~ BRAZIL

~ Democracy denied

S only a new item here—the

ouster of Brazil’s Communist
deputies by a 181-74 vote in the
federal parliament. But in Brazil
and all South America, it’s an
occasion for deep anger and out-
rage. It means blacking out of
constitutional and democratic
government in a country which
emerged less than three years
ago from one of the most hated
dictatorships in the hemisphere.

And the center of the tidal
wave of reaction that is now hit-

ting Brazil and Chile — like |

Cuba and other Latin American
countries—is Wall Street. Few
Canadians realize that, but all
Latin Americans do.

Ousting of the Brazilian Com-
‘munists ends a chapter in the
strong popular defense of the
Brazilian constitution which has
been see-sawing back and forth
- for almost a year. The high neg-
ative vote— one third of the
chamber—shows the unpopularity
of this measure, strong-armed
through by Brazil's top army
brass, even among non-Com-
munist deputies,

“The beauty of it is... that
within the law we were able to
put the Communists outside the
law,” boasted A Noite. But all
Brazil members that former
president Getulio Vargas in
November, 1937 caried through
this same kind of policy and an
eight-year reign of terror follow-
ed, with the complete extinction
of the Constitution. Brazil's new
Constitution of September 1946,
only 16 months old, is now in
the discard.

The bill for “cancelling the
mandates,” as it was known in
Brazil, follows the government’s
action last May 8 in suspending
the Communist Party as an elec-
toral mechanism,

_ But the Communists deputies
had continued to function and
Tally the people on every issue.

The single Communist senator,
Luiz Carlos Prestes, who was
elected with the largest single
vote from Rio on December 2,
1945, led this fight.

Fourteen deputies in the na-
tional chamber stood shoulder
to shoulder with him — among
them the leading literary

of Brazil, Jorge Amado; the re--

spected trade union spokesman,
Joao Amazonas; and brilliant
parliamentary leaders like
Mauricio Grabois and Calrlos
Marighella.

The measure also hits at least
60 state legislators in the 21
Brazilian states, elected last Jan-
uary. ‘

Two outstanding Communist:

leaders, however stay in national
legislature. They were elected on
@ minor party ticket from Sao
Paluo last January — Pedro Po-

been elected by the
people, and that almost a million

No doubt, the Communists
will reorganize in another party,
continue their fight. For

&

the democracy now denied.

Communist deputies have been ousted from the Bra:
people who elected them, the cariocas of Rio De
like those shown here on the great plantations, w

Be ev,

zilian Congress after a bitter struggle. But the
Janeiro, working people in the cities and peasants
il continue to support them in their fight to regain

The world in review

BRITAIN

U.S. state department meddles in trade union affairs

By ROB F, HALL

The reason, I found, is that in an effort to put over the Marshall Plan, the U.S.

: N AMERICAN in Europe encounters considerable distrust among trade unionists.

State Department has meddled rather obviously in the affairs of the European trade

union movement.

Friends in Paris informed me
that about two months ago, the
state department held a meeting
in Prague of the labor attaches
of. the’ American émbassies in
Europe. The direction given to
those who attended was to split
the labor movement, including the
World Federation of Trade
Unions. :

Where the left wing was in the
leadership, as in France, those
under the influence of the Am-
ericans were advised to pull
away.

Where the right wing was in
control, the advice was to drive
out the “communists,” not only,
members of ‘the Communist
Party, but all trade union lead-
ers who have expressed opposi-
tion to the Marshall Plan.

7 * * *

ONE OF THE FIRST conse-
quences of this directive was an
attack on Communists in the
British Trade Union Congress by
Arthur Deakin, secretary of the
Transport and General Workers
Union and chairman of the
WFTU. Deakin’s blast was fol-
lowed shortly by a statement is-
sued by Morgan Philips, secre-
tary of the Labor Party.

Philips called on the British
workers to defeat Communists in
trade union elections. “It would
be a tragedy if the Communists
who have been rejected time and
again by the free vote of the
electors were to win political
power and influence through
the backdoor of the trade union
branch meetings,” the said.

The section of British labor
leadgrship represented by Dea-
kin and Philips was disturbed by
a few plain facts about the Mar-
shall Plan cited by Harry Pol-
litt, secretary of the British Com-
munist Party. Pollitt was scath-
ing in his denunciation® of La-
bor Party and trade union lead-
ers who accommodated them-
selves to the political aims of
the Marshall Plan.

“Reaction in the U.S. now at-
tempts to make that country:
the new anti-Socialist axis of the
world,” said Pollitt. “In particu-
lar they seek to make Britain

and western Europe economic
and political colonies of the

CU.S-”

Pollitt called for a struggie
against ration cuts and for wage
advances. While he urged con-

tinued Communist support of the -

productive drive, he pointed out
that production increases of
themselves will not solve the
problem of the British workers.
There must be an unrelenting
struggle fori better conditions
for the people, he said. He criti-
cized mercilessly those leaders
of the Labor Party whose pol-
icy of groveling before Wall
Street has been responsible for
the British crisis.

