GENERAL - PSYCH/GUIDANCE SPECIFIC - -FIFTH WORLD STUDENT CONGRESS, PEKING, CHINA, 4-13 SEPTEMBER 1958

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R000900200013-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 11, 1998
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: August 21, 1958
• Content Type: DISP

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FROM: Chief, FE 25X1C10b
General -
SUBJECT: Specific --Fifth World Student Congress Peking, China,
4.-13 September 1958
ACTION REQUIRED: See paragraphs III, IV and V, bola/.
I. LA=BDUHL
A. ,The mommunisto controlled International Union of Students (IUS) with headquarters
in Prague, Czechoslovakia, is sponsoring its fifth world congress in Peking, China
from 4 to 13 September 1958. The fourth Congress was held in Prague in August 1956
and, according to IUS accounts, was attended by 650 students from 65 countries,
including 189 observers from non-member organizations in 22 countries. These figures
undoubtedly are inflated, due to the existence of numerous paper organizations and
local fronts on IUS membership roles. In reality about 80 percent of IUS membership
is from the Orbit. It is expected that attendance at the Peking Congress will be
about the seam number or slightly larger. Hadever, this is not certain. A recent
report from IUS sources suggests that the cost of travel to Peking from many areas
of the world will tend to reduce attendance. As in the past, the IUS has invited
non-member organizations to attend. Some of these, such as the British National
Union of Students, customarily send observers to IUS Congresses basically in order
to prepare material attacking the IUS, while refusing to affiliate with the IUS and
maintaining allegiance to the non-communist International Student Conference (ISC)
and its secretariat, COSEC. Their attendance at the Peking Congress, therefore,
should not be considered abnormal or a major gain for the IUS. Other national
unions are affiliated both with the IUS and COSEC not only as a measure of
"neutrality," but in order to gain maximum international recognition and support for
their internal problems, IUS affiliation ranges from "associate" membership, as in
the case of Tunesia, to full membership as in the case of Morocco. Beyond this
standard but critical non-communist attendance, it can be expected that some repre-
sentative Asian student groups, who do not Customarily attend IUS meetings and who
are members of COSEC but not of IUS, may attend In an observer capacity, because of
the influence of China in "Asian affairs today and because of the opportunity offered
by the All China Students Federation of a two to three week tour of China after the
Congress. Such groups are unlikely to affiliate with the IUS, but their attendance
will be of assistance to IUS propaganda objectives.
B. Following is the tentative agenda for the Congress as announced by the IUS:
1. Development of the international student mdvement, and the contribution
of the IUS and student organizations to the defense of the interests of students and
the promotion of internationaletudent cooperation.
2. Report of the Executive Committee of the IUS: Work of the following
Commissions:
a. Role of students in the maintenance of peace
b. Activities of students against colonialism and the participation
of students of newly independent countries in national construction and the elimina-
tion of the legacies of colonialism.
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O. The activities of students for the reform of education, the defense
of student rights, and the improvement of living and study conditions.
d. Student activities in the fields of press and publicity.
e. Student activities in the fields of culture, faculty, traveland
sport.
3. Adoption of recommendations of the Commission on the first point of the
agenda and Commiesions a0 and e.? above.
