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U.S. BETRAYAL OF WAR AIMS

Wall Street, which has con-
cealed but never cut the golden
strings that tie it to the Ger-
man cartels, has brought Am-
erican foreign policy to the
point of repudiating the very
aims for which millions of peo-
ple gave their lives in the Sec-
cond World War. Unable to learn
anything from the debacle of
the policy which after the First
World War, financed and armed
Germany against the Soviet
Union, and seeking a way out
of the impasse into which its
cold war policy has led it, the
Truman administration is now
preparing to arm Germany anew
—and with the same purpose.

That was the point of the mis-
sion which took U.S. Defense”
Secretary Louis Johnson and
General Omar Bradley to Eur-
ope recently to confer with their
counterparts in other Atlantic
pact countries. They went to sell
to the uneasy British and
French governments 2 proposal
that the nucleus of a new Ger-
man army — five divisions was
the strength most frequently
suggested—should be formed in
the new West German puppet
state.

In actual fact, the organiza-
tional work for creation of a
West German army has already
been done, and in much the
same way that Hitler did it af-
ter the Nazis seized power. The
British have formed a German
Civil Labor Organization of
some 40,000 war veterans, with a
reserve of 160,000 Germans and
200,000 DP’s, under Lieut.-Gen-
eral von Natzmer. The Ameri-
cans are allowing three organ-
izations of veterans, the German
Guard, Black Guard and Indus-
trial police, all with uniforms
and weapons, to function in
their zone. :

Knowing the strength of feel-

ing among their peoples against

- allowing Germany to rise again
as an armed threat to the peace
of Europe—a feeling that four
years of cold war propaganda

against Russia have not been
able to soften—neither the Brit-
ish nor the French governments
would admit what their actions
and secret conferences confirm-
ed.

But arming of the West Ger-
man puppet state has been the
aim of Wall Street policy from
the outset. Its big investment
bankers, like General Draper, a
director of the Wall Street firm
of Dillon, Read which helped to
finance Hitler’s rise to power,
fought against destruction of
the German cartels. Hjalmar
Schacht was released by the In-
ternational Military Tribunal
over Soviet nrotest. Nazi indus-

oS

Here U.S. Defense Secretary Louis Johnson (left) and Gar! *

Plots to rearm Germany

trialists were restored to power.

- Denazification became a farce.
essential to ©

Steel production,
any rearmament, climbed steadi-
lv. 2

Pointing out that during the
Second World War, five, ten and
20 German divisions were wiped
out by the Soviet army in a
single cperation, Max Werner,
whose military analyses won
him a big public during the war,
wrote in the National Guatrdian:

“In the improbable case of
war, a West German army
would not even be captured in
fighting; it would simply be ar-
rested by the Soviet military
police.”

eral Omar Bradley are seen being greeted by Defense Under-
Secretary Stephen Early and Air Force Secretary W. Stuart
Symington on their return to Washington from Paris.

During the past month, two

of Asia. The other, meeting at

ports on the two conferences.
LONDON

The inaugural proceedings of
the new right-wing trade union
international now meeting here
make it quite clear that one of
the main aims of the organization
is to woo colonial, Asiatic and
Latin American labor away from
the World Federation of Trade
Unions. They also indicate that
the AFL, CIO and British Trades
Union Congress, which lead the
conference, are not going to find
that task easy.

Despite the fact that only right-
wing colonial unions certified as
anti-Communist are taking part,
their delegates made sharp state-
ments on the preamble to the
constitution of the new organiza-
tion, demanding if it really meant
what it said in proclaiming “the
right of all peoples to self-govern-
ment.” This was a marked n-
trast to the pupil-teacher relation-
ship expected of them by the Brit-
ash TUC, whose international secre-
tary, Denis Healey, wrote patron-
izingly in a pre-conference re-
lease: “At this meeting representa-
tives of infant organizations in
Asia and Africa will mix on equal
terms with experienced leaders of
long-established unions in the
western world.”

Subsequent speeches of colonial
delegates laid little stress on the
anti-communism, which was the
reason they had been invited, and
much on national oppression and
hpoor living standards. British Gui-
ana delegate H. Critchlow asked
the conference for practical steps
to assist workers in his country
who, he said, work 64 hours a

Protests in Argentina and throughout the world have blocked the Peron gover
port Vitorio Codovilla, general secretary of the Argentine Communist party.
Codovilla and three other Communist leaders who were jailed for speaking at a meeting
the 32nd anniversary of the founding of the USSR, have been freed.
one of the secretaries of the Argentine party,

‘ings nevertheless occurred within

A cable from Armedo Alvarez,

ter, chairman of the U.S: Com-|{-

munist party, declared:

“National. and international sol-
idarity of extraordinary propor-
tions freed the Communist Pris-
oners and blocked the deporta-
tion of Codovilla. The campaign
for democratic liberty continues.
We. express our thanks for your
support.”

A considerable victory, the halt-
ing of the deportation procceed-

the framework of a widening at-
tack on civil liberties by the Peron
regime. : :

Only recently, government rep-
resentatives moved inson the ad-
ministration of all ~anti-Peron
newspapers, including such a
‘world-renowned conservative oF
gan as La Prensa. —

The Communist papélt, La
“Hora, has been denied the use
of the mails by Peron’s ministry
of the interior, while police har-
ass and intimidate persons who _
sell the paper on the streets.

As part of the drive towards
fascism, the
has arrested 30 workers under an
Argentine version of the Tatt-

Peron government |,

Hartley law for taking part in
the sugar strike.

