W

Europe - - in which direction?

‘Iron curtain’ X-Rayed

MOSCOW.

[* we are to have perma-

nent world peace and

SECUrity, two conditions
must be fulfilled:

(1) Preservation in the
pestwar period of unanimity
-and concord among the
Great Powers, more particu-
larly among the three prin-
cipal Allies—the USSR, the
USA, and Great Britain.

(2) The maintenance of
the principle of equality of
States in the United Nations
Organization and prevention
of all attempts.on the part
of some states to dominate
ever others within the or-
ganization.

But surprising as it may seem,
there are critics in the West
who assert that once the war
was over the Soviet Union had
ne desire to cooperate with the
Allies any longer; that it is
pursuing a policy of its own,
and a very “mysterious” policy
at that; that wherever its hand
reaches, it stifles democracy and
sets up totalitarian regimes; and
that its ultimate purpose is to
“swallew up” Europe and Asia.

Two Main Charges
ESSENTIALLY, two main

charges are made against the
Soviet Union: (i) That the
USSR is out to extend its do-
mination indefinitely: and (2)
that it is endeavoring, wherever
it Can, and chiefly in the coun-
tries of eastern and southeastern
Europe, to set up “totalitarian
police regimes.” :

Tet us examine these charges

in the light of the facts. On
the first count of the indict-
ment, the charge of “expansive
tendencies,’ let uS remember

that five years ago the Ger-
mans invaded the USSR through

Finland, Poland, Rumania, Bul-
garia, and Hungary. The fas-
eists were able to invade us

through these countries because
they had governments that were
hostile to the Soviet Union. The
Soviet Union cannot forget this
fact even though other people
wish to forget it.

Im the interview he gave to
2 Pravda correspondent on
March 14, answering Churchill’s
Fulton speech, Stalin said:
“What can there be surprising
about the fact that the Soviet
Union, anxious for its future
Safety, is trying to see that gov-
ernments loyal in their attitude
to the Soviet Union should ex-
ist in these countries? How can
anyone who has not taken leave
of his wits describe these peace
strivings of the Soviet Union

WENSTON CHURCHILL
A poet and man of letters,
who clothes his tory warmon-

Bering orations against the
Soviet Union in the finest
Oxferd English.

ACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE it

_.M. TAIGIN

as “expansive tendencies’ on the
Part of our State?”

it should be clear that there
is a great difference between
a desire for expansion and the
desire for security. Waturally,
the desire of the Soviet Union
to secure its frontiers, of which
Stalin spoke so forcibly, applies
not only to its western frontiers,
but toe all its frontiers, includ-
Ing those with ‘Iran. It is this
desire that our Cities see as
“expansive tendencies.”

What Democracy ?
WOW to the second count, the
question of democracy in
€astern and southeastern FHur-
cpe. Churchill at Fulton be
wailed the “fact” that “the lib-
erty which citizens all over the
British empire enjoy, does not

in all parts of liberated
Eravitate spontaneously
toward Britain and look upon
Ger as their natural mainstay:
—why British troops are used
to support the most reactionary.
fer¢ces in Greece and to fight
against the liberation moyement
in Indonesia; : 3
——-why the United States pol-
icy supports the conservative el-
ements in China against the
more progressive popular force,
and reduces the “democratiza-
tion” of Japan to a farce:
—why the United States so
jealously guards the secret of

ements
Evrope

‘the atomic bomb, why it is
frantically hunting for strate-
fic bases in all parts of the

world and against whom are

these bases intended?

“ce

- - - tO Save succeeding
of war,
SOrrew to mankind, and, .

Rising from the ashes of the old order, the tortured people of Poland plan to re- ©

build their land on new
second only to Hiroshima

in a number of countries”
ane that the regime established
in such countries is not “true
democracy’ but rather a “pol-
ice regime” under “control from
Moscow.” It is implied that the
only conceivable form of de-
mocracy is the Anglo-Saxon
form, and that anything differ-
ent is “totalitarianism.”

But when the Anglo-Saxon
democracy is held up aS a mod-
el before the people of other
countries, they are prone to ask
certain questions—for democracy,
like a tree, is to be judged by
its fruits.

They want to know, for
stance, why it was only during
a fierce and cruel war that un-
employment could disappear in
Britain and America.

They want to know why mil-
lions of the colored population
of the British empire are de-
prived of the right to vote, and
why Negroes in the United
States are in practice subjected
to cruel discrimination.

They want to know why free-
dom of the press is allowed in
practice to degenerate into free-
dom of action for half-a-dozen
newspaper kings;

—why the makers of British
and American policy display
such solicitude for Franco;

—why they seem bent on leay-

exist

in-

ing the Germans as large a
military potential as possible,
and are carrying out denazifi-
eation so slowly and superficial-
ly.

