Minutes : joint meeting of the Executive of the International Federation of Trade Unions and Bureau of the Labour and Socialist International

              Copy
Joint Meeting of the Executive of the International Federation of Trade unions and the Bureau of the Labour and Socialist International held in Paris on the 25th November, 1938.
(IFTU).    With L. de Brouckere in the chair, a Joint meeting was held in Paris on the 25th November of the Executive of the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and the Bureau of the Labour and Socialist International (LSI). The IFTU Executive was represented by Jacobsen, Jouhaux, Kupers, Hicks (deputising for Citrine), Bondas (deputising for Mertens), and Schevenels, General Secretary.    The LSI was represented by de Brouckere, Adler, General Secretary, and all the members of its Bureau.   The Spanish Labour Movement was represented by Comrades Cordero and Vega.
The meeting had before it the resolution on the Spanish situation adopted by the special meeting of the IFTU General Council, held on the 10th November, and also proposals for the organisation of Spanish relief and a world peace campaign drafted by Schevenels, the General Secretary of the IFTU.
After a detailed discussion, in which nearly all delegates took part, full agreement was reached as to the relief campaign and it was decided to press energetically, through international deputations to governments, for the realisation of the following demands:
"Public opinion in all countries which remain free should rise up with overwhelming energy against any attempt to impose a solution of force on the Spanish people from outside.
"There must be no submission to the will of the  Fascist countries, no settlement of the Spanish conflict without consultation with and the consent of the Spanish  people, and no grant of belligerent rights to Franco.
"On the contrary, there must be the restoration of international law on behalf of the Spanish republic, cessation of the policy of so-called non-intervention, and the withdrawal of Italian and German technicians and "volunteers".
"Effective and immediate steps must also be taken to  assure supplies to the civil population in Spain.    The Spanish people, who are making a heroic and victorious resistance against the better-armed and better-supplied Fascist forces, must not be brought to defeat through starvation."
The two Internationals further unanimously declared that:
(1) a settlement of the war in Spain cannot be sought without consultation of the Spanish people, represented by the legitimate Government of the Republic, and that
(2) a settlement can only be found on the lines of international law, (which has up till now been held in contempt) by the withdrawal from Spain of all the foreign troops which have invaded it, together with their technicians and the material of war with which they are destroying Spain.