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From Labor Action, Vol. 14 No. 21, 22 May 1950, p. 7.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On–Line (ETOL).
The London Conference of the Big Three is now complete and has moved on to another phase – a meeting of the twelve foreign ministers representing the Atlantic Pact nations, who will seek more coordinated political and economic planning for the purpose of strengthening the coming military phase of the Marshall Plan. At the new conference of the twelve, the problems of financing military rebirth of Western Europe and approval of proposed military plans in case of war will be furthered. Needless to say, the Big Three have already laid down the broad lines which answer these questions.
In attempting to sift the welter of details, reports and statements which issue from such gatherings as this latest London Conference, the main problem is invariably the task of shoving aside the propagandistic remarks, always heavily larded with optimism, as well as other irrelevancies to the main line of the conference itself. More often than not, this takes some time until we can see, in reality and in practice, what the various decisions look like.
At London, however, no real decisions were made and there is more than the usual amount of verbiage and "enthusiastic squeals of unanimity." But the main trend is there: the mobilization of Western Europe, within the next few years, both politically, economically and militarily, for what is considered the inevitable boiling over of the "cold war” into its "hot war” phase.
But this poses the great dilemma of Western Europe once again – guns or butter? The material and economic phases of the Marshall Plan are now about over – or so American imperialism reasons. It is time to talk of armaments, of divisions to hold the line in the West, of sacrifice and diversions of productive capital into war–producing industries, of coordinating efforts under a central command at Fontainebleau, or a region closer to the Iron Curtain, etc.
But, by and large, Marshall Plan funds and materials have not been used for such purposes until now. They have acted largely in the form of blood transfusions into inert bodies and have, on the whole, served their original purpose. How will the increasing of military budgets affect mass living standards in the West? A West where the masses, even those most consciously against Stalinist imperialism, show not the slightest enthusiasm or even interest in fighting for their present status quo, backed by America, as against the Russians?
You will find no consideration of these problems in the communiques from the London Conference. In fact, it may be remarked that the London Conference showed not the slightest concern, interest or even understanding of the real problem of what these gravediggers call the “defense of Western Europe.” Namely, how to arouse the workers and peasant masses from their present deadly apathy with resepect to the threat of Stalinism, both internal and external.
Acheson, Bevin and Schuman are a collection of typically burned–out and bureaucratic ministers who have the same approach to all problems. It is noteworthy that the only concrete event of the conference was the decision to speed American military aid to the French colonial gangsters who are seeking to crush the Viet–Minh regime; i.e., the only practical measure taken was guaranteed to antagonize further the Asiatic masses against the West, and further assist Stalinist Ho Chi–minh in his activities.
What a conference! We are justified in our opinion that Stalin's criminal behavior (for example, the announcement that no more German prisoners of war will be repatriated because, we are informed, there are “no more” – they have evidently become "unpersons"!) which could be ripped to shreds and turned against him by a socialist opposition, will continue on its merry and tranquil way, assured that no matter how viciods and criminal it becomes, the Allies will surely divert the world from it by their own measure of ilhperialisl violence, stupidity and criminality.
Characteristic of this is the Allied announcement on the subject of Germany. We leave aside for the time being the highly important question of the French proposal for a merger of French and Western German heavy industry – a proposal of such potential significance as to require more attention to details and method – not to mention objectives – before it can be properly analyzed. We are interested exclusively in the communique summarizing the thought of these super–thinkers on the subject of their attitude toward the German Bonn government.
This thought is expressed in the statement issued on May 14, at the end of the London Conference. It is hard to imagine a more unfortunate document, guided by the twin hands of bureaucratic nearsightedness and imperialist cynicism. In the struggle for the masses of Germany, the Big Three simply cannot reach even first base, regardless of how many wild pitches Stalin makes.
Whatever in the way of concessions to the Germans that was proposed consisted of vague and unformulated promises of future action, all intended to lend a hand to the badly deflated regime of Bonn, and its unpopular head, the Christian–Demoerat reactionary who serves the Ruhr industrialists, one Konrad Adenauer.
First, this document bluntly announces that “the supreme authority must remain in the hands of the Allied power,” using as an excuse the division of the nation into East and West and inability to conclude a final treaty with the Russians. This, in a word, holds out the perspective of an indefinite and prolonged occupation, since the same document hardly holds out any hope of an eventual peace treaty.
In reply to the German demand – heard even among the most conservative circles of Western Germany – for the right to conduct foreign relations, the right of foreign capital to invest in Germany, increases in steel production and general relaxation of controls over shipbuilding and other aspects of German domestic life, the Allies have created a “committee,” which is to report in September !
Little wonder that every German party, except Adenauer’s, expressed disappointment in the vagueness, combined with a continuation of the present occupation, which the statement transmits. But this committee will only “... make recommendations for eliminating the major practical inconveniences (!) arising in the countries concerned from the state of war ...” That is, the real “inconvenience“ – the continued occupation after five long years – is not even to be considered!
The fact is that a most cursory reading of this document, even the tone in which it is written, will indicate that it was deliberately intended as a slap at German nationalism, in any and all forms (an important distinction, since the press never reveals the difference between the demagogic chauvinist “nationalism” of the Stalinists in the East; or the bourgeois – Prussianized – imperial “nationalism” of the ex-Nazis, industrialists and bankers; or the healthy, progressive nationalism of the masses who want to end the division and occupation). The U.S. intends to remain on indefinitely and its German policy is Subordinate to its overall needs in preparing for World War III – this was the declaration of the Big Three to Germany.
A sure way to prepare for the Stalinist behemoth; a guaranteed way to dig a deep and bottomless grave. London had nothing to say to the Western European masses; what it said to the German masses could not have been less welcome.
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