Senator Wayne Morse (Dem., Oregon) attacking Ameri- can policy in Vietnam. Both Pravda and Izvestiia, August 18, published that part of a Senate speech by Senator J. William Fulbright (Dem., Arkansas) which, the Soviet editor explained, “is devoted to criticism of Goldwater’s foreign policy aims,” giving it as much space as Pravda gave to Senator Morse’s critique of ad- ministration policy. “Naturally,” the Zzvestiia editor observed, “Fulbright’s speech carries the imprint of the electoral interests of the U.S.A. Democratic Party and its foreign policy views, which are not always in accord with the true picture of the contemporary world.” Dur- ing July and August Senators Morse and Fulbright shared with Walter Lippman the Soviet accolade of being repeatedly called the “voices of reason” in Ameri- can foreign policy.

A C. L. Sulzberger New York Times column, “Should the Old Label Be Changed?” was headlined by Zzvestiia, July g, “Is the Trouble in the Packaging?” It was interspersed with comments from the editor “clarifying” the translation: Translation of N.Y. Times Text: A U.S.I.S. survey report stated with regret that the more our propaganda advertises the vir- tues of capitalism and attaclcs socialism, the less we are liked by the whole world . . . The confusing semantics lead to the deterioration of relations with society. . . .

Izvestiia’s “clarification”: The trouble of course is not in the confusing shades of mean- ing! Capitalism is a dying system. Socialism is an upcom- ing system, which is becoming more firmlv established. and the future belongs to it. What is so confusing about this?

In summarizing the article, the Izvestiia editor con- cludes: “Sulzberger and those like him are unable to take their medicine. He seeks those at fault in the sparse undergrowth rather than in the dense woods of capitalism. He complains that . . . ‘no advertising firm would insist on advertising a good product in a demon- stratively repulsive manner.’ But the point is, Mr. Sulzberger, that the product itself is rotten and no ad- vertising can possibly help it!”

In covering the presidential elections, the Soviet press once again tries to use the public pronouncements of well-known Americans against Senator Barry Gold- water. Thus, in addition to Senator J. William Ful- bright’s speech mentioned earlier, Pravda featured two articles by Drew Pearson which described the San Fran- cisco Republican convention. In one of these, taken from the Washington Post, Pravda, July 20, quoted Pearson, as follows: “The roaring, stamping crowd, shouting ‘We want Barry!’ drowned out the scion of the Rockefeller family in San Francisco. This crowd re- minds one too much of the Nazi meetings in Munich, where cries of ‘Heil Hitler!’ resounded.” Zzvestiia, July I, carried a “feuilleton” by Art Buchwald on Goldwater and his radical anti-Communism, and its August I issue described a Fulbright interview on NBC, in which Ful- bright castigated Goldwater’s urging of total victory in the “cold war.”

Reporting American policy in Southeast Asia, four articles in addition to Senator Morse’s were cited in Pravda, August 15. A quotation from Walter Lipp- man’s column in the New York Herald Tribune which appeared in Zzvestiia, August 12, perhaps best summar-

II 4 JULY-AUGTJST,~~~~

‘izes the trend of the other articles-“the involvement of American armed forces in a large land war in South- east Asia would have catastrophic results for the United States.”

During this two-month period there was not as much material as on previous occasions concerning the civil rights issue, poverty and injustice in America, quoted directly from U.S. mass media either by Pravda or Zzvestiia. Strange as it may seem, the two longest articles on civil rights appeared in Literaturnaia Gazeta (The Literary Gazette), chief Soviet newspaper dealing with literary matters. One of these articles, in its July 25 issue, paraphrased passages from both the New York Times and Herald-Tribune. The other was a story by Roger Kahn in the Saturday Evening Post, June 13, “A Harlem Sketchbook: White Man, Walk Easy.” Litera- turnaia Gazeta, August 27, titled it “Harlem-Report- age From The ‘Black Ghetto’.” Both occupied about IO percent of space in that day’s newspaper.

Pravda, July I I, on the other hand, seemed to be con- tent with one article on the Canadian Negro, “Between A Slaughter House And The City Dump” by Raymond Daniel of the New York Times, while Izvestiia, July 31, reported on the poverty and unemployment problems of the American Indian from an article by Stan Steiner, “Reservations of Poverty,” taken from the New York Nation.

One of the latest items to catch Soviet attention as a possible propaganda weapon was the American novel Seven Days in May by F. Knebel and C. Bailey. The Soviet Ministry of Defense took pains not only to trans- late it into Russian, but also to publish it on a mass scale. Several installments have already appeared in Izvestiia, beginning on August 29.

