Sees contradiction in

‘unity with CCF’ idea

By MARGE FERGUSON

—TORONTO

ATE length of the resolution makes it difficult to discuss all the

points.

However, one immediately grasps the meaning of the

resolution, particularly sections | to 9 inclusive.
A point under section 9 which deals with war not being inevitable

and reads: “There will not be war
unless we the people’ etc., needs
some clarification. The people (re-
gardless of the amount of public
pressure, and opinion, put on the
government do not have to say
when war shail or shall not be de-
clared, but the government, with
pressure from Big Business, de-
cide wars. Not that I believe that
public opinion should not be mobil-
ized: on the question of war, and
pressure put by the people on the
government, but the resolution
leaves the impression that the peo-
‘ple can, in the final analysis de-
cide the question of war.

The resolution is quite clear re-
garding the role of the CCF and
its aid to monopoly capital, as far
as their war policy is concerned—
and therefore the section dealing
with “For Democratic Unity
against the Monopolists” makes it
somewhat confusing to the rank
and filer on the question of CCF-
LPP unity. For example, how is
it possible to support CCF policy
regarding war and the Marshall
Plan which is one and the same
as monopoly capital, and the com-
plete opposite to that of our own
Party policy. Or, is it possible to
have a united front with CCF
(even if they were willing to ac-
cept such a proposal) when their
policy on war is so different, since
our resolution states in one of the
sections that peace is the number
one task of the LPP? (It seems to
me that some contradiction is here.)
I’m asking for clarity.

e ‘

Dealing with the national com-
mittee slogan of 1948 to elect a
CCF government by unity at the
polls, the slogan became one of
“the easy way out’? in many cases,
and was therefore misused. In
Toronto where we had two LPP
candidates running it was taken
by many working class people as
a peculiar arrangement that we
should elect a CCF government
while at the same time running
two LPP candidates. This of course
was a case of not understanding
the situation as it was. On the
other hand I cannot agree with
the resolution on the question of
unity being established during pro-
vincial elections, because’ in those
ridings through the provnce where
both CCF and LPP candidate ran,
(especially here in Toronto) to my
mind we did not have unity. Many
trade union locals went ahead and
endorsed. the CCF slate without
even raising the question of our
own two candidates. This was not
unity, but rather the easy way
out. ,

The main part of my Party work
is among women, and therefore
I would like to make a couple of
points in connection with this
work. First of all the resolution
lacks something essential to wo-
men’s work—a program for future
action by the women of the Party
in order to give leadership to the
women outside our Party. We must
have an aim to work towards, out-
side of the regular Party program,
since there are some questions
which affect only women, and
would be a medium for reaching
cut to other women on some com-
mon grounds. The one danger of

_ Party women’s work is that it can
have a tendency to become strictly
for women only, and it must he
clearly understood that we have to
work at all times within the frame-
work of the Party, but directing
certain activities among the wo-
men comrades. Those questions
which are strictly women’s work
should become the program for ac-
tion both in and out of the Party.
and I suggest that the following
might he termed aS women ques-
tions: (The question of prices is
evervbody’s question led by the wo-
men). .

1. Faual pay for equal work.

2, The rieht of all women to
work. with facilities for women
with children made available.

3. More adequate health cen-
ters for pregnant mothers, as well

as clinics for children of all ages
regardless of the family income.

These are only a few. There
are many others. In Quebec for in-
stance, there exist some very an-
tiquated laws regarding the rights
of married women.

In addition to the program much
more attention will have to be
paid to the organizational aspect
of women’s work, by which such
questions as a full time person on
national women’s work-—provincial
work too, if possible. City, and re-
gions must have a woman who is
willing to take full responsibility
for women’s work in the area, re-
gion, or city, on a voluntary basis,
and with women’s commissions set
up across the country, the chair-
man of which should be a member
of the local city, area, or regional
committee.

I would like some clarification
regarding policy on elections, in-
cluding the importance of civic el-
ections, since there are some-varied
opinions about the importance of
establishing a mass vote, and the
energy put into civic elections. The
point as far as I am ‘concerned is,
if a mass vote is established, that
does not establish a mass Party,
and further, civic elections are not
run on Party politics, or so I am
informed from time to time. How-
ever, that is a matter of opinion
since the Tories to my mind make
no hesitation about the party they
stand for.

e : ‘

We hear the term labor used in
connection with our own candi-
dates. One sometimes feels that
it is being leftist for even to think
of mentioning being a member of
the IPP when it comes to civic
elections, Even if we were to elect
a whole city council of labor and
LPP candidates, would we be much,
if any closer to the establishment
of socialism? I don’t think so, be-
cause if we had reached that point
in elections much bigger rumblings
would be heard in the rest of the
iabor movement. (And please, I
don’t want this interpreted as not
wanting to run candidates for civic
elections.)

