aR ee ee on

Trudeau is

front man

for the imperialists

By WILLIAM KASHTAN

Under the pretense of pursuing
an independent foreign policy,
the Canadian government is in
fact acting as front man for
U.S.A, and British imperialism.
This is to be seen in Prime Minis-
ter Trudeau’s position at the
Commonwealth Conference at
Singapore and External Affairs
Minister Sharp’s statement on
the escalation of war in Laos.

One would have thought, fol-
lowing the invasion of Laos by
South Vietnamese troops backed
by the U.S., that the Canadian
government would have con-
demned this escalation and also
the breach by American imper-
ialism of neutrality based on the
Geneva Agreements of 1954 and
1962. This it did not do. Instead,
it piously criticised the breach
of neutrality and by inference
declared the Democratic Repub-
lic of Vietnam responsible.

U.S. intervention in Laos was
not even mentioned by Mr.
Sharp, a fact that was noted by
the capitalist press. The hypo-
crisy of his statement about
breaches of neutrality can be

seen in the fact that Canada con- ,

tinues to sell over $300 million
worth of arms to the U.S. which
are used against the Vietnamese
and Cambodian peoples and now
against the people of Laos.

The Canadian government in
making the proposal to reactiv-
ate the International Control
Commission is acting for U.S.
imperialism. What it should be
doing is calling for withdrawal
of U.S. troops from all Indochina.

It is unfortunate that Mr. An-
drew Brewin, the New Demo-
cratic Party spokesman on for-
eign affairs, took a_ position
which veered closely to that of
External Affairs Minister Sharp.
The last NDP convention called
upon U.S. imperialism to with-
draw from Vietnam and express-
ed full support for its people.
Why is Mr. Brewin reneging on
that position? He and the NDP
group in Parliament should be
pressing on the government to
insist on immediate U.S. with-
drawal from all Indochina, and
should call upon labor and the
people to do likewise. ;

The Trudeau government also
acted as front man for British
imperialism at the Singapore
Commonwealth Conference. It
was Prime Minister Trudeau

who, according to press reports,
worked out the formula which
in effect gave British imperialism
a way out so that it will now
be able to sell arms to South
Africa.

Instead of uniting with the
African states and peoples in
sharp condemnation of British
imperialist support of apartheid
and the: military rearming of
South Africa—which could have
been accomplished at this con-
ference—the Canadian govern-
ment took an opposite course
aimed in effect at strengthening
British imperialist policy and
South African apartheid. This
despite the Canadian govern-
ment’s pretense at criticism of
those policies.

Today, President Nixon claims
that the extension to Laos of the
U.S. war against Vietnam and
Cambodia is directed to ensure
the security and withdrawal of
American troops from Indochina.
This hypocritical and dangerous
statement could well be used to
attack China on the grounds that
it is endangering the security of
U.S. troops. More immediately,
it could be used for an all-out
attack on the Democratic Repub-
lic of Vietnam itself. —

In the name of withdrawing
American troops from Indochina,
U.S. imperialism is in fact esca-
lating the war, extending it to
the whole of Indochina with all
its dangerous consequences for
peace and security in Southeast
Asia. One should have no illu-
sions about U.S. imperialism’s
aims. Its. Vietnamization policy,
its “Asian fight Asian” policy,
has one objective — to secure
complete dominance by Amer-
ican imperialism in that part of
the world and to bring about,
not a political settlement, but a
military solution.

In light of the increased dan-
gers precipitated by U.S. and
British imperialism, actions
and statements by the Canadian
government - supporting them
need to be sharply condemned.
They are against the real inter-
ests of the Canadian people and
against the interests of peace and
security on a world scale.

