rai Wovember 29, 1935 4 wuge Four Bi Cee Wwe O RAS Es RES NEES Wwe body. to which other political parties. includ- = - e ' : B Cc WORKERS News ing the Communist Party, trade unions, Letter Digest Th W Id Th W k SHORT JABS oe | ° - workers’ fraternal, cultural and other or- e or 18 ee ia Published Weekly bu ganizations would be affiliated. A Jjetter of considerable Jengith & i : a eae i= By OF Bill THE PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASS’N Room 10. 163 West Hastings Street - Vancouver. B-C. Pd — Subscription Rates — One Near — = 31.80 Half Year = _ 1-00 Three Months _3$ .50 Single Copy _____ .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. Vancouver, B.C., November 29, 1935 THE CONFERENCE SWINDLE TH a new Liberal government in the fed- eral saddle there has again broken out an epidemic of conferencitis. This is a re- currence of a disease which was prevalent during the last days of the previous Mac- kenzie King administration. Tt will be remembered that in the period between the crash of the stock market late in 1929 and the defeat of the King govern- ment in 1930 there was an endless series of conferences. Every time the starving un- employed workers would organize and press for relief there would be a new conference called. We had conferences of mayors, confer- ences of provincial premiers, conferences of mayor and premiers with a sprinkling of re- actionary labor officials to give the confab the appearance of being really concerned with taking care of the unemployed. The purpose of those conference was to give the hungry people false hopes so that they would keep quiet and starve peaceably ; and the only thing achieved at those cconfer- ences was to work out a uniform policy, not for dealing with unemployment, but for dealing with the unemployed! As winter approaches and the demands of the destitute are becoming more insistent, the conference (confidence) game is again being worked. Mayor McGeer together with some of his rubber-stamp aldermen went over to Victoria for a conference with Pat- tullo. Of course Pattullo told them that he could do nothing until after the Ottawa con- ference of the provincial premiers and the federal] government. And it can be expected that after the Ottawa conference there will be more conferences. Meanwhile, McGeer is clamoring for another conference of mayors of Canadian Cities. The problem before the unemployed is to secure relief while pressing for a public works program which will furnish work at current rates of wages, and for unemploy- ment insurance as provided for in the Work- ers’ Insurance Bill. “THE COMMONWEALTH” AND UNITY HOSE who are responsible for maintain- ing the existing division of the forces of labor find themselves compelled to resort to devious arguments in order to justify their stubborn splitting policy. A case in point was the feeble attempt, by means of false presentation and the erection of a “straw man” for the purpose of triumphantly knocking him down, indulged in by “The Gommonwealth” in an editorial in last week’s issue, The first part of the editorial referred to, sought to leave the impression that the FABAC. Workers’? News” criticised “The Common- wealth” for printing stories of the establish- ing of the anti-fascist front in European countries and a story of the refusal of J. 8S. Woodsworth, national C.C.F. leader, to agree to a2 united front in Canada. This journal did not find fault with “The Commonwealth” for printing the stories, and for the simple reason that they were news, and should be printed. What we did was to eall attention to the fact that in other coun- tries the Socialist parties and the Commu- nist parties had reached agreements and are working together in common struggle against the capitalist offensive, the fascist advance and to prevent imperialist war, whereas in Canada, Woodsworth, supported by “The Commonwealth,” declares that the C.C.F. will go it alone, thus keeping the anti- capitalist forces split and weakening the anti-capitalist front. “The Commonwealth,” finding itself in an untenable position, is compelled to fall back on the excuse that there is a difference be- tween conditions in France, for instance, and this country—so much of a difference that whilst a united front is desiralbe in France and other countries, it is not needed in Canada. There is no fundamental difference be- tween conditions in France and those exist- ing in Canada. The capitalists rule, rob and oppress the people of France; capitalists do the same in Canada. The capitalists of both countries are war-mongers. In both coun- tries fascism, the last resort of decaying capitalism to cling to its privileges and power against the irresistible, rising revolutionary masses, is a growing menace. This being so, the same policy, the same strategy and tac- tics which are proving so successful in France, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary and other countries must be adopted and put into effect in Canada, with minor modifications, to suit the variations in the Canadian situ- ation. “The Commonwealth’ would have its readers believe that the Communists’ sug- gestion for an all-embracing Federation such as a Labor Party would further divide the workers, and asserts that the formation of such a federation would be just what the capitalists want. There is no basis whatever for &uch a conclusion. How could such divi- sion come about when the C.C.F. itself would be included? The Communist proposal did not exclude the C.C.F., being the federated There is need for yarious organizations to attract and organize the people who shake off the necessary capitalist ideology to make it possible for them to break away from capi- talist political parties and organizations. It would be well if one organization could at- tract and organize all who do so. But such is not life, and we must work with the mate- rials at hand and in the given situation. A federated body such as proposed by the Communist Party, a body which would unite all anti-capitalist organizations, permitting each its identity, autonomy and the right to propagate and work for its final aims—such a body is the need of the hour. _The narrow, aloof “go it alone” policy of Woodsworth and other conservative and an- tiquated leaders must be abandoned or the onrush of fascism and imperialist war will engulf the people of Canada. The reformist leaders of France thwarted the formation of the united front with the Communists until fascism was knocking at the door until] it was almost too late to prevent its triumph. Can the people of Canada, and particularly the membership of the C.C.F., afford to per- nait Woodsworth and others like him to keep their heads in the sand, as the German and Austrian Social-Democratic leaders did, until Fascism with al] its horrors triumphs in this country ? With the slorious example of the united front successes in France, where fascism was hurled back and the Laval government forced to disband the murderous fascist or- ganizations, the members of the C.C.F. and other organizations of the workers who are held back from unity will remove those lead- ers whose splitting policy plays into the hands of reaction, and supplant them with ee who will represent their desires and needs. THE MENACE TO UNIONISH pfpRoM the statements made by Col. Villiers, Manager of Canadian Collieries (Duns- muir) Limited, before the Board of Concili- ation investigating the dispute between the operators and miners at Cumberland, it is clear that the company is determined to smash the union and set up another com- pany union, and that his lock-out of more than a score of the most active union men was a Step in that direction. That there is a widespread plot to de- stroy trade unionism in British Columbia is well known. Events in Corbin, the lock-out of the waterfront workers and the malicious campaign of the fascist Citizens’ League and the notorious Lom Macinnes—all are evi- dences of this plot. Tf Col. Villiers succeeds in smashing the union in Cumberland and dragooning the miners into a company union, he will extend his organization to Nanaimo and other camps just as the Shipping Federation has extended its Fink unions beyond the port of Vancouver. The miners of Cumberland can have no confidence in the Board of Conciliation ex- cept in one member of it, the miners’ repre- sentative. The others are a millionaire named Kidd, representing the company, and Russell, a Liberal heeler and lawyer. It is not on such a Board that the miners rely, but on their union and the final weapon of strike action. The miners of Nanaimo have no time to lose in forming a strong union if they want to head off the curse of a company union. And all the unions of the province, regard- less of affiliation, should back up the Island and Corbin mi ers, because if the miners’ and Corbin miners, because if the miners’ less militant unions will be the next victims of the company-union bosses’ attack. UNITY WINS IN REGINA {pee splendid success of the labor ticket in the municipal elections in Regina is a striking vindication of the United Front and of militant struggle. For nearly two years the C.C.F. and the Communist Party in Regina have had a united front on many issues affecting the immediate needs of the common people. Neither party brought up as an obstacle to unity on immediate issues the fundamental differences that exist between the two or- ganizations, in order to evade forming the united front of struggle. Two factors are mainly responsible for the Regina success in the municipal elections; first, the well established unity of the C.C.F. and the Communist Party, and the NECHEP and the C.C.Y.M.; and secondly, the militant struggles that have been waged in that city for several years—the struggles of the un- employed for relief and the great struggle of the Slave Camp trekkers around which a great measure of unity was achieved and mass support secured. The results in Regina, which were Pos- sible only because of militant struggle and the United Front, as compared with the re- sults in the Alberta provincial elections where the C.C.F. rejected the united front with the Communists and were