»)

More clarity needed on peace
to offset widespread confusion

By JOHN BOYD

—TORONTO

HE question of peace is a subject of a great deal of confusion and unclear thinking throughout the

capitalist world today.
talist propagandists.
number of our Party members, are

There are two. extremes of |
thought on the matter. There are |
those who think that war is likely |
to break out soon, that the clash |
of the two world camps is inevit-
able, that it is “now or never’ for
the imperalists and that therefore
we are on the verge of a horrible
atomic and bacteriological war that
will wipe out mankind, etc., etc.
Then there are those who say that
there will be no war. There cannot
be any war, they argue. Who’s go-
ing to do the’ fighting? The forces
of peace are too strong, etc., etc.
The thinking and argumentation
may take on different variations
and gradations but essentially they
tend towards one or the other of
these two extremes.

One of the weaknesses of. the
Draft Resolution is that it does
not fully clear up this confusion.
From the outset it conveys a some-
what gloomy, pessimisttic and de-
fensive tone on the questions of
the danger of war that is not fully
counterbalanced by what is said la-
ter about the fight for peace.

It is not that the Draft Resolu-
tion leaves anything unsaid. Every
aspect of the peace question is ful-
ly analyzed. It is the manner in
which the question is placed—the
emphasis and tone used and the
impressicn created.

I was privileged to hear Com-
rade Tim Buck introduce the dis-
cussion of the Draft Resolution at
a meeting of Toronto Party mem-
bers. Answering a question, “Is
war imminent?” Comrade Buck
cleared up many points that had’
been unclear to me. But in doing
so he impressed me as being much
more confident and optimistic about
the possibilities of world peace
than the Draft Resolution seems
to be. I have met others who got
the same impression. ,

e

Since first reading the Draft Re-
solution I have ve-read a numbe1
of articles and statements written
during the past two years by lead-
ing Marxists on the question of

CRITICISM

(Continued from Page 6)
group of colonial slaves. Imperial-
ism can be subtler than that and
we should use the proper terms
to convey the right impresison.

The sentence: “Since the end of
World War II the working class
of Canada has put up stubborn
battles on the fronts of wage de-
mands, prices, housing and civil
liberties” (Section VII, par. 1) has
already been criticized by another
contributor as being exaggerated
in regard to the three “fronts” men-
tioned last. A worker reading this
will falsely picture huge, vague
masses of Canadians physically bat-

stling for all these things. He will

then reflect how exceedingly less
clear-cut this struggle has been. The
result may well be that he will
stop reading the Resolution, won-
dering what it is talking about.

b) Certain terms, such as “Wall
St.”, “U.S. imperialists,”  “war-
mongers,” “monopolists,” etc., are
used to saturation. “Wall St.’, for
instance, is a very compact de-
seriptive expression, but I wonder
if we have to employ it 30 times
in the Resolution, instead of alter-
nating it occasionally with some
more explanatory, if less concise,
term, such as “the capitalist pow-
ers of America.” I don’t think it
would unduly stretch the Resolu-
tion if a few of these terms were
first defined and then applied more
rigorously than before. “Finance-
capital” and “monopoly-capital,”
for example, are used interchang~
eably to describe what might bet-
ter be called “capitalist rule.” Do
we need combinations such as
“war- mongering finance- capital”
(section IX, par. 8) or “Wall

X

Street’s profit- seeking war- con-
spiracy” (section XVII, par. 20)?
e
c)
such as
power of big business America. . .
(section II, par. 4); “. .. this pro-
fit - mad drive of U. S. imperial-

subjective phrases
the profit-glutted

”

Finally,

““

ism...” (section I, par. 5); ‘“Labor-
hating monopolists.” (section XI,
par. 7); Canadian monopolists

“slavishly subordinating Canada,”
etc., in my opinion can only weak-
en our argument. The use of such
expressions will tend to shift a dis-
affection with objective conditions
(such as, say, the effects of mon-
opolies) towards a hatred of actu-
al persons (i.e, monopolists. The
result is that the objective condi-
tions are not understood as the
prime enemy, and therefore not
tackled. This is what a section of
the Social Credit party is doing
consciously, when it deflects peo-
ple’s discontent from bad condi-
tions (which, of course, it is a
staunch defender of, to people,
bankers, Jews, etc.) It is the basis
for the mass appeal of any fascist
movement.

We are in every way diametrical-
ly opposed to this method and
should always expose the faults in
the system, first and foremost. This
does not mean a, pacifist. “Love thy-
monopolist-as-thyself” attitude. A
study of monopoly will itself lead
to an understanding that such a
system cannot bring out the best
qualities in the men operating it.

Let us be objective and direct

not wholly immune from it.

