A Ride on the Tiger
The frankness with which Communists are prepared to change their tactics is in strong contrast to the furtiveness with which they usually put their plans into action. At first sight there is something artless in the public resolve by the French Communists to abandon the policy of violence, which they recently pursued with such marked lack of success, in favour of a policy of co-operation with all sections of the population who "wish to stop the warmongers." It might be thought that all non-Communists had been sufficiently warned by Europe's post-war history of the fate which befalls independents who risk " co-operation " with the Communists : few individuals, and no parties, in France can be expected to put their heads deliberately into the noose. But all the same the switch in policy, advertised by the French Communists is not to be under- estimated. Both in the years immediately preceding and those immediately following the war the French Communist Party reached a position where it could influence or share in the policy of the Government. It achieved this position by a policy of collaboration, by showing a pliancy which the party has only abandoned to its cost. There is every, logical reason why this opportunist political pliancy should be tried again. It may be some time before the suspicions of the French public can be lulled by soft words and respectable slogans, but sooner or later there is a mass of opinion—" neutralist," pacifist, anti- American,/or just generally, disgruntled=which might be won over, even unconsciously, to the new Communist Party line. It remains to be seen whether this new development is intended for all Communist Parties. Already there is some evidence that the Italian Communists are thinking (or having their think- ing done for them) along the lines of their French comrades. The British Party, always eagerly seeking after a sign, will of course switch to the new pattern of respectability as soon as it is told to do so. It may be that Mr. Gromyko will have some views about the subject.
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