Isr.ls Arllll Minority: The Great Land Robbery by Hal Draper The Labor Movement In Tropical Africa-II by A. Giacometti

EuropellR SDtilliism-1 Post-War Evolution of The Italian Movement by Lucio Libertini

Tile Mllnillrins' illment by James M. Fenwick Til, EisenllDwer Doctrine r SOC Winter 1957 STATEMENT REQUIRED BY THE ACT OF AUGUST 24, THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 1912, AS AMENDED BY THE ACTS OF MARCH 3, 1933, AND JULY 2, 1946 (Title 39, United States Code, Sec­ THE NEW INTERNATIONAL A Marxist Review tion 233) SHOWING THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION OF THE NEW INTERNATIONAL, A Marxl.f Review Vol. XXIII, No. 1 Whole No. 174 Ilublished quarterly at New York, N. Y., for October 1, WINTER 1957 1956. 1 The names and addresses of the publisher, editor, Vol. XXIII. No. 1 WINTER 1957 Whole No. 174 man~ging editor, and business managers are: Publisher, The New International Publishing Co.; Editor, MilX Shacht­ TABLE OF CONTENTS man; }Ianaging Editor, Julius Falk; Business Manager, L. G. Smith, all of 114 West 14th St., New York, N. Y. 2. The owner is: The New International Publishing Co., QUllrterly Notes: Quarterly Notes: 114 West 14th St., ~ew York, N. Y.; Julius Jacobson, :395 West 11th St., New York, N. Y.; Albert Gates, 114 THE EISENHOWER DOCTRINE ...... 3 West 14th St., New York, N. Y.; Max Shachtman, 114 West 14th St., New York, N. Y. The Eisenhower Doctrine by A. C. 3. The known bondbolders, mortgagees, and other secur­ ity holders owning or holding 1 per eent or more of total From the "greatest Sec­ to the minimum necessary to accomplish amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities are: None. the objective, and if the objective could Articles: 4. Paragraphs 2 and 3 include, in cases where the stock­ retary of State I have ever known," holder or security appears upon the books of the company President Eisenhower obtained his be accomplished by local action, certain­ ISRAEL'S ARAB MINORITY: as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, the name of ly that would be all that would be under­ the person 01' corporation for whom such trustee is actin~; latest "doctrine" for a solution of the THE GREAT LAND ROBBERY...... 7 taken. If it required action outside of the also the statements in the two paragraphs show the at1lant s Middle East crisis. No great departure area, for example, attack staging full knowledge and belief as to the circumstanc{-s and con­ to by Hal Draper ditions under which stockholders and security holders who in American foreign policy has areas, lines of communication, and the do not appear upon the books of the company as trustees, like, then that would be done. I do not hold stock and securities in a capacity otther than that of emerged with this doctrine, since, like EUROPEAN SOCIALISM-! envisage the possibility that there would a bona fide OImer. previous policies, it is an attempt to be, for example, an all-out attack on the POST-WAR EVOLUTION OF 5. The average number of copies of each is~ue of this maintain the world leadership of the publication sold 01' distributed, through the mails or oth~r­ Soviet Union unless it was quite appar­ THE ITALIAN MOVEMENT ...... 30 ~ise, to paid subscribers during the 12 month.'l preceding United States through essentially mil­ ent that what was happening was delib­ by Lucio Libertini the date shown above was: itary predominance. Economic assist­ erately intended to be the beginning of JULIUS JACOBSON, the Third World War. In that event, we Editor ance promised to the Arab nations is Sworn to and subscribed berore me this 21th day of might have to act differently. Those are THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN September, 1956. . subordinated to it. Actually, this new matters which inevitably have to be left TROPICAL AFRICA-II ...... ,46 TONY CAPPELLO. Notary Puhlic, State of New "York objective of containing Stalinist Rus­ to the judgment of the Commander-in­ No. 31-56003100. Ply commisison expires 1\1arch 30, Chief. by A. Giacometti 19:;8.) sia is another variation of Dulles' di­ Published quarterly by The New International Publish­ plomacy, or what the current Progres­ Although we do not believe the ing Co., at 114 West 14th Street, New YOr/[ 11, N. Y. THE MANDARINS' LAMENT ...... G~ sive aptly calls "dangling one foot danger of war to be as acute as it was Re-entered as second class matter March 8, 1950, at the over the brink of war." Under it the by James M. Fenwick 90st ottice at New York, N. Y., udner the Act or March 3, several years ago (as a matter of fact, 187~ . President may engage the nation in a the danger of a new world conflict has Subscription rates: in the U. S., Canada antI A~raba $2.00 per year; bundles 35 cents each tor. ~ve copIes and military adventure if and when he receded considerably), the whole up. Britain, Ireland and Europe, IO/-BrItIsh, or $1.40 feels that it is necessary, without dis­ thinking of the Administration in the U. S. per year; Asia 7 / -British, 01 $1. 00 per year •. MAX SHACHTMAN, Editor Address all editorial and business communications to cussion and without prior endorse­ continuing world crisis revolves The New International, 114 West 14th Street, New York ment by Congress. around "ultimate military solutions." JULIUS FALK, Managing Editor 11, N. Y. This doctrine, drawn to provide the In general, American foreign policy means for engaging in war with Stal­ is fundamentally undemocratic. It is inist Russia, is, paradoxically, de­ undemocratic in its world perspec­ SulJseribe Now to scribed as a great instrument of peace. tives as they relate to the aspirations "I don't think," said the Secretary, and yearnings of the people of the THE NEW INTERNATIONAL "anybody ever thought the Monroe world; it is undemocratic in relation 114 West 14th Stott New York 11. N. Y. Doctrine was a declaration of war. It to the people of the United States, was a declaration of peace, and that is since it ignores the interests of the Rates: $2.00 per year what we are bringing here." But the people. essence of the Eisenhower Doctrine is At the end of the Second World more accurately presented in the de­ Name ...... War, the ferment throughout the con­ scription Dulles gave of it in his testi­ tinental land masses containing mil­ mony before the Senate Committee. Address ...... lions upon millions of colonial peo­ There he said: ples began. It has continued unabat­ elfy...... Zone ...... Sfafe...... We would want to limit our activity ed. The achievement of colonial inde- pendence resolved only the first prob­ land and Hungary, and the crisis in gees feel deceived. They feel that they their area of the world become the lems for the newly established na­ the Middle East. In both events, the were promised goods that were never next battleground in the struggle of tions. The problems of infinitely policies of the State Department have delivered. The American attitude to­ the powers. In almost all the Arab greater magnitude, those of economic been irresolute. fitful, and ambig-uous. ward the Hungarian revolt on the one countries, the reaction to the doctrine and social reconstruction, the require­ Improvization and expediency have hand hailed the heroic struggle has been vigorous enough to cause ments of tremendous amounts of ba­ characterized the Administration's re­ ~gainst the Russian colossus, and on the State Department to put all its sic capital for growth-to these great sponses to these stupendous occur­ the other, worried and wondered resources behind reassurances to the problems, American foreign policy rences. However "daring" the declara­ about the implications of the revolu­ Arabs. One of the Department's mi­ has been bankrupt and, above all, re­ tions of Dulles may have sounded, in tion as method, and the Workers nor (or is it major?) efforts in this actionary. The United States has not every instance they were reduced to Councils as instrument, of the rebel­ direction was the invitation to Saud presented itself as the great spokes­ glib moralizing and sanctimony, to I lion. to come to the United States to ar­ which the Secretary is ever prone. As , man of a new economic and political In the Middle East, American for­ range for his next handout so that he revolution in the colonial world, but the Hungarian events have shown, I I eign policy has one dominating mo­ might purchase more concubines, ~ rather as the heavy-handed defender bombast is a poor substitute for I tive force: oil. For the sake of oil the slaves, automobiles, and keep his arnI­ of the old order, not the defender of policy. government has bribed half a con­ ed and hired assassins loyal to him. the old colonial regimes, but the de­ It might be asked: what could the tinent. On behalf of oil, it has clashed Creating a schism in Arab ranks is no fender of feudal and private property United States have done in the face of with its Allies, condoned slavery, and doubt also an objective inherent in rights where they conflict with the the Hungarian events? Send troops embarked on a high policy of what the visit. needs of the masses. into the country and risk the danger amoun ts to financial bribery of the In all of this, the Administration Among the Western allies, the of a new world war? Obviously not. most miserable rulers in the world, has by-passed the UN. This omission Uni~ed States appears as the provider But American propaganda prior to the Arab chiefs of state. For the has been so gross that Dulles and his of the goods of life, at a price: sup­ the outbreak of the revolt was mis­ friendship of King Saud, the United Chief had to explain that really, noth­ port of American position and policy leading to the people who eventually States refused to subscribe to the anti­ ing will actually be done without the in the world, regardless of the nation­ did the fighting. Propaganda broad­ slavery covenant of the United Na­ UN, or that, in the end whatever al bourgeois interests of these Allies. casts called for a revolt against the tions. For the purpose of dominating commitments the United States makes It is a fact that American prestige tyranny of Stalinism; the people were the area, it refused to join the Bagh­ in that area of the world, are in total in the world has never been lower. led to believe by indirection and im­ dad pact which it helped to initiate. conformity with the UN Charter! We But it cannot be said that it wasn't plication that they would be aided in It has denounced Israel and given are, in effect, says Dulles, carrying rightfully earned. The colonial peo­ their struggle by the "democratic support to Nasser's regime in Egypt out the mandate of the UN in our ples do not regard the United States West." Short of an over-all revolution­ at a time when it appeared that the Middle Eastern policy. as the advocate of their economic, so­ ary world policy based upon the peo­ dictator was on his way out. It has The endorsement of the Dulles­ cial and political freedom, and Ameri­ ple of all countries, the aid which the turned its back on its chief NATO Eisenhower Doctrine for the Middle can foreign policy has never been cal­ country could have given to the Hun­ Allies, Great Britain and France, who East may well give the Administra­ culated to overcome these feelings of garian revolutionaries was indeed ioined the Israel invasion of the Sinai tion the assurance that the whole of the people; on the contrary, it has en­ limited. But even this limited aid was Peninsula, with their own ill-con­ Congress stands behind it in the "non­ forced them. Where American policy not forthcoming. Moreover, as if to ceived and ill-fated, imperialist ven­ party" or "above-party" field of for­ has not been outwardly or directly emphasize its bankruptcy, American ture at Suez. eign affairs. It does not follow that treatment of the Hungarian refugee motivated against the best interests of Then, in great haste the Adminis­ this'is true, even though overwhelm­ problem was once again reactionary. the new Asian states, it has been high­ tration has sought to repair this deb­ ingly voted for. Congressional sup­ No bold, forthright and honest solu­ ly ambiguous. So reactionary or so acle by the elaboration of the Eisen­ port was obtained for Administration tion of the refugee problem has been, ambiguous, that Supreme Court Tus­ hower Doctrine, in which it reassured policy, as it has been many times be­ or will be, achieved. At home, the tice Douglas, for example, has public­ these same Allies and sounded a warn­ fore, on the theory of crisis, an im­ refugee problem is in the hands of our ly deplored the whole substance of the ing to the Arabs about the implica­ minent'threat to national sovereignty native Neanderthals, so that the tiny, visionless foreign policy of the nation. tions of Russian aid to the area. The and the need for national unity. But resource less country of Austria is left Eisenhower Doctrine, however, was what happens in the Congressional THE TWO MOST significant world with the major share of the problem. ill received by the Arab. Nations. halls solves none of the problems in events in recent times are the crisis in Is it any wonder that anti-American They reiected the Eisenhower-Dulles the Middle East, and certainly the world Stalinism epitomized by the re­ feeling among the Hungarian refu­ thesis of the Middle Eastern vacuum; "Doctrine" has solved nothing. It has volt in the satellite countries of Po- gees in Europe runs high? The refu- they are hostile to the suggestion that merely expressed the Administration's 4 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 5 approach to the problems. it possible to intervene everywhere The paradox of this regime, if it and most particularly at this moment Isrllel's ArlllJ Minority: is a paradox, is its reputation as a in the Middle East. "peace" Administration. Up to now, The policies of Great Britain, it is true that war has not occurred France and Israel have made the Rus­ The Great Land Robbery and the danger of its outbreak is not sian penetration of that area much But the discussion of Zionism is beset with the addi­ imminent. The reasons for this lie in tional difficulty that clear and honest thinkina is simpler. Like a parasite, Russian total­ subtly hindered by the fact that really honest speak­ NOTE the concurrence of a number of large itarianism thrives on the activities of ina is almost unattainable. An exceptionally lona his­ The background of this article is given by a previous tory of struggle and suffering has left many sore and one, "Israel's Arab Minority: The Beginning of a international events, not the least of Western imperialism, and appears as sensitive spots in the body of Israel, and the thought­ Tragedy" (NI, Summer 1956), dealing with the 1948 which is the crisis of Stalinism. The the champion of Arab independence, ful Gentile feels the necessity of excessive caution lest Palestine war. • f he touch any of these tender spots; while the Jew, no As before, it is the aim to document all imJ)Grtant mode of thinking of the Administra­ ready to assist these nations in their matter how emancipated, cannot completely oyercome statements from sources which Zionists would recognize tion is, however, military. The eco­ struggle for freedom, apparently with­ the effects of a traditional attitude which puts group as being pro-Jewish rather than pro-Arab. Exceptions loyalty above devotion to the simple truth, and regards to this are clearly labeled in the text or reference nomic aid program worked out by out asking for any kind of quid pro it as the most deadly sin to tell the truth in the hear­ notes, wherever necessary. "The Team" is essentially subordi­ ing of the hereditary enemy. Self-respecting Jews also More than before, the present article refers most quo. Its "disinterest" arises from the cannot help leaning backward in expressions which may often to a basic work which is unfortunately still un­ nated to military exigencies. This is fact that the oil of the area is already endanger their being identified with those who for published, though it has no near rival as the authorita­ true for every part of the world, their belly's sake creep out of the Jewish fold. The dis­ tive and scholarly work on the subjects covered. This is in the hands of the West. With the cussion of Zionism has thus been largely left to those the Ph.D. thesis (Columbia, 1954) by Don Peretz, whether it be Europe, Asia or the expulsion of the West, Stalinist Rus­ who are more zealous about the triumph of their "Israel and the Arab Refugees," in two mimeOiraphed Middle East. There is no such thing righteous cause than scrupulous about the Justice of volumes. sia could try to subject the Middle tbeir arauments. MORRIS RAPHAEL COHEN Since we lean so heavily on it, and on the same as "pure" economic aid as a part of East to an exploitation it has not yet author's magazine articles, an introduction is in order. In viewpoint Dr. Peretz is a disciple of, and dedJeates American foreign policy, aid given on experienced. As an anti- capitalist na­ his book to, Judah L. Magnes, founder of the Ichud, a the premises of broad social programs tion, characterized by a new form of As a result of the mass small group in Israel which is the only wing of the flight of the Palestinian Arab popula­ Zionist movement which still consistently stands for of economic and political freedom. exploitation and oppression, Russia justice to the Arab people. This business' administration is ut­ can and does appear as an advocate tion during the 1948 war, there were Peretz studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusa­ only about 170,000 Arabs left within lem till 1948; during the Palestine war, he was a cor­ terly incapable of embarking on such of freedom only because the capitalist respondent for NBC; in 1949 he returned to Palestine a course, and therein lies its inability West is incapable of shedding its eco­ the expanded borders of Israel's terri­ as Quaker representative with the UN agency in the tory after the armistices, as compared field; later he was Middle East media evaluator for the to neutralize or defeat Stalinism. nomic imperialist interests in the VoIce of America. In 1952 he studied Israel and the Middle East on a Ford Foundation grant, leading to Stalinist Russia and world Stalin­ Middle East. with 700,000 Arabs in this area before the start of the war. his thesis. More recently he has been an expert on ism have received terrible blows in The Middle East is thus the pawn Middle East affairs for the American Jewish Committee. recent years. That they have been con­ This was a tremendous reduction Thanks are also due to Mr. David I. Marmor, direc­ in the great power struggle. The pol­ tor of research of the Israel Omce of Information siderably weakened by the contradic­ from the proportions envisioned in (N. Y.). for bJs cooperation in checking matters of icies of Russia and the United States the Partition Plan adopted by the UN fact and expressing bJs difterences in matters of opinion tions of Stalinist expansion, and con­ and interpretation. flicts within the Stalinist orbit are and their respective allies must and in 1947. In the smaller Israel marked The Tel-Aviv newspaper Haaretz which is mentioned do overlook and override the basic several times is the leading dally in Israel. sometimes now recognized by everyone. Yet the out by the partition, about 45 per called the "Times" of Israel. liberal in viewpoint. Its bourgeois world, under the tolerated interests of the cruelly exploited Arab cent would have been Arab (not even record of relative frankness on the Arab question is very exceptional.-H. D. leadership of the United States acts masses and threatens these people counting in the Bedouin); though it without vision. with war. In this situation, the Arab was expected that Jewish immigration Though the world was horrified at rulers sit like tradesmen searching for would soon change the figure. The proportion of Christians the cruel suppression of the Hungar­ the highest price in the market, for So Israel virtually began with an a.mong the Arabs, as against Mos­ ian revolt by Stalinist Russia, the like the great powers, the needs and Arab minority of only 10 to 11 per lems, is now over twice as high as it Kremlin yet makes progress in the interests of their people are non-ex­ cent, about the same as the Negro was before the war-20 to 25 per cent trouble spots. The lingering imperial­ istent. minority in the United States. as against the pre-war 10 per cent. ism of the Western powers still man­ A.G. Today, according t().. government This means an added barrier against ages to neutralize the abhorrence of figures, the whole non-Jewish popula­ the automatic identification of the Stalinism in areas of the colonial world tion is about 192,000, out of a total Arab minority with most foreign In other areas, it makes possible the SUBSCRIBE TO population of about 1,720,000. If we Arab regimes. advance of Stalinist imperialism. Al­ eliminate the 17,500 Druzes from this The largest Arab concentration, the ready strained to the utmost by the LABOR ACTION non-Jewish figure, then of the remain­ all-Arab town of Nazareth, is pre­ demands made upon her by the satel­ Two Dollars a Year ing 174,000 Arabs there are 131,500 dominantly Christian. It has over lite Stalinist states, Russia still finds Moslems and 42,800 Christians. 