Soviet workers signing the world peace petition.

By GEORGE
MATTHEWS

EVER in the history of |

AN humanity has there been
a government which: has
fought for peace with such

- eonsistency as has the Soviet

government. “i

In fact, it has made at least —

38 efforts for peace since it came
into being in 1917. Has any other
government such a ‘record? ae
Nor has there ever ‘been a gov-
ernment whose peace proposals

have been so consistently turned © ve

gown by other powers. de

The Soviet Union came into ex-
 istence in the struggle against
- the First World War. On the sec-
ond day after the conquest of
power the Soviet government pro-
- posed “to all warring nations and
their governments to begin im-

mediate negotiations for a just

and dGemocratic peace.”
But the war continued. And

even before Germany was defeat-
ed the Allied Powers began their
wars of intervention against the *

| Soviet Union.

Between November % 183%, and
December 10, 1919, the Soviet gov
- ernment made nine peace offers to.
the ‘Allied governments. —

-. Phe first. eight were ignored.
“The last was returned ‘unopened.

| Im 1920, under Winston Chur- |
. ghill’s inspiration, the Poles were

encouraged and assisted in an un-
: ‘provoked attack on Soviet terri-

tory. Further intervention was on- —

ly prevented by the firm policy of
- the Soviet Union, the heroism of

the Red Army, and the action of »

: merece in the — countries.

In the ek after the Revolu-
tion, the Soviet Union renounced

In 1928, & wad the Sek Govdtn’
“ment. in the world to ratify the |
 Kellog Pact, which renounced war
as an tnagrmens: of Aomean ert :

“put forward proposals for partial
_ disarmament. «Thege were also re-

jected.

.

With the wrecking of the Dis-
armament Conference, the sharp-
ening War danger, and the with-
drawal of fascist Germany and
Japan from the League of Na-
- tidns, the Soviet Union entered

“the League in 1934.

From then until the outbreak
of war in 1939, it conductel a

Sparnificent fight for collective se-
“curity against fascist aggression.

Tt was the Soviet Union which

led the wotld movement against

: of Abyssinia, and
- farce of “non-inter-

vention” in Spain. _

. In March; 1938, after the annex-
- ation

of Austria by Hitler, the
Soviet government proposed col-

lective action to stop further ag--
: Bression.

In September, 1938, a month

wa

THE SOVIE T REC ORD sconnsiunnpdnvacnnvniscnayataceninhabeyautanvayavenvanavasaarain

33 peace bids
in 33 years”

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°

I

before Munich, it declared its in-
tention to assist Czechoslovakia,
tegether with France, in the eveat
of a German attack,

In “March, 1939, after the final

occupation of Czechoslovakia by *\

Hitler, the Soviet Union proposed
a six-power conference to discuss
the threat to Poland and Ruman-\ ‘
ia. The British government’ reject-
ed the proposal as “premature.”

The Soviet government then
proposed, on April 1%, -1939, 2
Triple Defensive Alliance of
France, Britain and the Soviet
Union.

The British government theré-
upon embarked on a policy _of

deliberately dragging out negotia- —

tions and putting every possible
obstacle and delaying tactics in
the way of agreement.

_ Finally, when it became com-
pletely clear that the British and
French governments did not want.
an agreement, but wanted Hitler
to attack the Soviet Union, the
Soviet government concluded a
non-aggression pact with Ger-
many.

the imperialists and gained a re-

spite to prepare for the great
struggle which was to come.

The immense contribution the
Soviet Union made to victory over
fascism in the Second World War

weuld need no emphasis if there
were not people now, lost to all
sense of honor and decency, who
me to make us forget the colossal

efforts and sacrifices of the Soviet
pecple. See

During the war years the Soviet

Inion concluded the Crimea and
Potsdam agreements with. the
other Allied governments, with
the aim of continuing in the post-
war years the co-operation achiev-
ed during the war. .

It has since adhered consistently

“to those agreements, while Brit-

ain and the U.S. have torn them
up.

Jn 1945, the Soviet Union played
a leading part in the San Fran-
cisco Conference which establish-
-ed the United Nations. But even
before the.end of the Second
World War, Churchill and the
U.S. reactionaries were preparing
for the third.

So the British and American
representatives opposed or sabo-
taged every peace proprosal of the
Soviet Union. ,

In 1946, the Soviet. government

proposed a general reduction of -

armaments and the prohibition. of
the atomic weapon. The United

: | Nations passed the resolution,’ but
Thus it frustrated the plans of. |

it has never been implemented.
In 1947, the Soviet governmen

proposed measures against war

propaganda and Be instigators of

“a new war. ~

Again, ertered down, the reso-
lution was passed. Again it has
never been implemented.

In 1948, it proposed a one-third

reduction, within a year, of all

armed forces and armaments of |
the five great powers. This pro-

posal was Bane:

In 1949, it proposed a pact be-

tween the five great powers to

strengthen peace.
rejected.

