An Irish Correspondent Wants the Workers to Back General Franco!
An Irish Catholic correspondent, Mr. P. Cunningham, has written us a long letter—nearly 900 words — criticising our attitude towards General Franco, the Spanish Catholic Church, etc.
The chief characteristic of the letter is that it contains hardly any reasoned statements, and no attempt at proof whatever, but is full of unsupported assertions, rhetorical questions, half-truths, veiled insinuations—in short, it is typical of the anti-Socialist propaganda found in the more reckless types of Catholic journals. Here are some specimens from the letter: —
. . . You are probably influenced by that English jingoism that judges all foreigners as dirty and superstitious and would not like to see General Franco in power because a strong Spain might recover Gibraltar. . . .. . . What is the object of concentrating so much attention on the so-called atrocities of the Nationalists and references to savage-fighting Moors, etc.? The Moors, I am told by people who have come in contact with them, are chivalrous fighters and respectful to women and imbued with religious ideas. . . .. . . Was the Government [of Spain] a democratic Government and lawfully elected? Did it not unlawfully seize power before the elections were over and did it not use its usurped power to tamper with the ballot boxes? . . .. . . You, brother, are probably a London clerk who knows nothing about Catholicism except the prejudice handed down from your ancestors. . . .
So Mr. Cunningham goes on,, with wild assertions about Spanish Government atrocities, but never a word about such wanton slaughters as the massacre by Rebel airmen at Guernica (testified by several responsible eye-witnesses and correspondents who were on the spot within a few hours. (See Manchester Guardian, July 30th, 1937; Noel Monks in Daily Express, April 28th and 29th; The Times Special Correspondent, The Times, April 28th, 29th and 30th, and May 5th and 6th.)
It will be noticed that Mr. Cunningham makes no attempt whatever to support his silly statement about Socialists being interested in which capitalist gang controls Gibraltar, nor about our supposed views on “foreigners." Had He taken the trouble to read our literature he would have known our attitude on British (and other) Imperialisms and would have known that we are in close association with “foreign" Socialist parties.
His question about the Spanish Government and the elections is a pure invention, and he—as usual—makes no effort to supply evidence in support of it.
He writes objecting to our statement that the Spanish Catholic Church was wealthy, and, as this is of importance, it is dealt with elsewhere in this issue.
Mr. Cunningham’s present attitude is interesting for another reason. In 1924 (The Socialist Standard, October, 1924) he also wrote us a letter, but he was not then urging us to support General Franco, but was telling us that we and the Communists ought to cease “splitting the workers" and get together inside the Labour movement!
Mr. Cunningham's real trouble is that he never at any time understood what Socialism is all about. He declares (in an article in Hibernia, Dublin, July, 1937) that: —
As a youth I called myself a Socialist, but Socialism then meant the right of the worker to a decent standard of living, better education and the abolition of slums. It seems to my mind, after all, one need not be a Socialist to work for these objects.
So as a youth he mistook Social Reform for Socialism and miscalled himself a Socialist. Now he thinks that Russian State Capitalism is Socialism (Hibernia, July), calls himself an anti-Socialist, and wants the worker to back Franco!
Mr. Cunningham is 13 years older but just as far removed as ever from understanding Socialism.
Ed. Comm.
No comments:
Post a Comment