TROTSKISTAK ☭: BASQUE CHIEFS FEAR WORKERS (Socialist Appeal)

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BASQUE CHIEFS FEAR WORKERS (Socialist Appeal)

ASTURIAR PROLETALGOAK EUSKAL HERRIA DEFENDITU ZUEN, EUSKAL NAZIONALISTEK FRANCORI OPARITU ZIOTEN

Milizia proletarioa; Bilbo, Bizkaia.

POPULAR FRONT SURRENDERS SANTANDER

(by Felix Morrow)

Socialist Appeal

(organ of the Socialist Party of New York, Left Wing Branches)

4. zenbakia, 1937ko irailaren 4a

Basque Chiefs

Fear Workers

[...] the absolute uniformity of the Basque policy of surredering all industrial cities intact has no counterpart in any modern war, not to speak of civil wars!

Double Treachery

The "iron ring" defending Bilbao had been built months previously under the direction of an engineer who had shortly escaped to fascist territory. The fascists, then, had the plans of the fortifications and could skirt and flank them, as they actually did. But the treachery of the engineer was only made public after fascists had broken through the fortifications; it was then adduced as the alibi of Basque goverment. But months had intervened since his flight. Why was nothing done to construct a new system of fortifications in the interim?

Furthermore, no offensive was begun on the central front to force Franco to divert troops from the Basque front. Nor were airplanes sent from Madrid, then quiet, to defend Bilbao. Why? Had the Negrin goverment information which made it certain that Bilbao would surrender? Was it, perhaps, a party to the decision? Certainly no other hypothesis explains the passivity of the Negrin Goverment during the march on Bilbao during June. The Stalinist alibi that the Negrin cabinet (established May 27) had not had time to organize a campaign on the Madrid or Aragon fronts is absurd on the face of it; no military man worth his salt would deny that three weeks —not to speak of preparations by the Caballero cabinet in which the Prieto-bourgeois-Stalinist forces had the commanding voice— was enough to organize a large-scale offensive.

Our suspicions are completely justified by the manner in which Bilbao surrendered. No attempt was made to defend the city. Not a single factory or wharf was damaged by fascist shells before its fall. The Asturian miners managed to dynamite some of the bridges; but when sought to destroy supplies which were being left behind, and factories manufacturing war-materials, they were driven out of the city at gun-point, or, worse, disarmed by National Republican Guards and Basque soldiers of the regular army and held so that thet might fall into hands of the fascists! The Guards “maintained order” until Franco’s forces arrived; patrolled the streets while the fascists troops marched in; then most of them donned Carlist red berets and went to work for Franco!

These unquestioned facts do not come from any private source. Most of them were reported by regular news-correspondets, including the London Times’ G. L. Steer, a Loyalist sympathizer. Neither here nor abroad did the Stalinists deny these facts. They “ingnored” them as did the Negrin goverment. With the result that the Basque Goverment has consumated its treachery by similarly surrendering Santander and fleeing the country. This outcome was inevitable: for the "liberal" bourgeoisie has no basic stake in fighting fascism. As agents and partners of British and French capital in Spain, the Basque bourgeoisie had no enthusiasm for joining Franco, with his German and Italian commitments. But more than they hated Franco, they hated the masses of the UGT and CNT. They supported Prieto and the Stalinists in reconstructing the bourgeois state, in depriving the workers of the conquests they had won in crushing the fascists in the chief cities. But despite all repressions, the bourgeoisie had no guarantees that a victory over Franco would nor galvanize the working class into taking complete power. Against this eventuality only Franco could guarantee them.

Nothing learned

Neither the treachery of the Basque bougeoisie, nor the continued blockade of Franco and English imperialism, serve to convince the bourgeois-Prieto-Stalinist bloc that their course is false. Nothing can convince the Peoples Front coalition of this. They are determined to win, if at all —and not a few of the goverment leaders prefer a compromise with Franco to the possible dangers of proletarian power after victory— on the basis of so thoroughly consolidating a bourgeois regime that Anglo-French imperialism, reassured, will come to their aid. [...]

—F. Morrow, Socialist Appeal (1937-9-4)

http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/themilitant/socialist-appeal-1937/sep-04-1937.pdf