20,000 Arabs, as against the remnant 6 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 ., of 7000 in Haifa and 5500 in J aHa. All carried .through by official Zionist Furthermore: Of course the above inventory ap­ plies to all the displaced Arabs, most together, 51,000 Arabs live in towns bodies like the Jewish Agency, or fur­ ... They left whole cities like J aifa, (according to government figures) as thered by the military commanders. Acre, Lydda, Ramleh, Baysan, Migdal­ of whom are now refugees and not in against about 70 per cent who live in This was bad enough, but the story Gad; 388 towns and villages; and large the country. But how much was stolen the 102 Arab villages. that has to be told now is of a differ­ parts of 94 other cities and towns, con­ from Arabs who are still in the coun­ taining nearly a quarter of all the build­ try and who did not flee? A basic fact to keep in mind, too ent order: the robbery of a people car­ ings in Israel. Ten thousand shops, bus­ often obscured in both Zionist and ried through in planned, deliberate, inesses and stores were left in Jewish The leading Israeli daily Haaretz Arab propaganda, is that this Arab "legal" action by the formal action of hands.... 3 wrote in a survey of the Arab minor­ ity problem: minority as it presently exists consists the Israel government over a period Twenty thousand dunams of absentee largely of those Arabs who succeeded of years, and not in the heat or tur­ property were leased by the Custodian Individual DPs may be found in virtual­ in resisting all of the considerable moil of war. [Israel government official in charge] in ly every Arab village in Israel. 15,000 is 1952 for industrial purposes. A third of pressures to take part in the wartime the estimated number of fellahin [peas­ Israel's stone production was supplied ants] who have been dislodged from flight, both from the foreign Arab ag­ THE EXTENT OF THIS ROBBERY, in by 52 .Arab quarries under his jurisdic­ their homes and farms and left utterly gressors and their irregulars and from terms of its economic importance to tion.... 4 destitute. About 15,000 more have been only partially hurt, some more and some the Zionist forces. They withstood a Israel, has already been partially The Custodian was also responsible great deal and did not become refu­ less. The area of land seized under the sketched:" over a third of Israel's Jew­ for four million Palestine pounds in Arab Land Acquisition Law from the Arabs gees. ish population lives on property sto­ bank accounts blocked in Israel,· and an who did not flee from Israel-not count­ Even if one accepts the standard undetermined amount of shares in busi­ ting those who did flee, from whom much len from displaced Arabs; most Arab­ nesses, corporations, companies and part­ more was taken away-amounts to over Zionist tale that the Palestinian refu­ owned citrus groves were taken, plus nerships. In 1953 his office was one of a million dunams, at least one half of gees fled the country out of support the largest employers in Israel, and per­ almost all of the olive groves; etc. Let which represents fertile and easily culti­ to the foreign Arab invaders, still us now fill out this picture, keeping haps the largest single employer of new vable level country, the balance being immigrants.s surely those people who did not be­ in mind that the entire area of Israel stony mountainous terrain capable of come refugees thereby proved doubly is not much over five million acres, According to the CCP (UN) esti­ cultivation only with the fellah's primi­ and trebly that they were far from or 23 million dunams in the Pales­ mate, the total value of the lands tive plow.? being "fifth-columnists." While the tinian measure, of which less than a taken from the Arabs was over 100 On the basis of a different esti­ Zionist agencies seized the opportul quarter are under cultivation. (A million Palestine pounds, to which mate,t Dr. Don Peretz writes that ity afforded by the flight to despoil dunam equals one-fourth of an acre should be added another 20 million Approximately 40 per cent of the land the displaced Arabs of their land and for rough estimate.) pounds for movable property appro­ owned by legal Arab residents of Israel property, surely there could be no Just before the wc;.r, the total priated.6 (In 1950, this total of 120 question of dispossessing these Arabs ages, including those to orange groves." The Arab &tate» amount of Jewish-owned land in all million Palestine pounds was worth accepted these proposals. (Ibid., p. 262.) who had not fled over the borders? .. of Palestine was only 1,850,000 dun­ $336 million.) Arab estimates went up The Israel agency in charge, the Custodian of Absentee There was question indeed. While Property, wasn't telllng anybody: "The dec1s1on [of the amSe. The total amount of cultivable to 10 or 20 times this amount. The government In 1953 to sell CustodIan-held urban property] much of the story of the land-grab land taken from the Arabs after that Israel government has refused to give caused great concern to the Israeli Arabs who feared that concerns the refugees, who are now their absentee property would also be sold. At a meetlng was 4,574,000 dunams, or nearly 2Y2 its own estimate.t in Nazareth called to clarify the I1tuatioo, absentee Arab outside Israel's borders, we shall be times as much I-a fifth of the total citizens were told to send their questions in writing to the presently concerned with the treat­ ·The money in these blocked bank accounts was one of Custodian's omce for study. A year later they had still area of the country. As for the total the few items of Arab property largely released later­ received no reply." (Ibid., p. 303.) ment of the Arab minority who re­ land taken- four-flfths by the October 1956 report of the UN's CCP. In the 1950 Knesset debate on a new land-1P'Ib law, mained inside. Of course, this beneflted mainly better-of Arabs, not the when opposition parties made angry charges that the gOY­ fellahin. The problem involved only 6050 Arab refUgee ernment was favoring the rullng Mapa! party in distributing In our preceding article on the The CCP [UN's Conciliation Commis­ accounts. the acquired land, "One General Zionist member attacked sion for Palestine] estimated that al­ the Custodian's omce as '. secret organiutton' which oper­ Arab flight, we referred to the un­ though only a little more than a quarter tIn general the Israel government has cloaked many de­ ated free of parUamentary control" (IbId., p. 285.) official looting, property-snatching was considered cultivable, more than 80 tails of the land-grab in secrecy. Dr. Peretz writes: The UN agency (ConcillaUon Commission for Palestine) "Much information concerning the use, amounts, and therefore had to work out its own estimates with consider­ and land-grabbing which went on in per cent of Israel's total area ... repre­ distribution of abandoned Arab property and the goYern­ able effort; Peretz's book explains at great length the bases the course of the fighting, directed sented land abandoned by the Arab refu­ ment's pollcy toward it was secret. Records and most re­ and methods It used in arriving at its conclusions, which gees.2 ... [The 80% figure includes areas, ports of the Custodian of Absentee Property were secret. he gives. against Palestinian Arab civilians. such as Bedouin lands in the Negev, ••• Even the United Nations, in spite 'of frequent requests, tor the 4 m1llion-plus dunams taken from Arabs, "ap­ This, to be sure, was the start of the was unable to obtain adequate information about Israel's proximately 300,000 dunams belonged to Arab residents of that had been held by Arabs tradition­ disposition of Arab property."-Peretz (ref. n. 1), vol II, Israel who had fled from one section of the state to an­ land-grab but it was still unofficial in ally with virtually all rights except juri­ p.230. other during the fighting, or had been moved from their the sense of being unsanctioned by dical ownership, which was retained by Israel consistentlY refused to participate in UN attempts villages by the Jewish authorities for 'security reasons:" the British colonial government.-H. D.] to set up mixed commissions "to administer conse"atlon (Peretz in Middle East Journal, ref. n. 32.) And in his explicit law and official government of existing properties including orange groves; to deter­ book (ref. n. 1) Peretz also mentions 30,000 such Arabs, lnine property ownersblp; and to evaluate property dam- adding, "as well as mucb of their urban property." action, however deliberately it was ·NI, Summer 1956, p. 88. Winter 1957 9 8 THE NEW INrERNATIONAL was confiscated by the authorities as or merely to regulate and channelize make all regulations for the "aban THIS ORDINANCE was only the begin­ part of their absentee-property policy.s it. (This, of course, was still over a doned areas." ning. Forty per cent of the land owned by week before the State of Israel and its The definition of "abandoned area" Dr. Peretz relates: presently legal Arab residents of the government were formally set up by was deliberately marIe so wide-open country, not even counting the other declaration on May 15.) Long-term policy in the latter half of that it applied to virtually any Arab 1948 was to present the Arabs with the Palestinian Arabs who were driven In the early days of the war, the ad hoc village or town or seCtion, whether it fact that a large part of their property out, or helped out, or kept out of the decisions of various field commanders had been abandoned or not. Even no longer existed and that areas for country by the Israeli refugee policyl substituted for a unified, preconceived where the population had really their resettlement in Israel would be de­ termined by security and political fac­ Let us now see how all this was plan of operation [regarding Arab prop­ "abandoned" a village, they may have erty] .... tors. As yet there was no government done, from 1948 to the present. merely g,'ne a few miles away to wait plan for the use of refugee property, but . .• From April until the Custodian's due to security reasons, their immediate appointment [in July], the army had out the shooting before coining back; return was not permitted.... 1 primary responsibility for occupied Arab or only som', of the inhabitants may property. Because it conquered the prop­ have fled; and indeed nobody at all By the end of the year, government The day we lick the Arabs, that is the day, I think, policy concerning use of the property al­ when we shall be sowing the seed of an eternal hatred erty, the military considered itself the need have fled an yw 11 ere, accordi ng to of such dimensions that Jews will not be able to live rightful owner. When the time came for so began to assume long-term as­ in that part of the world for centuries to come. the Custodian to take over from the the carefully expansive formulation pects... .12 of the definition. JUDAH L. MAGNES, 1946 army, military authorities often placed In December 1948 the Ministry of obstructions in his way, Sometimes for The ordinance therefore did not Finance issued its first Absentee Prop­ WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN how the land­ days and weeks, the army prevented the have to use ethnic terms to pinpoint erty Regulations. A "Custodian of A b­ grab and property-steal began in the Custodian from entering cities to take charge of absentee property.9 its objective as Arab property. Actu­ sen tee Property" replaced the Custodi­ course of the 1948 war itself under ally many a Jewish area became an of Abandoned Property. This had the initiative particularly of the Jew­ (In studying the fate of the Arab "abandoned" by this definition too, the effect of transferring the label from ish Agency (an arm of the World minority in Israel we will often find but this is purely academic in view of Zionist Organization executive) and that the military authorities, repre­ the land to the person affected, but the fact that the sharp edge of the the change in terminology didn't help of the military commanders on the senting the most chauvinist elements ordinance was intended to be wielded spot, who of course were formally the in Zionism, bucked the government much. Just as "abandoned" property solely in one direction. had been defined to include land that agencies of the new Israel govern­ or its courts for a more reactionary The government set up a "Custo­ was never abandoned, so "absentee" ment, as well as of less official looters policy, perhaps the most spectacular dian of Abandoned Property"-a and pillagers; while· "affairs in many case being the razing of the Arab was defined to include Arabs who change of label from the previously areas degenerated without any re­ town of Ikrit in 1951. This pattern were not only present in Israel but straint... • began early.) designated Custodian of Arab Prop­ who had never been absent. Accord­ erty in order not to formalize the fact ing to Haaretz~ "there is even a special Almost a month after the Deir Yas­ Once the state came into existence label devised for these people, 'pres­ sin massacre, when the Arab flight and the provisional government took of ethnic robbery. The first Custodian ent absentees.' "13 was reaching a flood, the Zionist daily over, bits of emergency legislation was appointed on July 15. Palestine Post (May 5) already an­ were improvised to give a color of Since he naturally was not going to The key definition of "absentee" in nounced that a "Custodian of Arab legal sanction to what was actually work the land himself- these regulations was: a Palestine citi­ Property" had ben appointed in the being done. The first was on June 24, zen who had left his normal or habitu­ 4 Jerusalem area, and that similar au­ an Abandoned Areas Ordinance ... therefore steps were taken to legalize al place of residence.1 There was no its use by the Jewish agricultural settle­ thorities had been set up in other sec­ which gave a most peculiar definition pretense at limiting it to Arabs who ments which had occupied much of it. had fled over the border or even to tions. This Custodian, said the paper, of an "abandoned area": The Ministry of Agriculture was given was a Haganah officer, name a secret, power to assign this land to cultivators the other side of the fighting lines. appointed by the Jewish Agency. In 1. (a) "Abandoned area" means any whom it could designate for a period of Dr. Peretz explains: area or place conquered by or surren­ up to one year.II view of the role being played by the dered to armed forces or deserted by all Every Arab in Palestine who had left army and the Jewish Agency itself or part of its inhabitants, and which has It is clear, then, that the govern­ his town or village after November 29, with respect to the grab of Arab prop­ been declared by order to be an aban­ ment did not aim its ordinance only 1947 [date of UN partition decision] doned area,lO was liable to be classified as an absentee erty, one may wonder whether the against "bad" Arabs who had fled to under the regulations. All Arabs who appointment of an officer as Custo­ This law was made retroactive to Itt: :... Italy: all the more so as 21. Schechtman (n. 14), p. 91. 50. Ner (Jerusalem), Apr. 1953. the fascist offensive rushed in through erable end, the Communist Party 22. Peretz (n. 1), v. II, p. 251-2. 51. Moshe Keren, "The Arabs Among Us," Art1ele V. 23. Ibid., p. 260. Haaretz (Tel-Aviv), Jan. 14, 1955. the gap opened by the ideological and reape? the benefits of its long and 24. Yaakov Aviel (n. 7). 52. Peretz (n. 1), v. II, p. 306. political crisis of the socialist move­ ten~cIOus underground activity, and 25. M. Stein, "The Arab Minority in Israel," Lebens· 53. Text of law (n. 45). fragen (Tel-Aviv), organ of the Jewisb Labor Bund in 54. Peretz (n. 1), v. II, p. 301. See also text of law ment. The communist split in 1921 r~~Idly placed itself in controlling po­ Israel (soclallst anti-Zionist), Jan. 1956. as quoted in my artiele. had deprived the Socialist Party of its SitIOns both in the anti-fascist political 26. For the legal references, see Peretz (n. 1). v. I. 55. Peretz (n. 1), v. II, p. 310. p.204. 56. Ibid., p. 310. whole yo~th organization and, in gen­ movement and in the partisan army. 21. Peretz (n. 1). Y. n. p. 229. 51. Ibid., p. 808. eral, of Its younger leadership: the The socialists, on the other hand, 28. Ibid., p. 211. 58. Yaakov Aviel (n. 7). 29. Ibid., p. 218. 59. Peretz (n. 1), v. I, p. 168. most resourceful, militant and theoret­ suffered the consequences of their 30. Schechtman (n. 14), p. 102. 60. Peretz in Middle East Journal (n. 32). ically creative cadres. Their departure p~o~onged inactivity and ideological 31. Peretz (n. 1), Y. II, p. 219. 61. Moshe Keren (n. 51). 32. Don Peretz, "The Arab Minority of Israel." Middle 62. Stein (n. 25). threw the party into a deep ideologi­ CfISIS. East Journal (Wash., D. C.), Spring 1954. 63. Lehrman (n. 33). p. 260. 33. Hal Lehrman: Israel, the Beginning and Tomorrow, 64. Peretz (n. 1), v.ll, p. 255. cal c~isis, reducing it to complete pa­ The party was re-established in the Sloane. N. Y., 1951, p. 260.-8ee also Norman Bentwich: 65. Ibid., p. 305. ralYSIS and producing a split betweeu last days of the fascist regime by a Israel, Benn, London, 1952, p. 151-8. 66. Ibid., p. 305. 34. Peretz (n. 1), Y. II, p. 281-4. 61. "Arabs in Israel," Business Digest (Halt.). lull the maximalist and reformist cur­ merge~ of two age-groups: the repre­ 35. Ibid., p. 288. 23,1952. rents.· After the victory of fascism, s~ntatlves of the pre-fascist genera­ 36. Ibid., p. 285. 68. Peretz in Middle East Journal (n. 32). 31. Ibid., p. 291. 69. Peretz (n. 1), v. I, p. 213. the traditional leaders of the move­ tIOn, grown old and inactive in exile, 38. Ibid., p. .299. 10. Ibid., v. II, p. 308-9. ment went into exile, taking with and young people who had emerged 39. Judd L. Teller, ''Israel Faces Its Arab MInority 11. Ibid., v. II, p. 309. Problem," Commentary, Dec. 1951. 12. "The Position of the Arabs in the State of Israel," them the recollection of a glorious from the schools and institutions of 40. Lehrman (n. 33), p. 260. Ner (Jerusalem), Feb. 1953 (English section). past and a record of political bank­ fascism with a great enthusiasm for 41. Peretz (n. 1), v. n, p. 219. 13. Schechtman (n. 14), p. 98-9. 42. Ibid., p. 219. 14. Ibid., p. 111-2. ruptcy. In spite of the efforts of a few socialist ideas but who were almost devoted militants, they lost contact completely lacking in political experi­ very ea!ly with the situation in Italy. ence. The new leadership of the uni­ EUfopellR Socil/fism -I: No seriOUS and systematic effort was fie? party (PSI UP) was formed by the made to maintain the illegal under­ exIles, among whom Nenni and Sara­ ground existence of the socialist move­ g.at. were the outstanding personali­ Post-War Evolution of ment. ~Ies; by ~he reformists who had stayed In the 1'3teantime, the Communist In Italy and had remained inactive The Italian Movement Party eliminated its ultra-left sec­ during the dictatorship (Romita, Si­ tarian faction (Bordigha) and began monini, Vernocchi, Perrotti); by the yet. Within the framework of this ar­ The article by comrade Libertini is to elaborate an original ideology un­ representatives of the new generation the first in a series of discussions by ticle, I had to confine myself to a de­ der the leadership of Antonio Gram­ (Zagari, Vecchietti, Vassalli, Bonfan­ European writers dealing with recent scription of the main facts and trends; ,sci. On the organizational level it re­ tini); finally, by a few individuals of socialist history and with current I must apologize for leaving aside par­ mained strong and active, partly ow­ an intermediary generation who had problems in the reconstruction of ticular questions which, although in­ European socialism. Future articles ing to the material and political help fought in the anti-fascist under­ will include discussions of England, teresting, were not fundamental. of the Comintern. The communists ground in Italy (Andreoni, Pertini, Germany and France. F or our purposes, the crisis of thus became the leading cadres of the Basso, Viotto). This leading group Italian socialism can be divided into anti-fascist resistance and remained was completely heterogenous: it not three distinct phases: the formative the only workers' party surviving in onl y lacked a common poli tical basis It is not easy to sum­ period of the party after the collapse Italy. The conditions of illegal exist­ but assembled men who had lived marize in a few pages the numerous of the fascist regime; the period of ence prevented the full impact of throu?,h dissimilar and contradictory problems and events which make up splits during the cold war; the present the Communist organization in Italy: expenences and who, in some cases, the background of the crisis of Italian period, in which the problem of so­ in the underground struggle ideologi- had lined up on opposite sides of sev­ socialism, a crisis begun in the early cialist unity is playing an increasingly eral political and personal issues. The *The split, which occurred in 1922, ended in 1930 with 'twenties, and in no way resolved as important role. the merger, in Paris, of "unitary" socialists (Turati) and party organization was almost inexist­ "maximalist" socialists (Nenni). en t, even though masses of people had 30 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 31 flocked to the socialist banner: there Emmanuel III, was to be the regent. Front" policy of the Comintern, and the socialist masses would have were millions