Europe Old Stalinists Rehabilitated

Scan page 2

ded in Moscow came two rar indications that Soviet minism is resurrecting the en, as well as the methods, Stalin himself. | Prasda of March 10th carried a gthy tribute to Andrei Zdanhov, k of Stalin's chief henchmen in F post-war period, and the ander of the Cominform in 1947. talin had dissolved the Communi International in 1943 as a sop to boserelt and Churchill).

: Zdanhor was also the man who Ited as Stalin's chief literary and jentifle censor in the late 1! 40's Freud and Picasso.

But Pravda's memorial - written on the slender pretext of the eightieth anniversary of Zdanov's birth - mentions none of this.

The author (one Rodianov, deputy director of the so-called Institute of 'Marxism-Leninism) says.

"Zdanhov directed his attention above all to ideological problems and those of the theory of Marxism Leninism. His interventions on perfect knowledge of the matter, brought a serious contribution to the ideological education of the Soviet people and to the development of its spiritual culture."

And on the day after Moscow's rehabilitation of its chief 'cultural' policeman came an article in the Ulamat maall Dalitula commamof the Polish CP from Gomulka's first removal in 1948 to his own death in 1956, and one of the most devoted of all the Eastern European lackeys of Stalin's person and TRIBUTE But his obituarist, the 'historian Rechowicz, is not so unkind as to dwell on the 'negative' aspects of Bierut's personality. On the contrary, ne smothers him with praise, including a tribute for his 'giving particular attention to tne fraternal regulation of Polish-Soviet relations' . Mr. Rechowicz goes on to explain that:

The fact (sic!) is that apart from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, no party, since tarantiath Congrese of the CPSI] has of personality". and he adds that Bierut "struggled sincerely for the liquidation of the cult of personality, and for the restoration of Leninist norms in the party"

What is the truth behind these lying euphemisms? The fact is that Bierut was always a hard-line Stalinist and that he fell ill and died in Moscow where he was attending the twentieth Congress of the CPSU at which for the first time Kruschev officially confirmed Stalin's crimes!

Consequently Bierut's 'sincere struggle' could unfortunately have lasted at most only a few days and was conducted from a hotel bedroom in Moscow.

And if one wished to know why Bierut found himself in the top leadership of the Polish CP after the had the vast majority of its leadership shot as 'agents of the Gestapo' and "Trotskyists' Most of those who survived did so because they were fortunate enough to be in the jails of the Pilsudski dictatorship at the time and were unable to return to Moscow when summoned. Naturally, during Bierut's tenure of office comment on this 'incident' was not allowed to mar the fraternal regulation of PolishSoviet relations'!

These resurrections of Zdanhov and Bierut - politely ignored by the leaders of the western CPs - provide a clear political warning.

Brezhnev and the entire leading clique of the Soviet bureaucracy have every intention of using Stalin's methods against the political revolution in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and they are

Scan page 3

..SPAIN Continued SUBSCRIBE to Socialist Press ITAIN 6 issues..

issues issues Even the PSOE has been permitted to hold open, publicly advertised meetings addressed by its leader Felipe Gonzalez, recently lauded by the Times as a kind-of Spanish J.F. Kennedy.

This situation of semi-legality for. reformist parties, like the softening of censorship over the bourgeois press, suits the regime very well: it can present an image of liberalisation while retaining all the powers of control it requires.

Ruiz-Giminez TE 6 issues. 12 issues 24 issues..

I would like to take Press. I would like.

NAME ...

ADDRESS.

and SEND 1 EUROPE 6 issues. 12 issues 24 issues subscription to Si issues, 1 enclose 1 o: 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, Lo1 Furthermore, the law to legalise parties has to be passed by the Cortes - an unlikely event, as the regime knows. That, too, allows the image of liberalisation with none of the reality.

While these tiny changes in the appearance of Francoism create great excitement among bourgeois and reformist politicians, they have not distorted the perception of the mass of workers who see the organisers of strikes arrested and jailed without trial and their comrades shot down in cold-biood.

The Euskadi general strike is important evidence that the mass of workers are not deceived by a mere change of expression on the face of Francoism.

Nonetheless, the fact that the strike lasted in most places only a day and that it was for the most part restricted to • Euskadi is evidence of the obstacles which still stand in the way of the workers' struggle against fascism.

The strike was restricted to Euskadi not only because that was where the murders took place but because it is the area of Spain where the Communist Party wields least power within the workers' movement.

Elsewhere the Communist Party was able to use its position to £1.15 £2.30 £4.60 £1.50 £3.00 .£6.00 ›cialist prevent a national general strike, though the demand for such strike went up all over the country.

In that situation the general strike in Euskadi could not be maintained without more national In Vitoria, however, workers in the steel plants, where the strike over wages began two months ago, are still refusing to return to work until their leaders, (now charged with criminal offences) are released.

The possibility of a new upsurge of this struggle is, therefore, very strong; nd its immediate objectives have become more explicitly political.

The Communist Party is as fearful of this possibility as the government. It is a major threat to the Communist Party leaders' tireless effort to keep a tight lid on the mass struggle - both as to its methods which must be peaceful and its objectives which are to bring bourgeois democracy to Spain.

The party talks occasionally of socialism, but this is an objective postponed to an indefinite future. Like the French CP, the Spanish party has now dropped the goal of the dictatorship of the proletariat from its programme.

According to the Spanish CP, the Franco dictatorship must be replaced by bourgeois democracy; this they say is historically possible because it is the aim of the most The practical form of this strategy is through the class collaborationist alliance, the Democratic Junta.

Participating in this alliance have been the Maoist Labour Party (Partido de' Trabajo), the tiny right-wing social democratic Popular Socialist Party, intermittently the centrist Communist Movement (Movimiento Comunista de Espagna) and the Workers' Commissions.

The CP has tried to attract more bourgeois political groups to the Junta. In this it has been less successful than the Socialist Party's 100,000 demonstrate at the funeral in Vitoria Platform of Democratic Convergence which contains the section of the Christian Democrats (Izquierda Democratica) led by former Franco Minister Ruiz-Gimenoz. With them Barricades in Vitoria closely with the On March 17th the Junta an the Platform made a joint stat ment of "immediate unity". of th two alliances. The main pressure fc this unity has come from th Christian Democrats, the ORT an the Communist Party.

Most of the resistance has com from the anti-communism of man sections of the Socialist Party. a unified "democratic alliance", formed it will represent at leas an organisational gain for th Communist Party's strategy of clas collaboration.

DOUBTFUL

But it is very doubtful whethe politically it can strengthen thi strategy which, as the Euskac general strike shows, is bein increasingly rejected by the work ing class in favour of an indeper dent class position.

It is purely in response t pressure from the masses that th CP a few weeks ago abandoned it plan to disband the Worker Commissions and establish instead 'left' faction within the corporatis "trade union" organisation, th CNS (Central Nacional Sindical ista).

CRISIS

Four members of the CP' Central Committee were summari; expelled during the internal crisi concerning this change of line.

While the Stalinists argue abou exactly how to collaborate wit the ruling class, revolutionaries i Spain are faced with the task o fighting for the complete indepen dence of workers' organisations in :

----- pull-quotes -----

Immediately after the 25th. ingress of the Communist rty of the Soviet Union had

scientific, literary and artistic questions, which he assessed with a