OUR READERS WRITE

About immediate needs
and distant horizons

By JOHN J.
(Toronto)

N NOV. 28, the Tribune pub-
lished excerpts from two
addresses on the theme of

Organized Labor and the Afflu-
ent Society — one by George
Burt of the United Auto Work-
ers, the second by Stanley
Ryerson, editor of Horizons, the
Marxist Quarterly. The two
speeches appeared on the same
page, dealt with the same sub-
ject, yet, while each purported
to speak for labor, their ap-
proaches were poles apart. It
might pay us to discuss the dif-
_ferences, to make a comparison.
_ From George Burt, the trade-
unionist, we hear this:
“Wages and working condi-

tions have been steadily im- ,

proved . . . gains in the field of
fringe benefits . . . such as pen-
sions, supplementary unemploy-
ment benefits, and protection of
the purchasing power of wages
against increases in the cost of
living .

“We are concerned about the
decay of our cities, the lack of.
adequate housing, the transpor-
tation mess, foul air, the un-
clean water . . . the over-crowd-
ed classrooms, the underpaid
teachers . . . These are some of
the reasons why unions like the
UAW cannot afford the status
of a narrow economic pressure
group.

“We will strengthen our com-
mitment to full employment . .
And more and more we will
strive through legislative and
political action to win the war
on poverty and create a society
in which all can share equitably
in its affluence”

_ The discourse here, you will
note, deals with piecemeal gains,
with limited and specific goals,
with aims and objectives that
are urgent and realizable, with
means and methods that do not
need to wait for the destruction
of the whole social framework
before they can make headway.
There is no mistaking to whom
it is directed: any Canadian
wage-earner who understands
English well enough can recog-

nize in those words his own
needs and strivings. .

When we pass on to Stanley
Ryerson we find that from his
opening remarks to the conclu-
sion he speaks an_ altogether
different language, almost as if
he dwelt in pode kind of uni-
verse.

With great indignation he
points to “the huge private cor-
porations, owned by a wealthy
handful . . . (who) take unto
themselves an inordinate share
of the social product — the $80
billions in U.S. corporate pro-
fits . . . and exercise in our so-
called ‘free’ society the economic
and social and political powers
of an irresponsible autocracy.”

What could the average Cana-
dian gather from such talk?
When Ryerson describes the
owning classes here as “‘an irres-
ponsible autocracy” it brings to
mind the image of tsarist Rus-
sia of Nicholas II, and its back-
ward nobility; when he de-
nounces the wealthy handful, he
seems to suggest that we pro-
ceed to appropriate their wealth
and devote it to the public

benefit. And without undue de-.

lay.

This is pretty — confirmed
by his later statements where he
speaks of the “democratization
of economic power, which
leads . . . in the direction of
socialism . .. of the domination
of society by monopoly corpora-
tions . . . that is going to have
to get out of the way of human
progress.”

This is thinking in a big way,
in broad panoramic strokes that
depict a new social order, a
transfer of power on a revolu-
tionary scale. In the meantime,
he is rather lavish with his
figures on U.S. corporate pro-
fits: his $80 billions turn out to
be, on closer scrutiny,' $44.5
billions in 1965, $37.19 billions
in 1964, after taxes.

Ryerson discerns a “ ‘new
mood of revolt’ in so many areas
of Canadian society.” And be-
cause “the spirit of revolt is
unmistakable” he comes to the
certain, unqualified conclusion
that “society will be revolution-
ized”. No mere trifling here

PAINTING FROM NATURE

Szpilki (Warsaw)

with limited gains, with imme-
diate needs; progress here is
equated with, is confined to,
revolution, and to settle for
anything less is pettifoggery or
worse. What other impressions
can one form from such fervent
argument?

The central weakness, the pe-
culiar deficiency, in Stanley
Ryerson’s position is the failure
to distinguish clearly between
the eventual and the immediate,
to draw a line of demarcation
between those objectives that
are on the order of the day, and
the ultimate transformation of
our social and political struc-
ture. He is by far too much pre-
occupied with distant horizons.

Combined with this is the
perfectly groundless assumption,
‘too often evident, that he and
those who are with him possess
the power to influence the course
of events and to shape the social
forces to their desire. I would
venture to say that there are
at least 20 million Canadians
who are totally unaware of any
such force in their midst. °

On the contrary, it is generally
recognized that the first. and
overriding task: of the Com-
munist Party here — whose in-
fluence today is at a minimum—
is precisely how to develop into
and become a political factor in
the Canadian scene; how to gain
a following: strong enough to be
reckoned with.

