long sway of British imperialist

Canada: the Communist viewpoint

E are privileged here

tonight to take part ina
unique and historic ceremony
—the launching of the sales
of the first full-length book
by Tim Buck. Perhaps the preach-
ers have hit upon a good method
of introducing a talk like this; .
in any case, I want to use a text
from the 1925 writings of Joseph
Stalin;

“What do the proletarians in
the West need in order to con-
quer? Above al, faith in their
own powers, the. consciousness
that the working class can get
along without the bourgeoise, that
the working class is competent,
not‘ only to destroy the old but
likewise to build the new, to build
up socialism.”

This book, Canada: The Com-
munist Viewpoint, is designed to-
instill in the working class—and
first and foremost in the van-
guard—“faith in their own pow-
ers.”

The book is a polemic, a rea-
soned and powerful assault upon
the capitalist “explainers’” and
ideologists, the professors and
writers who defend the practice
and jungle morality of capitalism.
Thus, it follows in the great tra-
dition of all Communist theoreti-
cians, who wrote for socialism by
destroying, word by word and
page by page, with reasoned argu-
ment and enlightening fact, the
defenses of capitalism by the op-
position. )

This is not just a question of

literary style. This is style mar-
ried to content—at once a style
in its own right and yet a part
of revolutionary content. Over
this question of form and content
_ there is raging a windy argument
_in the dismal world of capitalist
literature—an argument which
_ reflects its inner crisis. Let honest
writers learn from Tim Buck; let
them learn from the workers’
leader how to ‘retrieve from the
corruption of modern bourgeoise
literature in its crisis the method
of the great democratic writers
of the past and apply it to our own

times.

Chaptér One of Tim Buck’s
book deals with “Canada’s Crisis
_ of National Policy, wherein are

_ described the “post-war realities”
which face Canadians in contrast
to the bright ambitions of the war-

_ time years.

: Ts it not true that in Canadian
_ hearts this contradiction between
what they hoped for in war time -
and what they now get and are
fearful of, is the motive force of
present movements—in factories,
_ unions, homes?

Tim Buck starts from the facts.

They are piled up, one on another,

to show how the crisis which has
overtaken Canada—part of the
world crisis of imperialism — is
the generator of bourgeois politic-
al reaction, but also the generator
of the growing radicalization of
the masses. Policies grow out of ©
_ the real world; they are the reac-
tion of men’s minds upon social
realities. For the bourgeoisie,
shrinking before the crisis of its
_ system, such reactions take the
shape of increasing tendencies to
fascism and war; for the labor
movement, such reactions are in-
-evitably leading to new mass
ae for democracy — apd

Rs T coon capitalist system is
es caunha up in the chronic imperial-
_ ist contradictions in the world to-
_ day; the decline of the British im-
perialist system; the emergence
of the U.S. as the strongest but
_ very unstable imperialist power—
at a time when the world of social-
ism and democracy is rising to
Sweep away all imperialism—in-

_ hiding the new U.S. juggernaut
_ which has come too late upon the

scene to duplicate the generations-

‘rule,

The effect of this change in
world relations upon Canada,
which is by economic ties, geog-
raphy iand tradition profoundly
influenced by British and U.S. de-
velopments, is the supreme fact
which workers have to grasp to-
day.

Tim Buck’s first chapter ana-
lyses the impact of this change
upon: the traditional lines of* in-
dustry, trade and farming. Sec-
tions devoted to “U.S. Dollar ‘Cri™
Sis and National Policy,” “The
Betrayal of Our National Inde-
pendence” arouse thought and
lead to action. Is not that the real
purpose of books? A purpose
which has been twisted and sup-
pressed by the bourgeois notion
that reading either is something
to put you to sleep in the evening
or an escape from the real world?

‘The future of our country (and
the tasks of today) are, to be
sought in two places; firstly, in a
study of the concrete history of
Canada. in its specific develop-
ment as a class society moving
from the early colonialism to the
present imperialist stage; second-

ly in the Marxist-Leninist pro--

gram wherein is delineated the
socialist future.

“What the bourgeoise produces,
above all, are its own gravedig-
gers,” said Marx. How were the
gravediggers—the modern work-
ing class—produced in Canada?
How did changing production re-
lations bring about mass-produced
commodities — the social forces
that would break through the “in-
tegument” and solve the major so-
cial contradiction which strangles
our country—the conflict between
socialized labor and ithe private
appropriation of the product?

