M. Mitter-
rand—the man who forced Gen-
eral de Gaulle to a second ballot
in last year’s Presidential- elec-
tions.

The federation includes the
Socialist Party, the Padicals and
other left wing groups.

More than 20 years had passed
since the Communist Party and
other left wing parties had been
able to meet. M. Rochet pointed
out, so the meeting itself was
an outstanding event. :

The agreement broadly pro-
vides that in all those constitu-
encies where the left could win,
the left candidate who gets
most votes in the first ballot will
-go forward in the second ballot
as the candidate of the whole
left.

“But,” said Waldeck Rochet,
“in our view, the most impor-
tant fact is that, apart from the
elections, the two organizations

_ people will

NEO-NAZIS

paid lip service; democracy, no
racialism, rearmament, Europe
and, of course, anti-Communism.

Within this framework the na-
tionalist and expansionist con-
tent of Hitlerism remains ex-
actly as before.

Democracy? They are all for
it. Just as, in the revolutionary
atmosphere of
Germany, Hitler’s party called
itself the National Socialists,
seeking to outdo the Left, the
neo-nazis now call themselves
the National Democrats, so that
they shall be better democrats
than all the others.

Freedom of opinion, liberty of
discussion, democratic rights —
they are all for these; very con-
venient, tactically, for a party
still in a minority. While demo-
cracy, as practised, is criticized
as being unreal and unfair.

Jews? Except in indiscreet
outcries.or moments of excite-
ment you will never hear these
blamed for everything, or find
anti-Semitic expression in the
party publications.

Membership is certainly open
to Jews, that is, if they are “‘na-
tionally orientated,” one of the
leaders told an interviewer the
other day.

In fact, he thought, there were
two Jewish members, but he
couldn’t remember their names.

This does not exclude the

between-wars_

By
Ivor Montague

most constant and violent de-
nunciation of all things foreign.
The allies, who dictate the guilt
clause, bleed Germany white,
take over its industry and train
its youth with an_ inferiority
complex.

The alien clique that controls
the monopolistic slander press,

radio, cinema and TV, and is.

responsible for the corruption of
morals and the growth of crime.

The foreign workers have
come to take jobs from Germans
and make it impossible for wo-
man to go out at night without
fear.

Communism? The national
self-denigration practised by the
other three parties, leaves a
vacuum ready for Communism,
and how can an army be strong
if the sons are trained to believe
their fathers criminals?

The N.P.D. stands for Europe
and for peace, but these ends
can only be served with the end
of the division of Germany and
the recovery of “the territories
in which Germans grew up for
centuries.”

“To each his own!” is the slo-

left unity

have defined the basis of joint
action for the realization of
their aims in the fight against
personal power _and for real de-
mocracy.

“We Communists will spare
no effort so that the progress
achieved will be consolidated
and serve as a jumping-off point
for further victories in the inter-
ests of the workers, the nation,
democracy and peace.”

At the joint Press conference
announcing the agreement. M.
Mitterrand said what had been
agreed was sufficient in itself.

“We wish to establish a true
modern democracy in which the
find again their
rightful place,’’ he said. “It is
with this aim in view that we
have defined joint perspectives
with their present limits and
future hopes.”

The joint communique _indi-
cated that the Communist Party
regretted that its proposals fora
full joint program had not been
accepted.

The Communist Party also de-

clared that Communist candi-"

dates would not withdraw in the
second ballot in favor of any
right wing candidate.

The communique confirmed
that in the first ballot, the two
Organizations will fight for their
Own candidates, and on the
basis of their own programs.

The French Communist Party
has already. put forward candi-
dates in all of the 487 constitu-
encies.

Under the French electoral
system of partial proportional
representation, a candidate must
obtain an absolute majority to
be elected. If no candidate ob-
tains an absolute majority, there
must be a second ballot in which
the candidate who comes top
of the poll is declared elected.

While the communique points
out that full agreement on a
common program has not been
reached, it also declares that the
two organizations give priority
to their joint objectives in the
struggle against Gen. de Gaulle’s
regime of personal power.

“The Gaullist regime must be
eliminated,” it says. “It is in-
compatible with democracy and
constitutes-a major obstacle pre-
venting the development of lib-
erty, economic and social pro-
gress, and the implementation
of a coherent policy of peace
and disarmament.”

They also called for suppres-
sion of limitations on the right
to strike, extended powers for
factory committees, improve-
ments in the position of women,
and abrogation of existing laws
against contraception.