4. Ratification of the affiliations of new members of the IUS.
5. Report of the Finance Committee?
6. Election of the Executive Committee and the Finance Committee.
7. Any other business.
? C. ,The primary IUS targets, as with the other communist fronts, have not been
in Europe or North America, as much as they have been in the underdeveloped and
"uncommitted" areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In communist
eyes, these areas represent colonial and semi-colonial peoples subject to Western
imperialism and therefore prime subjects for revolutionary agitation. IUS
priorities with regard to specific countries and areas have shifted from time to
time, depending on overall communist strategy, particular local opportunities, restric-
tions imposed by hostile governments, and counteractivity by non-communist organize-
tions. In general, it can be said that the IUS had its greatest membership strength
in the period during 1946-50, before it became generally discredited as a communist
front and before the International Student Conference (COSEC) as organized and grew
to its present stature. However, the fact that the IUS has failed to attract repre-
sentative groups in a number of countries, and the activities it sponsors are under-
taken for operational reasons, as indicated in the following paragraphs, should not
be allowed to obscure the fact that it has met with considerable success as a commu-
nist organizational weapon in some countries? With respect to individual arena, the
following comments can be made on current IUS position and strategys
1. Latin America. The IUS has no representative national unions of
students as members in _Latin America. In Ecuador and Colombia, communist directed
factions are self-declared members of the IUS and send representatives to some
meetings, but cannot be co idered nationally representative. For a long period, IUS
influence in Latin America was low, in part because its position on the Peron regime
was not considered sufficiently negative by the Latin American unions. To this day,
for instance, representative student elements in Argentina are bitter in their
denunciation of the IUS. At the same ti e? in recent years the IUS has been able to
use anti-American sentiment among Latin ?America students to propaganda advantage,
and has stepped up its Organizational efforts, material assistance, tailored propagan-
da and travel of representatives in the area. For example, the Spanish editor of the
World Student Newe (WSN)? official monthly organ of. the IUS? recently sent out a
circular letter to Latin erican student organizations informing them that the
Spa/Will edition of the WSN is to be revamped so that approximately one-third of each
issue contains a regular Latin American section ? The 'April 1958 edition of the WSN
was a special Latin American number. During the past year, several IUS represents'
tives traveled in Latin America and, in some ea es, made an impact favorable to the
IUS in the countries visited. In several cases, however, they weredeported from
Latin American countries and denounced as Co unist agents. - IUS propaganda to the
area, at this point, is stressing the thane that Latin Americans have a great
brotherhood with Afro,Asinns since both, according to the IUS? have a common history
of imperialistic exploitation and now are in a period requiring extensive national
development.
2. Africa. In the first years of its existence, IUS concentrated its
efforts toward Africa and chiefly on the large groups of Africans studying in France
and England. They did so for several,reasonss as Educational facilities in the
African countries have been limited, despite a recent growth in institutions, and
the more able young leadership has studied abroad 3 bs Hostile African or colonial
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governments strongly resisted efforts of IUS organizers to enter their territory
or propagandize in it with publications a 0, los Local party apparati in England
and France were able to assist in indoctrination, potting and recruiting of
young Africans temporarily estranged from their awn cultures and not particularly
well received by general British or French society. Thus IUS influence has been
strong in such groups as the West African Student Union (WASU)? in England, and
the Federation des Etudiants Afrique Noire en France (FEANF)? in France. The
predominant IUS theme toward Africans has been one of anti-colonialiam and racial
equality with overtones of propaganda against noncommunist "whites" O In the
meantime the development of institutions of higher education within African
countries has also led to the formation f indigenous student organizations which,
by and large, have affiliated themselves to COSEC, and not to the IUS. Moreover,
these indigenous groups in many cases have strongly resented the role WASU and
FEANF have taken in representing them within the IUS. With the coming of indepen-
dence to a number of African countries, direct IUS activity and material assistance
to target groups from this area have increa ed9 but with little success generally.
The IUS has made progress recently in the &.a9 which it is using to some degree
as a base of operations against the rest of Africa, and its affiliates include
the Tunisian, Moroccan and Algerian organizations which are also COSEC affiliated.
The IUS position in Africa, south of the .:Sahara? however, remains very weakand
it is not expected that student delegates from indigenous organizations in this
area will attend the Peking Congress in any number?
