French Trotskyists Under the Occupation 1943

If you want peace
Extend a Hand to German and Italian Workers


Source: La Vérité, July 30, 1943;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2017.


Their peace and ours

July 26. A coup de theatre shatters the physiognomy of the war. Mussolini resigns. In twenty-four hours the Italian bourgeoisie liquidates the New Order. No more demagoguery and masquerades. Capitalism must be saved by making peace. The king can proclaim all he wants that they'll fight to the bitter end, but everyone knows that the end is near for Italy. And Marshal Badoglio can believe all he wants that by holding on he could negotiate an advantageous peace, but the moment will nonetheless arrive when he or another brave soldier will make the same radio speech as Petain on June 16, 1940.

But let’s not be fooled: will the war be over for all that? To be sure the voices in favor of compromise, of capitulation will become more numerous in Germany, and the last hope will be to change the diplomatic situation.

There are already many signs of efforts being pursued in Moscow and Berlin for a Russo-German agreement, while at the same time the tension between the USSR and the Allies is stronger than ever.

It would be vain on our part to predict the rhythm and the unfurling of the events that are in the offing. But if an offensive were to take place in the Balkans or in France, if a compromise were to be signed between Berlin and Moscow or between Washington and Berlin, if the war were to take on this or that new aspect in Europe and in Asia, a fundamental question would nevertheless still be posed: what has the war opened up the masses? The Italian workers have had a foretaste: the state of siege, the Fascists replacing the black shirt with military uniforms, the prohibition of strikes and public gatherings. Algiers was a first warning, and Rome will be a second: it can be seen that freedom according to Washington strangely resembles the totalitarian order. Even in Moscow they don’t pursue a different policy, where the Free Germany Committee promises an amnesty to those Hitlerites who break with Hitler in time.

No! This is not the policy of the workers! This isn’t what the workers and farmers are so ardently waiting and hoping for. BREAD, PEACE AND FREEDOM are not just words for the proletarians: this is what they want and what they will obtain. To the crooked maneuvers of world imperialism they will oppose class action. They will raise the flag of the revolution. In all countries the workers must unite in a powerful Worker’s Front. Above frontiers, above the battlefields, they should extend each other their hands, fraternize, and unite.

The “filthy krauts”

But spreading their vindictive poison the radios of London, Algiers, and Brazzaville, the Gaullist and Stalinist newspapers tell us, “The German worker is a filthy kraut who must be exterminated.”

French worker! Before listening to the incorrigible war mongers and the destroyers of the International, before declaring war on the German worker, we should reflect on the experience he has lived through.

Like us, in the Rhineland he knew the occupation of the saber draggers, of Franco-English soldiers, who were every bit as abject, every bit as drunken as the Nazi soldiers. Like us he knew humiliation, poverty, famine, unemployment, shoes without soles, worn out clothing that you can’t afford to replace, He also knew the plummeting in value of the mark and prices that are changed in storefronts three times daily.

And above all, he knew the alliance against him of the bourgeoisies of Germany, France, and England when, behind Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, he tried to break his chains. At that moment, the Franco-British bankers and industrialists didn’t consider their German kin “filthy krauts,” but rather innocent lambs attacked by the Bolsheviks. To save them they spared neither gold nor arms.

And twelve years later, worried by the 6,000,0000 votes received by the Communists, they had to generously put up with the Nazi militias. Comrade: remember the cry of victory of the French vultures, recall how they greeted Hitler’s coming to power. He wasn’t then a “filthy kraut,” but rather a genius, for he had defeated the German worker’s revolution.

Today the American Information Bureau announces that Germany will again be cut up, occupied, forced to pay a war tribute. What a gift for the sinister Goebbels! He can say to the German worker: “This is the fate that is reserved for you if you lose the war. Victory or poverty!”

Nevertheless, the German workers are seeking another way out. They are again ready to take up the revolutionary struggle against Krupp, Henkel, and their Hitlerite servants. But for the past ten years the German workers and farmers have lived under a regime of terror. Many have paid with their freedom or their lives for their militant activity. The monstrous fascist party has ears everywhere, on the streets, in the cafes, in the factories, in the barracks room. This is why German soldiers, when they are in a group, remain quiet, not knowing if there is among them a spy from the party or the Gestapo. But when they're alone they speak. Then we find communists under the green uniform, former socialists, and more numerous than we think, young people who have simply had enough of risking their skin in the carnage of Europe and Africa.

The “contemptible wops”

In the same way, the workers of Milan, Turin, and Rome haven’t forgotten the lessons of 1921. This time they won’t give up the weapons that the traitors of social democracy made them put down in the face of Mussolini. Already the strikes and street demonstrations are multiplying. And since in Italy General Alexander is protecting the fascists from the crowd’s rage the Italian revolution must pass over the bodies of the fascists and their Allied defenders.

It’s a secret from no one, that if the revolution breaks out in Germany and Italy the mercenaries of the bourgeoisie will establish order, as they did in 1918 and 1921. The German and Italian workers know that in order to win they require the support of the other European proletarians, the international solidarity of the workers against international capitalism.

Fraternization

Comrade! This program is yours. The German and Italians in uniform must be sure that when they return to the revolutionary struggle they won’t find in you an enemy, but rather a comrade in combat. You must fraternize with them, talk to them whenever it’s possible. You must explain to them that we too were defeated and betrayed in 1936, but that like them we want the death of capitalism, the construction of the Socialist United States of Europe and the world.

Instead of spending our time accusing each other of being cowards and not having been able to make the revolution in our own countries, we must this time make it together against the common enemy.

On this anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky, one of the founders of the Communist International, which Stalin dissolved, the Fourth International calls on you for this combat. This is the combat for which it appeals to all the workers of the world.