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C o m m o n C au se calls fo r su p p o rt o f U k ra in ia n resi sta n c e m o v e m e n t Address by Natalie Wales Paine, President, Common Cause, Inc. to Ukrainian World Women’s Congress, Phila. Pa., Nov. 13, 1948 My Ukrainian and my American Friends: I am honored to be here with you tonight, to join you in pay ing tribute to one of the bravest of all the peoples who are enslav ed behind the Iron Curtain. The people of the Ukraine ihave been behind that curtain, shut off from the help and sympathy of the world, longer than any of the other victims of Soviet aggres sion—yet to this very .moment they continue to resist. The Ukrainian underground army, the UPA, is fighting now in the Carpathians; but unlike the underground movements against Hitler during the War, the Ukrainian fighters are not supplied and encouraged by the West. The Ukrainians have fought alone, without help and until recently without honor, save in their own country. It is a tragedy that so few in the Western world ever heard their story, and that still fewer be lieved it. But the truth is beginning to break through, and it is one of the aims of our organization, Common Cause, to help to tell that epic story. We know now that after 28 years of the NKVD of purges, of deportations, and of raids by the Red Army, the Ukrainian people are still fight ing. And- if the might of Soviet Russia has not conquerel them yet it will not conquer them. The latest and most dramatic account of the exploits of the UPA army comes from an Amer ican controlled newspaper in Munich, the Neue Zeitung. And because of its reliable source and inspiring nature, you may be in terested to hear a few passages from that story. The article says: “There is a continuous running fight in the Ukraine, behind the Iron Curtain, where well organ ized groups of partisans come to grips with the Red. Army. Wo>- men fighters are included among the partisan units. Arms arid equipment come from mixed Czech, Russian and Polish sup plies which have been coptured by the Partisans. . The mili tary organization of the partis ans covers the wihole country and extends from a small group to a regiment. “■One of their rules is that no one shall e captured alive. The partisans have their bases in heavily wooded areas, near Stan- islawiv, Stryi, Sambor, Lwov, £.nd in the Carpathians. From these ibases they make their raids and before the Russians can strike back they have returned to the forest. “There is scarcely a family in the Ukraine which does not have a man with the partisans; no vil lage wihich does not help and hide the partisan fighters when they suddenly appear, only to disappear again like ghosts. What happens today in the Cri mea is known tomorrow in the distant headquarters in the for est bases around the Carpathi ans. . . . “The goal of the fight remains unchanged: An independent Uk raine. And the fight is not hope less for the Ukrainian people want a free peasantry, not col lectivization on the Soviet pat tern. As a result the collectives go up in flames, with all their supplies and machines. The So viet officials collect large groups otf men for their labor gamlgs only to often have the transport attacked and the labor slaves set free. . . “The Ukrainian people are des perately anxious for the Western world to know of their fight and it should ibe widely known that the great Soviet military mach ine is not in complete control even in its own territory.” Common Cause, with your help, will make that known. The role of Ukrainian Women fight ing in the underground is a chal lenge and an example to- us—and Г11 have more to say about that later. These Ukrainian underground fighters, and the Ukrainian peo ple who protect them, are the allies of the American people in the cold war. They are the pion eers, the advance guard, the front line fighters of a world wide movement, which is not only determined to resist further Soviet aggression, but to roll back the iron curtain, free the people who have been conquered, and permit the peoples of Russia itself to be free. We hope and believe that this movement of resistance and lib eration can be achieved without war; but if so, the main credit must go to the people of the Uk raine and to the other brave anti- Communists ehind the -iron cur- taii. Everywhere in the world except in China, Soviet power is no- longer on the march but on the wane. The Police State, based on fear, spying and con stant purges, is weakening through its own wickedness. The men in the Kremlin have shown themselves bold and brove when it came to bullying small and weak peoples; but, apparent ly, they are not bold enough or mad enough to make war against the American people. Yet they cannot advance further without war with us, and if they cannot advance they will have to re treat. No tyranny can stand still, for as Napoleon said, you can not sit on, bayonets! China is the only exception, and there the trouble has not been due so much to Communist strength as to America’s failure to apply the Truman Doctrine in Asia and in Europe. That mistake must be made good. If the Ukrainian people have been able to survive until now, when it looked as if no country dared to stop the alvance of So viet Russia, we may be sure that their resistance will increase, now that they see that Stalin has been stopped in Europe. Just as America and Britain sent arms, supplies, leaders and tech nicians to the Underground re sistance movements against Hit ler, so we must get help to the fighters against Stalin. Russia is suppling arms to the Greek Com munist guerrillas and Russia gave Japanese arms to the Chin ese Communist armies. Why should not America help the Uk rainians, the Chinese and other resistance movements behind the iron curtain, insofar as it is phy sically possible to do so? And there are ways of doing it. If the American government is unwilling or unable to take such ! (bold action yet, surely groups of American citizens can do fo>r an- ti-Communist fighters in Eastern Europe what American Zionists have done for the soldiers о-f Is rael. And this is wh'ere we come in. It is the function of Common Cause to help bring the facts about the true nature of Russian Communism before the Amer ican people, and to promote unit ed American resistance to Com munist infiltration at home and Soviet aggression abroad. It is our function to express the sen timent of the great majority of the America people, who favor a stronger American foreign poli cy. Whatever else the election proved, it proved that the only party which triel to weaken America’s p’olicy toward Russia received about one million votes, out of a total of about forty-four million votes. Why wasn’t this overwhelm ing anti-Communist sentiment better known ? It is because there are strong and numerous groups who speak for business, for labor, for veterans and so forth, but how many organiza tions are there which devote all their resources to working for a stronger American foreign policy against aggression? And some of the groups which are most anti- Communist at home have been isolationists in their attitude to ward Europe, which played into Soviet hands. Some foreign born American groups, like yourselves, have helped to warn and arouse the American people. But such for eign groups are often divided over some policy from each oth er, and are partly cut off by lan guage from the rest of the Amer ican people. They need a purely American organization to link them with other Americans, and make their influence full effec tive. Our aim is to fill that gap. Common Cause came out for measures to defend all countries threatened by Soviet aggression with money and white arms, be fore the Truman Doctrine and the arshall Plan were announced. We helped win support for those doctrines in Congress and in pub lic opinion after they were an nounced. We called for a return to the principles of the Atlan tic Charter, on which freedom for the Ukrainians and others depends. We called for the pub lic repudiation of the surrender of American principles, and the abandonment of America’s weak er allies, in the Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam agreements. We warned against the folly of continuing to tear down. Ger man peace-time factories, and so drive the German people into the arms of the Communists. We warned against the folly of ne glecting China, which produced the present tragedy there. We urged the government to guar antee the protection of Italy be fore thie Italian elections. We helped stimulate the great flood of letters anid radio programs which helped convince the Ital ian people that America stood behind them, ain^W'Quld back them up if they vote^fep remain free. When the Draft was almost defeated in the last r^gdlar ses sion of Congress Commqn Cause exposed the Communist maneuv er to defeat it and helped to win its passage—and if Selective Ser vice had not passed our flag might not be flying in Berlin to day. We intervened for the freedom of Madame Kasenkina, and so helped to make her heroic es cape the cause celebre and the triumph for freedom which it became. Few things did more to dramatize the fundamental issue between freedom and slavery for the American, people. As you may know, Christopher Emmet, Chairman of our Board who is here with us tonight, appealed for the writ of habeas corpus
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