They demanded priority in
public expenditure, for housing,
health, education and scientific
research, instead of for atomic
armament as at present. Their
communique also calls for na-
tionalization of the arms indus-
try and of the merchant banks,
democratic control of national-
ized enterprises, and higher tax-
ation on large incomes.

IN ACTION

gan. “We don’t want anyone
else’s land but equally we de-
mand the right to ours.”

Actually, the N.P.D. is not
very hot on “programs.” Pro-
grams must be varied to suit
each situation and remain flex-
ible to meet day-to-day needs,
explain their spokesmen.

All that is necessary is the
“basis.” It contains 12 points.

Going through them and com-
paring them with nazi declara-
tions — especially the latter’s
original program of 1920 — the
parallels it is possible to dis-
cover are more or less exact.

On territory, “Gross Deutch-
land,” discipline, order, central-
ization, decadent art, guided cul-
ture, unity of Europe,’ military
glory, etc.

As might be expected there is
plenty about “trade union and
employers’ organizations as so-
cial partners.” “ridding us of the
incitement to public immorality
that daily damages the decency
of our women,” “restoring the
famils’ to the place appropriate
to it in a culture-nation,” “pro-
tect our savings.”

The key demands are those
that call for an “end to the one-
sided trials of the past, while in
other countries war crimes in
millions against German men,
women and children remain un-
punished”; “an end to the
charge of war guilt against Ger-
many and the beatification of
treason”; “the brave attitude of
our soldiers of all times must
be a true model for our present
army. The service of our arms
is noble.”

It is not difficult to understand
to whom such exhortations are
likely to appeal. ,

The .N.P.D. is very insistent,
especially to foreign correspon-
dents, that it is not a nazi party.
Heavens, no! To call it neo-nazi,
it insists, is prejudiced and un-
fair,

It denies that its leading mem-
bers are nazis or ex-nazis, and
puts forward at every opportu-
nity its chairman, the solid con-
servative cement manufacturer
Friederich Thielen.

Also, its manager and chief
editor, the elegant Prussian mili-
tary aristocrat, whose forbears
were friends of Bismarck, and
himself an associate of Oswald
Mosley, Adolf von Thadden.

As a matter of fact these

.“prominents” are the exception.

Three out of four, five out of
seven, eight out of 13 are the
sort of proportions of ex-nazis
identifiable in their executive

‘that a Constitutional court"

BUENOS AIRES

and presiding committees, !
boards and publishing 1h?
directorates.

The decisive point, howevel
that these disclaimers are
fectly well understood in :
many and taken by all NP
supporters as simply a big jo! |

The followers freely chortle
this evidence of the ingenuily
their leaders—at their abililf 4
run rings round their opponel”
and take advantage of the le,
isms of the democratic Com*
tutional State. a

The reconstitution of a M)
party or any party against ™
Constitution is forbidden. _/

It is under this last provisl®’

=

cluding legal officers who set ,
in nazi times—declared the oe.
munist Party illegal, despite!
Constitutional policies, and

jailed pacifists who opposed
clear armaments or favouly,

were similar to those of C0
munists.

Such grounds have been "4.
legal basis for breaking up P¥),
attempts to revive too open ™,
groups.

labor. In the dark takes part"),
violence and the illegal acti!
smashing up Jewish cemetery
whitewashing _ illegal }
slander leaflets and _ poste
threats to Jewish citizens
pacifists, incendiarism (the nut
ber of cases in the Federal ©
public rose from 171 in 1964
521 in 1965, and is still risiMB>
Independently—in such raf}
as the Deutsche National 28
tung und Soldaten Zeitung, 4"?
from local enthusiasts wh0"e
responsibility can be disavow!
occurs the incitement.
“rough” for the new party.  §j
And meanwhile, in the N.P-2,
own paper, the Deutsche Nae)
richten, and on the party’s/O™be

everybody understands. 4
To make matters plainer stl!
the N.P.D. uses the nazi-sly’
blood-red poster with a whl)
circle contzining its emblem, *
recommended specifically
Hitler himself in “(Mein Kamp!
And its slogan to all follow®
on its entering the hustings W?
the magic sentence: “At Jast’
party you can vote for.”

It hardly needed an N.P-
speaker to dot the “i's” a"G,
cross the “‘t’s”: “When we ty
elected you will see to wh!
principles we remain true.”

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