3. Addiek gut. In line iith general c0oouni t policy, the IUS takes
a generally pro-Arab position, though its invective i directed more at the
"western imperialists", whom the IUS charges with continued exploitation of the
area, than at Israel. . An Israeli group has maintained an associate membership
in the IUS, for reasons related to concern for the Jewish nority within the
Soviet Union; they see the IUS as a channel to this minority, though it has net
proved so in practice. The IUS has been hampered in its Middle Eastern activities
by the relative absence of nationally representative student organizations and the
hostile attitude of a number of governments? There is no question, however, that
the current Middle Eastern situation will have potential for the IUS and that it
will be a major propaganda theme at the Peking Congress. The IUS has for some
time published an Arabic edition of the Koolaoatodont News, and at the last IUS
Executive meeting in Leipzig in January 19589 the Arab delegates requested that
more material appear in Arabic. Chew Chi-ming, Chinese IUS secretary and head of
the IUS Education, Culture and Travel Department, and Sadek Babek9 Iranian IUS
secretary and head of the IUS Colonial Bureau, attended the Afro-Mien Solidarity
Conference of December 1957 in Cairo, as IUS observers. There are indications that
IUS and the communist youth front, the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY),
intend to use the Solidarity Conference permanent secretariat in Cairo to extend
their awn influence in the Afro-Asian area. In fact, the Afro-Asian Youth and
Student Conference, scheduled for Cairo in February 1959 under the secretariat's
sponsorship, obviously has heavy IUS and WFDY backing.
4. itsiso Despite c0ncentrated effort in Asia, the IUS has yet to make
a significant impact in most Asian countriee? Its members in the area from non-
communist countries include only the representative Zengakuren of japan, which is
closely tied to the JCP and splinter groups in Burma and India. The Indonesian
student movement withdrew from IUS membership several years ago, and has continued
to weaken any remaining informal ties to the IUS, while becoming at the same time
'a full participant in COSEC. The mast ambitious IUS effort in Asia in recent years
was its atte ot to take over the sfrooAsian Student Conference held in Bandung in
May-JUne 1956. This attempt failed, and the IUS was generally discredited among
nonocommunists in the area for its role in the meeting. This has not prevented
the IUS however from publicizing the results; of this Conference in an effort to
associate itself with this portant event.
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Dn The IUS engages ix a number of activitiee ix cnder to create 4 propeganda
inage of concern for the welfare of etudente? the advancemext of their educational
aims? and the broadening of their international contacts. Among thee are the
followings
1. ?nlsolershiins. According to the January 1958 IUS Nie4, 65 NS
acholarships are offered nvalid for coonlete courses of iergraduate tudy in
different ubjectapn ix Albania, Bulgaria, Czecholo lovakia? East Germany, Poland
and the USSR. Ia the pat? all these scholarships have not bee taken up, but a
majority of them certainly will be and the IUS effort will be directed toward
selecting individuals with potential for le ership in the student an youth field
internationally and in their home countrieen The IUS, WFDY and their affiliates
maintain contact with scholarship tudexte while they are studying in the Orbit,
offer them part time Jo a tra lators, interpreters, broadcasterd and the like,
during which they meet top pecialiet at WFDY and IUS headquarter* and receive on=
the-job training which provides the ith invaluable km, ledge and experience for
later ue in conjunction with front activities and indigenous coouunist parties in
their home countrie... This progr i9 with its focu on young leaders, is but a part
of the overall Orbit cholarship effort hich involved thousands of individuals from
the target are a.
2. Welfare. In Peking, the IUS maintains a sanatorium fsn Afro-Asian
students, which. according to IUS figures ha treated some 19100 pulmonary and TB
patients from nine Asian countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Nepal,
Pakistan and North Korea, and returned 875 students to normal university life,
Anstudenthealth center in Calcutta, er IUS aponsor hip, equipment for a dental
clinic for the State Union of Student of Babies, in Parana, Brazil, and X-Ray equip-
ment for the uninersity clinic in Petoei, Bnlivia, are other projetts.