of sympathizers, hun­ The polemic around this "Salerno which was signed in Paris between the led to a heavy defeat for the whole dreds of thousands of party members, turn" of the PCI (Salerno is the town exiled leaders of the Socialist and working-class movement. At the same a handful of secondary cadres and no where the Provisional Government Communist Parties, and which was re­ time, the situation called (and still serious organizational structure. was formed) is still a live issue in newed in 1941, in 1943 and in 1944. calls) for socialist independence and This party, with a skeleton not of Italian politics. The PCI leaders at­ The pact was justified by the influ­ initiative-the contradiction here is steel but of putty, was suddenly bur­ tempt to justify their policy by two ence which the PCI maintained over only apparent. dened with the weight of the two reasons: the need for unity against the large sections of the Italian working­ However, this document of the basic problems of the post-war period: nazi-fascist regime, and the need of class and by the need for class uni ty in PSIUP leadership did not reflect the relations with the communists and re­ avoiding a civil war, which would the fight against fascism and for so­ orientation of the majority of the lations with the Western capitalist have given the Anglo-American army cialism. A document of the PSIUP party at that time. It was rather a powers. an opportunity for crushing the work­ leadership, written in 1944, is a good skilfull Nenai-style compromise be­ The Anglo-American High Com­ ing-class organizations of all tenden­ statement of the party's position to­ tween various orientations and moods mand in Italy favored very early the cies, on the Greek pattern. The social­ wards the communists and the USSR existing in the party. In fact, the formation of an anti-fascist govern­ ists answered that there was no inten­ at the time. It expressed the "convic­ "unity of action pact" became a dan­ ment which could be opposed to Mus­ tion on their part of weakening the tion that, when the existence of Rus­ gerous instrument (which, it should solini's puppet government in the war effort against Hitler by civil war, sia is threatened, the working-class be noted, not even the extreme re­ North. At the same time, it made but to prevent the social forces re­ must subordinate everything to its de­ formist wing found the courage to op­ every effort to limit the influence and sponsible for the fascist regime to fense. But this criterion does not in­ pose at the time) due to the presence the power of the Anti-Fascist Front make their reappearance behind the volve a permanent choice between the in the party of a strong pro-Stalinist and to impose an agreement with a shield of the monarchy. The success­ particular policies of the Soviet U n­ current, which passively accepted the completely discredited monarchy. ful outcome of the referendum which ion, which has reached the conserva­ political leadership of the PCI. A for­ Within the Anti-Fascist Front, the So­ abolished the monarchy was interpret­ tive stage in its revolution, and the mer communist leader, who left the cialist Party, the Communist Party as ed by the communists as a confirma­ specific policies of the working-class· party in 1951, writes from experience well as the small Action Party were tion of their policy. The socialists, in the countries which have yet to in one of his books:· strongly opposed to any compromise however, replied that even though the make their revolution.... The social­ The PCI considered the Socialist Par­ with the monarchy. This situation republican battle was formally won, ists are aware at the same time of ty as its most important front organiza­ suddenly changed when Palmiro Tog­ the compromise with the monarchy what the Soviet Union represents in tion, an instrument by which to influence cost the Italian working-class the re­ Europe and in the world and of the large masses of workers and of petty­ liatti, returning from a long exile in bourgeoisie. Moscow and from a brilliant career in establishment of the old reactionary need for an independent policy for the Comintern hierarchy, arrived in State apparatus. Moreover; .. the social­ the working-class movement. The The organizational efficiency of the Italy to take command of the Italian ists pointed out, Togliatti did not re­ unity of ~tion, to which they remain Stalinists ensured their control of Communist Party. turn to Italy to advocate a tactic de­ unalterably attached, would have no many Socialist Party sections. Among the secondary leadership of the Togliatti had returned to initiate termined by Italian circumstances but meaning unless it implied the transla­ to apply, in collaboration with the tion in common political terms of the PSIUP, many were convinced that so­ the policy of "national unity," involv­ Anglo-American High Command, the experience and the aspirations of the cialism would inevitably be estab­ ing the alliance of all anti-fascist cur­ agreements of Yalta and Teheran di­ Italian working-class. The gymnastics lished through a victory of the PCI; rents with the monarchy against fas­ viding the world into spheres of influ­ of the "turns" is not healthy for the they became communists in good cism. The sudden turn in the PCl's ence. The man who arrived in Saler­ unity of action, and the socialists can­ faith and hence agents of the PCI. line left the Socialist Party isolated no was no longer a communist leader not accept the method which substi­ Unnecessary to add, their ranks were strengthened by another kind of pro­ and compelled it to yield. A compro­ but an ambassador from Moscow on tutes orders from above to experience a diplomatic mission. from below." Stalinists, whose convictions were de­ mise was reached with the monarchy In this writer's opinion, this posi­ termined by opportunism alone. on the following terms: a provisional THE BAITLE FOR OR against "national tion, although reflecting great politi­ The existence within the PSIUP of regency was to be established until a unity" again raised the problem of re­ cal confusion and above all mistaken a large pro-Stalinist current turned popular referendum and the Constit­ lations between socialists and commu­ notions on the nature of the Soviet the "unity of action pact" into a one­ uent Assemblies would decide on the nists. Since 1934, these relations were Union, was nonetheless adequate to way proposition. In the name of institutions of the new regime; Um­ governed by the "Unity of Action the post-war situation in Italy, where .Paolo Emiliantt: Dieei ann1 perduti, Nistri-Llsehi. berto of Savoy, the son of Victor Pact," a product of the "Popular a sharp break between the communist Pisa, 1953. 32 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 33 the 1948 elections under a common and mergers, Italian socialism was di­ working-class solidarity, the PSIUP cialista received 300,062 and the Stal­ ticket with the CP while the PSLI, to· vided in its three principal compon­ ·-submitted to the demands of PCI and inist current 338,346. Even the Stalin­ gether with this second small group, ents of today: the PSI, the PSDI and Russian policy, and the pact between ists were compelled to advocate the formed "Socialist Unity" tickets which the USl. the two organizations became a trans­ autonomy and independence of the received two million votes. This complex and tormented peri. mission belt with an engine controlled party in their motionl The third split, after the defeat suf­ od of splits is difficult to understand by the StalinIst leadership. Since the perspective of the merger fered by the "Popular Front" and by if two essential elements are not kept This was the setting in which the had been buried at the Congress, one the PSI at the polls, followed in 1919 in mind: the lack of an ideologically Stalinist leaders opened a massive of­ alternative only remained: alliance and was led by Giuseppe Romita, who homogenous and independent leader­ fensive aiming to merge socialists and with the communists but autonomy of defended an independent position in ship in the socialist movement, capa· communists in a single party, a policy the party. Two months later, at the the PSI but actually followed an op­ ble of keeping a large organization which led to the forced absorption first legislative elections after the col­ portunist policy of his own. This under control; secondly, the condi­ and dissolution of the Socialist Par­ lapse of fasqsm, this decision was ap­ group left the PSI at a time when the tion of colonial subjection into which ties in Eastern Europe. The Stalinist proved by five million voters. The left wing of the PSLI was about to Italy had fallen at the end of the Sec­ offensive met with great initial suc­ PCI, although organizationally much break with Saragat's party in protest ond World War. cess. At the first National Council of more powerful than the socialists, re­ against the latter's support of Chris­ Within the PSIUP, the "Iniziativa the PSIUP, meeting in Rome in Au­ ceived fewer votes: this was the great tian-Democracy. These two off-splits Socialista" tendency stood alone in gast 1945, a motion prevailed which and significant surprise of the elec­ met to form a third socialist party, the advocating an independent policy for declared that "a unified party of the tions. "Partito Socialista Unitario" (PSV). the party, and in attempting to elabo­ working-class must be established as It seemed as though the Florence The political basis of the new party rate an ideological basis for such a soon as possible on the basis of the Congress and the electoral victory was independence towards the Stalin­ policy, that is, in refusing to accept two great workers' parties." The same would provide the impulsion for the ists, a militant class line and a general the compulsory choice between the motion demanded "that the coming socialist movement to expand, and to Third Camp position on internation· two blocs. But, as we have pointed Corigress of the party settle this fun­ create an ideology, an organization al affairs. It was followed by 19 parlia­ out earlier, this tendency was com­ damental question." The minority and a homogenous leadership. How­ mentarians. In 1951, however, Silone posed of young people without ex­ motion (21 per cent of the votes) sup­ ever, one year later, the climate of the and Romita decided to scuttle the perience and know-how, and disposed ported the "unity of action pact" but cold war began to spread over the PSU and led their followers into Sara· neither of financial means nor of an also advocated "the autonomous ex­ world and the shadow of a split began gat's party (PSLI). The result of this organization. The "Critica Sociale" istence and independence of the two to loom over the Socialist Party. merger was the present "Partito So· tendency,on the other hand, under proletarian parties." Nenni signed The Socialist Movement cialista Democratico Italiano" (PSDI), the poli tical leadership of Saragat, neither of the two motions, Saragat and the Cold War. that is Italian Social-Democracy un­ had already decided in favor of the signed the second. der its present form. "Western" bloc and of American The first socialist sph!-both in At the Party Congress which met in The PSU had come into existence hegemony, while the so-called left ten­ time and in terms of importance-oc­ Florence in April 1946 (the 24th), this in answer to a specific need, and its dency had accepted the leadership of curred in January 1947, when the "fusionist" offensive was defeated by disappearance left a political void the PCI and hence the theory and leading groups of Critica Sociale and the resistance of the "autonomists." that could not remain permanent. practice of the Russian "leader-State" of Iniziativa Socialista left the party, These latter went to battle divided Very soon a section of the new social· differen tiating itself from the Stalin­ followed by a part of their base and into two factions: the reformists of democratic party rebelled against ists only on tactical issues. by 53 deputies in Parliament. To­ "Critica Sociale" and the "Iniziativa Saragat and Romita, while a part of Moreover, the battle did not take gether, these forces formed the "Par­ Socialista" group, which could be de­ the PSI rebelled against Stalinist pol­ place in the realm of ideas and politi­ tito Socialist a dei Lavoratori Italiani" scribed as "independent Left." The icy. At the. same time two deputies cal orientation alone. Italy had just (PSLI) while the rest of the party took Iniziativa Socialista tendency was and their followers resigned from the emerged from a disastrous war. It was the name "Partito Socialista Italiano" composed mostly of young and very PCI (Cucchi and Magnani) over the covered with ruins and terribly im­ young people who, although devoid (~I). issue of internal democracy and na­ poverished. A country with millions The second split, of a much lesser of means, of experience and of an or­ tional independence. These three of unemployed or underpaid workers, ganization, found considerable sup­ importance, followed in 1948: a small groups joined together to form the whose moral nerve had been first port in the rank-and-file. From a total petty-bourgeois group left the party "Unione Socialista Indipendente" struck by fascism, then by the conse­ of 736,441 party members, 83,781 under the leadership of Ivan Matteo (USI). quences of a lost war, was an ideal votes went to the policy motion of Lombardo, to which Ignazio Silone At the end of this period of splits field for all forms of corruption. The Critica Sociale, while Iniziativa So· associated himself. The PSI went into Winter 1957 35 34 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL American-led bloc was struggling to and interest, a readily-available hu­ stead, he tried to compete with the Italian socialism. In reality, there had keep Italy in its own influence-sphere man sensitivity, an acute and excep­ Communist Party in the field of or­ remained between the PSI and the and under its control; the Russian tional political sense; these are the ganizational maneuvering alone. On PSLI an uncommitted mass of social­ bloc made every effort, after 1946, to main elemeQts that make up Nenni's this level,' he was beaten in advance: ists with an electoral strength of one split Italy from the "West" or, at personality as a poliitcalleader. As he the Stalinists used him to consolidate million, perhaps one million and a least, to alter its political and social moved to the "left" of his republican their hold on the Socialist Party and half: this mass appears clearly in the balance in the interests of its own pol­ feelings, he could only accept the then, being fully aware all along of differences between election results icy. The Socialist Party was the key­ ideological guidance of the PCI, his "unreliability," arranged to have from 1947 to 1956. The fluctuations stone of Italian politics and, given the which helpfully came to fill the void him removed from the Secretariat on of this mass determined the strength relationship of forces in Parliament left by his ignorance in theoretical the eve of the party elections. and the relationship between the two and in the country, its orientation was matters. A strong dose of pragmatism The resistance of "Iniziativa Social­ socialist parties which remained in decisive for the orientation of the and of skepticism led him to adopt a ista" to the pro-Stalinist offensive of this way, in spite of everything, two whole country. It was obvious that an detached, "historical" view-actually N enni's and Basso's faction was communicating vessels. In addition, all-out effort would be made by both a cynical view-of the Russian reality, wavering and uncertain. The inde­ numerous "autonomists" had remain­ (amps to capture the Socialist Party but did not prevent him from keep­ pendent left was beaten on the organi­ ed within the PSI in 1947, both of the for their own interests, and the party ing strong roots in the Italian work­ zational level, and it lacked clarity in reformist type and of the "Iniziativa was in no condition to resist this ter­ ing-class. For various and legitimate its ideas and perspectives: it failed to Socialista" type. In the PSLI, a rar.:k­ rific two-fold pressure. reasons this man rejected the social­ realize, above all, how urgently a solid and-file current faithful to the cause democratic alternative, but only to organiza tion and a clear program of socialist unity and independence AFTER THE DEFEAT of the "fusionist" succumb to the Stalinist power; he would be needed in the coming pe­ was also able to maintain itself for a theses at the Florence Congress, the was never able to develop an indepen­ riod. Consequently, it was ground to long time. Communist Party counter-attacked on dent political position. His prestige pieces by the two conflicting tenden­ the organizational level, trying to and his human and political qualities cies which represented, within the So­ THE PSI, WHICH had been led to the build an apparatus of its own agents exerted· a determining influence on cialist Party, the greatest military and elections by Nenni and Basso on a political powers in the world. within the PSI. In this move, the Stal­ many socialists in favor of unity with common ticket with the Communist inists disposed of several advantages: the Stalinists. As a result of the weakness of "Inizi­ of the men they had injected earlier The case of Lelio Basso is signifi­ ativa Socialista," the real leadership Party, soon entered a new and very into the PSIUP; of the ties which had cant and instructive in a different of the opposition against the Stalinist serious crisis. The elections of 1948 been established on the grass-roots way. Contrary to Nenni, he has a capture was assumed by Giuseppe registered the refusal of the Italian level between socialist and communist thorough theoretical training, but his Saragat, who gave battle on increas­ workers to accept a Russian perspec­ locals; of large and diverse financial ideology is schematic, at times of a ingly reformist and pro-American po­ tive, and were a disaster for the 1 esources (derived in part from their theological cast. Basso constantly rea­ si tions. It has by now become public "Popular Front." Most of all, they control of the trade-unions and co­ sons from a class position, and there­ knowledge that the split was pre­ ops). They were greatly helped by two fore rejects all right-wing solutions of certain foreign and Italian circles; were a disaster for the PSI within the men who, in this writer's opinion, a bourgeois-democratic or reformist pared by Saragat in consultation with "Popular Front." All over the coun­ cannot be considered in any sense, at type; then he remains imprisoned in from the beginning, he had the full try Stalinist deputies were elected any time, as Stalinist agents, but who the logic of "staying with the working­ support of the bourgeois press, of cer­ with socialist votes. In comparison objectively favored the Communist class at all costs" and avoids express­ tain American trade-unions, of the with June 2, 1946, the CP increased Party's enterprise: Pietro Nenni and ing the slightest of the numerous cri­ American authorities in Italy. The its representation from 102 to 141 Lelio Basso. ticisms of the Communist Party which financing of the new party was under­ deputies; the socialists of the PSI de­ Nothing is further removed from he privately shares with many other taken by the same circles, and corrup­ clined from 109 seats to 42. A defeat Nenni's mind or temper than Stalin­ socialists. tion based on patronage, a tradition of this magnitude could not remain ism. His background is that of a re­ In the period preceding the first of Italian government, did the rest. without serious internal consequences. publican; it has been pertinently ob­ split, Basso attempted the daring op­ From its beginnings, the PSLI was a On the demand of discontented and served that his republicanism is fla­ eration of placing the Socialist Party creature of the "Western" bloc, a cer­ rebellious party members, an extraor­ vored by a considerable skepticism to­ in the lead of the "Popular Front," tain verbal leftism notwithstanding. dinary Congress was called (Genoa, wards his own party and towards peo­ but he was under the illusion that this As the following splits show, the June 1948) where the "autonomist" ple in general. A characteristic and could be done without stating the po­ spli t of 1947 did not end the crisis motion of a new centrist current re­ profound lack of theoretical training litical problem in clear terms. In- within either of the two sections of ceived 227,609 votes, as against 161,- 36 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 37 top leadership, to raise the problem 556 for N enni and Basso and 141,886 c~rtain regions of Northern Italy, So­ war had reached its greatest intensity, (or the "autonomist" right-wing of of the re-organization of the party CIal-Democracy gradually lost its char­ Italian socialism, a living reality in Romita. A miracle had occurred and, more generally, of the moderni­ acteristics as a mass party and became terms of organizations, popular sup­ which no one would have believed zation of the socialist movement. He an aggregate of personal cliques and port and electoral presence, was com­ possible a few months earlier: the made a serious and systematic attempt a vote-getting machine; its role