Communist Trade Union Policies in Africa While the recent conference of the All-African Trade

Union Federation (AATUF) at Bamako in Mali (June I o-14) undoubtedly strengthened that organization, it also dealt a further blow to the concept of a genuinely Pan-African trade union body along genuinely trade- unionist lines. As AATUF’s politically ambiguous char- acter and aims became clearer, the suggested merger with the African Trade Union Confederation (ATUC) became less feasible (see: Communist Affairs, I, 6/5-6). An article in the Basler Nachrichten of June 24 stated that the Communist-front WFTU (World Federation of Trade Unions) observers at the conference were very active behind the scenes, as WFTU was not indifferent to how the conference would end.

This conference had been convened by the AATUF for the purpose of founding a Pan-African Trade Union Federation. In the past, efforts to unite the two rival African trade union organizations (AATUF and ATUC) had failed because the AATUF, founded in 1961 in Casablanca and closely connected through its leadership with the WFTU, in consonance with the latter’s tactic to neutralize the non-Communist ICFTUs influence in Africa, insisted that member organizations of the planned Pan-African Trade Union Federation

17

must not be affiliated with any international trade union organization. The politically more balanced ATUC, founded in 1962 at Dakar, maintains that each member union should be free to decide the question of inter- national affiliation for itself.

Developments have finally brought African trade unionists face to face with the choice between genuine and false trade unionism. Are their unions to be re- garded as organizations primarily devoted to the pro- tection of their members’ vital interests, as is generally the case in democratic countries, or are they to become a meek tool or branch of the government? This is the basic issue between the ATUC and the AATUF, rather than the question of international affiliations, which has been deliberately played-up in order to obscure the basic issue.

Ghanaian influence in AATUF is another element in this picture. On June 20, the Ghana Evening News reported that a “revolutionary press” would be attached to AATUF’s secretariat in Accra and that the organiza- tion’s publication would press for the establishment of a “Union Government of Africa.” This is the Nkru- mah concept of a “United States of Africa,” ardently advocated once again at the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit meeting at Cairo this July. Other African leaders once again made it clear that Nkru- mah’s concept of the generally-acceptable idea of Afri- can unity does not appeal to them.

The Basler Nachrichten article also indicates that the WFJI’U had recently developed great activity among African trade unions in support of the AATUF stand- point. Motivating this activity was the intent to break up African trade unions’ contacts with non-Communist international trade union organizations and to organize them into nominally independent regional units under Communist influence.

The Ghanaian Secretary-General of the AATUF, John Tettegah, ever faithful to the WFTU’s directives, has been a frequent guest in Communist bloc countries. Recently, Tettegah visited several African countries, not ordy canvassing for the Bamako conference but also discussing the formation of various specialist trade union groups, WFTTJ.

similar to the trade departments of

So far, two such bodies have been created: (I) the Pan-African Trade Union of Commercial, Industrial and Technical Workers and Employees, and (2) the Pan-African Trade Union of Land, Forestry and Plan- tation Workers. Both have their headquarters in Accra and are led by Ghanaian Secretaries-General. Prior to their formation, leading officials of similar WPTU trade departments had spent long periods in Accra. The “Union of African Local Authorities,” founded in 1963, also appears to be this kind of trade union group.

The Baster Nachrichten article concluded: Y’he World Federation of Trade Unions in Prague is trying to strengthen its influence among the African trade unions not only because the Chinese are increasingly emerging as dangerous rivals to Moscow in Africa. Allegedly, John Tettegah, Secretary-General of the

I-8

AATUF, sympathizes with the Peking-launched idea of an Afro-Asian trade union organization.” Should this Chinese plan succeed, it would result in another split of one of Moscow’s most important front organi- zations.

Warsaw Pact Plans New Strategy The Socialist (Communist) Unity Party of East Ger-

many is expected to step up its propaganda machine against NATO’s “forward defense strategy” as a result of consultations between high-ranking officers of the Warsaw Pact. (Dr. Lothar Lohrisch’s weekly Wehr- politische Information Cologne, Germany, No. 32, August 6.) The Communists plan in their propaganda campaign to compare NATO’s “forward defense strategy” with Hitler’s “Blitzkrieg” strategy.

The reason for the new propaganda effort is to cam- ouflage future westward movements of Soviet-Russian and Soviet German armed forces on the territory of the Soviet Zone of Germany. Detailed inquiries by the Communist General Staff of the Warsaw Pact revealed that under the present Western nuclear supremacy an unchallenged mobilization or even a slow advance move westward could not remain undetected by the NATO powers. Hence, the possibility to exert political pressure by military power or to engage in probing actions by Soviet and satellite conventional military forces would be lost. In order to achieve the possibility of political pressure, it is planned therefore to station special units permanently within an area 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of the zonal border. The new propaganda cam- paign will then try to “explain” this westward move as a necessary countermeasure against NATO’s forward defense strategy.

Registration of Marriages

- OHI y Me”” npwrytnnanbnrr: I L&epKmn IeHwRCa ne aa- XOTM&

h*mh nncororcmoro

“She is a woman of principle: she did not want to get married in church.” Drawing by N. Lisogvrsky -from KROKODIL June 30, 1964

COMMUNIST AFFAIRS