RUIN nem cprmnbaw

‘We believe in France’

Dedicated to the_task of rebuilding their shattered country, the

Communists of France regard themselves as the true

great cultural tradition of their nation. “The destiny
; Jacques Duclos; “depends on us.”

inheritors of the
of France,” says

t

- munists.

VERY Frenchman who d

By Jacques Duclos

Ges not separate his personal

interest and future from the interests and future of his

country must ask himself the
What is her destiny ?

going?

question: Where is France

Naturally, the reply to this question will differ according

ing is better calculated to form
our character and Strengthen our
will than the dedication of our-
Selves to the magnificent task of
rebuilding our country.

But we must understand that
the national forces capable of
restoring France are to be found
amongst the people—amongst
the people who are neither scep-
tical nor tired, but in whom, to
@ very high degree, burn the fires
of Civic courage and faith in the
destiny of their country.

The Party of the Martyrs

On JUNE 6, 1940, we informed

the Government indirectly
that in our view Paris should be
defended. But they did not want
to defend Paris with the Com-
They preferred to
abandon it to the Nazis. In July,
1940, Maurice Thorez and my-
Self Signed a call which said:

“France, still soaked in blood,
wishes to live free and inde-
pendent. Never will a great peo-
ple like ours become a people
of slaves. Erance will not be-
come a sort of colony. France,
wath her glorious past, will not
kneel before a bunch of lackeys
ready to perform any tasks. The
8reat hopes of national and so-
cial diberation reside in the peo-
ple. And it is around the work-
ing class, ardent and generous,
full of confidence and courage,
that a front may be, built for
liberty, independence and the re-
birth of France.”

And the people responded to
this appeal by fighting under the

_@reatest difficulties, by fighting

without waiting, for we experi-
enced wait-and-see tactics which
did much harm to the country.
And to show. how, whether some
people like it or not, we were
amongst the first to fight the in-
wader, here is a quotation which
is not without interest. The Eng-
lish Daily Telegraph wrote in
its issue of December 20, 1940:
“The only party existing in
France, although it is illegal, is
the Communist Party, “more
than a thousand of whose mem-
bers were arrested last month.
They distribute anti-German leaf-
lets Which appeal to the patriotic
feelings of the French.”

Patriotism, Democracy

i IN 1793, the word patriot

was synonymous with revolu-
tionary, the word patriot in the
Resistance meant an anti-fascist
and a lover of liberty. Patriotic
Spirit and democratic spirit be-
Came one. In this way, they al-
lowed of the mobilization of our
full national energies. And now
it is that same patriotic and
democratie spirit which will en-
sure the recovery of France.

Rebirth and Democracy—these
are the two conceptions which,
in our’ view, are inseparable in
the indispensable task of collect-
ing, together all our creative en-
ergies,

We must rebuild what has been
destroyed in our country. We
must also eliminate the eco-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 11

‘to whether “one is consumed with unhealthy pessimism and

nomic backwards from which
France suffered before the war
4S a result of the mismanagement
of the Trusts. :

We have committed ourselves
te that task. When a Communist
took over the Ministry of Pro-
duction in November, 1945, we
only had 62 hours stock of coal.
There was danger of a complete
electrical breakdown.

We appealed to the miners. We
won the battle for coal. CGom-
Pared with 1938, production has
reached 108 per cent. Now the
battle for steel has begun, and
we shall win it as we won the
battles for coal and electricity.

But we must drive ourselves
hard. We must always do more.
for if we do not succeed in re-

building our economy, our na-
tional independence could be
threatened.

We want to be, and to remain,
a country of workers, of peas-
ants, of intellectuals, of soldiers.
We want to be a people of work
ers, of good craftsmen who will
be among the best in the world,
a people of decent men and
women who in the factories, the
shops and the offices will display
that pride in their work which
springs from the deepest Wrench
traditions. :

We want to be a people of peas-
ants, attached to the soil of
Hranece, determined to produce
sufficient to feed all and to feed
tomorrow the millions of French-
men who must be added to the
forty million inkahitants that we
nave today.

We want to be a people with
Inany intellectuals, many engin-
eers, Many technicians, architects
and builders of the new France.
4. people rich in professors, in
doctors, artists, writers and poets.
wiso will continue to develop the
influence of French science and
thought, and our beautiful
French language throughout the
world.

We want to be a people of sol-
diers, a people who will keep alive
the glorious traditions of France,
professing the cult of heroism,
developing the qualities of devo-
tion ,of courage and civic spirit
that we wish to see in our offi-
cers and the soldiers of our army
which we wish to be a national
and Republican Army, and thus
an army which commands the
affection and the confidence of
our people:

In short ,the destiny of France
is in us and depends upon us. It
is for us to create a France that
will be materially strong and re-
novated on democratic lines, so
that once more her influence may
be felt beyond her frontiers.

All Men of Good Will

T° reconstruct France material-
‘I jy and to install a genuine de-
mocracy—those are the two tasks
which call for the co-operation
of all Frenchmen. Cooperation,
unity among men of good-will is
vital. And it is not only vital,
it is possible. Certain people say

that our differences are insuper
able, and the parties are accused
of maintaining these differences.
This is untrue. Certainly no one
can deny that the parties are the
expression or reflection of the in-
terests and the ideology of the
different social sroups in the
population.