To put a question in proper
form is half way towards answer-
ing it rightly. Tim Buck approach-
es Canada as an imperialist pow-
er. Lenin’s five points of examin-
ation as. to what constitutes im-
perialism, when applied to Can-
ada, results in Tim Buck’s form-
ulation of the present stage of
this country’s development:

“Thus Canada has_ evolved
from a group of isolated British
colonies in North America to an
imperialist state. Winning na-
tional sovereignty as a result of

growing strength, plus the eco-
nomic and Political contradic-
tions between Britain and the
U.S., Canada was transformed
from a country with a national
economy and state policies char-
~ acterized by free capitalist com:
petition, to a highly monopolis-
tic economy, with state policies
which reflect the merging of

the policies and power of the ©

state with the interests and poli-
cies of the finance-capitalist: oli-
garchy; and the directors of the
policies of_ finance-capital are
seeking now to make Canada lit-
erally a dependency of the Un-
ited States.” (See page 86-7).

e :

No statement in this book is
without its buttressing argument.

We are given a wealth of mate-_

rial relating to monopoly con-
trol, materials which are not un-
‘coordinated and scattered loosely
as in bourgeois historical works,
but organized and sifted so that
the conclusions flow from them
directly and clearly.

Canada, developing from colony
to imperialist power, possessing
no colonies of its own but whose
economy is of a classical finance-
capitalist nature, once closely in-
tegrated with British imperialism
but now becoming a dependency of
U.S. imperialism; with a ruling
class whose drive for Profits and

its accompaniment — war—brings :

it into sharp collision with the
interests of the “other nation” of
the workers and farmers; whose

fundamental economic contradic
tions ery aloud for the full social-

ist solution—this is the graphic

picture drawn in the first three
chapters,

Making the sharp formulation
that “monopoly capitalism is im:
perialism, anti - democratic in
Canada today, anti-Canadian in
its unity with Wali Street, char-
acterized above all by its search
ior domination and ty aims
which, unless checked by popu-
lar democratic action, can only
lead to continued and ever more
devastating war.” (Pp. 87-88)
Tim Buck examines the crisis of
imperialism and the danger of
World War '3.

One cannot do that without de-
scribing the rise of the new de-
mocracies in the world. A whole
section gives this material, from
which emerges a picture of the
“two camps” in the world: the
camp of peace, socialism and de-
mocracy, and the camp of war,
fascism and tyranny.

Here are massed the arguments
which will arm the Party and the
workers to repel the warmakers—
to expose the class roots of their
anti-Soviet, anti-Canadiah policy,
to reveal the depths of the Tory
miasma in which Colonel Drew
wallows.

“The Politics of Reaction and
War” is the chapter which opens
a study of “Interests and Parties
in Canada’s Transition,” the tran-
sition that the Canadian capital-
ists are trying to force through

_ from parliamentary democracy to
fascism; and the transition at the
other end of the class pole which
the workers are ‘seeking to com-
pel, from dependence upon capi-
talist politics to
working class politics.
e Mere

In Chapter 6 is presented, “A
People’s National Policy.” as op-
' posed to the disasters projected
by the moribund and historically

outworn imperialists. Against the |

policy of war, dependence on U.S.
economy and increasing political
reaction, Tim Buck puts forward
a new national policy which is
not presented as a utopian set
of solutions picked out of the air,
but as a set of practical political
proposals which offers the\ basis
for a mighty people’s movement
against monopoly capital on all
fronts. —

What would such a policy con-
tain? The key is given on Page
180: “The real interests of the
nation are in the interests of the
great mass of its people, their
health, weliare, opportunity tor
self-development, and their mater-
ial security. Canadian economy
has reached the stage of develop-
ment at which the interests of the
people—the real nation—must dis-
place “profits” as the determining '
consideration in shaping our na-
tional economic policies.”

This is the alternative policy to
the Abbott Plan and Marshall
, Plan—the planned development of
cur economy, world trade and ex-
panded production, to build the
manufacturing industries and halt
cur dependence on U.S. industry.
From such a stimulated economy
working in the national interest
flows the second proposal (P. 182):
“The aim and purpose of national
economic activity should be the
wellbeing and economic security
of every Canadian, instead of, as
now, to maintain the rate of profit
for investors.”

This is not advanced as a re-
formist “solution.” Tim Buck says
(P, 187): “The Labor-Progressive
Party advocates unity of all pro-
gressive Canadians in consistent
political struggle to carry through
®% program such as is outlined.
above. Such united action could
win important reforms and would
demonstrate the tremendous possi-
bilities that lie ahead of us, pro-
vided only that we make the fun-
damental changes necessary to
prevent economic disaster, politi-
eal reaction and a new imperalist
war. But we will not, we cannot,

independent

achieve the age of abundance for
all, except by Wrens the profit
system.”
O =

From a “People’s National Pol-
icy” the book moves into the final
chapter: “The Guide to Work-
ing-Class Victory.” which easily
could stand alone as a succinct,
powerful treatment of the basic
elements of the Marxist-Leninist
ideology. It commences with a
treatment of the great intellectual
struggle in the present-day world,
the conflict between bourgeois and’
working class ideology. It is a
fact that theoretical treatment in
the West of these profound ques-
tions has lagged behind practical
work, Engels explained this, not
by any “national” peculiarities of
Western people, but because in
Britain the parasitic nature of the
economy so influenced the work-
ing class as to infect it with bour-
geois ideas of “national superior-
ity” to the extent that the fight

for socialist theory was very diffi-.

cult. That period is swiftly end-
ing. In America the practical
tasks of creating a vast new capi-
talist civilization out of the wild-
erness—the feverish tempo of
economic growth — retarded the
mastery of socialist theory. No
doubt this materialist explanation
of Engels also held good for Can-
ada up to now.

