Page:Meet the Communists (Flynn).djvu/3

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MEET THE COMMUNISTS

By Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

Every day, everywhere, Communists are news around the world—in China, France, Korea, Brazil, Italy, Belgium, and of course in the Soviet Union. Names of famous Communist leaders have become familiar headlines—Stalin, Tito, Duclos, Thorez, Mao Tse-tung, Togliatti, Pollitt, Dimitroff, Buck, Haldane, Prestes, Blas Roca, Gallacher, Pasionaria. Stories about them are history in the making.

COMMUNISTS ARE NEWS

Luis Carlos Prestes, leader of the Brazilian Communists, released from a Brazilian prison into which he had been thrown by the Vargas dictatorship, becomes a Senator.

The Italian Communist Party, which fought Mussolini from the underground for a quarter of a century, now has 1,708,000 members and takes its place in the coalition government.

Chinese Communists, 1,210,000 strong, lead a coalition government of 95,500,000 people in the liberated area of China. The French Communist Party has 21 million members and received five million votes; 151 French Communists were elected members of the Constituent Assembly and eight Communists are members of the French Ministry, including Maurice Thorez, Secretary of the Communist Party.

Marshal Stalin announces a new series of Soviet Five-Year Plans to rebuild the war devastated areas and to continue the development of the entire country, interrupted by the Nazi invasion. The Communist Party of Cuba, with 151,000 members has elected seven representatives, three Senators, and has the Vice-Presidency in both legislative bodies of that country.

There are strong Communist parties in Chile, Colombia,

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