3s
S. AlOUBY

ee

"Uneasy lies the head’

es

in Middle East today

$45 million in dividends for for-
eign financiers. But in many
firms Egyptians share with Brit-

PULING~ is dangerous in the
. — Middle East. Assassination is

@n occupation! risk. A bullet or
a knife is not an unusual end to
& too-successful political career.
King Abdulla, of Transjordan,
the British government’s most
faithful follower in the Middle
East, was shot by a terrorist. ~
A few days earlier, Riad El-Solh
Bey, the ex-prime minister of

- Lebanon, was also assassinated.

In Iran two political leaders,

‘General Razmara and his minis-

ter of education, were killed a
‘few months ago.

In Egypt no fewer than seven
Prime ministers and minsters
have been shot during the last
ten years, and there have been

_ another ten unsuccessful attempts

against political leaders, includ-
ing Nahas Pasha, the present

- prime minister.

_ Im Syria three coups d’etat
have taken place in the last three
years. The first president of the
Tepublic, Shukri Bey el Kuwatly,
Was thrown out of the* country,
While another, Colonel Husni
aim, was shot with his minister,
Mohsen Barazy. ,

Two months later the general
Tesponsible for the coup d’etat,
‘Sami Hinnawi, was assassinated.

What is the background to the
frequent political murders in this
Part of the world?
' First, economic conditions in
the Middle East are appalling.
As the Economic Committee of
United Nations has pointed out,:
0 percent of the population lives
‘On the starvation level.

Most of the land is concentrat-

“din the hands of a few big
; landlords, while the vast majority
‘ of peasants have nothing.

Wagés of industrial workers
8nd agricultural laborers are ex-
Temely low. Most of the raw
materials — principally oil and
‘Cotton—are in the hands of the

_ British.

Against all this there is a grow-
QS popular revolt.
Since 1882 the British govern-

“ent has maintained big! forces »

; the .area to protect British
Nterests and “keep. order.” But
after many years of bitter

- Struggle for national \indepen-

 Ploita

“ence the people are aware of
‘Certain facts.
the

ir corrupt ruling classes are
“ € allies of British and Ameri-
ay rulers, They know that their
; a Politicians are puppets
Tough which Britain and the
7S Carry out a policy of ex-
tion and suppression.
Take the example of Egypt.

About $600 million of foreign

-*apital is invested in the country,
‘*Toducing at a modest. estimate

_They know, for instance, that

* ish and American financiers the

capital and interest.

.

Egypt is a police state. Three
thousand political prisoners are
held in Upper Egypt. The peas-
ants are growing restive; they
have protested violently against
the exhorbitant rents extorted by
landlords.

The resentment of peasants and
city workers against the terrible
conditions in which they live is
heightened by their awareness of
the fact that senior army officers
and palace officials are known to
be making huge fortunes out of
fraudulant transactions in defec-
tive arms for the Egyptian army.

Not only is 90 percent of the
population on the starvation level,
but on an average of the popula-
tion each person suffers from
‘three diseases. if

What is true of Egypt is equal-—

ly applicable to Iraq, Syria, Leb-
anon and Jordan. :

But through the revolt against
semi-starvation ‘and police op-
pression rises, the whole area
suffers from the lack of a well
organized working-class
ment. Nor is there any alliance
between the town workers and
the peasants.

The result is that: many mis-
guided people, seeing no organ-
ized movement, believe that the
individual assassination of cor-
rupt rulers will make a solution
of the peoples’ problems, possible.

That is one aspect of Middle
Eastern affairs.

The other is the conflict of

interests and policy between Brit-

ian and America.

A section of the ruling class is’

welcoming the d6llar and pre-
tending to support the people
against Britain. If a ruler re-
mains pro-British there are in-
evitably plots against his life.
On the other hand, the British
politicians try to counter Ameri-

- ean influence through various in-

trigues. They are hoping to de-
stroy the republics of Syria and
Lebanon and to replace them by
a new political force—Greater
Syria, which will be a combina-
tion of Iraq, Jordan, Syria and
Lebanon. This would balance
the pro-American bloc of Egypt
and Saudi Arabia. f

The assassination of King Ab-
dulla and Riad El-Solh can only
be seen correctly in light of these
intrigues. It is a blow against

the Greater Syria plan, and a

victory for American policy in
the Middle East.

t

Ares

| LABOR LEADER SAYS

| ‘Sick of U.S. leadership’ |

ad | remember uke ‘after the
oF E

the Conservative prime minister,

Will be, found to admit that
of America.

4 deplore it enormously.”

Labor party rally.

us whole political generation made the suppo
Of Turkey the chief basis of its foreign policy,

| ina speech—that all the time they, the Conservative party, oe

N putting their money on the wrong horse. -
“I hope it will not be long before som:

Wrong horse in always following the lead o

“As an Englishman I am sick of it. As. a Socialist I

_—Sir Charles Trevelyan, minister of educt
first two Labor governments, speaking to a

Conservative party had for ‘a
rt of the Sultan
Lord Salisbury,

told them—threw it off casually

me great Labor leader
we are putting money on the

f the United States

“of education in Britain's
Newcasile

move-.