The Labor Party and TUC
leadership evidently feel them-
selves in a highly precarious po-
sition. Promising socialism to the
workers on the one hand and
agreeing to Wall Street’s demands
on the other, was a balancing
act which might go well in the
theaters around Picadilly Cir-
cus. But it creates difficulties in
the seat of government at West-
minster. Thus one found these
leaders extremely sensitive to
the blunt criticism of Pollitt and
the Communists. _

FORTUNATELY FOR DEA-

KIN and Phillips, every piece
of news about the Marshall Plan
emanating from Washington has
confirmed Pollitt’s charges,

The British people want to
build up and modernize their
basic and finished good indus-
tries. This is the only way the
exports they offer on the world
market can bring them sufficient
food, clothing and consumer
goods to satisfy their needs.

But the blueprint for the Mar-
shall Plan as reported from
Washington does not provide
them with the material for such
a course. British industry needs
steel and scrap. But the U.S.
will export only 20 percent of the
steel asked by the 16 countries
participating in the plan. There
will be no scrap iron for Britain.
Instead of using its own coal for

steel production, Britain will be
required to send coal to Europe.

In his message: to Congress on
the Marshall. Plan, . President
Truman stated that in view or
the steel “shortage” countries
building ships would be required
to reduce or abandon production.
Ship building is not only a ma-

‘jor source of foreign exchange

for Britain. It is also the live-
lihood for several hundred thou-
sand shipyard workers. The agree-
ment of the British government.
to meet this requirement means
unemployment for these workers.

Moreover, the Marshall Plan
blueprint provides that the. U.S.
shall send Britain no machinery
to modernize her plants and
mines, but instead dried eggs and
tobacco. :

THE DEAKIN-PHILLIPS drive
against. the Communists has not.
been going so well. Bill Jones,
a Communist bus driver, hag
been unanimously reelected chair-
man of the central bus commit-
tee in Deakin’s own Transport
and General Workers Union.
Three other Communists have

been elected to the union’s na- |

tional executive committee. .

Scotland has chosen four Com.
munists as representatives to the
Passenger Transport Building
Workers and Clerical Trades
Union. In Southampton, two ad-
ditional Communists have been
named to the area dockers com-
mittee. A number of unions have
filed Phillips’ inflammatory state-
ment in the waste basket,

Electrical workers said the
statement was an Insult. Trade
unionists “exercised their demo-
cratic rights in electing to office
those they think are most loyal
and capable,” their resolution
said. ¥e

The British Communist Party
meanwhile continues to grow. A
total of 500 workers have joined
the party during the past wto

-months.

’

GREECE

Fascism can’t win

< bytes pouring in of more Ameri-
can arms, the sending of the
Marines to the Mediterranean
and the show of strength by the
#U.S. Navy will not suceed in de-
feating the democratic armies,

This is the opinion of Max Wer.
ner, famed and usually accurate
military analyst, who recently
commented in PM, New York
daily, that the Greek Royalist
armies can’t win. Even Walter
Lippman declares that “the dan-
ger in Greece is not so much an
invasion from the north as a
collapse from within.”

Writes Max Werner:

“In 1940-41 the Greek Army,
‘was able to- display heroic resis.

, tance against the Italian ang
_ German invaders although it was

undoubtedly the worst equipped

' cf all the Balkan armies, ~

“Now, even with U.S. supplies,
it is unable to win against the
guerrillas. It is poorly led, dig.
pirited and unwilling to fight—
a reflection on the decay of the
Athens regime.

“If the German Army was un-

_ able to break the guerrillas, King

Paul’s army also will be unable
to do so. Mountain terrain and
the configuration of the country
are unfavorable to King Paul's
army, yet both are favorable to

~ General Markos Vafiades’ forces,

with bases in the northern and
southern parts of the country, -

“By mobile operations-the fuer-
rillas can achieve a breakthrough
to the Aegean Sea, cutting North-
ern, Greece in two. In the past
weeks the Konitsa area in the
southern part of the Greek -a}-
banian frontier has been in the
headlines, Yet Vafiades’ forces
may strike in the direction of
Kavalla, close to Western Thrace,

or to Salonika, farther westward,

or even to the sea above Athens,
slicing through the most strategi-
cally important sections of the

‘country. They are already oper-

ating on the roads between Ath-
ens and Salonika.” :

On the political-economic as-
pects, Werner writes:

“Greece is a part of the Balkans
not only geographically but politi.
cally and socially, too. The Greek
monarchy was no more popular
than was the dynasty in Bulgaria,
Greece had the same type of Te-
sistance movement against Hitler
the Slavic Balkan countries hag.
Greek armed opposition to the
actual regime is typically Balkan,
and at the same time it is de
ly Greek and national.” ae

The Royalist government has
recently adopted a _ technique
long used by the Kuomintang re-
gime in China. Official commun.
ques handed out to foreign cor-
respondents tell of guerrfillag pe.
ing “annihilated” here and
“cleaned up” there. Every so often
a “new offensive’ ‘is’ reported
from Athens, where a Royalist
general staff increased from 89
to 800, prefers the safety of the
city and the luxury of the black
market to the hardships of th
hills, ;

. Only when desperation forces
an urgent appeal for more for.
eign aid to bolster a tottering
government is it revealed that de-
mocratic forces are operating in
increased numbers in areas re.
ported “pacified” weeks before.

Foreign aid can produce “vic.
tories” for the Royalists by vir-
tue of superior arms. But it
cannot hold those “victories”
against the grim determination
of the people to win their free.
dom.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 10