in the pletely inexistent as an independent hold of the Stalinist apparatus over to build up an organization on the lo­ trade-union split strengthened this political force, and its two segments cal level, to select and educate young the PSI had been temporarily broken. trend. were mere appendices of the two op­ Unfortunately, the centrist tendency, cadres, to lift the party out of exclu­ The "center" coalition, which has posing blocs. sively electoral and parliamentarian after taking over the leadership of the expressed all these years the policy of This is the situation which explains party, soon revealed itself incapable pre-occupations and to turn it into an the leading circles of the Italian bour­ the rise of the IOU nione Socialista In­ instrument of mass-struggles. But of maintaining its own positions. Rid­ geoisie, was made up of the Christian­ dipendente" (USI). The formation of these organizational achievements den as it was with all the traditional Democratic Party with its small So­ the independent socialist movement were not at the service of a socialist weaknesses of the "autonomist" left­ cial-Democratic, Republican and Lib­ deserves closer attention not only be­ policy; the party became more effi­ lack of ideological clarity, lack of a eral satellites. In 1948, Christian-De­ cause of its direct repercussions, but homogenous leadership, lack of finan­ cient as an organization but remained mocracy received the absolute major­ because of the influence of its ideas a specialized sector of the Stalinist cial resources, lack of organizational ity of votes and of seats in Parliament, which extends far beyond the limited cohesion-it was afraid to openly fight mass-movement. in part because of the identification scope of the organization. The move­ The course of the social-democratic the pro-Stalinist opposition on the of the workers' parties with Russia, ment arose from a merger of small movement was equally erratic from political and organizational level. but continued to request the partici­ groups of ex-communists and of dis­ 1947 to 1953. We have described The latter, supported by powerful pation of the three minor allies in sidents from the socialist parties, on financial means, re-conquered the par­ above how it absorbed, one after an­ government. These latter became its the common basis of refusing to be other, the various groups that left the ty within a year. At the Florence Con­ hostages and the left cover for the blackmailed into a choice between the PSI, then splitting, but only to recov­ gress of May 1949, Nenni received clerical majority. This formula, which two blocs and of opposing the subor­ er the off-split together with the Ro­ 220,600 votes (51 per cent) as against was supported by the United States dination of the socialist movement mita group (at the time of the fusion 160,525 for the "autonomists" and for its own purposes, was rationalized either to the clericals or to the Stalin­ of the PSLI and PSU). But through­ 41,133 for Romita's faction. The Stal­ in the PSDI by a sort of Center-coali­ ists. Naturally this negative position out this period, and this is a major inist apparatus once again took con­ tion super-ideology labelled "demo­ was not in itself sufficient for an ideo­ difference with the PSI, the leadership trol of the party and exercized its cratic solidarity," a negation of all logical and political platform, and in of Social-Democracy never once es­ power more heavily than ever before, socialist principles. A new electoral time the independent socialists elab­ eliminating every organized opposi­ caped Giuseppe Saragat. law, designed to ensure a perennial orated a specific program and a strat­ Social-Democracy paid a high price tion and transforming the party into majority for Christian-Democracy­ egy. No doubt, serious tactical mis­ for the consolidation of the right­ a branch of the Cominform. The 29th which was defeated by popular refer­ takes were made in the beginning. wing leadership: a continuous loss of Congress, held in Bologna in 1951, endum on June 7, 1953-was support­ For a long time, the independent so­ members and of votes. After the 1947 showed the end of political debate ed by the social-democrats in the cialists were undecided whether to set split, the PSLI received about two and its replacement by Stalinist lita­ name of "democratic solidarity." On up a real party or a loosely organized million votes. Ever since, its leader­ nies. Nenni's report read: "As we in­ foreign policy, the common denomi­ propaganda group. This problem was ship has become more numerous creasingly identified ourselves with nator of the "Center" coalition be­ solved by the organization of a propa­ while its base has narrowed. The pas­ the proletariat, we increasingly iden­ came the most supine and passive sup­ ganda league strong enough to inter­ sive participation in clerical "Center" tified ourselves with the communists." port to the Atlantic Pact and to Amer­ ven/~ in electoral and political strug­ governments naturally attracted the This unbelievable statement reflected ican policy. In view of these facts, it gles whenever necessary. Then, the opportunist wing of the PSI and tired the stifling of every socialist initiative is hardly surprising that Social-De­ problem of socialist unity was ap­ leaders who had no longer strength and the servile subjection to the Stal­ mocracy dropped from two million proached in a way that was too agita­ for a hard-fought class-struggle, but it inist power. votes and 33 deputies in 1948 to 1.3 tional and not sufficiently political. A repelled the organizers and local At Nenni's side, Morandi took con­ million votes and 19 deputies in 1953, rna ior problem in the first year was to cadres who had led their sections out trol of the party organization and be­ losing at the same time all character­ avoid lapsing into the typical style of of the PSIUP in 1947 to defend social­ gan to wield its power in a ruthless istics of a class party, also in its social an ex-communist movement, based on ist independence, but who were not and bureaucratic manner. In fairness negative positions rather than on a prepared to provide a left cover for composi tion. to Morandi, it miIst be recognized positive program on different basic an opportunist leadership. Except in At the time when international ten­ that he was the only one, among the sion was at its peak and the Korean issues. THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 38 Winter 1957 39 blocs. Thanks in part to the interna­ whether o~ not the pact was being These mistakes were corrected in Congress opened in an atmosphere of tional situation, the PSI was becom­ used to stIfle freedom of discussion sharp hostility towards the USI and time and the movement gradually i?g seri~us about its neutralist posi­ and criticism on the Russian issue. other "autonomist" groups. But, most­ grew in influence, in spite of a serious tIO~, w~lch had been a propagandistic The lack of clarity of the PSI on this lyon Nenni's initiative, it also pro­ lack of means-contrasting with the de~l~e In the past. At first, only the point~ also after the Turin Congress, claimed a policy of "socialist alterna­ huge war-chests at the disposal of the wntings and the speeches of the lead­ cont~Ibuted to make its new policy two major socialist organizations-and tive," in part to undercut the pressure ers showed symptoms of change but, ambIguous and to seriously limit its in spite of a hard life of isolation, not of the USI and of "autonomist" so­ at the !urin Congress (April 1955) scope. only on the political but also on the cialist opinion in general, including the outlIne of a new policy began to The solution to this problem ap­ personal, individual level. The USl «< the millions of uncommitted socialist appear more explicitly. The PSI was peared unexpectedly in the first elaborated a Third Camp position voters. The slogan was pregnant with moving out of the wilderness where it months of 1956 as a by-product of the concieved not abstractly but as a tool significant developments. If it was to had been led by the passive accept­ 20th Congress of the CPSU. Khrush­ be taken seriously, it had to mean so­ II against the cold war and for interna­ ance of Stalinist guidance: it strongly c~ev's at.tack on Stalinist policy and tional relaxation; it raised the ques­ cialist action outside and, if necessary, re-stated the theme of "socialist alter­ hIS publIc revelations-or rather con­ tion of the nature of the Russian re­ against Stalinist influences; further­ native" in concrete terms, free of sec­ firmations-on the defunct dictator gime and of the theory and practice more, in a country tired of the long tarian maximalism, and offered to the­ exerted a liberating influence on the of the "leader-State"; it brought new clerical rule, it implied the beginning Catholics the possibilities of "dia­ PSI. For the first time after many elements into the discussion on the of a dialogue with the Catholic world, logue" and of "opening to the left." years, Nenni began to express judg­ offering to the latter a perspective nature of a socialist and democratic In short, the Turin Congress of the m~nts which were not only highly community, concentrating on the other than that of stagnation and PSI. proposed to the country the liqui­ cntical of Stalinism but contradicted problems of workers' control; it ex­ "center-coalition" rule. Above all, "so­ dation of the "center-coalition" and a the official statements of Khrushchev plored the possibilities at each stage cialist alternative" meant the promise new policy based on the common and of the Russian CPo In the name for an independent socialist alterna­ of a change to those voters who ar­ struggle of the socialist and Catholic of his party, Nenni refused to limit tive and of socialist action within the dently desired a new start in political masses. the "Stalin trial" to Stalin alone, and framework of class solidarity. The life through a new start of the social­ It soon became clear that the coun­ attacked the bureaucratic-dictatorial weekly of the USI, Risorgimento So­ ist movement. try a~d the workers received this per­ degenerations of the Russian system. cialista, became, also within the PCI, Due to this change in attitude, and spectIve favorably. In Sicily, where re­ Some time after Nenni, Togliatti also the PSI and the PSDI, the voice of in spite of its recent Stalinist past, the gional elections took place two ventured to express a similar judg­ specific aspirations for a renewal of PSI was able to poll 3.5 million votes months after the Turin Congress, the ment but relapsed into silence as soon three months after the Congress. Italian socialism. socialists won a spectacular victory. as M~scow expressed its disapproval. Counting the independent socialist Yet, the PSI still remained to a NennI, on the other hand, maintain­ The Socialist Movement and votes, the total socialist vote now large extent under the spell of the ed his stand. "Peaceful Co-existence" reached almost four million: a prom­ Stalinist influence, not only in its re­ Thus it became possible for the After 1952, slowly and haltingly, ising result, corresponding to the de­ lations with the Communist Party P.SI. to move from the policy of "so­ the climate of the cold war gave way cline of Christian-Democratic elector­ but, above all, in its attitude towards CIalIst alternative" to the policy of to a more relaxed temper in world al strength and to an electoral col­ Russia. The great majority of Italian socialist unity. politics. Increasingly, the effects of lapse of Social-Democracy. soc~al~sts, including the independent Already in the administrative elec­ this relaxation made themselves felt Within the context of growing in­ SOCIalIsts and a part of the social-demo­ tions in May 1956, the PSI took a step in the Italian socialist movement. The ternational relaxation, the electoral crats, always considered that an inde­ towards socialist unity by reconciling leadership of the PSI, Nenni in par­ success of June 7, 1953, compelled the pendent policy did not necessarily in­ and allying itself with the USI, which ticular, were quick to grasp the new PSI to continue developing the volve a frontal clash with the commu­ had maintained its positions of inde­ elements in the situation, while So­ themes of a "socialist alternative." It ni.sts and a break in class solidarity. It pendence and its opposition to the cial-Democracy remained in the also raised the problem of unification WIll be remembered that the "unity Stalinist ideas and methods through­ trenches of the cold war. The Milan of all socialist groups. The politics of of action pact" as such was never an out the preceding period. Its new at­ Congress of the PSI (March 1953) the PSI were gradually changing, and issue in the polemics that preceded titude of independence and its alli­ took the beginning of a turn towards the basic feature of the change was the 1947 split; S!iragat himself had ance with the USI strengthened the a new policy. The dominion of the that the party, in the course of a dif­ signed the pact in November 1946. PSI by about 600,000 votes. After the apparatus remained powerful, and the ficult and contradictory evolution, The controversy hinged on the vari­ administrative elections, the stage was was emancipating itself from the com­ ous interpretations of the pact: set for the second step towards social- *untn 1953 the group was called "Movimento Lavora­ pulsion to chose between the two tori Italiani" (MIL). Winter 1957 41 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 40 ist unity; drawing the PSDI closer to Austria. With a lesser flexibility and mined in Italy by one of two opposed promise at all costs. At times, the pol­ the PSI and the USI. Important ability, American foreign policy has policies, both of which are based on icy of the Communist Party has fol­ changes, both within Social-Democ­ adapted itself to the new attitudes of dangerous mistakes. The old socialist lowed this pattern, in conformity racy and in the general political situ­ its adversary; the effects of this change tradition is one of anti-clericalism. In with Russian policy: in 1946, for in­ ation, contributed to make this step are already making themselves felt in itself, anti-clericalism is a deformation stance, the PCI voted to include the possible. certain sectors of European social and rather than an integral part of a class fascist Concordate between Church Within the PSDI, the center-right political life. policy, and transfers the struggle from and State into the Constitution. More leadership continued to rule, but had Within this new context, socialist the realm of social relations to the generally, and for different reasons, to face a growing left opposition and, unity has become the stake in a com­ realm of metaphysical controversy. As Saragat's party has accepted a passive above all, a strong movement towards plicated game of chess between the a basis for socialist policy, it means "co-existence" with the Catholics, con­ socialist unity in the party locals in two blocs, each trying to influence destroying class unity and giving up ceding vital ground on the question the North. In Parliament, the crumb­ and orient the process according any serious attempt to drive a wedge of the lay state and failing to conduct lfng of the "center-coalition" major­ to its own interests. The task of Ital­ into Christian-Democracy. Even if the necessary social struggles which could ity, which today rules by a margin of ian socialists in this situation is of communists are included, a "left" ma­ have had the support of the Catholic nine votes, forced the PSDI to revise course to make the best use of the new jority on an anti-clerical platform is masses. Furthermore, by its readiness its policy, and- the progress of interna­ possibilities in order to lift the prob­ not possible in Italy. This means that to compromise, it justified the ecclesi­ tional relaxation has reduced the lem of socialist unity from the level if the working-class movement enters astical and Christian-Democratic hier­ power of the anti-unity pressure ex­ of diplomatic relationships between into sharp conflict with the Catholics archy in the eyes of the Catholic erted by the Western powers in Sara­ the two blocs to the level of a socialist on the religious question, it will con­ masses and in this way helped the gat's party. ideology and politics. In this sense it demn itself to a sterile maximalist hierarchy to inhibit the growth of We have thus reached current can truly be said that the fight for so­ opposition for another ten or twenty class-consciousness among Catholic events, which we need not discuss cialist unity must necessarily coincide years. Moreover, and this is a more workers. here in detail. with the fight for a new policy involv­ important point, the anti-clerical pol­ A new approach is needed, which ing the liquidation of the Stalinist icy strengthens the domination of the would reject both anti-clericalism and The Problems of Socialist Unity. and Russian handicap on the one ecclesiastical apparatus on the Catho­ compromise at all costs, and would The development of the cold war hand, of the reformist and "Western" lic working masses and indirectly sti­ tend to establish practical co-opera­ was a determining factor in the split handicap on the other. Today, the fles the maturing of class-conscious­ tion with the Catholic masses on the of the Socialist Party; the process of socialist movement alone is in a posi­ ness among these workers. It is not basis of solidarity in common prob­ relaxation, on the other hand, has tion, by following a policy of mili­ surprising that the Vatican does lems and struggles. This is an ap­ again raised the issue of socialist un­ tancy and independence, to open up everything in its power to stimulate a proach involving many difficulties ity and, what is more, has made so­ a progressive perspective for th: work­ new religious war which would smash and a number of risks, but it is the cialist unity possible by diminishing ing-class and for the country In gen­ class solidarity in the factories and in only approach capable of setting the pressure of the opposing blocs and eral. the rural regions among workers and Italian politics in motion. It may in­ by blunting the sharp edges of past This is the present position of the peasants of different religious or phil­ volve, for the socialist movement, par­ polemics. At the same time, however, independent socialists, of wide circles osophical allegiances. Karl Marx re­ ticipation in government or opposi­ it is obvious that the process of social­ in the PSI and of certain circles of the marked that "the struggle against re­ tion, depending on the circumstances ist unification has become, even with­ PSDI; but, until such a policy can be ligious prejudice does not occur in and on the relationship of forces be­ in the context of relaxation, a battle­ translated into action, a great deal of heaven but on earth," stressing that re­ tween classes. ground of the opposing power blocs, work remains to be done. ligious prejudices are rooted in a Opening a dialogue with the Catho­ who are now playing their game ac­ given system of relations of produc­ lics implies avoiding a frontal clash cording to different rules. Russian IN ITALY, A NEW socialist policy im­ tion. The recognition of this fact, with the communists and a break in foreign policy has changed. The Stal­ plies the solution of four fundamen­ which is of secondary importance to class solidarity, also on this side. If inist principle "who is not with me tal problems: relationships with the socialists of other countries, is funda­ such a break should occur, any dia­ is against me" has been replaced by Catholic world; relationship with the mental for the Italian socialist move­ logue with the Catholics would be­ "who is not with my enemies is my communist world (six million voters, ment. come a mere pretext for the absorb­ friend." Such is the line that deter~ two million members); foreign policy; The other attitude which has de­ tion of the socialist movement by the mines Russia's new attitude towards trade-union policy. termined, more recently, the policy of clerical-conservative front. On the the independent Asian nations, to­ Relationships between socialists large sections of the Italian labor question of relationships with the wards Yugoslavia, towards neutral and Catholics have always been deter- movement is one of readiness to com- communists, it must always be kept 42 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL. Winter 1957 43 r in mind that now the communists nent solution nor involve the disap­ cialists of the unified party should all process of "de-Stalinizationh within themselves are dependent on main­ pearance of imperialist pressures and be members of a single trade-union the PCI-and hence of transformation organization, the CGIL, but that taining working relations with the so­ of the class struggle. A climate of co­ lI in a socialist direction-will slow cialists, even at the cost of submitting existence is one in which the socialist unity of all trade-union federations down to a long halt, as seems prob­ to the influence of an independent so­ movement can grow much more eas­ should be a goal connected with so­ able at the moment, one can foresee cialist movement which they would ily than in a climate of open conflict cialist unity. The PSDI, on the other a communist attempt to