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From Labor Action, Vol. 13 No. 45, 7 November 1945, pp. 1 & 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Coming on the heels of his report of a fabulous $101 billion favorable balance of trade with Europe since 1914, Paul G. Hoffman, administrator of ECA, called for an “integration” of the economies of the Marshall Plan nations of Western Europe, before the Paris meeting of the Council of Economic Cooperation last week.
Although the demand, for “integration” of the Western European economies is placed before the conference as a recommendation, it is already suggested, in the form of a well-placed Washington rumor, that unless the nations receiving ERP aid carry out this recommendation, the Truman administration will not ask Congress for additional funds to finance a third Marshall Plan.
The point of the Hoffman recommendation is that, given the continued existence of the multiple states receiving aid today, aid becomes expensive without a proportionate improvement in the economic position of capitalist Europe. The many frontiers, the conflicting national trade barriers and the sharp antagonisms of the erstwhile allies stand in the way of a formidable improvement of their- economies, and increase the cost of revival many times. Above all, this economic “nationalism” weakens the resistance to the Russian bloc – that is the inescapable conclusion that Hoffman made in his report.
What the United States wants in return for the billions of dollars now being expended is greater assurance that in the final reckoning with Russia and her bloc, rthe United States will have a considerably stronger base in Europe than exists now.
The report itself is an indictment of capitalism for the very hindrances it erects to “Western Union.” American interest in such a union is dictated by economic-political-military reasons. Union of the ERP nations would make possible a pooling of their manpower and resources and thus reduce the costs of revival.
In demanding this “integration,” Hoffman stressed the necessity for raising the standard of living of the people in Western Europe, and to do this by an improvement in the methods of production so that these countries may compete successfully in the shrinking world markets. Without this, the masses, he warns, may turn to the East.
These beautiful objectives placed before the Europeans by Hoffman raised a curious doubt in their minds, because they arc fully aware that successful participation in the world markets now available to the capitalist world means either to obtain access to them at the expense of America’s dominant world position, or to break into Great Britain’s Commonwealth monopoly of trade.
At the time of this writing it is too early to tell yet what the total reception to Hoffman’s proposal is, but already the conflict between France, Belgium and Italy on the one hand and Great Britain on the other has been felt in their reception of the suggestion for union. The French find the British to be their competitors and will not agree to any proposition which will hinder their competitive position in relation to the empire.
In addition, the implication of Hoffman’s speech – that aid has been given on the basis of a prior agreement of the Western powers to “integrate” their economies – is rejected by them. They insist that no such agreement on understanding ever existed and that no such conditions accompanied the acceptance of Marshall Plan aid.
It was interesting to note that Hoffman said nothing to this conference about the proposal he made in his ECA report in the United States about the necessity of removing the existing heavy tariffs of the U. S. to permit Europe to trade on an equal footing in this country with American manufacturers. This proposal followed logically from a report which established what socialists have said for many years: that a. good part of the fat of American capitalism and its profits have come from the previously mentioned $101 billion in favorable foreign-trade balance with Europe.
If American capitalism has been “magnanimous” with the bankrupt European powers, then it is due, without doubt, to the fact that American capitalism has been feeding at the European trough to the disadvantage of continental capitalism and, most important of all, of the working class of Europe.
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