REVOLT OF THE WORKERS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27073, 23 June 1953, Page 9

REVOLT OF THE WORKERS

Press Comment On German Riots

! (Rec. 8 p.m.) LpNDON, June 22. I “Nothing comparable has happened . in Europe since the war,” says the weekly newspaper, the “Economist,*’ i commenting on the riots In East Berlin. "Although they are different in some respects from those in Czechoslovakia they are part of the same extraordinarily important development—the revolt of the workers against the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat.’ “When before in the history of the Russian revolution has open and large-scale opposition come from the ranks of industrial workers on whose behalf the Communists claim to rule? “In East Berlin the demonstrations were bigger and bolder than in other industrial centres of the Soviet 2kme, for the good reason that the escape route is open into the Western sector of the city, and also, no doubt, because the workers of the Soviet sector are in contact with trade unionists and Social Democrats on the Western side. “It is evident, however, that the thousands who joined the building workers of Stalin Allee, and later the rioters, were acting spontaneously for the same motives as their fellow demonstrators in Magdeburg or Erfurt Explanations to Moscow “Mr Ulbricht and Mr Semeonov will doubtless put the blame on Western agitators in their reports to Moscow, but they will still face an impossible task in explaining why ‘mass action’ against the Government has taken place jn East Berlin and not in Bonn. “The East Berlin revolt places the Communist leaders in a fearful dilemma. They must decide whether to increase terrorism, or to abandon the five-year plans in their present form, and the evidence offers no clear answer as to which course is the better. “In East Germany the riots followtsd the Government’s announcement that terrorist police methods would be relaxed and the five-year plan revised, and it seems that the horse began to bolt because the reins were loosened. “But in Czechoslovakia no such relaxation has taken place, and if terrorism is renewed in East Germany what would be the effect on the West Germans whom Mr Malenkov is so anxious to appease? “So far the East German workers dislike their local Communists much more than the Russians, but if more of their fellows are run over by Soviet tanks that mood will quickly change. “It is indeed a difficult choice for the Russians. “The events in East Berlin are thrilling because they come like a flash of lightning across the Iron Curtain, showing what might happen —may already have happened in Czechoslovakia—if millions of captive people believe that the East-West diplomatic struggle offered hope of ending or modifying intolerable tyranny. “They are a reminder to the West that Sir Winston Churchill’s musings on Locarno ignore the tragedy of the East, and they are a reminder to the Russians that nothing is more dangerous than a concession delayed too long. “Can they offer free election! in their zone of Germany after events like these?

“The Berlin news is tragic because the West, in its present mood and posture, can do little to exploit it. “The statement issued by the American, British and French commandants struck a note of bathos on a day that must be memorable in

post-war history. “Here surely is the kind of climax towards which the propaganda of the 8.8. C., the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe has been working for years. “What happens now? What is London’s line to the demonstrators? Who is there to work it out with Mr Eden away and the Foreign Office isolated from Sir Winston Churchill and his intuitions?

“A wrong word said now by the British Prime Minister could have a ruinous effect on the spiral of resistance both in free and Communist Europe. “The right word could transform the spirit of appeasement that has swept across Free Europe since he told the House of Commons that he wanted ‘to take a chance’ in the Four Power talks.”