Socialist Appeal on the Nuremberg Trials

[jplant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jj Plant)]

The following article was originally by Bill Hunter of the Revolutionary
Communist Party. (The RCP in 1946 was the official British Fourth
International section - not to be confused with any of the RCPs in
operation today). It was published in "Socialist Appeal" in October 1946.

Thanks to "Workers Press" for the text file. It was reprinted in their 13
January 1996 issue. (I have tried to reformat it for the Marxism list,
apologies for any glitches).

Bill Hunter is still active as the UK leader of the LIT tendency. He
published a short book last year about the history of the independent
"blue union" in the UK docks, and is currently working on a volume of
memoirs.


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NUREMBERG: DEATH TO NAZI CRIMINALS

TRIAL SERVED TO COVER ALLIED WAR GUILT

THE NUREMBERG TRIAL, WHICH BEGAN ON 20 NOVEMBER 1945, HAS ENDED.
GOERING, RIBBENTROP, STREICHER AND OTHERS ~ LEADERS OF FASCIST GERMANY,
SUPPORTED AND ENCOURAGED BY ALLIED STATESMEN IN THEIR DAY ~ HAVE BEEN
SENTENCED TO DEATH OR TO LONG TERMS OF IMPRISONMENT.

BUT SHACHT, VON PAPEN AND FRITSCHE HAVE BEEN RELEASED. THEIR
GUILT, LIKE THAT OF THE BIG FINANCIERS OF GERMANY, IS NO LESS THAN THE
GUILT
OF THE OTHER NAZI GANGSTERS.

BUT LIKE THEIR COUNTERPARTS IN OTHER COUNTRIES, THE
INDUSTRIALISTS AND BIG FINANCIERS WHO PROFITED FROM THE WAR, THEY ARE TO
ESCAPE THEIR JUST DESERTS.

Battle against German workers

FASCISM systemises and accentuates all the repressive brutalities
and horrors of capitalism in decay. A harrassed and desperate ruling
class,
utilising the sweepings of human rubbish, reaches ghastly lengths of
bestiality.

That much was known by every socialist worker, long before the
Nuremberg trial, but the catalogue there of Nazi atrocities, of tortures,
of the
systematic working to death of slave labour, have served to underline it.

The working class of the world, and least of all, of Germany,
have no cause for tears over the fate of the Nazi leaders. The statement
of
General Von Fritsch, quoted in evidence at Nuremberg, made it clear that
one of the
 major Nazi aims was `to win the battle against the working class'.

The German workers experienced to the full that aim, experienced
 it in terms of tortures and executions, police repression and
concentration
 camps.

They experienced it at a time when members of the British and
 American ruling class, now parading a new found love for democracy and a
profound
 disgust of the Nazi atrocities, were to be found at Hitler's banquets,
hailing
 the bulwark against Bolshevism.

The real purpose of the trial

 FOR over ten months the Nuremburg trial has run its course. It
 has focused the attention of a mixed array of international jurors, and
the
 gradually waning interest of the working class.

 The stated purpose of the display of legal talent, the
 accumulation of evidence, of accusation and counter-accusation,
of film, radio and press publicity was the
 bringing to book of the criminals responsible for the last world
 slaughter.

 However, it is clear, the real reason for the trial lies, not in
 its stated pur pose. It is clear that the events in the Nuremberg
courtroom
 during the 300 days, were a performance staged by those equally guilty
with the
 Nazis, but at tempting to hide their guilt by hypocritical denunciations
of
 their fellow bandits.

 The balance sheet of the six years shows a tremendous
 expenditure. Millions of lost and shattered lives, of broken bodies and
minds; and now
 amidst the devastation of economies, rage the followers of war:
pestilence
 and famine.

 Nuremberg was an effort, on the part of the Allies, to convince
 the world working class that once the Nazi leaders pay their reckoning,
the
 account is closed.

 It is an attempt to shift the blame they share completely on to
 the shoulders of the Nazis.

 It is this real reason for Nuremburg that justifies us in calling
 the whole trial a farce, a hundred times more farcical than Al Capone
 indicting and trying Dillinger for gangsterism.