But among lovers of liberty
unity Can easily be achieved. It
tust be achieved in order to sn-
sure a renewal of democracy and
the destruction of what is left
of fascism and Vichyism.

it is under the banner of work
and democracy that we will re-
build Hrance. it is to this task
that every good Frenchman
should devote himself.

Are We Communists ?
G5 people will say to us:

“But that is not a Communist
program! Are you no longer
Communists?” :

To that I reply: “It is true that
we do not propose to establish
Communism in France within
the next few weeks. Our aims
are rather more modest. But it is
ho less true that we are still
Communists. Tf might even say
more so than ever.”

We do not believe in the eter-

nal continuation of the present ’

eS

Arc
Vichy regime,

de Triomph; while France was prostrate

the moral level of the Communist
Society of tomorrow will depend
upon the moral rectitude of the
individuals in the militant work-
ing class of today.”

And allow me to quote an ex—
tract from an article which TIT
wrote in the Cahiers du Commun-
isme of January, 1944, during the
Occupation:

“Why do the Communists col-
lectively set an example of self
denial and courage. The whole
history of our party answers this,
question. Eiver since it has ex-
isted, our party has been bitterly
attacked, maligned, vilified by:
the profiteers and the modern
Slave drivers; our leaders have
been dragged in the mud, the
Worst provocations have been di-
rected against us, but no perse-
eution has been able to stop us
in our work of emancipating the
human race. And if the persecu-
tions could avail and can avail

‘nothing against our party, it is

because we are right, because we
are travelling in the direction of
development ‘of human society,
because we have a fixed goal
which is written in events.

“The Communists are right to
struggle against modern slavery,
ef which fascism is the most re-
pulsive and hateful expression,

under the .-

it tang to the tramp of German boots.

Then came the great day of the liberation of Paris and

once again the Arc re-echoed

the deathless battle cry

of all Free Frenchmen ... “Vive ila France,’

Social system. We are certain
that Socialism will/one day be es-
tablished in a world torn and
Geminated by the anarchy in pro-
duction which is inherent in the
capitalist regime. .

But we do not believe in the
establishment of Socialism by
means of some supernatural in-
tervention. We relate everything
to the efforts of men, whose
courage and spirit of sacrifice we
extol.

With Jaures, we can say: “It is
not by the power of things alone
that the Social Revolution will
be achieved: it is by the power of
tien, by the energy of their
conscience and their will. His-
tory will never relieve men of the
need to display courage and indi-
vidual nobility of spirit. And

in the same way as the early
Christians were right to combat
ancient slavery by means of their
doctrine of the brotherhood of
man. They were persecuted as
are the Communists today, but
nothing could save ancient slay-
ery, just as nothing will be able
to save the slavery of modern
times.”

Everything for us is thus a
Question of struggle, which we do
not confuse with the spirit of ad=
venture. That is why we ask in
any given period only what that
period can provide. What it can
provide in the light of the eco-
nomic, social and political condi-
tions. But we do not ask more
because we want to move for-
ward and not end up in dis-
tressing and disappointing abor-

author is vice-president
of the French Constituent As-

(Lhe

sembly, Communist Deputy.
from the Seine Department,
and a national leader of the
Communist Party of France).

tions. That is why in this histori-
cal period the objectives of our
policy are limited. They are rea-
listic, conerete and they corres-
pond to the overriding needs of
our country.

What we desire is to rebuild
France. And we are the party
of reconstruction after having
been the party of martyzs. What
We desire is to establish in Prance
a genuine democracy.

We were at the head of the
fight to liberate the national soil.
Seventy-five thousands of our
comrades died as heroes. France
could not have been liberated
without us. We are now in the
frent ranks of the struggle for
increased production, for the ac-
ceptance of necessary sacrifices
for the financial recovery of
Hrance. France cannot be rebuilt
without us. And a true democ-
racy cannot be established in our
country without our help. We
are fully aware of the responsi-
bilities which weigh upon our
shoulders.

Our Paul Vaillant-Couturier
used to say: “We continue
Hrance”. Yes, we intend to con-

tinue France, without ever los-
ing sight of the fact that the des-
tiny of our country is to be and
to remain a country of enlighten-
ment and universality.

Atom bomb
dispensable that there should be
an exchange of scientific infor-
mation between countries and
that it is indispensible that there
Should be joint scientific efforts
directed toward a broadening of
the possibilities of the use of
atomig¢s energy only in the inter-
ests of the raising of the material
welfare of the people and in the
development of science and eul-
ture. The success of the work of
this commission will be determin-
ed in a large measure by: the ex-
tent to which it solves this im-
portant task.

fhe proposal for a wide ex-
change of scientific information
is timely because it arises from
the fact that such scientific dis-
coveries as the discovery of meth-
ods of using atomic energy can-
not remain for an indefinite time
the property of any one country
or any group of countries; inevi-
tably, it becomes the property of
many countries. This confirms
the necessity of a wide exchange
of scientific information upon
the problem before us and the
necessity of elaborating measures
in this field, including organiza-
tional methods.

(Gromyko then presented and
read the draft of a proposed trea-
ty embodying the Soviet pro-
posal).

ERIDAY, JULY 12, 1946