They want to Know why the
conservative and reactionary el-

principles.

Questions like these, which
can certainly be multiplied, point
to certain flaws in this “model”
democracy. True, its champions
promise that slowly and gradu-
ally any abuses that may still
exist within this democracy will
disappear, and that life under
its wing will become everything
that could be desired. But such
assurances do not arouse much
enthusiasm in the renascent
countries of eastern and south-
eastern Hurope.

For what is the situation in
this part of the world?

Corrupt Rulers
BEFORE the war

these countries were
the heel of avaricious, short-
Sighted, and thoroughly cor-
rupt rulers who beat all records
in mis-government. Then came

most of
under

1939. One after another these
countries were drawn into the
war and suffered cruelly. They

were not all on the same side.
But no matter on which side
they fought, they had one thing
in common: in each of them the

ruling circles which were in
power before the war suffered
bankruptcy. And the regimes
they created went bankrupt
with them.

When the German front in

the east was broken by the Red
Army, and the countries of eas-
tern and southeastern Hurope
recovered their freedom, they
were confronted with the ma-
mentous question: Whither?
What type of state should we
set up?

The above picture shows a scene in Warsaw,
in ruthless devastation.

And they took the course of
building a democracy of a new
type, a peoples’ democracy. This
is not Communism, nor is it
“Sovietization”—as the rejected
prophets of the Mnglish-speaking
countries assert. The democracy
which is now being built in these
countries is something entirely
new. it springs naturally from
the conditions and traditions of
these countries and from the
Situation brought about in them
by World War II and its out-
come.

New Democracies
FIN the political field it is that

while all the forms of ad-
vanced democracy prevail (uni-
versal suffrage for men and
women, a cabinet responsible
to parliament, a republican form
of government and so on), the
state is administered by a bloc
of all democratic and anti-fas-
cist parties.

In the economic sphere—and
today the peoples know very
well that there can be no real
political democracy without
the necessary economic life of
the country.

The combination of these po-
litical and economic features
constitute the basis of the new
democracy, which, unlike “wes-
tern democracy,” effectively
takes the power out of the hands
of the privileged few and places
it in the control of the people.

The Soviet government is ren-
dering to these new democracies
the economic assistance so bad-
ly needed after the war. It is
the friendship and sympathy of

1 Sa)

,velopment they

2 : generations from the scourge
which twice in our lifetime has brought untold

33
°

the Soviet people that strength-
€ns their spirit and inspires
them with confidence in the
future. But this does not stand
in the way of intercourse be-
tween these countries and the
West. On the contrary, they de-
sire to maintain good relations
with Britain and America. And
they will do so, if only London
and. Washington show full re-
spect for their internal inde—
pendence and the path of de-
have chosen.

The growth of this new de-

- mocracy is a natural process of

historic development, and noth-
ing can stop it, or even retard
it for any length of time. We
are inclined toe think that even
ithe most reactionary circles in
Britain and America realize this.

And if, nevertheless, they raise
an outery against alleged “to-
talitarianism”’ in eastern WHur-

ope, what does this imply ?

Has Come To Stay
[2 implies firstly, that the re-

actionaries in the Angio-
Saxon countries want to ob-
struct the rise of true democ-
tacy m Europe, for fear, per-
haps, that this example may
prove contagious to other na-
tions “nearer home’ within the
British empire, for example, or
in some countries of Latin Am-
erica. And they think that if
only the parties in these new
democratic countries could be
split and immersed in mutual
Strife, there might be a chance
for the protagonists of postwar
reaction to worm their way
back to power.

Secondly, the reactionaries in
the Anglo-Saxon countries want
to take advantage of a suit-
able excuse (and after all “de-
mocracy”’ has always been 2
g00d word when it comes to
fooling the masses) to launch
a big. anti-Soviet campaign,
with the object of driving 2
wedge into the great. coalition

of the USSR, the USA ana
Great Britain which ‘won the
war. The influence and inter-
national position of the Soviet

Union has always been a sore
point with the Money bags in
both hemispheres.

it is high time, however, to
put an end to this sordid and
unwise game. The Soviet Union
is not to be intimidated. And
the sooner it is realized that the
new type of democracy in eas-
tern and southeastern Europe is
inevitable and has come to stay,
and that the USSR has become
a great world-power that exer-
cises no less influence on the
destinies of mankind than Wash-
ington or London, the easier
Will it be to establish postwar
cooperation among the Great
Powers, without which it will
be impossible to consolidate the
United Nations Organization or
to ensure stable -and lasting
peace,

ERIDAY, AUGUST 2, 1946