Most urgently, all peace
forces, the labor, democratic and
trade -union movements should
unite their -efforts for the de-
mand that U.S. imperialism with-
draw now from Indochina. ~

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1971—PAGE 6

He a ee ce

Pioneer Communist

Z —<
ee. ee rs i

Life story of Roy Reid

By WILLIAM BEECHING

This year we are celebrating
50 years of the Communist
movement in Canada. Roy Reid,
who died recently in Saskatoon,
was one of the Communist Par-
ty’s pioneers. His life was inti-
mately interwoven with the
opening of the West, the crea-
tion of a Prairie economy, and
the building of the labor and
farm unions and_ co-operative
movements. :

He was a small farmer—he
homesteaded at Rabbit Lake in
the early 1900’s, earning money
by working out.

“By 1919 I had quit trying to
grow wheat,” he wrote. “The
oats on the summerfallow got a
a good start that year. How-
ever, they came in late because
of the weather. That December
we used sleighs threshing, dig-
ging the stooks out of the snow.
‘the summerfallow oats kept al-
right, but the late oats had too
much moisture in them, and a
big bin of them spoiled in spite
of all I could do to save them.
After that I did a bit of figuring.
I was in debt pretty badly, pay-
ing 8% interest on a lot too
much money, 40 miles from
town. My Marxist studies had
led me to expect that with the
end of the war the bottom. was

apt:to go out of the cattle mar-,

ket. So I made a decision to sell
out while there was still a fair
price for cattle, and go to work
in the coal mines.

“My sale was held on April
13, 1920. I paid my debts, ex-
cept for the mortgage on the
land, and I headed West. In Ed-
monton I joined the Socialist
Party of Canada and the One
Big Union, In my thinking I was
pretty far Left. I booked for. a
job in the old-fashioned hiring
hall, paid a dollor for it. The job
was loading coal by contract
into box cars with a wheel-bar-
row at the old open-pit ‘Mile-
47’ mine. The work was hard.”

From that job, he moved on
to another mine where he push-
ed coal cars by hand, with a
promise of a “place digging as
soon as there was an opening.”

Some vivid chapters in Cana-
dian working-class history were
written by the striking Alberta
coal miners in the early 1920’s.

While still at Rabbit Lake as
a farmer, Roy Reid had argued
his way into the Communist
movement as it was then —
groups that brought literature
with them from the British Isles

and Europe, met to discuss the |

questions of the day. Roy Reid,
always a lively thinker, joined
in the debates and “studied in

order to defeat them,” and in.

the process of studying and de-
bating, he recognized the logic
of their position and joined them.
He developed a deep-going re-
spect for ideas, for revolution-
ary books and newspapers.
“Some time during the sum-
mer of 1921,’ he has written,
“TI bought from the labor news
stand in Edmonton the book,
Red Europe. My impression of
it was very favorable, so I
bought 10 copies with a view to
reselling them to friends. That
was when people began think-
ing of me as a salesman of Red
literature. The books went like

-hot cakes, and I sold several

lots of them.”

Forty years later he was do-
ing exactly that when he got
hold of a good book, pamphlet,
or worker’s paper. When near-
ly 80 years of age, he was Sas-
katchewan’s outstanding sales-
man of the Canadian Tribune,
and won a national prize ‘as the

best subscription getter. At that
age, he was still able to recruit
youngsters of 18 and 19 to the
movement he loved so dearly.

During the early 1920’s the
birth of the world’s first social-
ist state held the attention of the
entire world—could it succeed?
Could it survive? Could the
working-class govern itself? To-
day the attention of the entire
world is rivetted on the same
centre of socialism, but with
new questions: will the USSR
succeed in its efforts to prevent
a third world war? Will it catch
up and surpass the most advanc-
ed capitalist country in the
world, the U.S.? What is the
secret of the enormous scientific
and cultural advance made by
the Soviet peoples in barely
more than 50 years?

In 1921, Roy Reid, joined the
Association for Technical Aid to
Soviet Russia, an organization
which assisted Soviet workers
to master technique in the early
days of building the Soviet state.

He took part in the 1921 pro-
vincial elections that returned
the United Farmers of Alberta
to power—his local of the Uni-
ted Mine Workers held an elec-
tion meeting to which all can-
didates were invited.

