COMMUNISTS: Disorder in the Ranks

Far more than in the U.S., the cries of Hungary’s agony reverberated through Europe. They even penetrated the closed world of Communism. Across Europe, veteran comrades resigned in disillusion; party leaders struggled with protests and outright rebellions.

In France, the beleaguered Communists tried a desperate show of defiant strength. They ordered their strongest instrument—the Confédération Générate du Travail, whose 1,000,000-plus membership makes it the dominant power of French labor, to pull a nationwide, one-day strike. “Let us unite to stop fascism,” they cried, meaning by fascism the resistance of all Hungarians to the Russian tanks. Last week the walkout came. It was a colossal and embarrassing flop. In the Paris area not a single bus, subway or trolley ground to a halt. Out of 600,000 metal and auto workers in the notorious “Red Belt” around Paris, only 3,000 obeyed the C.G.T. summons, and even they returned to work after half an hour. At the Simca factory in Nanterre the only 600 workers to leave their machines were those giving blood for wounded Hungarian rebels.