obliterated, and with the reduced C.C.F. representation in the House of Commons for the same reason, presents many lessons which it is to be hoped the opponents of unity in the G:GsE leadership will learn. And they also are a warning and a guide to labor in the approach- ing municipal elections in Vancouver. B.C. Workers’ News Radio Broadcast Every Friday at $:45 p.m. CKMO 60060600460006 $$944O40000044 comes from a reader. After clearly and correctly showing the contrast between the war Haile Selassie lives, a life of splendor and plenty, with the way his warriors , and workers live, barefoot and hungry, our correspondent comes to the wrong conclusion that just because a ruler or native bourgeoisie exploits the population of a small indepen- dent country or a colonial people, the workers of the world should not support such people in their strug- ele against imperialist wars of con- quest azainst them or to free them- selves from the imperialist yoke— even if the imperialist nation be a fascist state such as Italy. Such 4 line of reasoning would justify abstemtion from the strug- ele against czarism on the ground that czarist rule would be succeed- ed by bourgeois democratic rule, wholly ignoring the fact that the overthroys, of the czar made easier the overthrow of the whole bour- geoisie. Foreign domination is not a “hogey,’’ but is added exploitation of small nations and colonies, and a means of maintainine= and strenethenineg imperialism, whereas support by the workers of imperial- ist countries to people stugeling against the imperialist yoke (India, HMeyvpt) or against an aggressor (italy) weakens imperialism which, im this ago, cannot live without hav— ing colonieS under subjection. And in the Ethiopian situation a victory for Italy would strengthen world fascism and spread it, including Wazi fascism. The position of Marx on the strugele of the Polish people for in- dependence from Czarist Russia, the position of Marx on the struggle of the North against the South in the American civil war and on the struggles of the people of Ireland for freedom, as well as the position of Lenin on the strugele to preserve the independence of small nations against imperialist conquest and the struggle of colonial peoples to throw off the yoke of imperialism, is altogether different from that taken by our correspondent, whose advoeacy of neutrality and splendid aloofness objectively aids imperial- ism.—Editor. A letter from A. A. Nanaimo tells of the after dinner speech of Premier Pattullo in Nanaimo on the 12th of November, when he stated that “All Within the measure of relief will be eared for, but we have imposed on the state the burden of carrying un- employables.”’ The writer points out that the signs indicate another attack unon the already low standard of living of the unemployed; that a cut to the workers on relief will be used as a elub over the heads of the employed workers. All such schemes pretending to better the conditions of the workers must be carefully examined and the workers must consolidate their or- ganizations and present a solid front to the attack. From Vancouver by mail we have received an anonymous letter refut- ing the speed-up in the Seymour Telephone Exchange. This writer states hé is a strone C.CFV’er. He complains that our report of girls fainting is grossly exaggerated, be- cause upon inquiries made by him at the exchange, he finds that it was never heard of for a girl to faint at the switchboard. Editor’s Note: It is not often we reply to anonymous letters, but this writer states that he works for the Telephone €o. and for these reasons does not put his name to his letter. He evidently thinks the telephone company is not practis- Slowly and inexorably the Italan War macnine is advancing deeper into Ethiopia. Hach week it gobbles up new territories Gespite the resist- ance of the half-armed Ethiopians. Left to themselves the Ethiopians must eventually lose out. So far the sanctions, or threat of them, has not bluffed Mussolini, and udsing by the half-hearted manner in which the League of Nations is en- forcing them. or as in some cases postponing enforcement indefinitely, England and France have been mostly bluffing when they talk about them. Sanctions will not be neforced ‘rigidly unless and until the workers in capitalist countries keep constantly raising the issue and demanding that their sgoyv- ments act upon the sanctions in- stead of tallking about them. NATIONAL STRUGGLE IN EGYPT. Worth of Ethiopia is Bevpt, and the vital artery of British com- meree, the Suez Canal. Egypt is not supposed to be a British colony. For eourtesy’s sale she is said to he independent, although, thanks to the benelovence of British imperialism, she is really a British protectorate. But the Beyptian people are getting tired of being ‘“‘protected’’ and are even now demonstrating for inde- pendence. The press hints that Italian in- {rigue is responsible, but during the war it said that German gold was back of the movement for Irish independence, and later that Mos- cow gold was back of the move- ment