Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM
140 For some references, see Allen Guttmann, The Wo und in the Heart: America and
the Spanish Civil war (New York, The Free Press, 1962), pp. 137-138. The earliest
quasi-official reference that I know of is Herbert Feis, The Spanish Story, (New York,
Alfred A Knopf, 1948), where data is given in an appendix. Jackson (op. cit. , p. 256)
refers to this matter, without noting that Texaco was violating a prior agreement with
the Republic. He states that the American government could do nothing about this,
since "oil was not considered a war material under the Neutrality Act." He does not
point out, however, that Robert Cuse, the Martin Company, and the Mexican government
were put under heavy pressure to withhold supplies from the Republic,
alrhough this tOO was quite legal. As noted, the Texaco Company was never even
branded "unethical" or "unpatriotic," these epithets of Roosevelt's being reserved for
dlOse who tried to assist the Republic. The cynic might ask JUSt why oil was excluded
from the Neutrality Act of January 1937, noting that while Germany and Italy
were capable of supplying arms to Franco, they could nor meet his demands for oil.
The Texaco Oil Company continued to act upon the pro-Nazi sympathies of its
head, Captain Thorkild Rieber, until August 1940, when the publicity began to be a
threat to business. See Feis, op. cit. , for further details. For more on these maners, see
Richard P. Traina, American Diplomacy and the Spanish Civil war (Bloomington,
Indiana University Press, 1968), pp. 166 f.
14J Puzzo, op. cit. , p. 160. He remarks: "A government in Madrid in which Socialists,
Communists, and anarchists sat was not without menace to American business interem
horh in Spain and Larin Ametica" (p. 1(j)). Hull , incidenmlly, was in errot ahollT
99
the acts of the Spanish government. The irresponsible left-wing elements had not
been given arms but had seized them, thus preventing an immediate Franco victory.
142 See Jackson, op. cit. , p. 4 58.
143 Cf. Buttmann, op. cit. , p. 197. Of course, American liberalism was always proloyalist,
and opposed borh to Franco and to the revolution. The attitude toward the latter
is indicated with accuracy by this comparison, noted by Guttmann, p. 165: "300
people met in Union Square to hear ListOn Oak [see nore 123] expose the Stalinists'
role in Spain; 20,000 met in Madison Square Garden to help Earl Browder and
Norman Thomas celebrate the preservation of bourgeois democracy," in July 1937.
144 lb;d .• p. 198.
145 To conclude these observations about the international reaction, it should be noted
that the Varican recognized the Franco government de jdcto in Augusr 1937 and de
jure in May 1938. Immediately upon Franco's final victory, Pope Pius XlI made the
following statement: "Peace and vicrory have been willed by God ro Spain ... which
has now given to proselytes of the materialistic atheism of our age the highest proof
that above all things stands the eternal value of religion and of the Spirit." Of course,
the position of the Catholic Church has since undergone important shifts-something
that cannOt be said of the American government.
14G See note 60.