a wonder how many CCF members feel happy about the recent national convention . . . There is reason to believe thal certain decisions taleen at the con- vention did not adequately reflect the opinions of the delegates. A case in point was the crucial de- hate on Korea . . . To those who are concerned about keeping, the party genuinely democratic an genuinely socialist, some of the trends apparent at Vancouver were disturbing. 2 --. =~ => —Canadian Forum, September, 1950. This admission in the semi-offi- cial CCF journal is 4 mild refiec- tion of the real feelings in CCF ranks. M. J. Coldwell, CCF na- tional leader, being condemned by CCF workers. He resorted to the trick of making 2 national state- ment of CCF policy on Korea the night before the CCF convention to force the hand of the in order : : : delegates. This is being widely discussed. So strong is the re- sentment that the Canadian For- um .felt compelled to print a “giscussion article” by Ss. W. Brad- ford denouncing the foreign poli- cies of the CCF. The crux of the fight is the poli- cy of the CCF right wing to drag the party behind imperialist ag- gression. The right wing leaders headed by Coldwell, try to pre- tend ignorance about what is ag- gression. They hide behind the ecolossai hoax of U.S. war propa ganda that the charged aggres- sion applies to the internal con- flict in Korea. They make a great point (as does Dorothy Thomp- son) that it is not communism they are fighting in Korea. They pretend to support the war aay because an act of “aggression was committed. They pretend not to know that an act of aggression is an attack of one state upon another; not a conflict between classes within a state. t We must not ‘fall for the petty lawyer’s trick of the CoOL in: ry: ing to keep the argument on the question: Who fired the first/shot, North Korea or South Korea? The evidence that South Korea in- vaded North Korea on June 25 is mountain high, including the sworn statements of members of the South Korean government and the whole record of the openly planned and declared intentions and preparations of South Korea to attack. > But every socialist-minded CCF- er knows that a mountain of facts will not stop an imperialist ruling class from spreading its lies. Of course the propaganda ma- chine of U.S. imperialism has “es- tablished” as a “fact” that “North Korea attacked South Korea.” The right wing CCF leaders cling to that as a drowning man clings to a straw. But this falsification does not prove what they are des- perately trying to “prove” to jus- tify their utter betrayal of every vestige of socialist principle. In the 1860’s Napoleon III sent troops to Mexico to intervene in the civil war. The U.S. protested and declared that this was armed intervention in the internal af- fairs of Mexico, demanding the withdrawal of French troops im- mediately. In the American civil war Eng- land planned to intervene on the side of the slave-owning South. The North under Lincoln, which had been attacked by the South, invaded the Southern states, de- feated the Southern armies and re-united the country. No ‘idiot would dare to apply the word ag- gression to the American civil war. But if the British govern- ment had carried out its inten- tion to intervene there is no doubt that under international law that would have been an act of aggres- sion. The CCE right wing hypocriti- cally talk about “upholding inter- national law” as the only guaran- tee of peace. What is the estab- lished printiple of international law? There is not to be found anywhere in internationai law or practice any justification whatever for attempting to apply the charge of “aggression” to internal con- flicts within one and the same state. But there is absolute clar- ity that intervention of one state in the internal affairs of another is agression. The Geneva Protocol of 1924, established the principle. In 1933 Soviet-proposed agree- ments were signed in the League of Nations defining aggression as > 4 By STEWART SMITH any one ofja whole series of desig- nated warlike acts of one state against another state. In 1986 the protecol on non-in- tervention in the internal or ex- ternal affairs of other nations, signed at Buenos Aires, contained the same principle. Finally the United Nations Charter itself in its prohibition df © aggression makes clear that it hes lates to thei “threat or use of force’ by one state “against the territorial integrity or political independence” of any other state. And it clearly excludes internal conflicts. met is Article 2, clause 7, reads: “No- thing contained in the present charter shall authorize the Uni- “ ted Nations to intervene in mat- ters which are essentially with- in the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the members to submit such mat- ters to settlement under the pre- sent Charter.” ; This is a matter of fundamental democratic and socialist convic- tion for every CCF member and worker, 3 No socialist will permit reaction to equate the class struggles with the crime ,of war. No socialist will agree for a moment that the class struggle within a state can justify foreign armed intervention. which is always against democra- ey and socialism. Everyone knows that reaction- ary rulers *through history have turned traitor to their nations and called for foreign intervention whenever subject classes threat- ened their rule. The Stuart kings of England tried to organize for- eign intervention to crush the Cromwellian revolution. The Am- _ erican slave owners appealed for foreign-‘intervention against the — North. The French ruling class let in the Germans to crush the’ Paris Commune in 1871. The Tsarist ruling class and generals helped the foreign intervention of French, British, U.S. and Cana- dian troops against the Russian revolution. ° In every Case interventionists were guilty of aggression. If the. CCF right wing now want to write history differently and make the revolutionary peoples guilty of ag- gression and the foreign interven- tionists merely innocent police- men, they will fool no one. ©: Fascist aggression used the meé- (Continued on page 12) é An interview with LEN ROBIN LONDON