in India. It is really asking too much to epect the capitalist press to admit that the oppressed people in the British Bmpire want nothing so much as independence from it and freedom to paddle their own canoe, witheut the overlordship of Amer- ican, Mreneh, Italian or any other imperialist power. Premier Baldwin of Great Britain knew well the danger confronting the Empire, when, before the elec- tion, he asked for a mandate to strengthen its defences. The inde- pendence movement in Hgypt is likely to increase strongly, and the moment Great Brfitain becomes in- volved in another war Ireland, that has fought intermittently for seven hundred years for independence Will try it again, and the independ- enee movement in India, thwarted and betrayed by Ghandi, will come flooding back until it surges over the top. JAPAN IN CHINA. True to its policy of “Asia for the Asijatics,” Japanese Imperialism ad- vanees into North China to bite off another huge territory and set up, under the government of its agents, another puppet state. Japan appears to be the Chinese leader, suspicious of Chiang Kai ing speed-up on ihe girls, but if the boss Imew that he wrote 2 Jetter to the B-C. Workers’ News he might make it unpleasant for him, even though he lines up with the company. We consider our source of information quite re- liable. From Prince George comes copy of a letter sent to the C.CF. con- vention at Winnipes by H. BH. Im ¢his letter he takes Woodsworth to task for assuming authority without consulting @ C.F. clubs and mem-— bers of their desires in regard to proposed legislation, ete. This writ- er says he worked hard for the C.C.F. in the last election and de- plores the lack of unity and the stand of Woodsworth, Heaps, McIn- nis and Arnold Webster in the re- (Continued from Last Issue) Citizen’s League Bulletin Analyzed. In the last two articles we dealt mainly with the organizational memorandum of the Citizen's League of Canada. We are now going to analyze their bulletins, es- pecially quotations and their inter- pretation of official documents of the Communist Party. It is our intention to go into detail and show the real meaning of the distortions by the Citizens’ League. However, for the moment let us dwell on the following appeal made in their bulletin and dedicated to the citizens of Canada: In Bulletin No. 1 of September 2. 1935, we read: “Citizens of Canada, does this mean little to you whose freely selective national principles of self-government are at stake, your liberty, the moral welfare of your families and of all things the spiritual freedom for indi- idualistic yet collective progres- sion as a Nation?” Here we how the Citizens’ League is trying to confuse the people and convince them that the Communists are out to take away see the liberty, spiitual freedom and moal welfare of the Canadian people. This is absolutely untrue. In order to deal with this question coneretely we will take them sep- arately. Communism and Religion. The Communist position on Tre- ligion is best explained by Leni: “Religion must be regarded as a private matter. In these words the attitude of socialists to re- ligion is usually expressed. But we must define the meaning of these words precisely so as to avoid misunderstanding, We demand cent election. financed by foreign powers, includ- ing Japan, waged anual campaigns against the Red Army of the Chin- ese Soviets. These campaigns have all ended in disaster for his White armies, and there is no reason to believe he would not welcome with joy the complete domination of all China by Japan, rather than to see the power and territery of the So- Viets increase. The leaders of the Chinese Soviets have time and again called for a united front of the Chinese people against Japan, but the capitalist and landlord elements have always refused, preferring to unite with and to aid any foreign power that Will try and destroy Communism. It is loubtful if Japan can ad- vanee much further without meet- ing real resistance from the work- ers and peasants of North China. The driving force of this resistance will be the Communists. The work- ers of the industrialized South will not much longer permit Chiang Kai Shek to betray them. Japan’s advances also bring closer opposition from Sritish, American, French and Italian interests. North China, as well as Ethiopia, may be referred to in the future as a local- ity where the second world war first broke out. PEOPLE’S FRONT IN FRANCE. The greatest force for peace in eapitalist Europe is the People’s Front Against Fascism in France. This front is so mighty that it is a threat to British and German capi- talism, not in a military sense, but because it says to the workers of other countries, “‘“Go thou and do likewise!’ Civil war in France in the near future is not an improbability. The French fascist organizations, sup- ported by German and British capi- talism, may decide upon a Sudden, bold strike to set up a fascist dic- tatorship and at the same time smash the great People’s Front. The Erench workers will not sub- mit to this; they will fight today just as heroically as their grand- fathers did during the Commune of Paris. IN LATIN AMERICA. If press reports be true, and there must be some grains of truth in them, the capitalist system is boil- ing over in another place—in South America. It is stated that a work- ers’ revolution under Communist leadership has already got control of a province of Brazil, and that numbers of state troops haye joined the revolutionaries. This is, of course, good news; we delight to read of such things and eagerly await the time when the truth of the situation wall be had through the working-class press.—E B. Shek, who has formerly been a will- ings tool of Japan. But this is a battle of words only, and is a clever move to assist Japan’s plans. Ghiange Kai Shek could, if he wanted to, unite China in armed resistance to Japanese forces, prob- ably he is the only man who could. The Japanese Know this and as long as they criticize him as if he were opposing their advance he is bound to be looked upon more or less as the national leader. In the posi- tion of national leadership of the strugsle against Japanese Imperial— ism, Chiane Kei Shek can hold back, postpone and brine to ruin the anti-Japanese forces- This appears to be his position at present, and it is a job that he can work at with a willing heart, for durine the last six years he has con- sidered the Soviet district of China, not Japenese Imperialism, to be China’s greatest menace. For the past six years he has, Democracy, Fascism And The Citizens League that religion be regarded as @ pri- vate matter, as far as state is concerned, but under no circum- stances can we regard it as a pri- vate matter In our own party. (Reference is to the members of the Communist Party. M.D.) The state must not concern itself with religion; religious societies must not be bound to the state. Every- one must be absolutely free to pro- fess whatever religion he likes, or to profess no reiigion, i.e., to be an atheist, as every socialist usually is. There must be no dis- crimination whatever in the rights of citizens on religious grounds. ‘Even particulars concerning the religion of citizens on official documents (state documents, pass- port, etc.) must be completely done away with. No subsidies must be paid to church or religious so- cieties. These must become in- dependent of the state, voluntary associations of citizens of one faith.’ (See page 12, “Religion,” by V. I. Leni) Hitler Persecution of Catholics and the Citizens’ League. Wo doubt many people are fooled by the subversive propaganda of the Citizens’ League which pro- fesses to be interested in the de- fence of religion. What are the facts? Everybody Knows about the vicious treatment of Catholics by Hitler, not only of the working people, but of church officials, priests, ete., which is a matter of daily occurrence in fascist Germany. Tt is conducted on such a wide seale that even the capitalist press (“Sun”’ and “‘Proyvince’’) are forced to mention it from time to time. But did you ever hear Edgsett, Odalum or Tom McInnes speak about these things? No. Can we say that the Citizens’ League is neutral to the Hitler atrocities in Germany? Positively no. The silence on the part of the Citizens’ League leaders is the revelation of their sympathy and full agreement with the policy of Hitler's bloody fascist dictator- ship. Tf the Citizens’ League leaders are really concerned about the interests of religious people as they profess to be, then why do they not lift their voices in protest against the Hitler persecution, and help to or- eanize the amnti-fascist movement? Who Are the Real Defenders of the People’s Freedom. On the other hand, it is the Com- munists who never fail to respond to help rally the masses to resist sueh persecution as is being prac- tised upon innocent people by Hit- ler’s hoardes. Tt is in such activity that the Gommunist Party members, along with socialists, trade unionists and sections of middle class people, in- tellectuals and professional people, have found that the majority of the members of various religious denom- inations are not opposed to the Communist Party nor its program, but they are opposed to religious persecution. Thus they are opposed to persecution and terror as prac- tised by Hitler against Jews, against Catholics, and against trade unionists in Germany. The great majority of the church going people with whom we have come in contact realize that the Communists are not their enemies, and more and more of them are realizing that it is the capitalist elass who exploits the other part of the population. Wow, more than ever, these people are realizing that regardless oft church affiliation or political view- point, our only hope is to unite in order to defend our mutual interests and maintain our democratic rights, our relizious freedom, and our fam- ily welfare. Union in the future will not need to © worry about the Torgsin Stores. : few weeks ago we referred in this column to the function stores—that their purpose was coax the hidden golden treasures 6 the aristocracy into the coffers the State Bank. Sales in these sto are only made for gold or foreign currency and they haye accomplish- ed their objective. During the four years they have been in operation, — failing. aristocrats have delivered up their “Our answer to the paid advertise. ; ments of the Liberals in this issue 77 appears throughout our pages. The 98 Liberals’ use of half-truths in at} tackine the CC.E. is never more | evident than in this matter of the # Oriental vote, and a haif-truth, as. | has been said, is the most damnable | kind of a lie.”’ No comrades ! This is mot an apology on behalf of th B.C. Workers’ News for printing j liberal political advertising, but is a 7 note appended to the end of the editorial column of the Common. jj wealth in one of the issues during” the Federal elections. S The B.C. Workers’ News does not have te apologize to its readers fo its contents. It does mot accep money for lending its pages to ad. vertising Liberals, Conservatives, and near-Fascist candidates in elec tion campaigns. This is one reason why it can appeal without hesitation): to those whose interests it repre. — sents; to the maritime workers. t6 | the lumber workers, to the miners, ~ to the fishermen; to all workers — whose struggles find a voice in its. columns; to all who oppose the im. perialistic aims of the war mongers and the Fascists, to all who suffer © under the millstones of capitalism. | The B-C. Workers’ News drive fo: funds during the comins month is; financial necessity that imposes B” duty on all those who believe in th - policies of the paper. We know chal this is our paper, our agitator, our) : ee objective and gaining hundreds | new subscribers. = = ea * Bourgeois visitors to the Soviet q of thes 150,000,000 American dollars worth — of gold has been taken at the cash — desks and the flow of gold is now That means that the old — hoards. The Torgsin stores are no longer useful to the workers and are ~ to be closed on the ist of January | next. So under workers’ rule, as un- der capitalism, there are more ways of Killing a cat than drowning it, es S & The “War Cry,” official organ of the proselytizing followers of Gener- al Booth, states that ““‘The Army is — striving for a revival of religion which is the only thing that will permanently check: the spirit of riots and bring peace -and propress to a world of unrest.’’ Fakirs, witeh doctors, medicine men and holy roll- ers have had this job ever since his- tory commenced. The fanatical deyil-— doggers of the Salvation Army with their alternatives of eternal damna- tion and pie in the sky, may imagins ~ they can keep the workers resigned — and patient in this world, but the day of the Christian dogma of non- resistance to oppression has passed. Our morals and ethics do not any longer grow out of religious fervor, but as Lenin says “from the facts and needs of the class struggle of the proletariat.” * x * x Again Japanese imperialism is launching a crusade of civilization— against the Chinese peoplé and to establish a basis for a further ciyil- izing crusade against the Soviet workers and peasants. It is marvel- lous how interested the imperialists are in raising the moral and cultural level of helpless and defenceless na tions who live in territories that may be rich in natural resources or serve aS an outlet for their own overgrown population. And who is better fitted to bring to African Savages the moral beauties of civil- ization than Mussolini's Fascists, who convince some of their oppon= ents with castor oil and assassinate those that will not be convinced, like Matteoti; murder working class leaders by dragging them behind speeding motor lorries, torture others in their filthy dungeons, and wipes out all working class organizations (with the cynical blessing of the Pope). Who is better able to teach the heathen Chinese, whose civiliza- tion is only six thousand years ol@ than the militaristic clique of Jap- anese imperialists who sprang from barbarism less than a century 260; whose policy is at least consistent— murder of all their opponents, liberal and proletarian alike. Of course both Fascist Italy ane imperialist Japan claim. they have the right to expand, to grow, tha their increasing populations may be amply provided for. They need ray materials and marikets and, like thé schoolboy bully, they take them a the expense of the weakest. Thes make no bones about proclaiming that these are the reasons for thei mass murder proframs. “Englant did it,’ they say, “why can’t we? Just as though a stickup man justi fies his crime by pointing to anothe criminal who had succeeded in evad ing the law. In spite of the League of Nation: they are getting away with it; @ spite of sanctions they are gettini away with it. When accused of sup plying British gasoline to the Fascis bombers, Sir John Cadman of Anglo Persian Oil replied, ‘tyes, but it i according to the terms of the sanc tions. They are paying cash.” Civili zation, sanctions, cynical hypocrisy The working class must put an en to the aspirations of these imperié (Lo be continued. lists or they will wreck civilization