But it is doubtful, to say the
least, that adherents can be won
by offering them a revolutionary
menu morning, noon and night,
every day of the week.

‘Want

The Manitoba committee of
the Communist Party has called
on the people of that province
to speak out again against a
provincial sales tax which Pre-
mier Duff Roblin has_ threat-
ened.

It points out that previous at-
tempts to bring in such a tax
were thwarted by strong popu-
lar opposition from the trade
unions, retail merchants, muni-
cipal councils, consumer groups
and others.

Ads have been inserted in the
newspapers carrying the mes-
sage, “No Sales Tax, Premier
Roblin!” :

“Manitoba’s wage and salary
workers, farmers, small business
men and pensioners already car-
ry a crushing load of municipal,
provincial and federal taxes,”
the ad says. “On top of this, run-

away prices and excess pro- ©

fiteering by the big monopolies
are cutting deeply into the peo-
ple’s purchasing power.” ~

It goes on to say that a fur-
ther tax at this time would add
to the hardship of all those on

On the

tor democracy

By FRANK HASLAM
(Weland, Ont.)

N examination of the histo-
ry of the Canadian work-
ing class and of the Com-

munist Party shows that the two
are inseparable. The Communist
Party is in the main composed of
those who graduated as a result
of their active participation in
the militant struggles to main-
tain and extend the democratic
rights of the Canadian people.
Those struggles reached their
climax in the Hungry Thirties.
Hundreds of thousands were un-
employed, battling for sufficient
to eat for their families, single
men roamed the country by the
thousands, unable to obtain re-
lief, thousands were herded into
slave camps working for 20
cents a day, hundreds were
jailed for leading the unem-
ployed for relief and against
evictions which were wholesale.
The Tory government had re-
placed the Liberals in Ottawa in
1930. with R. B. Bennett as
prime minister. The callousness
of the government to the people
is epitomized in the arrogant
statement, “‘not a nickle for the
unemployed” made by “Iron
Heel” Bennett, so called after his
infamous statement that he
would use the “iron-heel of
ruthlessness” against the people.
In this dire situation the ques-
tion on all sides was: what is to
be done? The answer was given
by the Communist Party: organ-
ize and fight.
It was in this period that the
Workers Unity League was or-

low income, it would mean “a
wage cut, a further'reduction in
their standard of living.”

“A sales tax,” it adds, “is an
unfair tax because it falls heavi-
est on those least able to bear
it. It is a discriminatory tax be-
cause wage and salary workers,
like the old age pensioners,
spend a higher percentage of
their income on food and other
necessities, precisely those items
affected by_a sales tax.”

Pointing out that Manitoba is
one of the few provinces with-
out a sales tax, the Communist
Party says: “Let's keep it that
way. After all, our province has

no sales tax’
say Manitobans

SSS

struggle

ganized. A tremendous job wa
done in organizing the unorgan
ized in the large industries —
steel, auto, textile, rubber, etc
Here, in the. Niagara Peninsula
there is not a plant in which th
initial work was not done by th
Communists. ;

In a futile attempt to behea
this broad movement organized
by the Communist Party, eigh
members of its central commit
tee were arrested and sentence’
to jail for five years under Sec-
tion 98 of the Criminal Code
Those who witnessed it, cam
never forget the tremendous job
the Canadian Labor Defens¢
League did in forcing the gov
ernment to release them.

The class nature of the strug
gle was made crystal clear 10
hundreds of thousands of people
who learned from their own eX
perience that capitalist govern
ment institutions — the policé,
the courts, jails, etc. — are not
impartial institutions standing
above classes, but are instru-
ments of coercion upholding thé
interests of the capitalists. 4

Any democratic rights that
we now have, were not give
willingly by a benign govert-
ment but are the result of a”
unceasing fight to maintain an
extend democracy, and the 10g”
ical outcome of this fight w
social consciousness.

This organic connection be
tween democracy and socialist
consciousness is understood, and
recognized by monopoly spokes
men in the old-line parties, a!
is the reason why they attempt
to curtail democracy.

the lowest wage and salary
levels outside of the Maritime*
— the result of maintaining !
as a low-wage area. This is ba¢
enough without worsening ¢
situation by inflicting a sal
tax.”

The party suggests alterna
sources of revenue for the prov”
incial government by increasi
royalties on minerals, oil, ti
ber and other resources, a cap
tal gains tax, a greater share
the federal personal and corp!
ration taxes, and a reduction
wasteful war expenditures whic
could finance increased servi
without additional taxes.

December 16, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page