isolate the never have tolerated a few years ago. between the two blocs, and the hand, advocates entry of all socialists PSI from the other socialist forces and A break with the socialists would not growth of an independent interna­ in the UIL, and demands that a deci­ to stifle the pqlicy of unity by means only isolate the PCI, but would also tional labor movement represents the sion on this question should be of the old and tried methods and slo­ be in contradiction with the "relaxed" strongest guarantee of peace. Finally, reached at the first Congress of the gans. policy Russia is following at the mo­ onl y a policy of independence from unified party. ment. The PCI is consequently com­ both blocs can enable the socialist Against the new policy of socialist THE ROAD TO SOCIALIST UNITY is full pelled to accept the new socialist atti­ movement to offer the necessary soli­ unity, a sharp opposition has arisen of obstacles and difficulties. A firm tude as a "lesser evil." darity and assistance to the cause of from two sides. As soon as socialist political position is a necessary but For the socialists, the problem is to colonial peoples and of all oppressed unity became a live issue, the Euro­ not a sufficient condition to overcome maintain unity of action and class peoples in general. pean social-democratic Right moved these obstacles. What is indispensable, solidarity with the communist work­ On the trade-union question, the on different levels to absorb the PSI is a transformation of the structure ers while resisting Stalinist directives PSI and the USI advocate a policy into the conservative coalition or at of the socialist movement. It must and, above all, while using their full leading to the unification of all trade­ least to bring about a split in its cease to concentrate on sterile pole­ freedom of criticism and analysis in union organizations. In Italy, the so­ midst. With the help of Commin, Sec­ mics among the top leadership and relation to the communist world. This cialist split and the cold war have led retary of the French" Socialist Party must become more and more a real too is a difficult policy, but all other to a split in the General Confedera­ and a prominent member of the "At­ mass organization, a political force in alternatives would lead to the state of tion of Labor (CGIL). Today, three lantic" and right-wing leadership, a the daily lives of the people, engaged affairs which in France reduced Guy significant trade-union organizations much publicized meeting of Nenni in all important struggles of the work­ Mollet's party to an instrument of the exist on the national level, as well as and Saragat was arranged at Pralog­ ers and peasants, representing within bourgeoisie. a great number of small independent non. The bourgeois press interpreted itself the image of the new society. unions: the trade-union movement is this event as a return of the PSI to the Another pressing task is one of ideo­ As FAR AS FOREIGN POLICY is concerned, in a state of crisis and the economic social-democratic folel, and has con­ logica) reconstruction. Maximalism socialist unity can only be achieved defenses of the working-class are seri­ ducted a high-pressure campaign to and reformism are both dried branch­ on the basis of a Third Camp posi­ ously weakened. The CGIL, which in­ browbeat the PSI into immediate and es on the tree of the Italian labor tion. The Italian socialists are no cludes the workers of the PCI, of the indiscriminate unity within the frame­ movement, and they must be cut. The longer prepared to accept either the PSI, of the USI and, locally, elements work of "democratic solidarity." This struggle for power in our country can­ theory and practice of the Russian of the social-democratic Left, is the maneuver failed thanks to the firm not be conducted with purely parlia­ "leader-State" nor the worn-out for­ strongest federation (60-65 per cent of attitude of the PSI and to the ener­ mentary methods nor can it be found­ mulas of the Atlantic alliance. On the all organized workers). The CISL, getic intervention of the USI, which ed on the expectation of an apoca­ other hand, large sections of the PSI with 25-30 per cent of organized la­ helped to distinguish the perspective I '"pse. The pressure of the masses, the and of the PSDI, as well as the whole bor, is the union of the Catholic work­ of unity on the basis of independence de\'elopment of the class-struggle sup­ of the USI, are interested in favoring ers and of the social-democratic from the communists from the per­ ported by an effective intervention on the process of relaxation between the Right. The UIL, which includes so­ spective of unity on an anti-commu· the parliamentary level, can alone be­ two blocs. Even though the threat of cial-democratic, Republican and inde­ nist and clerical basis. It is probable, gi n a thorough reform of Italian so­ war has not disappeared permanently, pendent workers, is the weakest of the however, that other efforts of a simi­ ciety. An increasing number of peo­ the present international conditions three organizations and mainly tries lar kind will be made by the leading ple are be~inning to think along these allow for new relationships between to exploit local discontent in certain circles of the bourgeoisie and by the lines, and the growing awareness of States based on co-existence. In this sections of the CGIL and of, the European social-democratic Right. this perspective in the socialist move­ writers' opinion, and in the opinion CISL; it is notorious for its ties with The latter especially attempt to ex­ ment must be consolidated. of the vast majority of the Italian la­ certain I talian monopolies, in partic­ ploit for their own purposes the dis­ There remains the problem of the bor movement, the socialists should ular FIAT and Montecatini. The array of the PSI after the Stalinist goal. The Italian socialist movement fa vor the practice of co-existence even point of view which the PSI and the crisis. must at last commit itself to a judg­ though it does not represent a perma- (] SI hold in common, is that the so- Nor is this the only danger. If the ment on the experience of Russia ann

44 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 45 the other hand, retained a great deal industry. Only a growing awareness control of city offices and started to of the Eastern countries; it must de­ run the services. The Town Council of militancy, but they remained a fine its position on the crisis of West­ of these new and immense tasks will enable the Italian socialist movement of Durban immediately came to terms minority. As a whole, the European ern Social-Democracy and on the rise and the demands of the workers were labor movement would revise its at­ to liquidate the heritages of Stalinism of socialist forces in Asia and Africa; met. titude and its tactics towards class­ it cannot postpone any longer an and of Social-Democracy, which have been such a determining factor in its This period of struggle culminated collaboradon, in the face of a rising analysis of what the structure of a in the Rand strike of 1922, which labor movement among the African crisis and which still weigh on it to­ socialist society actually involves, of represents a sort of turning point in workers. the significance of real workers' de­ day. LUCIO LIBERTINI South African labor history. Its cause As IN ASIA, THE first stirrings of Afri­ mocracy, of its relationship with was a wage cut by the mining com­ can trade-unionism in South Africa October 1956. workers' control and management of panies and the replacement of 5,000 were a sequel of the first world war, European workers by African workers which had favored the development at one tenth of the pay. On January of an industry employing a relatively The Labor Movement in 1922, 30,000 European workers went stable African labor force. The first on strike. The government immediate­ African labor union appe~red in 1919: ly proceeded to mobilize troops. On the Industrial and Commercial Work­ Tropical Africa - II March 10 fighting broke out, and ers' Union (ICU). Although it had The Status of the Trade Union Movement lasted for nearly a week. Tens of no color bar in its constitution, it was thousands of troops were mobili~ed, mainly composed of African workers. and Fordsburg, a working class dis­ It was not only a trade-union, but /'------~, African Branch of the Amalgamated trict, was shelled by heavy artillery. also a general protest movement of The analysis of the trade union Carpenters' and Joiners' Union, with movement in tropical Africa is the two locals, one in Durban and one in After the repression, 18 strike leaders Africans, and included from the start second in a series dealing with the Capetown.36 This union, as well were sentenced to death, and four many people who were not wage-earn­ problems of the working class move­ as the South African Typographical were actually executed. ers. In this, it showed a characteristic ment in that area. (The last arti.cle The strike failed, mainly because which is typical of African trade­ appeared in the Summer 1956 issue.) Union which was founded next, in The concluding article, concerned 1888, were practically British unions. it was not extended to other indus­ unionism in general: the linking of with the economic and social problems So was the "Knights of Labor" an tries, because the African workers were economic and political demands, in tropical Africa, will appear in the organization probably founded by mi­ not involved in it and because no at­ which is inevitable in a society where next issue. ners who had worked in the United tempt was made to mobilize popular economic and political oppression is , States, and who called a strike at support. Its failure was "disastrous so closely intertwined. In spite of for the future development of trade­ strongest government opposition, the THE EXAMPLE OF CHINA in 1927 and Kimberley in 1884. British workers dominated the labor movement in unionism in South Africa. The best ICU rapidly became a powerful mass of Russia in 1917 shows that even a South Africa for a long time, until men were either lost in the struggle organization. By 1925, it had branches numerically weak working-class can the Rand strikes of 1907 and especial­ or black-listed out of employment."37 in almost every part of South Africa, play a decisive social aI)d political ly the strikes of 1913-1914, in mining After 1922, the European labor and was sending out organizers to role. Its ability to do so depends on and railroads, in which workers of movement became increasingly flabby Southern Rhodesia-which were turn­ as a whole, and particularly in its key ed back at the border. Proper records the extent to which it has become Afrikaaner origin played for the first sectors: mining, railways and steel. of membership were never kept, but conscious of forming an independent time an outstanding role. The miners' union eventually became its membership was estimated at about community of action, with its own At the end of the first world war, saddled with a corrupt and ineffectual fifty thousand at its peak. historic aims that require specific a new strike wave took place under leadership, which greatly facilitated The ICU was a forerunner of Afri­ political and social tasks. socialist leadership. In 1919 a power its capture by the Nationalist Party can trade-unionism also in its weak­ The history of African trade-union­ and streetcar strike was called in Jo­ in 1947. The railway unions, which nesses. From the start, it suffered from hannesburg, in the course of which ism, the elementary form of class­ had played a leading role in the fatal flaws in its organization. It was the workers started operating the consciousness, will tell us to what ex­ labor movement of the early 1920's, a loose and sprawling movement of streetcar service themselves, under a tent this process is advanced in Afri­ declined into insignificance. The Iron protest, fighting against all forms of Board of Control which they had set ca. and Steel Workers' Union was also oppression, half union, half party. Its up for this purpose. This strike ended Trade-unionism made its first ap­ captured by the Nationalists. The leadership did not have the necessary in a complete victory. A month later, pearance on the African continent in unions in the secondary industries, on experience to cope with the compli- 1881, the founding date of the South municipal workers in Durban took Winter 1957 47 46 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL cated tasks such a body had to face. members of registered trade unions, killed in the repression, and several relieved the latter of the bothersome There were no properly elected or­ but have their own separate unions, hundred were wounded. necessity of taking a clear position on gans or executive officers, no clear which have practically no rights of There has been no sign of trade­ the matter and of the obligation to program, no control of the finances­ collective bargaining and are prohib­ union activity among the one million help build a strong African labor this in a large, composite movement ited from striking under a penalty of African agricultural workers, except movement that might have helped fighting on many fronts where a firm three years imprisonment and a fine in Natal, where the Industrial Con­ them to survive. organization would have been most of £500. By a curious oversight in the ciliation Act of 1937 prohibits unions Under the pressure of the N ational­ needed. In 1926 it split; expulsions law, African women were not includ­ for plantation workers. ist government, the divided trade­ were followed by resignations, count­ ed in these repressive regulations, and union movement has been disinte­ er-organizations were set up. By 1931 were able to join registered trade­ It is a well-known trag­ grating at a frightening rate. the ICU was practically dead. unions, particularly in the clothing edy of the South African labor move­ By 1952, the South African trade­ As a result of an ICU split, the industry. In 1950, 75,000 Colored, In­ ment that, from the beginning, the union movement was widely split: South African Federation of Non­ dians and African women were mem­ bulk of European trade-unions re­ (1) the South African Trade and La­ European Workers was set up in Jo­ bers of registered trade-unions, affili­ fused to assist the attempts of the non­ bor Council, then the most repre­ hannesburg. It mainly organized ated to the South African Trades and European workers to organize them­ sentative of all trade-union bodies, in­ workers engaged in secondary indus­ Labor Council (SA T&LC). Twenty selves. cluding at one extreme unions that tries (laundries, clothing, furniture per cent of the membership of the The consequences of this policy on support "apartheid" policies and at making, etc.). At its peak, it had 12 SA T&LC was non-European at that the part of the European labor unions the other end unions that reject all unions with altogether 3,000 mem­ time; the Western Provinces Council have been ruinous for the labor move­ forms of segregation; (2) the South bers, and looked like it might succeed of Labor Unions (WPCL U), a smaller ment as a whole-not only today, as African Co-ordinating Council of the ICU as the leading organization local group, was composed of Colored the unions of both races are being Trade Unions, a fascist body con­ of African labor. However, as the re­ workers in a proportion of 80 per wiped out separately, but since the trolled by- the Nationalist Party, sult of factional fighting, it collapsed cent.39 earliest manifestations of this policy. which includes the Mine Workers' soon afterwards. The position of non-European In the Rand strike of 1920, the Af­ Union and the Iron and Steel Work­ Simultaneously with the rise of the workers in predominantly European rican miners, far from receiving any ers (21,000 members in 1955); (3) the ICU, labor. organizations had begun unions was described by E. S. Sachs support from the trade-unions, had to \Vestern Provinces Council of Labor to penetrate among the African min­ as follows: face the open hostility and the scab­ Unions, an independent body con­ ers on the Rand. In February 1920, bing of the European mineworkers. fined to the Cape Pnwince. There 71,000 unorganized African miners Some (European) unions have organ­ "Two years later, the European mine­ does not seem to have been any good ized native workers engaged in the same reason for its separate existence from went on a spontaneous but very well industry in separate sections, and there workers paid dearly for their stupid organized strike, which lasted about is some form of co-operation. There are and backward policy, for when they the SAT&:LC; (4) a group of indepen­ a week and was crushed by police ter­ also a number of independent native came out on strike the Native work­ dent unions which left the SAT&LC ror and persecution. Several workers unions some of which are affiliated to ers remained at work and, with the on the "color bar" issue but did not the SA T&LC, but which have little or no join the SACCTU. Today, an equiv­ were shot. voice in that body. help of mine officials, carried on min­ Today over 50 African trade un­ ing operations."4o This was the alent body exists which is called the ions exist in secondary industries and. In 1949 there existed a Council of first of a succession of defeats which South African Federation of Trade­ in commerce. Only a few of them func­ Non-European Trade Unions, which the European trade-unions suffered as Unions (45,000 members in 1955); (5) tion properly, and they are making was affiliated to the WFTU. (The a consequence of their policy. other independents, such as the rail­ little headway, forced as they are to SA T&LC never affiliated to either When the ICU appeared, the ma­ ,,,oay unions which play a small role live under conditions of semi-legality, vVFTU or ICFTU as it would have jority of European unions remained r3,OOO members in 1955). constantly harassed by the govern­ split the federation down the middle.) hostile and refused to take it seriously. In 1954, the SAT&LC was dis­ ment and prevented by law from The last major strike of African \\Then it grew in strength and influ­ solved, after having lost strength functioning as real unions. During workers occurred on the Rand in ence, the European SA T&LC was steadily, and was replaced by the S.A. and immediately after the war, non­ 1946: six ty thousand miners struck forced to take notice of it but, in spite Trade Union Council (SATUC) (149,- Europeans joined trade-unions in for the recognition of their union (the of a series of pious declarations, it 000 members in 1955). The new body great numbers: 200,000 approximate­ African Mineworkers' Union, affiliat­ never accepted cooperation with it on announced its intention to "focus op­ ly between 1940 and 1945. After 1945, ed to the CN-ETU) and for a wage a basis of equality. The rapid decline position to the government's Indus­ non-European unions declined.38 raise to 10 shillings a day. According of the ICU, caused in part by the hos­ trial Conciliation Bill" which aimed African men cannot by law be to official figures, 10 strikers were tile attitude of the European unions, :It splitting the unions along racial 48 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 49 lines. However, it also expressed its kaans-speaking women, consistently were forced back to work after a few 12,000 Africans from Kenya alone have willingness to accept the principle of showed great militancy and true so­ days. learned to operate motor vehicles. The "apartheid," even in its own ranks, cialist spirit on this question as on East African Army Education Corps has In 1932 the Trades and Labor produced about 500 Africans trained as chosing a "lesser evil" policy and rob­ others. It practiced no segregation in Journal of South Africa reported that bing itself of the only effective politi­ its locals, and in recent years helped teachers, information officers, welfare a Southern Rhodesia Trades &: Labor workers, interpreters, and a Swahili pa­ cal basis from which to counter gov­ to organize the South African Cloth­ Council had been formed following per called Askari with a weekly circula­ ernment attacks. ing Workers' Union, a union pre­ the example of the SAT&:LC-almost tion of 8,000. Tens of thousands of sol­ diers have 'advanced further during :five In February 1955, the government dominantly composed of African men certainly an exclusively European passed the Industrial Conciliation Act who, as we have seen, are legally pre­ years of war than would have been pos­ body. ~ible in two decades of peace."46 against strong protest from the trade­ vented from joining any European In Madagascar, the French CGT union movement. The new bill splits body. Unfortunately, unions such as In Uganda, the first nationalist (then a reformist union led by Jou­ the unions and forces those that are the Garment Workers' have remaIned mass movement was born out of a haux) founded locals for both French affiliated to the S.A. Labor Party to a small minority within the European co;}tinuation of political and eco­ and Malagasy workers in 1937, most disaffiliate (mainly the Garment Work­ trade-union movement. nomic demands raised by Africans of whom were directly affiliated to ers and the Engineering Workers.41 who had participated in the war. In the other countries of Tropical French industrial federations. The Thus, due to the chauvinistic and "It occurred in 1945, immediately Africa, trade-unionism was slow in first federation to be formed was the short-sighted policy of the majority of after the war, and it is known as developing before World War II. federation of civil servants. European trade-unions, the labor 'Number Eight,' so named after Mont­ European trade unionism became im­ In 1938 the CFTC followed suit by movement in South Africa - and in gomery's Eighth Army in which many portant only in Rhodesia-nowhere organizing the Union des Syndicats Southern Rhodesia-finds itself dis­ Africans had served. I t involved ex­ else were there European workers in Chretiens de Madagascar, a conserva­ armed and routed by the most dan­ servicemen and it aimed at higher sufficient numbers to form the basiS! tive body very much under the con­ gerous form of reaction that has yet wages, higher prices for agricultural of a significant trade-union move­ trol of the Catholic Church and harm­ appeared on the African continent. produce and-for the first time-for ment. African unions were inhibited less to anyone save its followers. The For the sake of the future of the the participation of African-elected by the same obstacles that confronted administration supported its organiz­ South African labor movement, it representatives in the central and lo­ similar attempts in South Africa: an ing campaigns to oppose the advance must be recorded that a minority cal governments of the country. After unstable, migratory labor force; fierce of the CGT: by 1939 the CFTC among the European workers has al­ all, the war had been fought in the opposition from authorities and em­ claimed 13,200 members, of which ways supported the African trade­ interests of democracy! It was sponta­ ployees; lack of experience in organi­ 10,500 were agricultural workers, unIOns. neous and it aimed at achieving its zational skills. while the CGT claimed 997, of which In 1915 the International Socialist ends by a general strike and the re­ The first African union appears to 300 were civil servants.45 League, a small revolutionary social~ have been the railway workers' union fusal to sell anything to non-Africans. ist group which had left the S.A. La­ These feeble attempts at organiza­ All roads leading to urban centers in Sierra Leone42, which was found­ tion received a tremendous impetus bor Party on the war question, for the ed in 1917 and called a strike in Free­ were blocked by pickets, to prevent during and immediately after the Sec­ anybody from going to work or from first time explained the basic princi­ town in 1919.