3. 22,33g_a_anajULIA?,da_AUMA4 ars further attractions for IDS
affiliated tudent ai. gue t groups. For example, the Fifth World Student Chess
C ionehip, cheftled fcn 5-20 July 1958, at the Golden Sands Hotel in Varna,
Bulgaria, on the Black Sea (cEn,t $2.50 per peron in groups. ?f four) 3 the Summer
Camp for Baltic Y uth and the Frieo.ship Rally of Students from Baltic Countries,
scheduled for East Germany in the Summer of 19583 the International Youth Tourist
Camp and International Hiker 0 Rally, scheduled for the USSR in the Summer of
19583 the International Conference of Students of Architecture, it Ieningrad in
July 19583 the International Seminar for Law Student, Sofia, Bulgaria, October
19583 and the Seminar for Young Expert on the Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy,
USSR, August 1958 -- all thee are present opportunities for travel and learning
to student, and at the same tie preset occasions for indoctrination and training
to communist cadres. In terms of quantitative impact, these meetings and events
are relatively unimportant, since they involve very few i ividuals and those who
do participate are largely c te or We tern Europeans not in any leadership
capacity in their own organizations. More i artant to the IUS is the propaganda
that can be built around thee events, in posters and publication, to create an
Image of an active and appealing pr.gram. This effort is aimed in large part at
specialized sector of the student co unity and for establi hing c ntacts with
such specialized groups which can in turn be strengthened and expanded in other ways.
E. The IUS expelled the Yugoslav student delegation of the Peoples Youth
of Yugoslavia (PYY) in 1950, follawing the Cominform attacks on Yugoslavia of 1948
and 1949. Thin-, expulsion was followed by a boycott of the PYY by various East
European student organizations. Although the IDS Executive Council announced
that their decision of 1950 was nincorrect n and we believe that the Executive
and the Secretariat sh*uld do everything in their power to see that this mistake
and it consequence are put right and the way opened to negotiations and cooperars
tion between Yugoslav students a * the IUS H (renewing the Khrushchev-Tito rap-
proachment)? the PYY has not r ponded favorably tn this appeal. Yugoslav delegates
have not attended IUS congre Yes ince their expulsi n. During the period 1955-
19579 the PYY reestablished many of its bilateral contacts with Bloc student groups.
However, an event occurred in January 1958 hich presaged the recent Orbit attacks
on the party pr gram of the 7th yngeslav Party Congreas. In January 1958, the PYY
sponsored meetings of the International Youth Cnnpnseio in Belgrade, as part of
the congres of the PYY. The RAS Ian delegation boycotted these meetings following
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the presentation of a paper by a Yugoslav member, in which he described the disunity
and disoention presently existing between the international youth groups, as an
outgrowth of the narrow minded bloc policies puramed by these groups, including the
International Union of Students and the World Federation of Democratic Youth. The
suggestion that the IUS and the WFDY are narrow bloc groups, terms usually applied
by the Soviet organizations to the Coordinating Secretariat of the International
Student Conference (COSEC) and the World Assembly of Youth (WAY)--the free world
counterparts of the IUS and the WFDY?was so offensive to the Soviet delegation that
they refused to continue their participation in that phase of the congress. Al].
of the East European delegations, with the exception of Poland, joined the Russians,
The walkout wee joined by the delegates from China, North Vietnam, North Korea and
Ningolia.- On 28 May, Belgrade radio "Tanyug" broadcast a statement by Nike Tripale,
President ef the P.n., in which he noted that some youth organizations of "socialist
countries" were adopting the methods of 1948 and "breaking up their agreed forms of
cooperation" with the Yugoslays. He noted that Communist Chinata youth paper
(the "Ch'ing NienJih Pao"--IABULDailvl had even published the Cominform resolution,
in connection with its attacks. It is reliably reported that the policy of the PYY
is to cooperate with youth organizations of all lands, while avoiding membership in
any of the existing international youth groups which foster bloc policies. Note
has recently been made of a PYY intention to strengthen its ties with Latin American
organizations. Yugoslavia is also maintaining its youth contacts with Poland. A
broadcast from Belgrade on 11 July notes that a delegation from the Central Committee
of the Slovene Peoples Youth, led by Stens Kranje? Secretary of the Comaittee, will
leave for Poland 15 July, at the invitation of the Polish socialist youth.