Gn nine separate océasions, the
Soviet government has made pro-
posals for banning the atom
bomb, with a system of interna-
tional ‘control and inspection.
Each time its proposals have beea

This was also

- turned down.

Repeatedly the Soviet Union has

-ealled for the implementation of
‘the Potsdam agreement,

which
laid down that a peace treaty
should be concluded with an All-
German Democratic government.

In 1948, the Soviet government
urged that such a government
should be es‘ablished and a peace
conclu ted

The Western powers refused to
agree, ‘
®

Now, in 1950, the Soviet govern-
ment wholeheartedly supports the
@emands of the great world peace
petition, ‘which the Western gov-
ernments reject.

There is nothing mysterious
about the reason why the Soviet
Union, now as’ always, desires and
fights for peace. Its peace policy
corresponds to its social structure.
_ As Stalin has repeatedly said,
and as Lenin said before him, the
Soviet attitude is that the peace-
ful co-existence of the capitalist
and socialist systems is not only
possible, but necessary. It has no
doubt at all that peaceful com-
petition between the two systems
will soon show which is the better —
for the working people.

By RUPERT

LOCKWOOD -

: ge ae Sine ROME

fe Mussolini,
march on Rome via Wagon-

lits and arrive according to wees

planned schedule. .

Before the war they used to
tell how Mussolini made the
~ trains run on time, and often
Ap.see ed Mussolini’s stadiums,
* swimming pools and white wed-
- ding-cake war memorials.

Peg pee dia tourists venture in-

. the workers’ suburbs, to see
i hovels in which Mussolini;
“joused families whose taxes had

paid for rich men’s swimming
I went to a peace meeting in

one of these workers’ settle-
ments provided by Mussolini.
- The workers’ families had left
_ their ‘slushy’ communal wash-
houses and primitive communal
lavatories and their one-room
dwellings to hear the message of

driving their American jeeps in-
to the crowd, at full tilt, If the |

tourists _

crowd splits and dodges quickly,
the jeep crashes into the fire
hydrant. ;

The Italian ‘crisis is so acute

working-class ranks for politi-
cal divisions and subtleties. The
workers are militantly and un-
itedly against the Marshall plan
and the government that starves

them, against the Washington ;

against anti-democratic war |

preparations that deepen their
misery and swell the ranks of
their unemployed host of three
millions.

erans of partisan battles, they

singing Rossa and the
Internationale. Most of them go
to Mass. Most of them are

their hovels, but not all for Sun-
day dinner,

The main political aailer in
the settlement had typical one-
room, one double-bed accommo-

children.

“The husband was. on the
bed, sick with fever\and mal-
nutrition. In the corner on a
‘pench were three bunches of
turnip-tops. This ‘ood was

that there isn’t much room in>

“houses.
Being Italian workers and eke ;

‘finished their peace meeting by |
Way, by the Catacombs where
early Christians carried on their —
heroic underground struggle, by
the route of Holy Year pilgrims
"walking from the Grand Hotel —

“The Italian people fight for peace

all the two adults and eight
children had for the days aaa

it was Sunday.

Somehow or other, ten hu-
man beings have to find repose
in that double-bed. It is the
same in many other slum rooms.
in this Mussolini settlement.

Holy Year pilgrims, who arrive

by Pan-American Airways and
Trans-World Airlines, cannot:
see the vice the system breeds:
because their eyes are closed in
reverence beneath Michael An-
igs murals in St. Peter’s

 ttaly eries out for icena? boots,
The Marshall — plan
brings: them guns and Coca-

- Bevete Coca-Cola!
The sign is up by the Abéritine

to St. Peter’s.
Drink Coca-Cola! ;
Look aside from the ruins of

} *

“the Roman Forum, where Cato
_declared that Carthage must be
_ destfoyed, and you see pictured
_the torch of a new atomic: cul-

Cie $00 eRe ARNE cap BE > cig

‘Near the spot where lean and

hungry Cassius struck the first —

dagger blow and Julius Caesar
fell denouncing Brutt

“no trace of the blood of a would-

be emperor, but the imperial
sign of Coca-Cola, ;

With hunger, the Celere, Coca-

Cola and Atlantic Pact arms at
the door, the Italian people have
rallied as never before. Dockers,
‘knowing that three million un-
employed stood at the gates, re-—
fused to ynload arms which they

considered were for aggressive

war. The unemployed were with
them. a

But in Marshallised, militaris- _
ed Italy, there are hordes OY
soldiers and gendarmes to break
strikes, Boycotts were not
enough. ;

The Italians, a strong, stent
gent people, realised that the 7
main base of repression, Mar- |-
shallised hunger, blackmail and

- war preparations, was the aror™

‘ic bomb.

The, Italian workers and peas
ants, hungry, landless and op-
pressed as they are, have seen

a since the campaign was
launched, 15,000,000 have signed
the peace petition.

1 i

;

"PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 1, 1950—P.