· ples of trade-unionism to the African ond World War. Trade-unions devel­ smuggling food to the town dwellers. workers in their own language. Later, This is all we hear for ten years or oped throughout the continent. The Its success was enormous, and the gov­ this tradition of internationalism and so. During the early 1930's we know of intensification of production and of ernment retorted by calling in the exploitation, drawing thousands of working class solidarity was continued a few trade-union nuclei in Sierra troops to shoot down the pickets and by the Communist Party, the Trotsky­ Leone in Gambia in Nigeria. In workers into wage employment, the terrorize the general population. weakening of the colonial powers, all ist movement and certain tendencies Northern Rhodesia the African mjn­ Many Africans lost their lives-the of the S.A.L.P. When the ICU was ers struck in 1935 against an increase created the conditions for an upsurge number is unknown to the present founded, W. H. Andrews, a founder in the poll tax-characteristically a of the labor and nationalist move­ day-and the "ring leaders" were, nat­ of the ISL and later of the CPSA, political demand. Five were killed in ment which, in many cases, was one urally, deported. 44 and the same. For many Africans, the tried to help with material assistance, the course of the repression. In 1940 "But 'Number Eight' did achieve war and the army acted as a school: and in so doing faced attacks from the African miners struck again; this solid results. Wages were increased, as the European trade-union leaders. time 17 were killed and 65 wounded. In World War II African troops have was the price paid to cotton growers. The Garment Workers' Union In this manner the striking workers fought in the Middle East, Madagascar, At the same time Africans were, for Italian East Africa, Ceylon and Burma. (18,500 members in 1953) which is the first time, given the right to have *A tobacco workers' union was already organized in The war has given new opportunities predominantly composed of Afri- Egypt in 1903. (43) and experiences to these Africans. About some form of elected representation &0 THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. Winter 1957 &1 in local governments and the rudi­ time one Asian and 2 African unions. struck for higher wages in November paign of non-eo-operation against the ments of direct, though hand-picked, In Tanganyika, there was "only 1955, and in January 1956 40,000 British rule. A buyers' strike took representation in the central govern­ one significant union" in 1947: the building trades workers also struck place at the same time. As a result of ment."47 longshoremen's union of Dar-es-Sa­ for better pay. the strike, several leaders were impris­ A political consequence of the laam. In 1949 there were 7 registered The largest unions in Nigeria are oned and thousands of workers wert~ strike was the formation of the Bataka unions, of which 5 were African. In those of the railwaymen, coalminers, fired from their jobs and blacklisted. Party, a locally limited nationalist 1951, there was only one left, the Asian construction workers and teachers. Today, the GCTUC has approximate­ group. In 1949 a Farmers' Union was union. However, the government re­ Several unions are not affiliated to the ly 84,000 members in over 60 unions. formed, which simultaneously initiat­ ported 73 strikes in its annual report TUC. At the date of this writing, 35,000 ed a struggle for more representation to the UN Trusteeship Council, in­ In the Gold Coast, a Trade Union mineworkers have been out on strike in the African Parliament (where volving a total of 7,851 workers. By Congress was founded in 1943. At the for the past three months for a 15 per most representatives had been nomi­ 1953, there were 6 unions in existence, end of 1949 and in early 1950 the cent wage increase. nated by the governments), against of which the largest was the Kili­ trade-unions called a general strike in The following table shows the de­ the British government's plans to fed­ mandjaro Drivers' Association with support of the Convention People's velopment of the trade-union move­ erate the three East African territories 421 members. At the time of this writ­ Party, which was prosecuting its cam- ment in British West Africa: and against the monopoly of Asian ing, these unions are about to form a No. of Unions Membership 0/0* and European cotton ginners and ex­ Tanganyika Federation of Labor. 1942 1947 1949 porters. The government broke off ne­ Here is the picture for British East Gold Coast.... 4 28 41 60 ('55) 913 11,560 38,140 84,000 ('55) 15.1 gotiations and suppressed the Bataka Africa: Nigeria ...... 47 115 129 140 ('51) 18,270 60,030 88,570 152,269 (,51) 50.1 Sierra Leone.. 10 8 7 4,500 12,130 15,590 45.7 Party and the Farmers' Union. At the Number of % of Total Gambia ...... 3 2 2 3 ('52) 1,200 1,500 46.6 same time, it dissolved the General Unions Membership Wage· Earn. Date Cameroons (B) .... 3 6 ('52) 11,126 42,300 ('53) Transport Workers' Union of Ugan­ Uganda •••••• 3 259 0.12 1952 Togoland (B) .. .. Tanganyika ••• 6 1953 ·Percentage of wage earners in 1952. da, since most of its leaders had been Kenya ...... 13 27,587 6.30 1952· involved in the political campaign. In West Africa under British rule, In West Africa under French rule·, labor in French West Africa-only This reaction only lead to increased the trade-union movement has a long­ the CGT and the CFTC had begun then as far as the law was concerned. political consciousness and activity: to organize even before the Second The bastion of trade-unionism in er history and succeeded in establish­ in 1952 the Uganda National Con­ World War, but only among Euro­ French West Africa is Senegal, with gress was formed, the first nationalist ing itself more solidly earlier. pean workers. The real growth of the its urban center Dakar-Rufisque. organization covering all three prov­ In Nigeria the Railway Workers' trade-union movement occurred after The majority of union members used inces of Uganda. Union is the oldest, and registered in 1944 when, as a by-product of the to belong to the CGT; next came the In Kenya, an East African Trade 1'939 under the Trade Union Ordi­ Liberation, freedom to organize trade­ powerful independent Federation of Union Council was formed in 1949. nance. During the war unions grew unions was granted to the natives of African Railwaymen, with 15,000 In May 1949 it claimed 5,000 mem­ rapidly, and in 1943, 200 representa­ colonial territories. Here as elsewhere, members. CFTC, in contrast to Mada­ bers which had become 10,000 by De­ tives of 56 unions met in Lagos to the trade-~nions were soon linked to gascar, is a militant union which has cember. In 1950 the government sup­ form the Trade Union Council of nationalist demands. engaged in struggles alongside of the 48 pressed it ; in 1951 the Registered Nigeria. After the war, two major In Upper Volta, for instance, un­ other unions and has had to meet the Trade Union Federation of Kenya strikes gave the trade union move­ ions arose in 1946 under the stimulus same obstacles. FO does not count. In was founded under the leadership of French West Africa as a whole, the ment even greater momentum: the of the new nationalist party Rassemb­ Tom Mboya, and affiliated to the ratio of trade-union members to the general strike of 1945, which started lement Democratique African (RDA); ICFTU. The campaign against the total number of wage-earners was 28.1 at Lagos, then spread to the railways, in the beginning the party and the Mau-Mau has, of course, also been per cent in 1948, 30.6 per cent in 1950 the plantation workers and the com­ unions had become a common office used as a club against the trade-union and 26.4 per cent in 1952. The total mercial workers; then, in 1949, the and a common leading personnel. In movement, but without success so far. number of trade-union members was strike in the Enugu coal mines, which the Ivory Coast, an Agricultural Of the 13 unions in existence in Ken­ 115,300 in 1953. The following shows was brutally suppressed by the police, Workers' Union was founded in 1946 ya in 1952, 5 were African, 3 Asian, the strength of each federation in several workers being killed. The is­ which became the basis for the RDA 2 African and Asian, and 3 European 1948: sue in this strike had been higher in this region. Acting together, the -the three European unions however, CGT ...... 42,500 wages and better housing conditions. union and the party abolished forced totalled 17 members! Aut...... 17,500 In Uganda, there were at the same More recently, 40,000 tin miners • Senegal, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Sudan, Da­ CFTC ...... 8,500 homey, Niger Colony, Upper Volta. FO ...... 1,000 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 52 Winter 1957 53 ants against racial discrimination in support of all social classes, they shall In the French Cameroons, the rela­ dragged out from 1947, when the first the public services (August 10); a call a Conference at which all, unani­ tions between the strength of the vari­ bill was presented, to 1952. (, strike in the Cameroons from August mously, shall demand a revision of the ous federations was as follows in 1954: In 1952, the West African CGT, I ties that bind them to the French 10 to August 11; finally, a general CFTC and the independent Railway­ Union." No. of Member­ strike in Guinea, the most important men decided to open a campaign of A French army general wrote sub­ Unions ship of all, which lasted two months~ from USAC (Auton.) 8 2,016 agitation to bring pressure on the As­ stantially the same thing, but viewed sembly which culminated in a 24-hour September 21 to November 25, and CFTC ...... 36 6,489 which was supported by the African from the other side of the fence, from CGT-FO ...... 46 6,580 general strike on November 3. FO as­ the administrative point of view: USCC (CGT) ...... 147 20,000 sociated itself to the strike at the last peasants who fed the strikers. Trade-unionism (in French Africa) The USCC is closely co-operating moment; it was practically 100 per On October 13, a 24-hour strike was called again in Senegal and in Mauri­ has reached maturity, has become con­ with the Union des Populations du cent effective in Senegal, Sudan, scious of its strength and has established Cameroun (UPC), a Stalinist-influ­ Guinea, Ivory Coast, Dahomey and tania, followed by a general strike on a union which politics and religion have enced nationalist party that was re­ Upper Volta. There had never been November 3, which lasted till Novem­ been unable to achieve. It is in a posi­ before in the history of African trade ber 5. tion to conduct an action which we can cently suppressed by the administra­ slow down only with difficulty, as there tion. Politically, this party could be unionism a strike that had been as During these strikes, 8 leading is no political or administrative system compared to the early Progressive effective over such a large territory. trade-unionists were imprisoned, sev­ capable of counter-balancing it. Its tone People's Party of British Guiana. On November 22, as· a direct conse­ eral strikers were wounded by the po­ and its means are well known-it talks quence of the strike, the Assembly lice in Senegal and in Guinea, and and acts as if it represented the whole In Togoland under French admin­ country, while in fact it is the mouth­ istration 35 unions existed in 1952 passed the bill which became law on one striker was killed in Guinea. piece of a rather weak minority-less with a total membership of 4,425, December 16. However, on November 27, the than 2 per cent of the population--com­ mostly affiliated to the CGT, with a The main battle, however, remain­ French government sent instructions pared to the peasant mass in the coun­ ed to be fought, for the employers, tryside, which represents the real wealth minori ty following CFTC. to all local administrations in the of these territories but remains inert and The trade union movement in backed by the local administrations, colonies to see that the principle of a motionless."61 French West Africa has recently took advantage of an unclear formu­ 20 per cen t wage raise and of the 40- The agitation for the application emerged from a major battle, which lation in the text to pay 40 hours at hour week should be applied every­ of the Labor Code had not spread to it conducted with admirable tenacity the old hourly rates, thereby cutting where. French Equatorial Africa, where the and discipline. The issue at stake was the wages in reality. By June 1953 the The strike in Guinea was no doubt economy is less developed and has re­ the application of the Labor Code of four trade-union federations (CGT, the longest that had ever been con­ mained largely rural. Its only major 1947. CFTC, Autonomous and FO) raised ducted in Africa. The planning and urban center, Brazzaville, on the The Labor Code is an attempt to three demands in a campaign to en­ organization of the strikes, the co­ French side of the Stanley Pool across bring hours, wages and working con­ force the application of the law in the operation of the various federations, from Leopoldville, is the center of ditions in the African territories into spirit in which it had been framed: the prosecution of the strikes for al­ trade-union activity. In 1949, there closer correspondence with conditions (1) a 20 per cent raise in minimum most five months over a huge terri­ were three significant unions in Braz­ in France; it is the work of liberal and wages; (2) a further revision of the tory, all these elements were new. zaville: the Building Trades, Wood social-democratic legislators, and was minimum wages in proportion to an Even if the strikes had not been suc­ and Iron Workers' Union (1,100 mem­ supported by the RDA, the SP, the increase in the cost of living; (3) ap­ cessful, the labor movement would bers) and the African Staff Associa­ CP and those members of the MRP plication of all provisions of the Code. have emerged from them with much tion of the Ubangi-Congo Railway who also belong to the CFTC. Its These demands were followed up greater authority and prestige. (250 members), both affiliated to FO; main provision is the 40-hour week by a series of strikes. The postal work­ It is clear that in Africa an action thirdly, the independent Office Work­ with 48 hours' pay, that is the law was ers struck first on June 24 and July 6 of this type, on such a large scale, is ers' Union of Brazzaville. The civil supposed to bring about automatical­ and 7 in all of French West Africa. not without political implications. servants also set up a union which is ly a 20 per cent raise in the hourly They were followed by the workers of Some of these were brought out in Le affiliated to CFTC. Since 1944, trade­ wage rates without changing the Dakar who called a 48-hour strike on Proletaire~ the organ of the CGT in unionism has also made notable prog­ weekly pay-check. July 16 and 17, and the railwaymen Dakar, which wrote: ress among the peasants, who have Understandably enough, the law in Niger Colony (July 27). Then: a We tell the administration calmly but formed Farmers' Unions affiliated to met with determined opposition from general strike in Sudan from August firmly that, if it does not revise its posi­ CGT and CFTC.s2 the colonialist circles and their politi­ 3 to August 10; a general strike in tion, we shall ignore it and raise de­ cal friends in the Assembly; as a re­ Niger Colony from August 3 to Au­ mands other than economic and social. In Madagascar, the trade-union sult, the discussion of the bill was gust 5; a general strike of civil serv- Since the African trade-unions have the movement gathered strength very rap- Winter 1957 55 54 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL idly after 1944, but was smashed by And this is a survey of trade-union risen to 5. In December 1954, the 8 lowest paid categories and of a 15 per the administration in the bloody re­ strength in French Africa as a whole: African unions uni ted to form the cent raise for the highest levels. The pression of the 1947 "rebellion," No. of Member- % of Wage- I'rade Union Congress of Northern c:;ompanies had offered 3-6 pence. The which had been organized by police Unions ship Date Workers Rhodesia, elected N. D. Nkoloma as signficance of the strike was well provocateurs. The nationalist party of French West. A. ... 378 115,300 1953 26.4 French Eq. A...... 81 8,000· 1953 5.2 Secretary-General and affiliated to the s-tated by the Financial Ti,mes: the island, the "Mouvement Demo­ Cameroons (F.) .... 237 35,085 1954 24.8 ICFTU.S6 Their total membership cratique de Renovation Malgache" Togo\and (F.) •.... 35 4,425 1952 21.1 This is the first time that a major Af­ Madagascar ...... 66 44,882 1950 14.0 had risen to 75,000. In Southern Rho­ rican union has managed to bring its was suppressed, 80,000 people were ·Oeorges Balandier (see note 52) writes that in 1949 desia, the African unions had already members to the point of using industrial killed in the extermination campaign "less than 8,000 workers" were members of trade-unions force. Clearly a new power has arrived in FEA. At the time there were 62 unions in FEA, as formed a Trade Union Council in of General de Hautec1oque, who later opposed to 81 in 1953. Our figure is therefore probably 1953. in Africa whose potentialities are tre­ below the real figure for 1953. mendous.59 distinguished himself in a similar fu 1952 the African Mineworkers' manner in Tunisia. The leaders of the In Central Africa, we meet another Union fought its first great strike, The membership of the AMU, MDRM were imprisoned and deport­ powerful trade-union movement with which ended in a victory for the which had been 28,000 before the ed to Corsica after a fake trial.· a long tradition of struggle: the min­ AMU.57 The demand of the union strike, rose to 31,000 after the strike- Here is what happened to the trade­ ers of the Rhodesia "copper belt." As was for a wage increase of 2/6 a day 2,000 miners joined the union at Bro­ union movement in that period: we have seen earlier, the African for all African mineworkers.• ken Hill. The union started consoli­ 1944 1946 1948 1950 mineworkers had engaged in strikes The strike lasted three weeks: from dating, raising its dues from 6d. to USM (COT) ... 6,213 11,515 1,500 44,882 2/6, abolishing the check-off system CFTC ...... 