F. In December 1952, UNESCO withdrew the consultative status it had granted
the IUS in July 1948, on the grounds that it had over that period of time consistently
misused and abused its consultative privileges for propaganda purposes and attacked
UN decisions and UN bodies. UNESCO took the position that the IUS had "proved not
to be sufficiently interested in the aims and activities of UNESCO to keep up their
contacts with it." The IUS has made repeated efforts to regain status, since its
expulsion. UNESCO postponed consideration of these appeals until April 1958, when
it again rejected the application. The rejection was probably based on the following
facts:
1. The IUS and its affiliates continue to attack UN decisions and UN
bodies, and attempt to use these bodes for partisan political purposes .
2. The IUS has consistently supported communist propaganda lines, and
it has frequently attacked the findings and resolutions of the UN, and attempted
to discredit the UN in the eyes of IUS member 0
30 The IUS is unrepresentative of the world student community. Over
80% of its membership is derived from organizations in the Communist Orbit.
Some NESCO members have indicated that the IUS could qualify for consultative
status only if it would: a. Disavow and give up its political activities b. Affirm
its acceptance ef the UNESCO Charter and the established limita within which
UNESCO must operate c. Show by its activities and public pronouncements that it
acknowledges this charter and recognizes these limitations, d. Rinounce the acts and
statements officially made by the IUS in defiance of UN findings and decisions and, s.
Acknowledge that the IUS is a partisan organization created and manipulated by the
Communist Parties of the Orbit.
G. The Coordinating Secretariat of the National Unions of Students (COSEC)
was formed by free world student unions in 1952, when it became clear that the
Communist Bloc delegations were bent on using the IUS as a communist propaganda
organ. It was the coordinating center for a voluntary union of representative
national unions of students from 65 countries. There is only one representative
national student union in the non-comMunist world which is not associated with
COSEC (The Zengakuren, of japan. See paragraph IV B 4)0
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H. The following attachments contain general background information relevant
to the Congreses
1. Attachment As General background on the IUS.
2. Attachment B8 Inf,cmation on the current eituation of the IUS and the
WFDY.
3. Attachment C8 Letters to an ,Asian student group from the IUS.
4, Attachment Ds Article in the World Student NOW88 "Let us Nast in
Peking".
II. g224LINIMS,DagTaga
A. Although this. dispatch is primarily directed toward the Peking Congrese
.as a communist front propaganda event, it is important to place the Congrese within
the overall context of IUS activity and objective!. Past IUS Congresses have been
useful to the IUS both as propaganda devices and as opportunities to assess and
recruit delegates and *beer-vers. The propaganda intent is of two types % first, to
attempt to give the impression of a large, active and important organization and to
obscure the lack of representivity of its membership and; second, to further current
communist propaganda objectives. On the first core, the IUS attempts to have as
many repreeentative groups attend as poosible and, failing this, to bring splinter
groups or mere individuals t represent given c untries. Thus an IUS figure of
u650 students from 65 countries" is obviously inflated and subject to considerable
scaling down on analysis, but io still effective from an IUS propaganda standpoint.
On the !second propaganda objective, it can be expected that the three major current
communist themes will be evidents Peace (particularly in connection with the Rid?
East Crisis and the resolutions of the WPC meeting of id?July? in Stockholm);
Cessation of nuclear tests (with reference to the resolutions of the 4th World
Anti?H and H Bomb Conference of mid?August? in Hiroshima, Japan) and; Anti?
Colonialism (in the context of Arab Nationalism and the )id?East Crisis).
B. It is certain that the Chinese Communists will use the Conference to
enhance their stature throughout the world, and to send selected delegates home
as propagandists for the diplomatic recognition of Communist China and its admission
to the UN.
1110 Polley
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11August 1958
Attachments: A thru I as follows (UNCLASSIFIED) s/c - IDENITY (SECRET) s/c
A: General Background en the IUS
B: Information ea current situation of the IUS and WFDY
C: Letters to an Asian student group from the IUS
D: Article in the World Student News:Let us Meet in Peking"
E: "MURATA" articles criticizing Zengakuren
.25X1A2d2 Fs -ports on youth and student groups.
0: Extracte freak the PT! newsergan "Youth Life"
H; Extracts from the Chinese Communist press, on student unrest
I: Au am studoa royert en Communist China
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