Protests win freedom for
entine Communists

BUENOS AIRES

nment’s threat to~de-

to honor

to William Z. Fos-

week and are paid $1.52 a day.
“The moment a/ worker asks for
more money he is called a Com-
munist,” Critchlow testified.

The Cyprus delegate, repre-
senting an extreme right-wing
minority of a union movement
that is not attending the confer-
ence, disconcerted the BTUC
delegation by attacking “British
tyranny” over his home country.
He complained that no anti-
Communist movement could suc-
ceed among Cyprus workers
while the island remains “a slave
to another country.” .

While European. Socialist dele-
gates abandoned their stand

Menzies prepares witch-hunt

in attack upo
“w SYDNEY
A call to the Australian labor
movement to unite in defending
its living standards and liberties
from attack by the new coalition
government headed by Prime

Minister R. G. Menzies was issued |,

this week by R. Dixon, president
of the Australian Communist par-
ty. :
Dixon declared that the anti-
Communist witch-hunt Menzies is
expected to launch as his first act
in office was the means by which
the Liberal-Country coalition hop-
ed to divide the progressive move-
ment, smash the militant trade
union, suppress civil liberties and
lower living standards. He warn-
ed that if Menzies was allowed to
ban the Communist party without
united opposition the witch-hunt
would be carried into every popu-
iar organization.

labor’s gains

ROBERT DIXON

against admission of Catholic
church-controlled unions to the
new federation, the Asiatic and
colonial delegates persisted in op-
position, Miss Kara, representing
some Indian unions, said unions
affiliated to the Christian Trade
Union International should not be
admitted because they were di-
rected by “an outside source.” The
colonials were voted down 46 to
8 on this issue.

The stand of non-European del-
egates at the conference was a
pale reflection of rank-and-file at-
titudes in their own countries,
since they represent only right-
wing, and in some cases govern-
ment-controlled, unions there.

Japanese ~delegates, for ex-
ample, were screened and allow-
ed to travel by General Douglas
MacArthur’s occupation head-
quarters. which refused to let
delegates from other unions at-
tend sessions of the WFTU. The
Indian delegation comes from
the Indian National Trade Union
Congress, set up by the govern-,
ment after the jailing of lead-
ers of the long-established All-
India Trade Union Congress, a&
WFTU affiliate.

Parleys reflect
struggle around |
world labor unity

trade union conferences have been

in session in capitals both geographically and politically a world apart.
One, the Trade Union Conference of Asian and Australasian Coun-
tries, sponsored by the World Federation of Trade Unions, has been
discussing in Peking the problems of uniting the organized workers
of Europe and Asia for the full independence of the colonial peoples

London, has concerned itself with

organization of a new right-wing trade union international whose pur-
pose is to split and destroy the unity of world labor. Below are re-

PEKING

The Trade Union Conference of
Asian and .Australasian Countries,
meeting under World Federation
of Trade Unions auspices in the
new capital of China, as appealed
to all American, British, French
and Dutch workers to act in sup-
port of the‘ fight of Asia’s colon-
ial peoples for full independence.

. “Your governments pretend that
they are respecting the rights of
the peoples to self-determination,”
the appeal, dated December 1, says,
“but they are lying. In actual
fact they are carrying out a bru-
tal colonial policy’in Asia. A peo-
ple which oppresses another is not
a free people.” 3

“We know that you do not sup-
port the colonial and aggressive
policy of the imperialists,” the
appeal continues. “It is contrary
to your interests. It leads to the
shedding of your blood. It entails
a constant increase of expendi-
ture leading to heavier taxation
or inflation, both of which finally
weigh on the workers. . . . Credits
needed for education, reconstruc-
tion, housing and public health
are sacrificed to expenses entailed
by colonial wars. They benefit on-
ly those who continue to reap
profits from inhuman exploitation
of men, women and even’children
in colonial countries, or from the
supply of war equipment.”

Documenting its charges that
the British, Dutch, French and
U.S. governments are engaged in
suppressing labor and indepen-
dence movements in Asia, the ap-
peal cited the following facts:

@ “During the last year, in
Indonesia alone, more than 25,-
000 patriotic: fighters and trade
unionists affiliated to the na-
tional trade union center—
SOBSI—have been killed or im-
prisoned. Numerous leaders of
this organization, among them
Harjono, Darusman and Eei Gee
Hwai, were murdered in Decem-
ber, 1948.

@ “In Malaya, British author-
ities havé banned the Pan-Mal-
ayan Federation of Labor and
executed its leaders Veerasanan
and Ganapathy. 1

@ “In (U.S. zone) South Kor-
ea, many union leaders have
been jailed, tortured or execut-
ed....In the island of Cheju
alone, 295 villages out of 400
were burned down, In southern
Depla province, more than 600
persons were shot in one month.”

Calling for protest demonstra-
tions by Western labor, the ap-
peal commended “the fraternal sol-
idarity shown by French workers
on the Dunkirk, Algiers, Marseilles
and La Rochelle docks who re-
fused to load ships» bound for Viet
Nam.” It also praised “the grow-
ing resistance of Dutch soldiers
preferring imprisonment to any
participation in the bloody terror
against the Indonesian people.”

“Only a powerful and organized
drive of the workers can compel
the governments of your coun-
tries to cease their armed inter-
vention in the countries of Asia,”
the appeal concludes.

The appeal called attention to at-
tempts by the governments of col-
onial powers to “mask their op-
pressive policy by setting up pup-
pet governments to confuse public
opinion,’ Such as the Hatta gov-
ernment in Indonesia and the Bao

Dai regime in Viet Nam.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 16, 1949—PAGE 3