ROUND FACED man climbed on to the platform at a recent peace conference in London and described him- self to the delegates as a “no- torious warmonger.” “T am perhaps better known as the man who fought with the partisans in Italy than for my activities with the parti- sans of peace,” he said. - The man was Lieut—Col. Vladimir Peniakoff, D.S.O., M.C. — known to all as “Pop- ski.” : .. Popski became ‘a legend throughout the armies in the Middle East. With a small company of men and aided by local Arabs he blew up petrol | dumps and harried the Ger- mans and Italians behind their own lines, — And later with his Private Army, which was officially born in November, 1942, he kept down large numbers of troops . in the desert and Italy. But recently Popski, a man who thought fighting a highly skilled game and a man who enjoyed war, signed the World peace petition. And in an in- terview he told me why. eS : “Although I enjoyed fighting -wars in the rather old-fashion- ed way,” he said, “I am very conscious that war is a sordid business, ; “In special circumstances you could manage to get some- thing out of it, and it brought out many qualities in our men which were desirable. Many good qualities.” He was refer- ‘ring to the good comradeship and spirit that existed among his men. “But an atomic war would have none of these compensat- ing advantages. It would only be destructive, and no desirable human qualities could derive from such a war.” Talking to this quiet, well- built, middle-aged man, whose left hand was shot away and whose face is tanned from his years in the desert, it was hard to believe that he was the man who by cunning set German tank fighting German tank and | then disappeared laughing. One evening he walked about Derna, Cyrenaica, for two hours before dark in his khaki shirt and slacks while the Ger- mans thought he was an Ita- lian and the Italians took him for a German. All this time he was surveying two prison camps where British and other prisoners were kept. Later he sent in escape in- structions with local Arabs who were allowed to sell fruit and eggs to the prisoners. Over 50 men escaped. With the aid of the Long Range Desert Group, who ran a “taxi service” and with whom he worked, he got them back to the British lines, ‘One of Popski’s most satis- factory operations in Italy was when he posed as an Italian quartermaster sergeant and rang up a German Major Schulz to offer him eight cases of cognac. Popski and _ his driver visited Major Schulz la- ter that night, the way oblig- ingly cleared through German guards by the major. ‘ They knocked him out with a rubber truncheon and found on his desk the ration strength of units of the First Parachute Division. Two hours later over the wireless to the First British © Airborne Division went a mes- sage giving the strength of German troops outside Taran- to. . Popski told me that he and his men went behind the lines in heavily-armed jeeps in Italy up to a maximum of about 50 miles, ) Many people think that Pop- Popski signs the peace petition | fields. “The sudden impact of this ski is Polish. He is not. He was born in Belgium of Rus- sian parents. How did he get christened Popski? The name Peniakoff was too difficult for staff offi- cers to understand on the tele- phone. His force received its name when a colonel said jok- ingly: “Let’s call it Popski’s Private Army!” Popski was _ very pleased when I told him that about 15 million Italian people had al- ready signed the appeal for the banning of the atom bomb and the branding of the first coun- try to use it as a: war criminal. e For he is much at home in Italy and goes there from time to time to see ‘his partisan friends with whom he fought. “{ think very highly indeed of the Italian partisans,” he told me. This can also be seen from his book Private Army, in which he writes: “After the Italian Armistice, the Romangnoli trained to ad- minister their own affairs in the , cooperatives, and helped by the sound organization and the strong discipline of the Communist party, soon ran the most efficient partisan forma- tion in Italy. “Considering them with a professional eye, I soon per- ceived that they were good sol- diers and of a quality quite new to me in my experience of - partisans.” 3 In Italy Popski called on a large landowner to try to get help for the thousands of re- fugees who were on the roads. “The compassionate peasants fed them as they could, but poor themselves, they had al- | ready been eaten out; in every tumbledown farm hosts and guests starved together and such was the press that many misery shook us as the bloodi- ness of battle had never done, © and we soon found ourselves. out of rations,’ he wrote. ‘ Popski could not get any help from the Italian landowner, whose urgent problem was sel- ling his olive oil crop. “I gave up,” wrote Popski. “After the war,'I thought, the miserable people of this land will settle their accounts with their) masters. Let us go now and beat the Germans.” I think that Popski is dis- appointed that the Italian peo- ple haven’t yet settled their accounts fully with their “mas- bers.) ie “The misery’ in Italy, which results not only from the war but from social conditions, is more acute than ever,” he told me. ‘ “There are two to three mil- lion permanently unemployed and large numbers of people partially employed. ; “Conditions are extremely difficult, especially among the peasants, | “Italians feel very strongly about war because they have suffered more than many peo-. ple; they lost the war, they were made to fight in a war 'in which they did not believe, and their country is very much devastated. “Most of the partisans would of course, be in the lead against the atom bomb,” he emphasized. xy When Popski returned from the wars a hero he was front- -page news in the capitalist press. But when he spoke at the peace conference he re- ceived only the barest mention in One or two papers, Popski is a man who has seen war. millions throughout the world who have signed the peace pe- tition, he doesnt want an atom war. \ te PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 13, 1950 — PAGE £ ‘ " 4 And like the many~ __