GEORGE MORRIS

Truman also.involved in naming
Murray's successor as CIO head

HE story that Philip Murray
wants to give up the presi-
dency of the CIO has released

a tremendous amount of gossip, |

guesses and predictions on the
likely successor. In line with a
long-established tradition, we will
not indulge in guesses or try shot-
in-dark “predictions.” But of
course there are some funda-
mental aspects to this problem
that are worth discussing.

First, Murray, a8 far as is
known, has only declared his in-
tention to drop the CIO presi-
dency. He will hold on to the
equally important post of presi-
dent of the steel union and con-
trol of its more than a fifth of
voting strength in the CIO.

Second, Murray threatened to
quit the post at least once before
for reasons of health. But that
proved to be his way of obtaining
additional powers in the CIO, es-
pecially to fight the left.

Third, differences in the CIO
today do not express themselves
clearly on ideological grounds.
Internal strife has increased to
serious proportions, especially
within certain of the major un-
ions, notably auto, steel and tex-
tile. And there has been a grow-
ing number of cutthroat jurisdic-
tional disputes. The jockeying
for support among candidates for

Murray’s post wwill undoubtedly |

hasten the jelling of group lines
within the CIO. :

Fourth, the main contending

forces for high position and the
likely control of the CIO that
the post carries, are the steel and
auto unions, each with a million
members. Both have about half
the membership and unquestion-
ably a. decisive voting control
over the CIO. - i
Murray centers around himself
mainly the “pure and simple,”
not very political, tendency, and
a much closer support of the
Catholic hierarchy than most la-
bor leaders enjoy. ~ :
Reuther is mainly surrounded

by men of some “socialist”

tradition and attracts his support
largely through a leftish-sound-
ing political and “social” appeal.
Both Reuther and Murray have

-

won high praise among the em-

ployers they deal with.
As it appears now, Murray
could virtually dictate a replace-

‘

ment for himself and through

‘him practically run the CIO,+

while nominally being only presi-
dent of the steel union.

It could also happen that the
clash between the two big unions
may be so sharp and threatening
to the CIO that a compromise
would be reached on someone
from a smaller union or one not
even mentioned by the specula-
tors. Or steel may name the head
and auto may get the secretary-
treasurer, with Jim Carey eased
out to be fulltimer over his IUE.

But there is one very important
and probably basic factor that
most speculators have not taken
into account; the fact that the
CIO is not really an independent

labor body. It has not been since
its leadership undertook to tie it

to the Truman administration,
especially the state department.

The CIO machinery, especially
at the top, has become so com-
pletely tied hand and foot to the
administration, especially since
1948, that it went as far
as to expel unions with nearly
a fifth. of its membership and
spent millions of dollars in ef-

forts to destroy them, because

they didn’t want to become a-
labor front for the Truman for-
eign policy. . s

The Truman administration,
therefore, becomes an important
party to the selection of a suc-

cessor to Murray. Its political
considerations abroad, are very
important factors in this busi-
ness. The state department
would probably consider it a mis-
fortune if someone got the job
who was not too “appreciative?
of present foreign policy or not
strong enough to whip the CIO
in line for it.

There, .are,..of. course, . far

-weighter considerations when so —

important a post as the CIO pres-
idency is to be filled. One who
is a unionist first, would reason
that the man most likely to sym-
bolize a revival of militancy, in-
dependence and unity in the
CIO should fill the post. It would
seem that the CIO needs a presi-
dent who could restore the spirit —
of ’36 and the conditions for a
reunion with the expelled unions
that retain more than 600,000
members, despite raids. :

But such are not the consider-
ations in the back rooms where
the matter is being decided. There
seems to be no one in the run-
ning for Murray’s post who could
symbolize such a new day for
the CIO. et eee

Anyway, all speculation about
the matter may be just a waste.
Phil Murray may “yield to mass

pressure” and consent to reelec-
of the coun-

tion “for the good
try.”

COST OF WORLD WAR 2

.

- 000,000). The cost
globe was $1,708.

War are met. — ;

tion’s Economic Notes for

~ $4,000,000,000,000

| each are too small when it comes to estimating the

cost of the Second World War to the nations of the. world.
U.S. Library: of Congress statisticians have figured out that
the recent war cost a total of four trillion dollars ($4,000,000.-.
to every man, woman and child on the

~The share of the U.S. in these global figures will be one
_ trillion four hundred’ billion dollars before all costs of the last
\_ Forty million lives were lost’in the Second World War—
soldiers and civilians, men, women and children.
' . The facts and figures are given in Labor Research Associa-
October, together with estimates of
_ what could be achieved if the current U.S. military appropriations
of nearly, $100 billion were devoted to peaceful purposes such
as schools, hospitals and housing. sagt ere eee

PACIFIC TRIBUNE —

OCTOBER 5, 1951 — PAGE 9 _