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