PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

UNITY—COMMUNIST STYLE

By Victor Serge

PRECISELY on the day when the Communists issued a protest against the atrocities being committed by Franco, Solidaridad Obrera, organ of the Spanish Anarchist-Syndicalists (CNT) in Mexico, published a document entitled "Unity in the Communist Manner: Crimes of the Spanish Junta Suprema in France." This "Supreme National Union," a united front of Communists and monarchists and other reactionaries set up at Toulouse, has sought vainly to gain control over the hundreds of thousands of Spanish anti-Fascist refugees in France. It has not hesitated to employ terror in this campaign, so that the CNT and the UGT (Socialist trade unions) have appealed to the French Provisional Government for protection.

A few of the details of the Communist atrocities are cited:

In the Gironde on August 24, 1944, under the signature of an unknown person named Ramon, a Communist "Committee of Allied Liberation" ordered the mobilization of Spaniards between 18 and 45 years of age. In "the region of Toulouse" on August 26 a "national chief"—whatever that is—of the Spanish Maquis ordered the disbanding of all the groups which refused to take orders from the Communist Supreme Junta. At Tarbes the "intervention of the Americans" was given as an excuse for failure to disband certain battalions. Similar excuses were given in relation to the way things were managed in Lot and Lot-et-Garonne. At various points supplies of food were restricted to those groups which were willing to submit to the authority of Communist-controlled Spanish National Union.

Augustin Vidiella, who was held prisoner by the Gestapo at Pamiers in April, 1944, was interviewed by an official of Spanish National Union, refused to submit to the demands of this organization and still remains in prison. Romero, Gonzalez Diaz, a volunteer in the Eighth Brigade, was threatened with death if he refused to join the Union, but fortunately he was able to go into hiding. Near Montsejour a Spanish establishment set up for the service of republican refugees was shot up by underlings of this organization. At Mirepoix two

Spaniards, Belmonte and Molina, after, having been arrested by the Spanish National Union, were assassinated in the forest of Amans. At Dècazeville, Rodriguez, after being arrested by the Union, was found murdered in the woods. A man named Trujillo suffered the same fate. Jose Mana, who in the underground bore the name of Martin and who was a liaison officer of Maquis in the region of Lot, was executed. Francisco Rodriguez Barroso, captain of Maquis in the section of Ille-sur-Teche, was arrested and has disappeared. Pedro Calzada, "and various others" among the Maquis, are illegally held in the prison of the Junta at Bucyrussol.

The Departmental Committee of Arriège, representing the Spanish Democratic Alliance formed by the CNT and UGT reports a number of crimes. The refugee Roy refused to enlist in the forces of the Union and in consequence a whole group of persons found at his house were assassinated on July 15—including his wife, his father-in-law, his two daughters, and the refugees Gracia, Garcia and Soler. Roy, who happened to be absent, escaped. Barandiaran and another Spaniard were drowned on September 13. Manuel Guijarro, a well-known militant, was arrested at Toulouse, taken to the Hotel Litthe, which was occupied by the Communist forces, interrogated by a Lieutenant Ervera who tried to force from him the names of opponents of the Junta—i.e., loyal Socialists and anarchists—was taken in an automobile to a deserted spot and shot by this Lieutenant Ervera. He survived and is now undergoing treatment in a hospital at Toulouse. He denounces Ervera as the assassin of the leader of the resistance in Arriège, Antonio Giro.

The representatives of the CNT and UGT who address this complaint to the French Government offer to furnish proof that their groups include 90 percent of the Spanish refugees. Fortunately there is no need that they offer proof of their active participation in the resistance movement and in the war for the liberation of France.