The people's voice., 1951-06-15


chance to get it Asiatics will prefer
equality under freedom to equality
under dictatorship.
The other reason why Russia has
a hold in Asia, as l have pointed out,
that Russia offers to help get or
keep the Western powers, including
the United States, off the necks of
Asiatic peoples. That is Item No. 1
on their agenda. The one sure way
to turn all Asia over to the Kreml1n,
at least temporarily. is to make demo-
cracy synonymous with American in
tervention in Asiatic affairs.
Paradoxical as it may seem, the
one sure way to get Stain out OF
there is for us to give up the idea
that we have to do that job and get
out of there ourselves. If the Asia
tics will not or cannot take care of
the Russian problem, do we think un-
invited and despised intruders in
Asia can?
Now the moment one begins to
think seriously about implementing
the proposal of American progress
sives that the United States stop sup
porting reaction abroad and instead
befriend the masses seeking food and
freedom, he realizes that it would
take virtual revolution at home
also to bring this about. The trend
is in exactly the opposite direction.
An appalling swing to the right is in
progress. This movement at home
and our alliances with dictators
abroad are two faces of the same
coin.
And just as prOgressives stultify
themselves in Asia and fail to ac-
complish their aim of supporting peo-
pies movements because they get in
volved in helping maintain the mill
tary or defense" position of the
US there, so they immobilize and stul-
tify themselves at home because here
also they try to ride two horses going
in opposite directions.
They want social progress and
more democracy, both to enjoy at
home and, as it were, to export
abroad and they are pledged to the
wholehearted support of the war mo-
bilization program. But. the more
militarization, including the neces-
sary Psychological preparation for
war, the less democracy. Total war
will mean the extinction of democracy
-totalitarianism. In view of all
that is going on today under our very
eyes at a time when not single
bomb has yet fallen on our land, it
seems unnecessary to argue this mat
ter much further.
War mobilization requires nation
al unity; all elements must work
together harmoniously to ward off
the common enemy. In practical
terms this means that business and
financial interests must be appeaSed. |
This in turn means that they must
have their profits and must be given
control. At the moment of writing, |
labor's top representatives are setting
up lusty yells of protest against this
development as personified in Gen
eral Electric's Wilson who pointedly !
ignored them in organizing the mob
ilization effort.
They should not have been taken
by surprise at this as they apparent
ly were. Perhaps it was due to
their recollection of the relative
y favorable position labor enjoyed
under Roosevelt in World War III.
But that was an altogether excep-
tional situation. Do labor leaders
see any possibility of such con-
junction of circumstances in the
present era as in the Rooseveltian?
The fact is that the drive to the
right is on, and labor, in agreeing
with the interests behind the drive
that the nation must be modified
for possible atomic war and that
this has to be the primary consid-
GRAFTON for all, has immobiIized it.
self for effective resistance to