 Hypocrisy of Allies

 DURING this ten months, while the prosecutors of Britain, France,
 America and the Soviet Union, listed the sickening crimes of Nazism,
world
 events showed the hypocrisy of the prosecuting Allies. Even while the
aggressions
 of the Nazis were being recounted.

 British imperialism was maintaining a regime of terror and
 oppression in Greece, suppressing the colonial peoples struggling for
freedom, and
 strafing Indonesian villages.

 The British prosecutor prated about justice. Meanwhile, Dr
 Kiesselbach, according to Tribune 6 September a declared opponent of
de-Nazification
 ~ was placed by British imperialism in charge of the German `Central
Office of
 Justice'.

 While the courtroom resounded with castigations of Nazi
 oppression and racial discrimination, American imperialist suppression
was active in
 the Phillipines, and lynch law was rampant in the Southern States.

 The prosecutors denounced the occupation methods of the Nazis.
 Yet, even while the French prosecutor mouthed phrases of indignation,
the agents
 of French imperialism were torturing the natives of Indo-China and
burning
 their villages.

 The miseries of slave labour under the Nazis were related to the
 court at the same time as 10 million Germans were uprooted and wandered
 homeless as a result of the wholesale expulsion policy of the Soviet
bureaucracy.
 In the face of world events during the trial, who can deny that
 at Nuremberg, the pot called the kettle black, blackening itself still
further
 even while doing so?

 Our rulers assisted Nazis

 AS THE trial dragged on, the crimes of the Nazis since 1933 were
 catalogued by the prosecution. That the British, French and American
ruling
 class held up their hands in horror at the war preparations of the Nazis
was a
 blatant hypocrisy which must have been evident to every politically
conscious
 worker.

 It is common knowledge in the labour movement ~ the facts have
 been repeated from a thousand platforms ~ that the British, American and
French
 rulers gave political, financial and moral support to Hitler, regarding
the
 Nazi barbarians as the saviours of civilisation from the menace of
Bolshevism.

 They assisted Hitler to strengthen himself by the seizure of
 Austria and Czechoslovakia for the purpose of making war on the Soviet
Union.
 Goering taunted them for their role during this period when he declared
that
 `all foreign governments had recognised the Hitler regime and the
 entire diplomatic corps came to the Nuremberg rallies'.

 Before the war, the chemical, plastic, oil and rubber monopolists
 of America aided their German counterparts and divided the world up
between
 them. That was shown in a recent government anti-trust inquiry in
America.
 Gunter Reiman, in his Patents for Hitler, disclosing that Sir
 Henri Deterding of Royal Dutch Shell [oil company] was one of the
earliest financial
 backers of the Nazis, gives his reasons that `he was interested in
discovering
 those forces which would eliminate once and for all the dangers of
social or
 colonial revolutions'.

 This sums up the attitude of the British ruling class. Part of
 the profits of Royal Dutch Shell, together with a stream of political and
 financial aid, went to bolster Hitler as a barrier against revolution
and for war on
 the Soviet Union.

 It was only when it became evident to the rulers of Britain and
 America that German imperialism had decided to match its strength
against them
 first, that this policy was ended. Hitler's gravest crime in their eyes
was
 that he double-crossed them.

 Stalinists stand guilty too

 THE Soviet bureaucracy also stands guilty of aiding the Nazis.
 Stalin's cynical disregard for the world working class, led him into the
pact with
 Hitler.

 In violation of the Leninist principle of self-determination for
 all nations, and open diplomacy, he made a secret agreement for the
division
 of eastern Europe.

 It was revealed at the trial that, in this pact, Hitler and
 Stalin defined their spheres of influence in Poland, Finland the Baltic
countries and
 Bessarabia.

 Stalin agreed not to permit an active hostile position to be
 taken up by Turkey, or to permit the passage of British or French
warships through
 the Dardanelles.

 We can comment, in passing, that recently Soviet propaganda
 against Turkey attacked her for remaining neutral during the war and
taking up the
 very position which Stalin in 1939 guaranteed Hitler he would ensure.

