Source: The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 52, 27 December 1948, p. 2.
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The drive of American imperialism for world-domination gained momentum in 1948. Washington’s “cold” war on the Soviet Union kept Europe in turmoil. In the colonial and semi-colonial areas, reactionary regimes backed by Wall Street slashed their way to power or shed torrents of blood trying to retain it against nations in revolt against tyranny. Over the entire earth, feat rose to hew heights at the specter of atomic war.
With the ratification of the Rio Pact, Wall Street succeeded in committing all the Latin American countries in advance to the projected conflict against the Soviet Union; and the entire Western Hemisphere became one giant military camp.
The Marshall Plan, re-named the European Cooperation Act to take away the curse of its obvious war aims, neared the point where its loudly-proclaimed economic recovery objectives will cede first place to the revival of militarism in Western Europe.
At the close of 1948, top West European diplomats and generals met secretly in Washington to draw up a military alliance with world-wide ramifications. There was no secret about the objective of this “Atlantic Pact.” It aims at gearing all the. major capitalist powers into the master drive wheel of the war machine Wall Street is assembling.
Latin America saw a series of brazen coups plotted by the militaristic cliques nurtured by Washington. Successful plotters were swiftly recognised by the Truman Administration with one exception. In the case of Venezuela the State Department appears to be waiting for indignation to subside before officially approving the military conspirators who seized power by force and violence.
In Germany, the Western Powers moved ahead methodically with their plan to set up a puppet government to mobilize German industry and manpower for the projected invasion of the USSR. They brazenly freed former Nazis for key posts.
Moscow countered with the Berlin blockade and the organization of a puppet Berlin city administration. These moves followed persistent rumors that Stalin sought a deal in which the Kremlin bureaucracy would join Wall Street in putting down revolutionary movements of the working people dangerous to both regimes.
In France, American imperialism encouraged the would-be fascist dictator de Gaulle and hacked the Queuille regime in smashing a mine strike for higher wages.
Fascist dictator Franco of Spain received warm character recommendations from leading Democrats and Republicans as the militarists moved to include this butcher as an ally.
In two countries, Washington’s ultra-reactionary foreign policy suffered serious setbacks. The Truman Administration assigned American officers to every important unit of the Greek Royalist Army to direct the suppression of all resistance to the puppet Glucksberg dynasty. At the end of the year, however, Truman had to confess lack of success.
Similarly in China, the people have risen against the reactionary Chiang Kai-shek dictatorship even though the U.S. State Department approved of his despotic rule sufficiently to give him $2 billion since V-J Day. Chiang’s debacle was likewise a debacle for Washington’s policy of blood and iron in China.
The only hope of averting another war lies in the growth of the revolutionary socialist movement. In this respect 1948 was highly encouraging. The Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution founded by Leon Trotsky, held its Second World Congress. Approximately 50 delegates, representing 22 organizations in 19 countries, deliberated on the problems associated with the struggle against imperialist war.
This Congress demonstrated the capacity of Trotskyism to survive the most ferocious persecution and adverse circumstances. With great revolutionary tides already moving in the Far East, the perspective facing the Fourth International at the end of 1948 was the brightest in its history.
Last updated on: 29 March 2023