7,260 33,378 2,551 44,882 already in 1935 and in 1940; at that October 20 to November 10. Thirty­ time, however, they were prohibited none thousand African miners went and collecting dues directly from the The "Union des Syndicats de Mada­ from organIZIng trade-unions and on strike, 10,000 more than were workers. After these measures, 19,000 gascar" (GT), which was connected their strikes were broken by police members of the union. Discipline was workers remained with it, which is an with the MDRM, lost 50 per cent of violence. The two main mining com­ maintained from the beginning to the achievement. It started publishing the its agricultural workers and 77 per panies (Selection Trust and Anglo­ end-there were no incidents, no vio­ African A1 ineworker~ a monthly with cent of its civil-service members: American) combined with the colon­ lence. The union refrained from pick­ a circulation of 4,000. In June 1954 it dead, imprisoned, compelled, to re­ ists to oppose all attempts to legally eting in order not to give the slightest won annual holidays with pay and sign from the union. authorize African unions. In 1940 pretext for official provocation and re­ pensions for miners over 50 years of In 1944, 1,200 members out of the only one European union existed in pression. Nonetheless, there was no re­ age with 20 years employment in the 6,213 of the USM were Europeans. Northern Rhodesia. In 1947, how­ turn to work. A Rhodesian paper, the company-a symptom both of the Two thirds of the CFTC membership growing stabilization of the labor ever, as a by-product of the "enlight­ Northern News~ wrote on October 28: were agricultural workers, while 35 ened colonialist" policy of Roy We­ force on the mines and of the union ... the course of the strike so far has per cent of the USM membership len ski, Prime Minister of the Central membership itself. Later in 1954 were civil servants. The industrial demonstrated that the African union as building trades workers of the Afri­ African Federation and former presi­ a whole is amenable to discipline ... and workers only represented 7 per cent of dent of the European Railroadwork­ that it can conduct a total strike in a can General Workers' Union struck the total trade-union membership, ers' Union, African trade unions were peceful and ordered manner. for higher wages, and the N changa Branch of the African Mine Workers' and these in tum represented 10 per ClHowed to exist legally. 54 The first un­ In spite of scabbing by the Euro­ Union came out on a solidarity strike cent of all industrial workers. ion. established was the African Shop pean Mineworkers' Union, which op­ -the second solidarity strike in Tropi­ Here is the breakdown according to Assistants' Union (2,500 members); poses African advancement into skill­ cal Africa.· industrial branches for each of the then, in 1949, the African Minework­ ed and semi-skilled jobs, the strike By the end of 1954, the union was two federations: 53 ers' Union, which affiliated to the was successful: after three weeks, the ready to resume its campaign for high­ WFTU. Within two years, the Afri­ union wop an arbitration award rang­ CFTC % USM % er wages, this time with a demand for Civil senice ...... 1,210 3.6 (,710 35.0 can General Workers' Union, the Af­ ing from Y2-Ys shillings-the equiva­ Peasants and agr. a 10/8 shillings increase per shift for w...... 27,971 83.0 3,214 27.0 rican Railway Workers' Union, the lent of an 80 per cent raise for the Industrial workers ...... 1,241 3.7 1,858 15.0 the unskilled workers. This would Artisans, shopkeepers, African Teachers' Union and the Af­ ·In 1953, after the strike, the monthly wages for Afri professional ...... 2,528 8.0 1,548 12.5 rican Hotel and Catering Workers' have meant a 200-300 per cent raise Foremen ...... 428 725 can miners ranged from £4/17/3 to £19/0/1, while Union were also registered.55 In 1953, monthly wages for Europeans ranged from £89 to £108. for almost all of the African miners, (1£ is equivalent to a little less than $3.) In other words, i.e., a radical change in the whole *They were recently released and assigned to compUl­ 8 African unions were in existence, the 5,879 Europeans were slrawing more than twice as sory residence in Southern France. Part of this story is with a total membership of 50,000. much in wages and salaries than the 36,147 Africans. (58) wage structure of the country and a told in Pierre Stibbe, "Justice pour les Malgaehes," Edi­ There had been other strikes in Northern Rhodesia: a tions du Seull, Paris, 1955. The number of European unions had railway strike in 1947 and a miners' strike already in *The first occurred in Brazzaville in 1949; see Balandier, 1948. p.25. 56 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 57 !~...•. ...•.... Ii!; :. ; ~~I "' No. of % of Wage- ing 1951, with a total membership of frontal attack against the "cheap la­ dismissed strikers, at previous rates of '.. Unions Membership Workers bor" policy of the mining companies. pay, without loss of vacation, pension .~ Northern Rhodesia ..... 13 50,000 21.0 5,175. Are these "unions" even worth Nyasaland . . • • • . • . . . . 3 910 0.9 The companies flatly refused to dis­ or seniority benefits. The wage de­ mentioning? Their very existence no cuss the union's demands. * mand was submitted to arbitration, ' In the Belgian Congo, the govern­ doubt reflects a pressure from the Af­ When the strike vote was taken, and the government eventually award­ ment's atttiude towards African work­ rican workers, of which thousands (8,110 voted for the strike, 365 ed the union a much smaller raise ers is very different, in two respects: work for the Union Miiliere alone against. On January 3, about 37,000 than it had asked. on the one hand, it allows for much under conditions even more favorable greater opportunities for social and to organization than those of the African miners were on strike in the As a demonstration of disciplined economic advancement than in the Northern Rhodesian "copper belt" main centers: Roan Antelope, Nkana, power, this strike represents a land­ neighboring territories, on the other miners. These are social forces of a M ufulira and N changa. mark in African trade-unionism, hand it rigidly suppresses all attempts type that once deflected Father Ga­ As in 1952, the European Mine­ along with the 1952 strike and the at· organization to defend social or pon's "Union of Russian Factory worKers' Union officially decided to labor code strikes in French West Af­ economic, not to speak of political, Workers" far from the original pur­ scab; this time, however, many among rica. As the Economist pointed out, rights. Only recently, in 1953, and ad­ pose its police sponsors had assigned its rank and file refused. The official "the genii of African organization mittedly in order to forestall any at­ to it. organ of the RQan Antelope ~ranch and solidarity will not be forced back tempts at self-organization, did the The European workers in the Bel­ went as far as to condemn the decision into the bottle." administration of the colony decide to gian Congo are organized in unions to scab as "an uneradicable slur on The political significance of the the good name of the union and its set up its own "labor unions." The that depend on either the social­ strike was brought out in a report in regulation, decreed by the Governor democratic "Federation Generale du members." British unions, in particu­ the New York Times: lar the NUM, came through with General, places the unions in com­ Travail de Belgique" (FGTB) or the financial support. Most leading Northern Rhodesian Af­ plete dependency from the govern­ Catholic Confederation of Christian On January 25, the mining compa­ rican political leaders-the report said­ ment: "the formation of a federation Trade-Unions (CSC). They enjoy the nies began retorting with mass-dismis­ are affiliated with the African Mine or union of industrial associations is same rights that are guaranteed to 'Vorkers' Union. The union has become subject to the authorization of the Belgian workers in their own country. sals, importing entirely new workers the spearhead of African political as­ Governor-General or his deputy, and from Tanganyika to replace the p.ir~tions, which are regarded as equiv3;­ This situation is a by-product of the strikers. The press announced non· lent to immediate advancement of Afri­ the provisional formation of an in­ war, which cut the colony off from existent "back-to-work" movements, cans to many jobs now limited to Euro­ dustrial association requires the per­ Belgium and put the European work­ peans. 61 as the companies sent loudspeaker­ mission of the Area Administrator." ers for the first time in a bargaining trucks into the compounds urging the In Southern Rhodesia, the trade­ If the union thinks of calling a strike, position. Before the war, any attempt strikers to go back to work. The union situa~ion is comparable to the "it is required that there shall be a to organize trade-unions was immedi­ strikers again did not picket or dem­ one that exists in the Union of South quorum of two-thirds of the member­ ately met with deportation or "intern­ onstrate-again there was no incident. Africa. Very little is known as the ship of the association concerned, and ment."64 that action may only be taken by a On March 2, after 58 days, the government published few data on The soveerign republic and Ameri­ three-fourths majority of the member­ strikers went all back to work togeth­ this subject. It is known, however, can colony of Liberia naturally does ship present." All unions must have not recognize trade-unions. N everthe­ er, on the following terms: in spite of i hat early in 1954 a strike was called "European advisers," who have to be the fact that they had 7,000 "surplus" by the African mineworkers in the less in 1951 over 20,000 workers on miners from Tanganyika left over, Wankie coalmines; troops were called of Belgian nationality and of "proved the Firestone plantations struck for integrity." Furthermore, a representa­ the companies agreed to re-hire all out by the governments on this occa­ higher wages, "under the instigation sion. In June 1954, there was a Euro­ tive of the Administration has the of clerks from the Gold Coast." Three *Not that the companies can't pay. In 1950, out of a right to attend all meetings of the hundred fifty miners working in the total income of £55.2 million from the Northern Rhodesian pean railways strike; its leader was mines, profits and royalties (after depreciation) totalled deported to England.62 union or of its Executive Committee. Boomi-Hills iron mine associated £31.1 million, of which £22.8 million was sent abroad to All minutes must be transmitted to themselves to this strike.65 British, American and South African shareholders. Since In N yasaland, at the time of this then, profits have been even greater. For instance the wri ting, the unions are preparing to the administration and a list of mem­ In Portuguese Africa, needless to Rokhana Corp. Ltd., whose total issued capitat is £3,328,- bers must also be submitted to the say, trade-unions are illegal. The fas­ 000, made a total profit of over £12 million ill 1952, i.e., federate in a Trade Union Congress authorities.63 a rate of profit of over 350 per cent. There was a dividend of N yasaland. cist "corporation" established by the of 225 per cent. The rest of the companies show similar Acording to the report of the Bel­ Salazarian dictatorship do not even results for the foreign shareholders .. The increase demanded Here is the strength of trade-union­ by the AMU would have cost the companies less than £1 gian governmen t to the U ni ted N a­ fulfill the limited purpose that the million. (Socialist Review, March 1955.) In 1941, profits ism in Northern Rhodesia and N yasa­ 1952, 40 and dividends accounted for 43 per cent of the total value tions for there were such administration's yellow unions could of exports from Northern Rhodesia. (Naville, see ref. 10.) land in 1953: "unions" in the Belgian Congo dur- fulfill in the Belgian Congo: they are 58 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 59 very small, confined to Portuguese workers to exploitation has to seek forward-looking" development of the In the latter territory, a recent re­ and assimilated Africans ("civiliza­ other channels, which might prove country, of which we hear so much port to the United Nations mentions dos") and of no relevance to the just as dangerous to the colonial re­ from certain American sources. The the existence of three unions in 1953, masses of African labor. gime. Thus, in February, 1953, a de­ new Ethiopian constitution of No­ the smallest of which is affiliated to Yet, trade-union organizations had cree of the governor of Sao Thome, vember 1955, which grants, among the Italian Catholic CISL."These or­ manifested themselves in these terri­ attempting to introduce a system of other things, universal suffrage, and ganizations, however-the report says tories whenever they had an oppor­ forced labor for the inhabitants of the abolished various feudal rights and -are not militant, .and no serious at­ tunity. In 1928, two years after the island, led to widespread insubordi­ privileges, does not say a word about tempt is being made to develop present regime came to power, it de­ nation and -passive resistance, which trade-unions or labor organizations. them." Most trade-union members are creed a labor law that was relatively was met by police and military repres­ According to an article in the New concentrated in Mogadiscio, the only liberal, and which met with angry sion. The killing of a Portuguese offi­ Statesman and Nation~ strikes broke city and port of any importance in the resistance from the trading compa­ cer ("decapitated when he rushed in­ out in Dire-Dawa, Assab and Massawa territory. Total union membership nies and from the colonists. 'To coun­ to the jungle after heaving a few gre­ in January and February, 1954, per­ seems to have been about 4,000 in ter-balance this resistance, and to en­ nades," according to one account) led haps as a consequence of a strike in 1953. force the application of the law, to massacres in which several hundred French Somaliland; they were "crush­ In French Somaliland, a Federation grou ps of African workers formed or­ people were killed-estimates range ed viciously, even by African stand­ of Autonomous Trade-Unions (feder­ ganizations, which were all suppressed from 200 (Basil Davidson) to over ards."70 ating three unions) exists; it includes when it became clear that the govern­ 1,000 (Presence Africaine). According Finally, there remains Somaliland, both European and non-European ment had no intention of applying its to a rough estimate of an official on which is at present divided in three workers. The total trade-union mem­ own law. the island, about half of the popula­ territories, of which two are under bership was 630 in 1950. In British One of these organizations was the tion had been arrested at one time or French and British rule, while the Somaliland, there were no unions up "Organisa~ao Africana do Trabalho" another during the repression. The third is a UN Trust Territory under to 1952. No information has become which was founded in Mozambique, governor, however, was replaced and Italian administration. available since. A. GIACOMETrI probably late in 1928 or early in 1929. no further attempt at imposing forced Its mimeographed constitution states labor on the island's population has its aims as follows: "to protect the been made.68 Little has become 36. For the history of the South African labor move­ 50. Afrique-Informations, No. 17-18, 1954. "Nwnero ment, see E. S. Sachs: The Choice Before South Africa, special: Les greves en A.O.F." workers . . . against exploitation, in­ known about resistance in other parts London, 1952 and: Trades and Labor Journal of South 51. General Jean Marchal, "L'Afrique tropicale fran­ jury, physical mistreatment, defama­ of Portuguguese Africa, other than a Africa, October 1933. ~ise et ses problemes," Revue de Defense Nationale, July, 37. Sachs, op. cit. 1955. tion and abuse," to support them and "growing recalcitrance of labor." 38. World Trade Union Movement, August-September 52. Georges Balandier, "Le travailleur africain dans les 1950. 'Brazzavllles noires,''' Presence Africaine, 13, Paris, 1952. their families, to the extent of the In Ethiopia, trade-unions are ille­ 39. Ibid. 53. Rakotooo, op. cit. possible, in case of unemployment; gal. Working conditions are regulated 40. Sachs, op. clt. 54. A. Dalgleish, 'In Northern Rhodesia," Free Labor 41. For an account of government policy and trade-union World, July-August, 1953. draw up collective agreements, claim exclusively by the Ministry of Com­ splits since 1954: Free Labor World, February 1956. 55. Naville, "Note sur Ie syndicalisme en Afrique Noire." cash compensation for labor, regular­ 42. Padmore, op. cit. 56. Le Populaire, December 29, 1954. merce and Industry, according to the 43. World Trade Union Movement, Dec. 5, 1951. 57. The following account is taken from World Trade ize labor and housing conditions.... "Factories Proclamation" of 1944. 44. Padmore, op. cit. Union Movement, December 1-15, 1952. It was open "to all workers of both 45. Charles Rakotooo, "Le mouvement syndical a Mada­ 58. David Breen, "Imperialism in Rhodesia," Socialist Prof. D. A. Talbot, an ignorant apolo­ gascar," Revue d'action populaire, 1953. sexes, without distinction of class or Review, March 1955. gist for the regime, writes with ap­ 46. Russell Smallwood, "Development in East Africa," 59. Financial Times, October 14, 1952. nationality." The constitution grant­ The Fortnightry, November 1944. 60. Breen, op. cit. and World Trade Union Movement, proval that the Ministry of Commerce 4'1. Abu Mayania: "The Struggle for Democracy in May 1955. ed very extensive powers to the presi­ Uganda," United Asia, March-April 1955. 61. New York Times, January '1, 1955. dent; no information has been found and Industry "took the initiative to 48. World Trade Union Movement, June 20, 1951. For 62. The Economist, July 11, 1954. other data concerning the trade-union movement, see: 63. Information on Industrial Relations in Non-Self­ concerning its strength, the circum­ see that trade-guilds were organized, Information on Industrial Relations in Non-Self-Governing Governing Territories, op. cit. so that employers in search of workers Territories As Furnished Under Article 13e, United Na­ 64. P. Omer, "Panorama social du Congo BeIge," Les stances of its formation and of its dis­ tions, March 22, 1955. Pierre Navll1e: "Note sur Ie syn­ Cahiers Socialistes, Brussels, July 1947. appearance.66 During the same peri­ could find them with fair facility."69 dicalisme en Afrique Noire," Presence Africaine, 13, Paris, 65. R. L. Buell, Struggle for Africa, and Desmond We have here the conception of the 1952. Buckle, "Liberia-America's African Colony," World Trade od, an African nationalist organiza­ See also reports of colonial governments published each Union Movement, Dec. 16-31, 1952. tion, the "Liga Africana" existed in "trade-union" as a fish-pond from year by the United Nations under the general titles "Infor­ 66. Estatutos da Organisa\:ao Africana do Trabalbo de 67 mation from Non-Self-Governing Territories: Summary and MO\:ambique, Louren\:o-Marques, no date. these territories. The consolidation which the employers may readily sup­ ,Analysis of Information Transmitted Under Article 73e" 67. Radmore, op. cit. of the Salazar regime cut down all ply themselves with manpower, a con­ and "Report to the Trusteeship Counell." 68. Buanga Fele, "Massacres a Sao Thome," Presence Unless otherwise noted, all data concerning the trade­ Africaine, April-July 1955. such movements, along with the op­ ception that is not new, nor confined union movement are from the above sources. 69.D. A. Talbot, Contemporary Ethiopia, New York, position in Portugal. to Ethiopia, but which certainly casts 49. Claude Gerard, "Batailles syndicales sur Ie continent 1952. africain," Le Trait d'union des syndicalistes, Nr. 19-20, 70. "An African Kingdom," in New Statesman and Na­ Today, the resistance of the African a curious light on the "progressive, Jan.-Feb. 1954. tion, October 23, 1954. 60 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 61 71. Georges Balandier, "Le travallleur africain dans les 80. World Trade Union Movement, Fabruar)' 18-28, cus is on the existential categories of which was organized in 1948. This 'Brazzavilles noires.''' 1953. 72. Rakotobe, op. cit. 81. France-Observateur, March 8, 1956. responsibility, guilt, engagement, iso­ promising movement, supported by a 73. Nav1lle, "Note sur Ie syndieallsme en Afrique 82. Gerard, op. cit. lation, and death. While these are very broad representation of the anti­ Noire." 83. Eurafrique, January 1955. For a more detailed anal­ 74. A. L. Dumaine. "La signification reelle du deuxieme ysis of the various neo-colonialist and imperialist schemes present in The Mandarins political Stalinist left and enjoying striking plan," Presence Africaine, April-July 1955. see: Pierre Naville, "L'Afrique, enjeu strategique," Pre· problems have come to take on a more early successes in a period of general 75. Breen, Sachs, op. cit. sence Africaine, August-September 1955 and: Fran~ois 76. Naville, "Note sur Ie syndiealisme en Afrique Noire." Sengat-Kuo, "L'Europe A l'beure de la panique," presence concrete, complex, and examined political apathy, nevertheless dwin­ 77. The Economist, January 29. 1955. Afritaine, April-July 1955. 78. Information on Industrial Relations in Non-Self­ 84. George Padmore, "Post War Condominium," politics, character. If The Blood of Others is dled away and vanished after a brief Governing Territories, op. cit. May 1944. the product of a cherished personal, two years of existence. It is this period 79. W. S. Mare, African Trade Unions, London, 1946. 