 During World War I, Lenin was a consistent and bitter opponent of
 secret diplomacy. When the Russian workers and peasants made their
 revolution, the Bolsheviks immediately opened the Tsarist archives and
published the
 secret international agreements to the consternation of world
imperialism.

 That the Stalinist bureaucracy felt the same consternation when
 reminded of this pact with the Nazis was shown in Nuremberg when the
Soviet
 prosecutor objected to it being taken as evidence as `the court was
investigating the
 case of the major German war criminals and not the foreign policy of the
 Allies'.

 The secret agreement divided out Eastern Europe and the Soviet
 bureaucracy thus covertly agreed to the invasion of Poland by Nazi
imperialism.
 At Nuremberg, the Nazis ironically introduced evidence to justify
 this invasion by quoting the approving telegram which Stalin sent
Ribbentrop
 when the pact was signed.

 `The friendship of Germany and the Soviet Union is based on blood
 commonly shed and has all the prospects of being enduring and steadfast'.
 Later in 1939, Molotov could talk of the permanent friendship
 with Germany and sharply attack the British blockade for violating
international
 law.

 `I shall shake hands with Stalin' ~ Hitler

 TODAY, it is the Nazis whom the Soviet bureaucracy accuse of
 violating international law. However, it was with these same Nazis that
the
 counter revolutionaries of the Kremlin negotiated their secret agreement
on 22 August
 1939.

 Hitler spoke to his commanders, stating: `Our economic position
 is such because of our restrictions that we cannot hold out more than a
few
 years.' Then he declared in triumph: `Within a few weeks I shall shake
hands with
 Stalin, and undertake with him a new distribution of the world.'

 Embarassing evidence hidden

 HAD all the war criminals been on trial in Nuremberg, prosecuting
 and prosecuted alike would have been in the dock. In his concluding
speech,
 General Rudenko, with almost lyrical hypocrisy, declared that on the
battlefield
 the Allies `had determined the sublime and noble principle of
international co-
 operation, morality of mankind and the human rules of social community'.
 The mud-slinging, the recriminations at the new thieves' kitchen
 of the United Nations Organisation, which were a continuous background
to the
 trial, were giving the lie to this statement even while it was being
uttered.

 The tribunal at Nuremberg steered a wary course, trying its
 utmost to prevent any echo from the squabbles at the UNO entering the
courtroom. At
 the same time it kept a quick eye out for any revelations embarassing to
those
 in high places in Britain, America and the Soviet Union.

 The contents of the German-Soviet pact were refused as evidence.
 At the same time a statement of Rosenberg's relations with the Hearst
press
 [empire] and his communications with the ruling class of Britain was
ruled out as
 irrelevant.

 Purpose of Nuremberg: To whitewash Allies

 It is evident that, during the ten months of Nuremberg, there was
 no real attempt to sift out those guilty of the monstrous crime against
the
 working class, which the past six years of slaughter represent.

 How could there be when those responsible for the indictment were
 as guilty as those indicted? The Nuremberg trials were not meant to
create a
 basis for future peace, their purpose was to whitewash the Allied
criminals.

 Yet the workers can learn from Nuremberg. From the recital of the
 crimes and atrocities of fascism they can learn that there is no
brutality
 or horror to which capitalism will not stoop in defending its decadent
system.

 And let no worker believe those burtalities could not happen
 here. The thin veneer of capitalist civilisation soon disappears in a
capitalist
 state rendered desperate and endeavouring to find a way out by crushing
the
 working class.

 We must learn also that the genuine struggle against the war
 criminals is a struggle against imperialism the world over, and the
counter-
 revolutionary Soviet bureaucracy.

 As war criminals, responsible for the suffering of millions of
 the world's workers, we must indict, not only the Nazis and the ruling
class of
 Germany, but the landlords, financiers, monopolists and their
politicians, ruling
 the Allied capitalist nations and with them the bureacuracy in control of
 the Soviet Union.


_________________________________
jplant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



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