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From Labor Action, Vol. 12 No. 38, 20 September 1948, pp. 1 & 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The Number One news story of the day, Berlin, continues to develop with dramatic intensity. It moves on two distinct but related levels – the respective diplomatic offices of the major countries and the turbulent city itself.
Reports of the maneuverings of the statesmen in the world capitals can only be given up to the moment of this writing. By the time this appears in print new and unforeseen developments may have appreciably altered the entire situation. Right now publicized rumors claim that the Western envoys in Moscow are set to make one more attempt at reaching an agreement with Stalin and Molotov. If that fails, the apparent plan is to take the issue to the Council of Foreign Ministers, convening in Paris next week to discuss disposition of Italian colonies, and then, if necessary, to the meeting of the UN General Assembly. thereafter.
The Moscow conferees agreed on fundamental procedures – that the details of the disputed currency issue and the blockade be handled by the military governors in Berlin, and that the currency of the Russian area be the sole legal money for the area.
While a series of committees of the military governments were straggling through all the fine points of detail, the German Stalinists, under the direct’ personal leadership of Russian political advisers, began their move to force the anti-Stalinist Berlin City Assembly out of the Russian Zone.
In a style reminiscent of the February coup in Czechoslovakia and the actions of the Nazi storm troopers throughout Germany following the Reichstag fire in 1933, a Stalinist-led mob of Berliners four times broke up Assembly meetings, while the police and Russian troops stood by comfortably directing traffic. The non-Stalinist members organized their rump “Assembly” in the old quarters. The tension intensified as Russian-backed police began kidnapping policemen loyal to the old City Assembly.
On Thursday, February 9, the entire world was electrified by the news of the mass anti-Stalinist demonstration in front of the Brandenburg Gate, near the point where the four occupation zones of Berlin meet. Some 250,000 Berliners marched about a mile to shout their defiance of the Russian regime and its German stooges. A Russian jeep that attempted to leave its zone was stoned and the Stalinist flag was lowered from the gate and trampled to the ground. Russian troops fired into the crowd, killing one and wounding one.
Correspondents have emphasized the spontaneity of the demonstration. This may be an exaggeration. The various political organizations were probably involved in the preparations and the occupation authorities could not have been unaware. But that in no way detracts from its significance.
Political life is not too tightly organized in the “Western” sectors. Most of the participants in this historic protest, representing a larger group of people than the Nazis were ever able to bludgeon for a single gathering, came of their own free will to express militantly their defiance of a foreign oppressor.
It is interesting that the crowd shouted “foreigners out.” Reporters announced that several people were particularly anxious that the rest of the world should know of their action. “We have been criticized for not fighting oppression before and we don’t want that repeated” – that was their appeal to the millions all over the world who have been judging them for the last fifteen years.
A particularly encouraging aspect of these anti-Stalinist manifestations was the lack of any indication of any revival of Nazi ideology. Close to half of Berlin voted Social-Democrat in the last municipal election in October 1946. Nobody knows the likely vote today, but observers think it would be even more favorable to them. New York Times Correspondent Drew Middleton repeatedly insists that a “great many of the Social-Democrats ... think of themselves as Marxists and regard the Russian Communists as traitors to the socialist cause. They refer to the latter as Stalinists.”
The “German question,” supposedly decided by the last war, is again the crucial problem of world politics. The two sides of imperialists are struggling for this richest spoil of their late victory in preparation for their new conflict. Russians blockade, and the Americans and British deliver by air, and the people of Berlin add another experience to the nightmares of Nazism, bombardment, siege and occupation.
Their renewed vigor not only amazes but inspires the rest of the international working class. Right now, the Russians represent their greatest enemy. But, despite the official pronouncements of their leadership, they know that the future of their city and country offers promise only with the removal of ALL foreign troops.
Since its inception in 1940, Labor Action has stood by the program of the “third camp” in opposition to both sides of imperialist bandits. The change in world alignments does not change that position. Today in Berlin and throughout Germany, that position is more meaningful and necessary than ever before. The job of the valiant German socialists is to lead the nation in the campaign to rid the country of all foreign oppression. It is the responsibility of all of us to demand the removal of ALL troops – U.S. as well as Russian. Let the German people decide their own destiny, not the two war machines bent upon making it again the main battleground of world warfare.
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