Sore Socialists

Not so much as a square mile changed hands in Spain's civil war last week but vigorously boiled a question now vexing socialists in many lands: whether those Communist forces which have made the Soviet Union what it is today--the Stalinist forces -- now largely dominate Leftist Spain or not. Last month worried Manhattan socialists sent Associate Editor Sam Baron of the Socialist Call to investigate conditions in Barcelona and Valencia where were occurring the trials of several prominent Spanish labor leaders for fomenting "Trotskyist riots." Mr. Baron, onetime New York president of the Bookkeepers, Stenographers & Accountants Union, has been active in leading U. S. organizations working for Leftist Spain. Instead of being permitted to "observe conditions" in Valencia, Socialist Baron found himself abruptly clapped into jail, managed to smuggle out news of his plight by means of a prearranged code. Last week international Socialist pressure secured Observer Baron's release and he arrived in Paris after traveling the length of Leftist Spain, keeping his eyes & ears open. Earlier in the year Socialist Baron had spent four months traveling freely all over Leftist Spain, thus last week had ample background to contrast conditions in the spring and today.

"The civil population [in Leftist Spain] now is desperate," declared Socialist Baron. "Food supplies have been reduced to severe siege rations. Under the present regime, democratic forces have lost their spirit and this, coupled with severe privation, has weakened their resistance."

"What is wrong is that an overwhelming majority of farmers and workers distrust the present Prieto-Communist coalition," continued Mr. Baron, referring to the Spanish Leftist Government in which Defense Minister Indalecio Prieto overshadows both Premier Dr. Juan Negrin and President Manuel Azana. This Government's removal of itself from Valencia to Barcelona (TIME, Nov. 3), Socialist Baron reported, "has been very unpopular, both as an admission of failure and because of the political complications that are likely to follow. The failure of the Government to win any victory has depressed the population. Even the Brunete offensive, which was intended to relieve pressure on Madrid, did not succeed."

The people of Leftist Spain, according to Mr. Baron, resent their Government's "arbitrary use of censorship for the political advantage of those in control," and "dislike the reign of terror by secret police, informers and spies of the Communist Cheka."

Meanwhile, last week Socialists in many lands were distributing copies of a speech delivered on Oct. 17 in Madrid by Leftist Spain's onetime Premier Francisco Largo Caballero, who has since been prevented from criticizing the regime which replaced him. Its contents, largely suppressed by the Leftist Government's cable censors last month, packed all the more punch because Socialist Baron had come out to report last week that in Leftist Spain there is much "dissatisfaction with forcing Francisco Largo Caballero out of the Govern-ment last May. He is by far the most popular political leader among the Spanish masses, and they resent the Communist campaign against him!"

Orator Largo Caballero, addressing Spaniards who packjammed the largest auditorium in Madrid, the Teatro Par-dinas, and simultaneously talking through loudspeakers to audiences which pack-jammed three other theatres, declared:

"You all know that there was a work-ing-class movement abroad favorable to us; that as a matter of fact this movement later on diminished through no fault of ours but because of political errors which were committed in Spain. Shortly after the crisis, there came a time when beyond the borders rumors began to circulate to the effect that there was being carried on here a policy of persecution against elements in disagreement. This has spread, comrades, so far that representatives of the Internationals have come to Spain to find out exactly how much truth there was in it, and they have told us personally: 'Since this has occurred, we cannot arouse the same enthusiasm abroad, among our own comrades, because they suspect that those who dominate here and those who have influence are--they say so openly-- the Communist elements, and everyone wonders if Spain is to be aided so that afterwards the Communists may guide the destinies of Spain.' They have come to ask us this! And let it not surprise you, because one of the things which I objected to was the series of excesses which, in my judgment, are being committed; for example, that there should be military leaders of great importance who were always present in Communist Congresses and parades in honor of Communists. Photographs were taken of all that and were published in the newspapers, and these newspapers went to London, to Paris, to other capitals, and when they saw there that the leaders of the army, in large numbers and with great influence, were present at these meetings, they said: 'Then it is true that it is Communism which is most dominant and has greatest influence!' This was harmful to our cause, very harmful."

Socialist Largo Caballero, reaffirming his own enthusiasm for subjecting all Spain to a complete social revolution, accused the Communists of Leftist Spain of wavering toward compromise with the middle classes and betrayal of the revolution-- these being the offenses of which Trotsky incessantly accuses Stalin. "As for the unification of the Socialist Party and the Communist Party I have not changed my views," cried Revolutionist Largo Caballero, whose admirers have nicknamed him the "Spanish Lenin." "All that I ask is that those who once wanted to create this fusion still hold to the same purpose which we used to put forth, which was to bring about the fusion of the two parties with a revolutionary program! I well remember that when we used to speak about that, the Communist Party set as a condition that we break relationship with all bourgeois parties. Do they hold to that today? [Cries of "No! No!"] Do they insist today that we break with all bourgeois parties as they used to do? No, on the contrary. The slogan today is that we return once more to the period before July 18th.* And if the unification must be on the condition that all the blood which has been shed must serve to revive once more in our country that class which has been principally responsible for the war which we are now enduring, Largo Caballero is not for that system!"

Such an outburst by the Spanish Lenin loomed this week as of capital importance to Anarchists, Socialists, Trotskyists and Stalinists as well as to neutral observers of Leftist and Rightist Spain. Defense Minister and Boss Indalecio Prieto of the Leftist Government is in origin a Spanish middle-class politician of the old school. That he should be bossing a regime which in Socialist eyes is featured today by a ''reign of terror," secret police activity as in Russia and a betrayal of the "revolu-tion"* as originally conceived by such Spanish Leftists as Largo Caballero, provided Europe last week with its No. 1 political paradox.

Another paradox is that the Communist allies of Boss Prieto have been tentatively drawing nearer to the Catholic element in Leftist Spain by permitting young Catholics to join the Leftist youth organizations --hitherto 100% Marxist. This tendency the Spanish Lenin has especially denounced. Last week, appeared a third paradox, a manifesto issued by Rightist Generalissimo Francisco Franco as the civil war entered its 17th month: "Our victory will bring a healthy redistribution of wealth! We are carrying out a profound revolution of the social order, inspired by the principles of the Catholic church. The number of rich persons will diminish and there will be less poverty!"

Thus the professed aims of The Revolution (Rightist) have begun to approach those of The Revolution (Leftist)--while fighting each other in a war which up to now has cost Spain some 230,000 lives.

*I.e., before the start of Spain's civil war. *Not to be confused with the other revolution that of the Spanish Rightists.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.