“Lenin’s book, Left-Wing Com-
munism, an Infantile Disorder,
first published in English by the
B.C. Federationalist, reached me,
and I read it before the. strike
started on April 11, 1922,” he
wrote, “I felt that Lenin was
writing for my benefit. I reread
the book and studied it.”

In 1926, driven by his love for
literature, he took over the La-
bor News Stand in Edmonton.
For a short time he was helped
by another veteran worker-
farmer, E. R. Fay. A young wo-
man with two children, Mrs.
Flossie Fraser, came to assist in
the work on a day in June in
1926. Co-operation in selling
socialist ideas soon led to per-
sonal love and understanding.
Roy and Flossie were married.

In 1929 the Reids and their
children moved to Rabbit Lake
to resume farming. He was a
small farmer and fought for the
small farmers with same class-
consciousness and ardor as he
fought the struggles of the Al-
berta coal miners,

He was in the farmers’ union,
and took part in farm strikes
and demonstrations. He was part
of that great movement that

Western miners gather for parade.

elected Dorise W. Nielsen % a
people’s unity candidate, fro pr
Spiritwood, during World War! |
I walked side by side Wie
him for many miles in Pe'So
demonstrations when he was £ipr
ing on for 80. When he retll® de
from the farm to live in Sas pr
toon, he did not retire from ‘th
public activity. ty
A growing number of today ec
young people are doing th0®0r
same things with all the passidt
and vigor of youth, in the sau aa
spirit . displayed by the Si
Reids—the miners and farm
of yesterday. He always saw tial
the job that needed doing W ™
done, even when it was unpoP @
lar, drawing upon spiritual HA
serves of courage to do it. dl
tells in his notes about wi
he voted for an Italian wor
to have a special job over ak,
head of an Anglo-Saxon calm
date: “We were sure outvol@iy Ir
he wrote, “but we were TIg™"" ‘.
What kind of man is it via.
simple in his origins and
-of living, can rise to play (7 —
role history calls on each © I
of us to do? ER
|

This is an extraordinary tit

in the life of our country; 4) ~
mankind everywhere. It mn)
period of history marked we?
great social upheavals and 17°
emergence of a new social ie
tem, in which people come int t
when man becomes really say @
man. The meaning of Roy R@a)
life lies in the fact that he Chl
the Marxist-Leninist path pe
it guided him in everything 7
did. io
When history came kn0Ch
at his door with its many eit J
he opened it wide, welcotg §
mt
C

ms — SY OD ctf

the struggle. He saw the CO” 14
diction between great Wig
and poverty, between good i
ing and bad, and he took oil
side of the poor, pointing
that a society that created po
erty had to be changed. He
ed hypocrisy, and held-!? ig
greatest contempt all those i
try to justify injustice, explo (0.
tion and war. He felt that ig |
preach brotherly love betw iy
the robber and the robbed 9 }

{

:

~
loa wigs palo hee

perpetuates the robbing. eft
Roy Reid lived up to i
Burns’ measuring stock yd
“good”. Burns said, “V ah
mitigates the woes or inch is)
the happiness of others, 1 qi)
my criterion of goodneS5: gl)
whatever injures society ih |
large, or any individual nity
this is my measure of inld™ ==

WANTS DIALOGUE ON NIXON IMPEACHMENT i
SAN MATEO—Paul N. “Pete” McCloskey wants a “nation®l vj)

logue” on whether President Nixon should be impeached. McC
is a Republican, and a Korea war veteran who won nationa ary
minence when he defeated Shirley Temple Black in a GOP pri

McCloskey told Stanford University students that the POSS!” iq
of an impeachment is slim; but “if we started to discuss iS

os?
to
ae

i
bit

peachment,” Nixon might change his policy in Indochina. McCl hose
said that “what we are doing in Laos is as great a crime aS pe
we-executed Japanese’ and German officers for in World W!i |