This confusion and unclarity is, of course, deliberately kept alive by capi-
It is quite widespread and progressive-thinking Canadians, includmg a considerable

our political analyses rationally
at conditions, not people. This will |
save much energy, which we sore-
ly need. |

; peace ahd war.
sounded any note of alarm,
rather seemed to breathe a spirit
of confidence, optimism and
strength.

I found that in Stalin’s speeches
and interviews of the past two
years, I found it in Zhdanov’s re-
port to the conference of the nine
Communist Parties (NAM Jan.
1948) in which he said:

“It is necessary to bear in mind

that between the desire of. the im-;

perialists to unleash a new war
and the possibilities of organizing
such a war there is an enormous
gap. ..'. One must not forget that
the clamor of the imperialist ele-
ments about the war danger is in-
tended to frighten the nervous and
unstable and to bring about con-
cessions to the aggressor through
blackmail. The main”“danger for the
working class is in the under-esti-
mation of its own forces and the
over-estimation of the forces of
the enemy.”

I found it also in the article by
Comrade Lu Ting-yi of. China,
“Hollow Within. . Ohly Out-
wardly Strong” (NAM April, 1947),
which deals extensively with the
world post-war struggle for peace
and which I think is worthwhile
re-reading at this time.

e

* This same kind of spirit of con-
fidence, optimism and _ strength
should dominate our resolution to
a greater degree.

-It is true that because we are
living in North America, the seat
of world reaction and the war-
mongers, we cannot take exactly
the same point of departure in
discussing the fight for peace and
our part in it. But neither should
we tend too far to the other ex-
treme. As Comrade Lu reminds
us, the camp of peace is not a geo-
graphical entity but cuts across all
boundaries and includes the mass-
es of peace-loving people within the
big imperialist countries.

Our resolution must make every
Canadian who reads it feel very
much a part of the world peace
camp and feel buoyed up and in-
spired by the strength and grow-
ing successes of this camp. The
Draft Resolution does not suffici-
ently do this—certainly not in the
first half of it; not until the end.

People join the peace movement
not when they realize there is “a
grave danger of war’ but when
they also see that something can
be done and is being done about it,
that the chances of success are
good and that they can play a part
in it.

I question whether the resolution
should open with the statement
eontained in the first paragraph,
particularly the second sentence.
What should be emphasized, is the
danger that under the smoke-
sereen of a war threat our coun-
try’s national security is being un-
dermined and our independence
sold down the river. In other words,
the opening should correspond
more closely to the rest of Section
I, which speaks not so much of the
actual danger of war as of the pur-
pose for which the war threat is
being used. .

The part of the Draft Resolution
dealing with the argument that a

ye)
PACIFIC o388 =

None of them;
but |

third world war is not inevitable
(paragraphs 2,3 and of Section EX)
should be moved up near the be-
ginning to follow the discussion of
the war threat. The resolution must
at the outset show the error of
thinking that war is inevitable or
imminent, since that is one of the
greatest dangers today. The  bal-
ance of Section IX could stay

where it is as a section on the
peace movement.

Section II should be strength-
ened considerably: to give greater
emphasis to the world camp. of
peace and to show its growing
strength. This must be done to
equalize the emphasis that is given
to the war danger.

e

The forces of peace are domin-
ant in the word today. They em- —
brace the vast majority of the
world’s people and are backed by
tremendous material and spiritual
resources. Against this mighty
bulwark the forces of dying im-
perialism are desperately throw-
ing their every weapon. They would
like to start a world war in order
to do the job in one mighty stroke.

Too many people. believe it? the
other way around. That the forces
of peace are on the defensive, do-
ing everything possible to fend off
the attacks of the imperialists which
are dominant and hoping that they
will not succeed. -

Our resolution must show that it
is the forces of imperialism that
are on the defensive. That their
viciousness, their aggressiveness,
their shouting, their activity on all
fronts are only the marks of their
desperation. The resolution must
show Canadians that there is a
danger of an actual world war
ONLY if the Canadian people fail
to join up and become a fighting
part of the world peace camp.

e :

Proper emphasis and a correct
approach in dealing with the fight
for peace is important because. this
is our central task, out of which
all our ‘other activities flow. Any
tendency to be less than realistic
in ou? approach to the war danger,
to fall prey to the panie and hy~
steria of the war propagandists,
will lead us into serious errors in
the carrying out of our policy.

That is why our resolution must’
unmistakably clear away all confu-
sion and dispel all doubts about
what is the road ahead in our fight
for peace. This will help to remove
much of the fatalism that exists in
our country today and will show
more clearly that our Party is the
only Party in Canada that is confi-
dent and optimistic about the ‘fu-
ture and carries forward that con-
fidence and that optimism to the
Canadian people, inspiring them to
resist the plots and schemes of the
Wall Street monopolists and their
Canadian lackeys.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANURY 21, 1949 — PAGE 7