China. The complex of hot and cold: rolling mills as. well as. steel rail and tube production facilities is described as the, biggest single. industrial plant ever agreed upon in a deal between the West and new China...
A number of German companies as well as French, British, Italian and Swiss companies are participating in the venture.
China has gained a reputation of paying promptly and in full in dealings with West German industry. As a result West German companies. have been ‘seeking to intensify trade with China.
The big obstacle has. béen the attitude of the U.S. government , which has sought to maintain an economic blockade of the world's most populous country. Over the years, however, the State Department has been compelled to retreat from its untenable position. There was much grinding of teeth in Washington when London, for instance, announced a trade plan with China during the Eisenhower administration. Gradually the State. Department condoned some trade between "allies" of the U.S. and China. A still further shake-up came when de Gaulle -recognized China’ and sought expanded trade relations with the rising new power.
Obviously the West German government “did not act without first feeling out Washington' s reaction. They got at least a pale green light. Just the same there were evidences of heartburn among profithungry American businessmen. The New York Times thought that the Germans ought to have at least waited "until there was some. lessening of tension between China and the United States.
IN THE SOUP
{When the American ambassador to Spain went swimming near Palomares with the Spanish Minister of Information just to prove that the water there is quite safe even if four H~bombs were accidentally dropped nearby and the search was still going on for one of then right offshore, the event did not escape the attention of the mordant Robert Escarpit. He devoted his column to the subject in the March 11 issue of the Paris daily Le Monde , from which we have made the following translation. The title in the original is "Dans le Bain." This obviously refers to the ambassador's bathing or swimming ("bain"). but there is also a slang connotation like "In the Soup. "j
kk Ox
The ambassador: of the United States bathing at Palomares is _ better than a demonstration;. it's a symbol.
' If it was: done only :to prove that the water in the sea there is not radioactive, a Geiger: counter would have been sufficient. But it was done to prove to the world that. the great do not shrink from the dangers created for ordinary humanity by their greatness; that they are, in short, in the soup: with us.
It is to be regretted only that. the United States was content to send an ambassador to go. bathing with the Spanish peasants. How much stronger the symbol would have::been if the president of the United States, or at least the Secretary. of Btate, had gone to square himself with the Vietnamese. peasants?
STUDENT — YOUTH REBEL AGAINST FRENCH CP BUREAUCRATS
[the ‘following article has been. translated from the February issue of La Quatriéme. Internationale, official journal of the Parti Communiste Internationaliste, French section of the Fourth International. J -
After a year of outward calm, the UEC [Union des Btudiants Communistes -- Communist Students Union] is undergoing its most .serious crisis since it was founded in 1956.
As a matter of fact, at the last National Committee meeting, ; January 16, it was decided to liquidate the bastion of revolutionary opposition -- the Paris Liberal Arts section. This unusual measure, which is in violation of the statutes of the UEC, reflects the total failure of the French Communist party leadership to regain. control of the organization. Dissolution of this unit of 400 members (the entire UEC numbers only about 2,000!) was decided on by the Political Bureau of the Communist. party after meeting with the secre-
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tary-general of the UEC. It shows that the Communist party prefers to liquidate its student organization outright rather than allow a left opposition to develop which might prove dangerous as the party increasingly grows | in. resemblance to a Social Democratic organization. ~- a a Se
Coming after the expulsion. of almost fifty leftist. members. at Lyon, the decision of the National Committee, far from ending the crisis, wilt obviously only sharpen it.
The time-is over when a mere nod from the leadership of the Communist party was sufficient to expel the slightest opposition. The old "conformist" majority of the Eighth Congress’ has in fact just blown up. Eighteen of the sixty members comprising the National Committee have resigned. Among them are six members of the National Bureau. The driving force in this new "critical" tendency, consisting entirely of former "pro-party" people, is Communist students at the Teachers College Graduate School on Ulm Street.
Its characteristics are still vague insofar as it refuses, probably out of tactical and political’ considerations, to concret— ize its line. In general, the tendency is a:combination of both - "pro-party" youth shocked ‘by the methods of the party leadership and, somewhat disoriented by its rightist course, together with members who are leaving Stalinism in rapid evolution toward the positions of the Chinese Communist party. Refusing to face up to the problem of Stalinism, they take refuge in a "theoretical formation" in which they lump together the leadership of the Communist. party.and that of the Liberal Arts section, labeling them "leftist, Trotskyist, anti- . Leninist." For the present the Communist party avoids taking any . action against this tendency, preferring to see its members occupied with compiling excerpts from Capital rather than taking positions on current political problems.
However , this tendency, which enjoys a ‘temporarily comfort— able position as arbiter, has decided to intervene, since it understands that its own position would be undermined without the buttress of a left wing in the’ national organization.
Under their guidance (they consider themselves to be the sole spokesmen for the Eighth Congress majority), a Parisian leadership of the UEC was established which is independent of the National Bureau. The "collective" comprises seven out of the eight sections or faculties, among the Liberal Arts section, which is the only Communist organization recognized: cat the ‘Sorbonne. : al
After having lost de facto control of the UEC, the present
leadership | has now Lost its hold throughout: Paris.
‘Disoriented by this unexpected counterblow,; the Stalinists have been ‘brought to'a halt, pending further - ‘developments. They are trying to form a new group at the Sorbonne as against the Liberal Arts section, but the latter continues its normal ‘activities with no more ‘concern about being "liquidated" than those’ kings of. okd who were "deposed" by remote and impotent: Popes.
In this period-before the Ninth: Congress,. which will open March 30, all the Communist students of Paris are engaged in a test of strength in behalf of reintegrating the Liberal Arts section. Many circles in-the provinces are joining the struggle. Caen has declared its: solidarity’ with the. Liberal Arts: section.
- -It is obvious, however, that the Communist party leadership will not tolerate this ‘situation very long. For the. time. being, it. is trying’ to regain its former majority by all sorts. of promises, fend with the objective of isolating the "leftists." In case of faiiure,.. that is to say, if the Teachers College Graduate School (Ulm). tendency refusés to: submit,: and stays away» from the Ninth Congress: together. with the Liberal Arts section, then the Communist party. leadership. will have no choice but to liquidate the UEC and re-establish a single’ ‘organization of the Communist Youth, including the stwdents, under* new statutes and under the direct leadership of. federations of. the Communist Youth. ,
In the meatitime , the revolutionary left is organizing. At. their last special general meeting, the militants of the Liberal Arts section decided to keep the section and its activities going and to fight for reintegration with the other Paris sections, without making any concessions in its political line or mass work.
It is engaged in a most difficult struggle, demanding the clearest leadership from the revolutionary militants at its-head, so that the entire membership will understand the dynamics of the situation and its meaning. The left can-develop the acquisitions of three years of struggle, no-matter what happens, only if it strengthens its ties with the mass of students through increased activity, especially against the war in Vietnam. At the same time it must pay attention to educating its members politically so as to reduce to a minimum the danger of discouragement among its followers.
The essential problem up for discussion today is the perspective for rebuilding the revolutionary party, a perspective linked to a correct analysis of Stalinism. All future possibilities depend on correctly understanding this problen.
‘The Liberal Arts section of the UEC is no longer isolated. A great number of youth are watching its struggle. For the first time in France, ‘the Communist party leadership has become aware that it can no longer liquidate its opponents as it did in the past. It is. now up to the Liberal Arts section of the UEC to demonstrate that not only do the young revolutionary militants refuse to submit but . they are capable of organizing the youth for socialisn.
STUDENTS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST