Page Four B Ge WAG RK E eR Oma Ne ay, S B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS Published Weekly by THE PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASSN Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street - Vancouver, B.C. Sd —— Subscription Rates — Qne Year —— _- $1.80 Malhovear == 100 Three Months__$ .50 Single Gopy ——— .05 Make All Checks Payable to the B.C. WORKERS NEWS Send All Copy and Manuscript to the Chairman of the Editorial Board —— Send All Monies and Letters Per- taining to Advertising and Circulation to the Business Manager. WOODSWORTH AND WAR The danger of another and greater im- perialistic war is becoming apparent to even those of the population who have long been foped by the gabble of the bourgeois paci- ists. The governments of all the imperialist powers, including that of Canada, have in- creased their war budgets at an alarming rate, and the tense situation in Europe over the latest warlike Hitler speeches is reminis- cent of the days immediately preceding August, 1914. As always, actual participation in imperi- alist war is preceded by long ideological preparation. This includes making the people believe in the peaceful intentions of their own government, so that when that govern- ment enters into a war the people will believe it is a “defensive” war, forced upon the gov- ernment. This was the line of the Labor and Social- Democratic parties of every imperialist coun- try before the last war, and when their gov- ernments entered the war, these reformist leaders supported their respective govern- ments. ; History is repeating itself, although on a higher plane, today. When Woodsworth signed, jointly with Bennett and King, a ly- ing statement that the foreign policy of the present Canadian government was a policy of peace, he was furthering the war plans of the Canadian imperialists. He also furthered their war aims in his consistent advocacy of the League of Nations as an instrument for assuring the peace of the world. It is not, therefore, inconsistent on his part when he now shows the government how to guard against trouble by first gain- ing the assent of the people through a plebis- cite. He professes to be against mass mur- der, but if a majority of the people, after being subject to hysterical propaganda and terrorism, are stampeded into voting for war, he will accept such as a mandate and will SUppOrt it. This is the treacherous line of this ex-par- son political mountebank who claims to rep- resent the workers of Canada. The workers will do well to remember the black record of treachery of the reform- ists of 1914-18, and recognize in their re- formist leaders the close allies of the ruling class in their war game. As Henderson, one of the most prominent leaders of the British Labour Party, and even then as today a mouther of pacifist phrases, not only sup- ported the imperialists in the last war, but actually joined the coalition government that carried it on, so will the reformist lead- ers of Canada support the next imperialist war. : The position taken by Woodsworth in the recent war preparations debate in the House of Commons reveals the road he is preparing to tread in the event of war, and it is up to the members of the C.C.F. clubs to repudiate him and his line of action and bring him to heel. He has supported the Bennett govern- ment in all its fascist measures and in their direct attacks on the workers and poor farm- ers, from the “Blank Cheque to the Market- ing Act” to the infamous Unemployment In- surance Bill swindle, and now he is in effect calling for greater expenditure for “defense.” The answer to the warmongers, whether imperialists or their reformist lackeys, is the more closely knit united front of labor in struggle against the government to defeat their plans for another mass slaughter. ANTI-FASCISM IN VANCOUVER “Sacrilegious hands of a mob of vandals” screams the capitalist press, in telling of the tearing away of the Nazi wreath and flags from the cenotaph by outraged ex-Service- men. The Fascist wreath and fascist flags —symbols of all that is vile, brutal and mur- derous, were placed on the cenotaph by a gang of fascists which included the com- mander of the Hitler cruiser and representa- tives of the officer clique of Vancouver. This gratuitous insult to workers who were butchered in the world war, this affront, so lacking in taste, administered by the bloody- handed Nazi officers, representatives of the butchers of the German working class today, and by the Vancouver clubbers and jailers of the workers here, was more than the re- turned soldier workers could stomach, and they acted accordingly. The Vancouver fascist-loving City Coun- cil, in their endorsement of Hitlerism, and to advance the growth of Canadian fascism, disregarded the wrath of the working class expressed through a score and more of labor organizations, from the most revolutionary, to the Trades and Labor Council, C.C.F. clubs. Socialist Party branches, trades unions and broad anti-fascist organizations such as the Canadian League against War and Fascism and went through as best they could with the entertainment of the Nazis. The whole business turned to ashes in their mouths, however, because of the oppo- sition it caused. The Nazis were made to feel the hostility of the great mass of the population, and that those who favored them were but a small group, temporarily in con- trol, who used the police force on the side of German fascism against even the very ones they conscripted in 1917. The Karlsruhe episode provided a valuable lesson to the workers and other anti-fascists. They see now more clearly the class lines, the international class brotherhood of the capi- talists, and the moving toward fascism in Canada by the oppressors and exploiters of the working class. * * DEMAGOGY AND FASCISM Another proof that extreme demagogy is a sure forerunner of fascist advance is fur- nished by the legislation brought down by the Pattullo government. This outfit of blat- ant politicians made the welkin ring during the last provincial election campaign with promises of “Work and Wages,” and with howls of indignation against the skinning methods of the employers. They also wanted more democracy (capitalist democracy, of course). But they were not long in office before they enacted the Special Powers Act in order the better to crush the workers and extend the powers of the government. In the present session they have re-enacted the Special Powers Act, giving sweeping ic- tatorial powers to the government. The ad- vance toward fascism is further registered by the abolition of municipal government, as in Fernie, which is now governed by a poli- tical appointee of Pattullo. Vancouver is threatened with a similar fate. Swamped with debt, its credit is under- mined. And Pattullo rules that Vancouver cannot borrow without the approval of the provincial government, and the provincial government, in turn, cannot borrow without the approval of the federal government. All of which makes for greater centraliza- tion of power in the hands of the government. This is interpreted as “steps toward social- ism’’ by the reformists, but is in reality steps toward fascism. The C.C.F. members in the provincial house are putting up no real fight against the fas- cization of the state apparatus, but content themselves with the usual critical role of any opposition party of the capitalist class. The really effective resistance to these laws, a resistance that can render them in- operative, can be offered by the united ef- forts of the working class organizations out- side of the legislature, in other words, by the United Front of Struggle. = these death camps are former peni- “GESTAPO” | STATE SECRET POLICE | 3 ~ tentiaries remote from towns, and surrounded by high walls. No ery wrung from thetortured victims can penetrate to the outside world. The relatives of the prisoners seldom re- ceive permission to visit them. The turned over prisoners’ letters are subjected to a national “Federation of the First International. The Gestapo in Hamburg applied aparticularly subtle method of tor- ture to its prisoners. It has a room m which there hangs a picture of Lenin. The prisoners are brought Sefore the picture and ordered to spit at it. The prisoners refuse— and are taken for a ‘steam bath.” This is in another room set under such a steam pressure that after a victim has been locked jn this room for a few moments his heart becomes severely affected. This is ¢he method used to manufacture “apoplexy.” If a prisoner dies as a result of this treatment his relatives are informed that he died of “apo- plexy. Moreover, the relatives are mocked at, as for instance were the relatives of the Berlin City Council amember, Stolt. They were told in the Gestapo that “it was indeed great thing to Gie of apoplexy for one’s cause.” a a Such are horrors dsecribed by peo- ple who have managed to escape from the human slaughter houses of the Gestapo- The Chief of this organization of ynurderers Known at the Gestapo, is General Herman Goering, Reich’s Minister and organizer of the Reich- staze fire (although the actual work ef setting fire to the Reichstag wes to Himmler, leader of the S-S.), Goering’s bandits have full confidence in him, as well was expressed in a remark made by one of the assasins on Sentinel duty the Sonnenburge He called to one of his fellow accomplices, who was threatening a prisoner with a pistol. “Go ahead and shoot! Goering will always take our part.’’ in concentration camp. Twice during the year 1933, Reichs Minister Rudolph Hess, the ‘Jeader’s’’ assistant, issued decrees forbidding prisoners to be ill-treated. And what did the Gestapo hangman protesting and ferrine to these The swer was with cynical frankness. “These decrees are for the countries abroad!” Thus they fact that the decrees are intended to raise the impression in other coun- that no ill-treatment per- mitted in the prisons of Germany. answer these prisoners, against the ill-treatment re- decrees? an- the confirm is tries The last stage in the system of the Gestapo for “exterminating en- emies of the State’ are the concen- tration camps. These institutions of the “Third Empire’? are real death camps. People there become men- tal and physical wrecks, or as occa- Sion may offer, are murdered off- Those who have come out alive irom such camps, in most cases look years older than they really are. Many of rigid censorship. The prisoners have no right to make complaints. In short, the camps are hermetically sealed off from the whole world, thus placing the defenseless prisoners completely at the merey of their torturers. The system in these camps is plen- ned to destroy the prisoners. It de- stroys not only those who actually suffer the tortures, but also the others, who are foreed to look on at the sufferings of their comrades. And no one knows whether he may not be the one who half an hour | later will be hanging from the cross- bars of a window, “fall” down the steps or be “‘shot while attempting to escape.” The commanders and sentinels make every effort to create pretexts manufacture at- The following two examples, which occurred in the recently disbanded Sonnenburg concentration camps, Show how this is done. (Continued next MASS MEETING itate to “mutiny.” tempts at week) Tuesday, March 26th at § p-m- Speakers: Aldermen MeDonald and Wilson and Fred Grange. Subject: “Problems of the Unemployed.’ Place: 1273 Granville Street. Aus- pices West End Workers Protective Association. Lessons Of The “Paris Commune™ By F. BIGGS. < An understandings of the historical signifacance of the Paris Commune, 1871, can best be obtained by read- ing the two books—‘Civil War in France,” by Garl Marx, and “The Paris Commune,” a collection of speeches and short articles by Lenin on the subject—of which this is a} review. = Commune, is a French word mean- ing a community of people who are | organized together on the basis of the abolition of private property. | There is common ownership of the means of livelihood. This must not be confused with the “community of | interests” of Ramsay MacDonald and J. S. Woodsworth, which is just a policy of deception to hide capital- ist rule. The administration of the Paris Commune was in the hands of the working class to the exclusion of the exploiting classes. The Paris Commune was the first dictatorship of the Broletarist. Communard, is a French word meaning one who par-— ticipates in the activities of the Com- mune. It does not mean Communist. In 1870 France, then headed by the senile and debauched Emperor Louis Napoleon, went to war with Germany. Irom the very first the Tfreneh forces met disaster after disaster. There was wholesale grafi and corruption behind the lines, and ineompetency and blundering by the generals in command. After the de- feat of the French army at Sedan. which placed the invaders at the gates of Paris, the French -Govern- ment capitulated. At the time, although there was no strong trade union movement in Faris, there were a number of utop- jan Socialist and Anarchist organi- zations. There was, too, a Paris The Paris garrison consisted of the National Guard, or militia, and when the Government surrendered to the Germans the National Guard of | ations | a nationalist one. | city, but owing to the watchfulness | the resistance of the population, not Paris refused to lay down their arms] tion of Thiers, they released and and insisted on carrying on the| armed a hundred thousand French fight. The Government, headed by | prisoners. These were the troops, a man named Thiers, powerless in the face of such opposition, fled to Versailles, that had been for gener- the headquarters of the French kings and the aristocracy. Thus, the strugele was at this stage Later it developed into a Struggle for socialism. The National Guard elected a Cen- tral Committee to have charge of the defence of the city. The Wer-]} The fight of the Paris workers which |sailles Government secretly sent| Was in the beginning Nationalism, troops to steal the artillery in the had developed into a fight against of National Guard this move was defeated, the result being to stiffen the resistance ofthe population, not| Abolition of conscription and the only to the Germans, but to their] standing army, the National Guard own capitalist government. Marx] was to be the only armed force of sHid a great mistake was made] the citizens; universal suffrage in here, *they should have marched on Wersailles at once and dispersed the forces being organized against them by the capitalists. Instead, they barricaded the city and remained on the defensive. In such an emer-| pawn-shops, that had previously geney, it is only offensive action] cruelly exploited the needs of the that can bring victroy to the work-| workers; declaration of the separa- ers, or, aS Marx puts it, they must practise ‘‘Audacity, audacity, al- Ways audacity!” On March 28th, 1871, the Com- mune was proclaimed, as the auth- ority in administration of the af- fairs of the city, and the National Guard’s Central Committee resigned its authority. Each district of the city elected its own local Commune, which in turn sent representatives to the general governing body of the city. The Commune was the fore- runner of the Soviets. The German generals were afraid to advance on Paris, they feared it might ‘stimulate the resistance of the whole French people and start the war afresh. So, at the sugges- GREETINGS FROM A GLADIATOR Veteran Miners’ Fraternal Greetings to Today I received through B.C. Workers News,” Nos. 6 and great addition to the working class press of Canada. Both issues are packed with struggles, for unity in our ranks, against wage cuts; let- ters from Bennett’s slave ca unemployed for a bit of bread. Here is a militant workers’ paper that deserves to live and grow. From its mast-head flies the slogan, “For Unity In Struggle.” Struggle against the boss class, struggle to expose Fakerdom to the broad a mighty working class press build a united working class clean of the exploiters and betrayers of the workers. From the shores of the Atlantic I send warmest greet- ings to this new paper in far-away Vancouver and wish it every success. If the workers support it, as it deserves, it shall enter every workers’ fail it, and let it perish, as has happened to so many work- ers’ papers, I shall never tell anyone of the pain in my heart when it dies. On with the struggle to boss, to drag out into the light of day the hypocrisy of reformisim! The black forces of war and Fascism are gathering. There is mueh work to do; let us all hurry. With warmest greetings Workers News,” and with comradely greetings. Glace Bay, N.S., March 13, 1938. Leader Extends “News’’ the mail two copies of “The and 7. This paper is a new vital news of the workers’ mps, and the battles-of the masses and struggle to build which can really be used to , which shall sweep Canada home in Vancouver. If they smash every attack of the and long life to “The B.C. J. B. McLACHLAN. COCKROACHES WIN UNHOLY WAR IN A Forces of Deaconess Capitulate After Heroic Cam- paigsn Against Enemy Reserves D 2 & ‘Tilda Hellaby can stand the She is not squeamish about to be intimi- they are smells. cockroaches; Gated by people who eoing to murder her’’—so begins a feature story in the Vancouver Sun. Hilda is the high the soup kitchen maintained by the Anglican Board of Oriental Missions where rotten fish and other garbage is dished out to unemployec Chinese with such dreadful results, some two score having died. The “Sun” feature plains dolefully about the stink of the joint, but manages to get a lot of talk out of Wilda, although she was surrounded by a number of bulls whose presence was explained on the ground that the victims of Christian- capitalist charity might “riot,” that is, if they have strength enough left. The deaconess denied profiteering, and blamed the exposures of the filthy food on the Reds, with the in- explanation that the Reds wanted the Soup Kitchen closed so that the Chinese would go on direct The mephistophelian Reds would then agitate the white work- them the refuses say cockalorum of writer com- genious relief. ers by pointing out to favorable treatment meted out to the Oriental workers as compared to the white unemployed who are compelled | to go to the slave compounds. What Reds But what worries her all are the threats to bump her off. Why, talked Gyp the Bloods and Lefty Louies out devils those are! the least of the would-be she just of it. And besides, she had a bunch of loyal starving Chinese unemployed who are at her disposal as a body- NGLICAN MISSION Forces — Unlimited ecide Issue guard. She is now in the same class as Gerry McGeer. However, Hilda is a nice girl. Fas- tidious and all that, dontcherknow. “T iknow that I am obliged to change all my clothing when I leave here at night, for the odours are SO cling- ing,’ she is quoted as sayings. Well now, isn’t that Just too bad! Couldn't eo out on the street even, and chanse at home. But what about the unfor- tunates: who had to put the vile messes of the slumsgullion joint in their bellies? What they need is an internal bath—and something decent to eat. All in all ,Hilda is discouraged. Some people do not appreciate the work of the charity racketeers. And worst of all, although she was able to foil the villains who would assasi- nate her, she admits to waging a los- ine war against the massed battal- ions of cockroaches who infest the place over she presides. “I have done my best to rid the place she laments, “but down- which of cockroaches,” keep coming Wonder set her loyal bodyguard to erecting beasts and they up from stairs.” why she doesn’t barricades against the prevent their coming from their dug- outs downstairs? Courage and persistence, however. eareer,’ and that the slop joint is not to close up just because of ex- posures which she dubs a “campaign of slander and threats.” commanded by French generals. that were used against the Communards. The real motive of Thiers was to erush the working class of Paris. Why? Because although the French ruling class could make terms with the German ruling class, they were facing, in the Commune, a direct threat to the continuation of their rule throughout the whole of France. their own ruling class, into a fight for Socialism. Some of the outstanding measures adopted by the Commune were: the elections of representatives, with the right of instant recall; no one employed by the Commune was to receive pay higher than the wage of a worker; the closing up of the tion of Church and State, with reli- fious teaching to be excluded from the schools; abolition: of nisht work jn bakeries; any factory that had been closed or shut down by its owner was to be seized and operated by the workers, who for this pur- pose organized co-operative societies. The story of the heroic fight of the Communards is unsurpassed. The German troops encircled half the city, French troops the other half. The revolts of workers_in other cities was quickly put down. Owing to the blockade they had no contact with the peasantry. The wolf of hunger walked beside them on the streets. Cats and dogs were eaten. And at length, after two and a half months, after the fiere- est street to street and house to house fighting, the workers’ sovern— ment, the Commune, fell before the overwhelming numbers of the hire- lings of the French ruling class. The French ruling class took 2 terrible revenge. Twenty-five thou- sand men, women and children were shot. Tens of thousands more were imprisoned for long terms or de- ported to the colonies. “We have settled with Socialism for a long time,’’ said the monster, Thiers. But hie was mistaken. In spite of the loss of its leading elements the working class of Paris was celebrat— ing the Commune six years jJater. Even as French capitalism was only beginning to really develop at the time of the Commune, so Was In Mutin! Troops Sent to Sho | Down Colonial People™ Defy Their Officers MOSCOW, U-S.S-R., (ALP)—Mutinies in the Italian for sent to Abyssinia were reported |= munist Party of the Soviet Uni Despite denials of the Musso =! government, Pravda publishes tails of dissatisfaction among tro;; sent to the African colonies for rae against the Abyssinian people. 1] ports from Italy tell of anti-y), demonstrations in Messina and Fi i ence. When the divisions w) mobilized in both these cities |} African service, the populace s| ported the recruits in their prot |) demonstrations. Very soon afl General Vaccari, commander of military forces in Messina, was’ ~ called by telegraph. He was placed by General Viscardi. careful preparation for a seizure power, there was no powerful Go | munist Party with a clear-cut p gram of what to do. The Pa 4 Socialists were guided by the * jj stinetive genius of the workers” | the midst of a gereat emergen | Years later the Reformist-Sociali™ said the Communards had been vj foolish to take up arms against th oppressors, they might have kno they were doomed to defeat. Befi) the event Marx had warned thi} their efforts were hopeless, but ? understanding of the various shg¢ comings did not prevent or deter 5 | from supporting them whole-hea | edly once decisive action had ber | To the carping critics of the Co mune, Marx replied: “World hist would, indeed, be very easy to mal” if the struggle were taken up or on condition of infallibly favoral - circumstances.” } The criticism of the Reform Socialists was directed at the wor ers only, they had no condemmati of the capitalists: They ignored t plain fact that the workers of Paj_ did not resort to civil war for > sake of civil war- ‘This was fore upon them by the parasite class Ww exploited them. i Marx is the author of this ma nificent tribute to the Communar “Workingmen’s Paris, the Got mune, will be forever celebrated the Slorious harbinger of a news ciety. Its martyrs are enshrined the great heart of the working ela: Its exterminators, — history has ¢ ready nailed to that eternal pillo from which all the prayers of tht the proletariat correspondingly weak. There had been no long period of Marx And There is a well-known passage in the preface of the “‘Critique of Poli- tical Economy,” in which Marx in- dieates the position that is facing jhe working class throughout the world. At a certain stage of their devel- epment the material forces of pro- duction in society come into conflict swith the existing relations of pro- duction, or, what is but a legal ex- pression for the the property relations within which have beer at work before. From forms of development of forces of production these relations turn into their fetters. Then comes the period of social revolution.” The present crisis reyeals the pro- ductive forces in the sharpest s¢on-— flict with the property relations of eapitalism any any theory or solu- tion of the crisis which ignores or tries to evade this fundamental fact must be futile and meaningless. Th existence of the U.S.S-R. and Soviet States in China is proof the period of “Soviet Revolu- tion” has begun and that the theories of Marx and policy of Lenin were correctly applied. The unprecedented success of the first five-year plan decisively Shows Socjalist Construc- tion to be a flourishing reality, and a beacon to the workers in all im- perialistic countries. As the process develops, disclosing ereater scientific economy. under the workers’ rule and still greater ehaos and anarchy in the eapitalist world, the contrasts will enable more and © - 8 more workers to discern the vicio) same thing—with | positive | priests will not avail to redee them.”” e e The. Crist ee | elass nature of the bourgeoisie st and fascist role played by leaders” old and new political parties WW ignorantly and maliciously insist } the adoption of their solutions as Way out of the present crisis. Workers’ Historic Missiot- The destruction of capitali: means the end of all erisis and employment, the cause of Starvati und hopelessness for millions workers and their families. As long as the capitalist class allowed to function the erisis mt jnevitably deepen resulting im sre | er misery ‘and sufferins Yor 1 | workers. History has demonstrai |there is Only One Way Out 4 when the workers become i firmly organized and have made | their mind to abolish the class ch | acter out of the means of living, Power On Barth Will Stop Them All the ways out put forward the capitalists, the screechings the Douglisites, the pitiful bleati ef the Social Democrats and den fosuery of the leaders of the (ORE are so many devices to prevent | working class from thinking of revolutionary mission- Those who understand this ~ help to make the ‘working cl realize its power, will instill in | minds of exploited men, women : youth the knowledge of their ¢ ability—to organize and struggle their immediate and ultimate ne and the revolutionary way out— | | F.S.U. RUSSIA TODAY (England) MOSCOW NEWS SOVIET TRAVELS (Moscow) LABOR MONTHLY (England) CHINA TODAY SOVIET RUSSIA TODAY (Canada) REPORT OF J. STALIN TO i7th CONGRESS (Pamphlet) only way out of the crisis, sui ing and war—A. G. McC. LITERATURE SS SaaS ae eosin ee 7¢ monthly Siete sveuc Supre Sara Reme ie raise ie tasciese wiatesel ere 10c monthly So jooSsoscnsgssSe5 @....50c monthls A Saiaya eee eee eos entenetone 10¢e weekly See lsie ich icinies 30c every two months Foes See SS RES SAS Soo Men DeS eoSaOnSS 15% Sa65555 10 20c month; Discount on bundle orders from FRIENDS OF THE SOVIET UNION, Room 13, 163 W. Hastings St. Vancouver, B.C. | SUBSCRIBE TO | are ever the characteristics of the | social service breed. Hilda, despite i the stink, and despite the forced | A GdneSS 22 == ee daily changing of clothes, declares e : that she ‘likes the work—it’s my City or Town -.------------- | | for which I enclose $.---- 6 months.....--.-.-- THIS PAPER BY FILLING OUT THE FORM BELOW Rates: One year, $1.80. 6 months, $1.00. 3 months, 50c Please send THE B.C. WORKERS NEWS to: IN ree 3 months__._....----.