You Are Too Fat

In the West, too, there were tremors. As long as the Western Communist Parties are not in power,* they depend on Moscow for survival and cannot afford rebellion. Nevertheless, Titoism, i.e., the heresy of holding one's own national interests above Russian interests, has had some limited, clearly discernible effects among Western Communists.

He Who Can Laugh. In Italy, which boasts Europe's largest Communist Party outside Russia, Moscow has so far permitted Boss Palmiro Togliatti to follow freewheeling, flexible tactics in his pursuit of power. Many Communist workers and peasants understand little of Marx's ideology and are permitted deviations (e.g., open attachment to the Roman Catholic Church) which might mean a purge in more tightly disciplined Communist Parties. But, proclaimed the Red Party newspaper Unita last week, "there is a need to eliminate . . . the spirit of indifference and easy living."

Even Communist bigwigs are prey to dangerous indifference. One of Togliatti's own close friends, who felt that the Kremlin was taking itself altogether too seriously, recently remarked: "The best cure for the Russians would be a year in Naples where they could learn to laugh." In Eastern Europe, comrades have been made to laugh out of the other side of their mouths for such pleasantries.

He Who Gets Slapped. In France, no Communist Party leader seems yet ready to break away from Moscow. Only three have enough stature to pull off such a rebellion: Maurice Thorez, Jacques Duclos and Andre Marty. But Duclos is not considered ambitious enough, and Marty is too blindly loyal to Stalin, to rise against Moscow. Thorez, French political experts believe, has the inclination to rebel but so far he has lacked the guts. Three times he has been slapped down by Moscow for being too "nationalistic." Each time he has abjectly begged forgiveness.

Last week, 51 leaders of French Communism gathered in a Paris suburban town hall to hear reports from pudgy Jacques Duclos and bull-necked Georges Cogniot, envoys to last month's meeting of the Cominform (TIME, Dec. 12). They relayed orders for a drive against "titoism, Trotskyites and police spies." Said Duclos: "I was reminded of a reproach once uttered by our Comrade Jose Diaz (prewar Spanish Communist leader): 'You are too fat. Revolutions are not made with stomachs like yours . . .' "

In 1950, Western Europe's Communists would have to watch their figures.

*Two years ago, Communists held a score of cabinet posts in Western governments. Today they hold none.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.