Summarised report of joint meeting of the Bureau of the Labour and Socialist International and the Executive of the I.F.T.U., held in Paris on the 25 November, 1938
1938-12-19 - 2 - 7. Several delegates expressed doubt as to the feasibility of the proposal and pointed to the difficulties in the way of an international deputation being received by Governments. They expressed the opinion that national deputations would prove more effective. 8. HICKS (Great Britai...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English |
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19 December 1938
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/2D7793F2-B7EC-4D41-808E-48FAA8AD4775 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/901AFB19-59AA-4D86-8913-86772F29F043 |
| Summary: | 1938-12-19
- 2 - 7. Several delegates expressed doubt as to the feasibility of the proposal and pointed to the difficulties in the way of an international deputation being received by Governments. They expressed the opinion that national deputations would prove more effective. 8. HICKS (Great Britain) said the object of the I.F.T.U. General Council in proposing international deputations was to try and get a new approach to the problem. Governments were meeting together and the workers' representatives were immediately concerned with the policy arising out of those Governmental consultations. Therefore, the workers must make clear their point of view to those Governments, and it was felt that instead of national deputations when, time after time, the same representatives of the workers saw the same Government representatives, the approach should be made from an international angle. It might be that the Governments would refuse to meet such a deputation, but in his view that would be a rebuff more likely to react against the Governments than against the Internationals. In such an event there should be called a great demonstration of the people in the country refusing to meet the deputation, and they could inform them of the purpose of the deputation and the refusal of that particular Government to grant them a hearing. He was convinced that by so rousing public opinion they would be able to perform a great service to their Spanish and also their Czech comrades. The appointment of an international deputation and an approach to the Governments for its reception would, in his opinion, react greatly to the advantage of the International Movement and the peoples they represented. 9. After further discussion it was decided to adopt the proposal for an international deputation to Governments, it being left to the separate bodies to appoint their representatives; and to press energetically for the realisation of the following demands: (a) Public opinion in all countries which remain free should rise up with overwhelming energy against any attempt to impose a solution of force on the Spanish people from outside. (b) There must be no submission to the will of the Fascist countries, no settlement of the Spanish conflict without consultation with and the consent of the Spanish people, and no grant of belligerent rights to Franco. (c) On the contrary, there must be the restoration of international law on behalf of the Spanish Republic, cessation of the policy of so-called non-intervention, and the withdrawal of Italian and German technicians and "volunteers". (d) Effective and immediate steps must also be taken to assure supplies to the civil population in Spain. The Spanish people, who are making a heroic and victorious resistance against the better-armed and better-supplied Fascist forces, must not be brought to defeat through starvation.
292/946/17a/5(i) |
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