But we are now in the first
stages of a rapid development of
theory to explain and guide our
practice, and the grinding and
patient work that goes to make up
socialist scholarship and creative
writing lies at our doors. Tim
Buck points out how the Work-
ers’ Party in the early twenties,
the Communist Party which it be-
came in 1924, and now the LPP
have been the repositories of the
‘Marxist growth in this country. A
continuity is seen throughout the
life of the Party, commencing with
the 1922 program of the Workers
Party which advocated a labor
party, trade union unity and eco:
nomic measures to fight the post-
‘war crisis, and ending with the
present policies of the LPP which
are similar—although on a far
higher plane. Through this period,
too, the fight against Berean
was waged.

“The historical movement going
on under our very eyes” is a part
of this chapter whose title is drawn
from one of Lenin’s greatest
works, “What Is to Be Done?
World movements are here linked
with those in Canada of a similar
basic nature: the class struggles

at each specific stage are out- ,
lined, together with the impact of

world history on Canada and Can-
ada’s effects on the world. The
long, arduous road trod by work-
ers to become conscious as a class
of their historic role, and the ten-
ets of Marxism - Leninism, are
taught in this section as they
always should be: as part of the
“historical movement going on un-
der our very eyes,” not as a set of
dusty dogmas to be es to
memory.
ee. ‘
The fundamental conflict be-
tween the right wing social demo-
cratic “theory” of the CCF (which
is codified opportunism) and the
Marxist - Leninist materialist sci-
ence which provides the LPP pro-
gram, is described excellently. To
really fight social democracy one
must know how and why it is
false, be
“theory” as
On all basie ¢
and politics:
the nation,

the few, war, ingen rialig

LPP and the CCF prog

opposed. The fight f iat ulti-
mate single working rat party,
which implies the
masses of reformist-
ers from the CCF leade
trol over to a bes

A review of
Tim Buck’s book
By LESLIE MORRIS

will not be assisted, but only de-
layed, by failure to fight on ques-
tions of principle: There is no real
but only a fancied contradiction
between the battle against social
democratic opportunism and the
fight for unity in action with the
CCF and reformist-minded mass-.
es.

Tim Buck has the faculty of be-
ing that sort of proletarian leader |
who can write about the very his-
tory he has participated in fash-
ioning. Many scribblers from the
bourgeois world try to do that.
It is quite fashionable now to write
piffling and nontimportant ac-..
counts of the “I was there when

.” kind.

But the LPP leader was there
and in most cases took a leading
part in events, not from the com-
fortable sidelines but in the thick
of «the fight “when the arrows:
flew like starlings in the dusk.”

Tim Buck, the Canadian work-
ingman, has written a book of
history, economies, philosophy and
practice. He is the forerunner of
many more who will do likewise,
but all of them will have occasion
to refer to Canada: The Commun;
ist Viewpoint:

The working class Party is for-~
tunate to have this new weapon in.

_its armory, But weapons can rust —

in armories. Like commodities.
their value is realized only wae
they are used.

Let the wide circulation of this.
book once more disprove the capi-.
talist lie that workers are not in-
terested in books and ideas.

Almost at the end of his book,
Tim Buck writes: “The monopol-.
ists will fight. They will strive to
weaken labor at home—by union-.
smashing, by red:baiting, by brib-—
ing corrupt weaklings, by the use —
of capitalist governments and
courts. They will strive to coun-
teract the growing dynamic in-
Spiration of socialism abroad by
threats of war. They will fail in
the one as they will in the other.
Their system has had its day, and
its day is done,

“As Lenin once wrote in com:
mentary upon the character of
our epoch: ‘We are living in a
happy time, when the forecast of
the great socialists is beginning
to come true’.”

‘ { . \

@ Excerpts from a review made |
at the Toronto Literature Insti-
tute and Book Fair, when Tim
‘Buck's new book, Canada:. The
Communist Viewpoint, first ap- —
peared. Published by Progress
Books, Toronto, the book is ob-
tainable at the People’s Coopera-
tive Bookstore, 339 West Pender —
Street, Vancouver, at’ $1.00.