85. New York Herald Tribune, Oetober 26, 1955. existentialist assessment of life The which is covered by the book, though Mandarins represents a turn toward the exact chronology is not observed. a social and political evaluation 01 The novel opens on Christmas eve, An Article Review: the same realities. 1944, with the entire cast assembled at a party which in celebrating the The Mandarins' Lament THE NOVEL IS a detailed and bleak liquidation of the von Rundstedt of­ transcription of the life of a certain fensive through the Ardennes like­ An Analysis of Simone De Beauvoir's Recent Novel segment of the French radical literary wise serves to bring to a ceremonial intelligentsia in the years immediate· close the epoch of the resistance, in SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR is most common­ especially true in the case of Simone ly following the liberation. Since the which all have been deeply involved. ly thought of in this country as a bril­ de Beauvoir's The Mandarins."'" recasting of actual persons, organiza­ The resistance had been a negation: liant female representative of the tra­ To find in her novel only a substan­ tions, and events into fictional form Against the Germans! Its positive as­ ditio~al French boheme, dutifully tiation of the nostalgic and somewhat is of hardly more than a token order, pect lay in its potentialities for the scandalizing the bourgeoisie with the dated conventional American concept it is possible to regard The Mandarins regeneration of the French radical iconoclasms of a st:t;u~ar existential­ of the French intellectual is to miss as a social document as well. movement which was in a state of un­ ism. the indicative value of the book as a In the most general and inclusive precedented prostration following the This image of Beauvoir as a leader reflection of the contemporary crisis. sense the novel is a study of the vary­ failure of the popular front, the de­ of the St. Germain des Pres literary In point of fact, a person unacquaint­ ing reactions of these intellectuals to feat of the Spanish republican forces, Fronde is, of course, not without bas­ ed with French post-war politics (set­ two interrelated facts: First, that the outbreak of World War II, the is. But the overriding fact is that the ting aside, for the moment, his politi­ France has with historic finality be­ Hitler-Stalin pact, the defeat of the bulk of her post-war writing-like cal orientation) will not only lose come a fifth-rate power, closer in a French in a six weeks' war, and the that of her mentor, Sartre-deals with much of the intended emotional im­ wearying number of ways to a stag­ occupation. Under the conditions im­ politics. In its latest phase her writ­ pact of the novel, he will certainly nant backwater like Ireland than to posed by the (remember?) Grand Al­ ings touching political themes have find big sections of it incomprehen­ the France of 150 years ago before liance the negative aspect of the re­ increasingly become apologetics for sible. whose Grande Armee all of establish­ sistance lay in its chauvinism and in Sartre's own uniquely split-level Stal­ Though the non-political aspects of ed Europe trembled. Secondly, that a political program which hardly got inist apologetics. the novel will of necessity be the most the world fate, including that of beyond the assertion that in the fu­ The superficiality of so much of interesting ones for American readers France, is currently at the effectiv~ ture things could not return to what the criticism of her recent writing they are in the main actually deriva­ disposition of two power-blocs dom­ they were before the war. "Politics," stems from a failure to assimilate this tive, supportive, or extraneous. In the inated by Russia and the United says Dubreuilh in the novel, not a commonplace. For historical reasons novel, as in the times themselves, the States. little sententiously, "should never which are not at all obscure the Unit­ demi-urgos is politics. In the novel these reactions are po­ again be left to politicians." ed States is not a politically sophisti­ In itself The Mandarins represents litically and psychologically precipi­ The bliss and the fevers of those cated nation. The same causes lie be­ a shift in emphasis in the point of tated by an attempt to establish a blazing August days, when men and hind the absence of a political dimen­ view of Simone de Beauvoir, as even political force relatively independent armor came pounding out of Nor­ sion in the analyses of most current a cursory comparison with her first of the two power-blocs. This organi­ mandy to liberate France, quickly literary critics. The personal and the novel The Blood of Others~ written zation, the SRL (formally identified subsided. "As I remember it," says psychological rule. It is a pity, for during the occupation, will demon­ in the book only by its initials) is, of one of the characters, "in August with this failure of perception many strate. In The Blood of Others the fo- course, the RDR-the Rassemblement there was a lot of talk about every­ foreign novels, in particular, lose a ----;:r; Mandarins, by Simone de Beauvoir. Tbe World Democratique Re-polutionnaire (Rev­ thing changing. 4nd it's just the same great deal of their resonance. This is Publishing Company, New York City, 1956. olutionary Democratic Assembly)- as ever. It's still the ones who work 62 THE NEW INTEaNATlONAL. Winter 1957 63 the most who eat the least, and every­ such papers as Combat and Franc­ the end he yields to the importunities concei ved of as an organization cre­ one goes on thinking that's just great." TiTeur~ which emerged from the re­ to Dubreuilh. ated simply to exert pressure on the On the personal level, another muses sistance and enjoyed tremendous pres­ Hardly has he done so when the CP, as a reading of its program will about the problem of what to do tige in the immediate post-war period. ideas of Dubreuilh begin to change. reveal. It was a third camp tendency. "with this peace . which gave us back But to secure L'Espoir means to win The CP tightens the screws on Du­ Neither did the crack-up occur over our lives without giving us back our over Henri Perron, its editor and an­ breuilh through their press. Dubreu­ the question of the Russian slave reasons for living." imator. Perron, whose archetype is ilh is disappointed in the concrete labor camps. Several factors were at The answer is provided by the in­ Albert Camus, was wrenched into the results of the establishment of the work-not the least of which was the itiative of Robert Dubreuilh, who is poli tics of the resis tance and the life SRL. But basically he cannot find a organizational slackness of the RDR. Jean-Paul Sartre down to his smallest of action by the facts of the occupa­ justification for an independent exis­ But the novel does come much mannerisms (his phobia against be­ tion. The occupation once ended, his tence because he identifies the CP closer, indeed, to representing Sar­ ing photographed, for example) but only thought is to get back to creative with the working class. The split with tre's conception, as is evident by a re­ without the existentialist ambiance. writing. "Four years of austerity, four Perron comes with Perron's decision reading of the discussion on the na­ years of working only for others-that to publish documents on the Russian ture and perspectives of the RDR This is provided by Anne Dubreuilh, was a lot, that was 'too much. It was slave labor camps. This, Dubreuilh engaged in by Rousset, Sartre, and Robert Dubreuilh's wife, who acts as time now for him to think a little feels, is to play the game of the reac­ Gerard Rosenthal, which was publish­ the narrator for this documentary and about himself." Perron's internal tion in France and of the United ed in Sartre's magazine Les Temps speaks in the first person. Anne Du­ strugglings form the real axis of the States. He moves closer to the CP. His Modernes in September, 1948. This is breuilh, who is Simone de Beauvoir's book. motivation is the argument from real­ not to deny, however, that the factual alter ego, is cast as a psychoanalyst, While he wants to retain his inde­ ism: "The Soviet Union as it should Sartre was considerably to the left that social type which is threatening pendence, Perron wishes "he could be, revolution without tears-those of the fictional one. There is little to become as much of a stock figure find a few good reasons for his stand." are all pure concepts, that is to say: point, however, in pressing the dis­ in modern literature as the Braggart "I'm rebelling," he says, "because I'm nothing. Obviously, compared to the crepancies between the novel and the Soldier was in the Roman comedy. By afraid of being eaten up by politics, concept, reality is always wrong; as historical fact. 'Ve are dealing here one of those inexpensive transposi­ because I dread the thought of taking soon as a concept in embodied, it be­ with art of a certain dry order and tions aimed at assuring us that we are on new responsibilities, because I'd comes deformed. But the superiority it has its rights. In either case the con­ dealing with art and not reportage like some leisure, and especially be­ of the Soviet Union over all other pos­ clusions which follow would be ident­ the existentialist atmosphere of life cause I want to stay master in my own sible socialisms is that it exists." ical. as a prolonged living suicide is con­ house." He feels ignorant. "Until now Perron resigns from L'Espoir~ be­ The portrait of DubreuiIh which veyed by a pervasive psychoanalytical­ it hadn't bothered him-no need for comes involved in clearing a collabor­ is laid in emerges as that of the Stal­ ly derived despair. i any specialized knowledge to fight in F- ator on the basis of false testimony, inoid type. He is, first of all, linked "Here in France," says Dubreuilh­ the Resistance or to found a clandes­ and ends with an uneasy stabilization in many ways to the capitalist world Sartre, "we have a clear-cut objective tine newspaper ... there was something of relations with Dubreuilh, with of bourgeois democracy. It is not only -to achieve a real popular front gov­ unfair in this whole thing. He felt whose daughter he has launched a a matter of his "whole discreetly priv­ ernment." The aim is not really to obligated, like everyone else, to take loveless marriage. ileged life," but of his attachment to create an independent movement: an active interest in politics." Finan­ N ow all this is not an exact picture the interior life of the bourgeois in­ "We don't want to weaken the CP," cial problems close in on L'Espoir. He of the genesis and evolution of the tellectual in all its subtlety and com­ says Dubreuilh, "but we would like feels the danger of war. And he feels RDR. It was, for example, not initia­ plexity, its freedom of Inquiry and the Communists to change their line. powerless. He was "nothing but an ted by Dubreuilh-Sartre, but by per­ criticism, and its social disengagement. Well, here's our opportunity to bring insignificant citizen of a fifth-rate sons like David Rousset, a man with At the same time he feels himself pressure to bear." The overall task power, and L'Espoir was a local sheet a revolutionary past. (It is of some an outsider in capitalist society. At of the SRL, Anne Dubreuilh tells us, on the same level as a village weekly. interest in defining Beauvoir's sym­ odds with the pecuniary and power "was to maintain the hope of a rev­ ... France can't do anything for her­ pathies to note that while she can pal­ aims of the controlling stratum, he is olution which would fulfin its human­ self. ... What difference did it make liate the behavior of almost all the also alienated from the working class. ist intentions." if L'Espoir remained independent or characters in the book she has noth­ Being able to generalize beyond the A first step for Dubreuilh is to con­ not, if it had more or fewer readers, ing but snobbish contempt for Sam­ temporary conjuncture he is fully vert L'Espoir (Hope) an independent or even if it went bankrupt? 'It isn't azelle (Rousset's persona in the nov­ aware that the capitalist order, par­ left-wing paper, into an organ of the even\worth the trouble to be stubborn el) who is shown as ultimately going ticularly the ramshackle French one, SRL. In the novel L'Espoir typifies over it!' Henri thought suddenly." In over to de Gaulle.) Nor was the RDR is in a state or-decline.

64 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL Winter 1957 65 nI

i like "the spirit of the resistance," "the cowardice and moral callousness. As the most obvious heir of this dy­ Its explanation for human action is unity of the left," "the war danger," Beauvoir, the former lycee professor, ing order the CP attracts him. For it diametrically opposed to that of Marx­ "the defense of democracy," and pIa yed no role in the resistance. As is the CP which currently has the al­ ism. Elsewhere Simone de Beauvoir "domination by the United States," she herself documents in America Day most total allegiance of the French has said, "Man is the sole and sove­ unexamined phrases which leave by Day, when she visited the United working class, the only force within reign master of his fate if he wishes them helpless before the practical pol­ States after the war her time was al­ the country capable of overthrowing to be it; that is what existentialism itics of the CPo They are captives and most equally divided between night or (for Sartre) seriously modifying affirms; precisely therein lies its opti­ idolators of the word. Action to im­ club hopping, drinking, lecturing at French capitalist society. Many of the mism." The contrast with the social plement their ideas, that is, the fu­ universities, simple sight-seeing, and CP's enemies are his enemies, too. determinism of Marxism is obvious. sion of their ideas with the social pow­ bewailing the times' decay with the Since, also, it is an anti-bourgeois Up to the present Sartre has been er of the working class, never really Partisan Review crowd. She has no power it is one upon which he can willing neither to accept nor abjure arises as a problem. For them there basic identification with the working lean in his isolation. Moreover, it is a this un~asy stability, whose contradic­ }'l is no organizational question, that class world or with working class pol­ bureaucratic power toward which the tions have daily become more and ; I problelu which is always such a burn­ itics. \\That a contrast between The regressive aspects of his own bour­ more monstrous, particularly since ·1 ing one to revolutionists. "Vorkers as Mandarins and the rich literature in geois personality tend to make him the upheavels in the satellite coun· individuals nowhere appear in the France over the past thirty years gravitate. tries. A limited and none too sanguine novel except very briefly to Perron as which finds its setting in the worka­ But if for nothing else its intellec­ interest in seeing just how Sartre will memories of embarrassing, alienated, day world outside the Latin QuarterI tual sterility repels him-not to speak emerge from his present dilemma is and contemptuous allies in the resis­ of its moral reduction of the individu­ certainly in order. "" tance. These intellectuals are there­ THIS LACK OF INVOLVEMENT with her al, its lack of democracy, and its con­ Herbert Luethy is surely right when fore inevitably forced to confront characters gives a contrived atmos­ trol by a foreign power. he says that all that French CP intel­ their own impotence or to find sup­ phere to anything in the book which No wonder that Sartre is today a lectuals have got from Marx is his port in the CP, which is based on the is not on th~ plane of ideas-sex, love, very divided man, supporting the CP revolutionary journalism. His socio­ working class. The idea of the work­ tenderness, deep feeling, human re­ yet not joining it, at a time when logical and economic analyses, espec­ ing class as the social prime mover lations, the physical setting, nature. French CP intellectuals (like Marc ially in their concrete applications, in our epoch, as an independent force Like the writings of Fran~oise Sagan, Beigbeder, his biographer, for exam­ completely escape them. If the polit­ capable of breaking the hold of both The Mandarins sounds like a very ple) are reassessing their whole polit­ ical discussions in The Mandarins capitalism and Stalinist reaction, real­ clever fulfillment of an assignment in ical past in the light of the 20th con­ seem so superficial, so dull-compared ly never crystallizes as a focal idea for Advanced Composition in some uni­ gress revelations and the armed strug­ say, on their level, to the discussions these people. versity. But the whole book misses gles against Stalinism which have suc­ between Naphta and Settembrini in They are nationalist, chauvinist. fire. Even a momentary comparison ceeded it. No wonder, likewise, that The Magic Mountain-it is, we are Germany does not even appear as a with the work of Colette reveals every­ despite much trumpeting (including willing to believe, not simply due to problem in The Mandarins, for ex­ thing. a commercial in The Mandarins) Sar­ a literary deficiency on the part of ample. Nor do they think in terms of Under these conditions it is not tre's long-heralded major work recon­ Beauvoir but also to the political in­ some sort of larger integration such surprising that there is not a whole ciling existentialism and Marxism has adequacies of her protagonists. as a United States of Europe, not to person in the book, not one who es­ not yet appeared. For we are dealing here with a speak of a democratic socialist Eur­ capes the pestilence of hopelessness, literary intelligentsia, not a revolu­ ope, the only basis upon which the not one who is capable of love. Lam­ EXISTENTIALISM IS A rather deflated tionary one. They operate on slogans economy of France can hope to begin bert joins the staff of Les Beaux Jours, balloon these days, contrary to the to survive. In the end you realize that a literary journal catering to former expectations of George Lukacs, the *The Hungarian events have provided us with this oppor· tunity. Shortly after this review was written Sartre anrl. at heart they do not even have the collaborators. Vincent pursues a ca­ Stalinist culture critic, whose convic­ needless to say, Beaufoir, along with several other non­ perspective of a social revolution in reer of killing former collaborators tion it was that it would become the party and party intellectuals, issued a statement eon- 1emning the Russian armed inten'ention in Hungary. their own country-simply a program who have never been brought to jus­ universal outlook of a capitalism in Since we have every confidence in Sartre's unquestionable of presure on the existing government. tice. One of those he kills is Sezenac, extremis. Existentialism was in any gift for transforming the ohl'ious into the incomprehensible, a former member of the resistance case never a detailed, concrete, and we would attach only moderate importance to his recent turn except that it is symptomatic of the greatest re­ ANOTHER, AND ALLIED, blight of the who turns out to have been an in­ systematic examination of society in examination of conscience that. has taken place among French left-wing intellectuals since the time of the Hitler­ times taints the book-academicism, former. Paula, Perron's mistress is in­ a historical perspective. It is supra­ Stalin pact. And since this re-examination is taking place particularly in its aspect of detach­ stitutionalized and released effectively historical, the necessary prediction be­ under infinitely hetter circumstances than could possibly have obtained in 1939 it warrants the closest attention. ment, which really comes down to a zombie. The CP intellectuals are ing simply man in an absurd universe. -(J.:\I.F.l Winter 1957 67 66 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL. revealed as captives-and know that is ready for a total experiencing of they are. Anne, the Taisonneuse of life: On this level, one of the prob­ the book, decides-on the next to the lems for l'vlarxists, at least, is to dif­ last page-not to commit suicide. ferentiate between irreducible exis­ Part of this atmosphere is, of course, tential problems and those which are the product of the existentialist form­ the product of epoch, class, and ac­ ula and is therefore a reflection of the cident. Not the least of the victories decay of the times as viewed by a of socialism in resolving the basic given school and a specific individual problems of physical and psycholog­ of that school. As with Simone de ical existence will be to permit ever Beauvoir herself, mortality and death increasing numbers of people to con­ gnaw at the well-being of the people front the problems of beginnings and in her books day in and night out as ends, and of transccadence. in all persistently as ever they did at the their infini teness. Their responses will population of Europe during the have a gravity and a beauty denied

Black Death. Action seems a final fu­ those evoked in The Mandarinsl tility. which are in the end so largely simp­ In the long run we are all dead, and ly the lament of an articulate caste in no person who has not come to some a dying culture. sort of reconciliation with that fact JAMES M. FENWICK anvil the only student socialist magazine in the United States

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