Page Six The People’s Advocate Published Weekly by THE PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. Telephone: Trinity 2019 One Year Three Months 50 Half Year Single Gopy. = — Make All Checks Payable to the PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE Send All Copy and Manuscript to the Chawman of the Edttortal Board, Send all Monies and Letters Pertaining to Advertising and Circulation to the Business Manager. Vancouver, B.C., Friday, April 23, 1937 Hepburn, Tool of Reaction ANTING against “foreign agitators,” Mitchell Hepburn, premier of Ontario, has openly ranged himself on the side of the foreign, Morgan-controlled General Motors Corporation against the Canadian workers in the strike at the Oshawa plant of the giant American company. The affiliation of the local union of the Oshawa workers to the C.1.0., with headquarters in the United States, is the excuse given for his action by the contemptible little demagogue who in true fascist style tries to inflame national prejudices against the strikers. In the same breath he declares that the A.F.LL. (also with headquarters in the U.S.) is aeceptable to him—and to General Motors, for which he speaks. But that is because the A.F.L. is not in the picture, having refused to make any attempt to organize the worlkers in the auto- motive industry except feeble attempts to draw the more slulled ones into craft unions, an impossible task even if attempted seri- ously and energetically, because the craft union is obsolete insofar as mass production industries are concerned. Tn the struggle at Oshawa over union recognition and collec because of the position he holds, is the tive bargaining, Hepburn, chosen mouthpiece and agent of reaction. workers who organize into umions of their own fashioning or choosing and to prevent collective bargaining. The Oshawa workers will not permit the mouthy political G.M.-Tory reactionary to dictate to them as to what union they shall-belong to; and in their stand for must have support of all organized labor Labor Council (A.F.L.) of Tor supporting them. For A.E.L., and would be the splitters, Green and which are affiliated to it. The Doukhobor Problem NCE more the Doukhobor problem is agitating the public and there is the usual secrecy on the part of the government. Peter Veregin meets Pattullo, and neither Veregin’s statement that his life is in danger, About all that the people of the province know is that s¢hool buildings have been blown up or these outbursts of destructive activity are not made known. No sane person will endorse terrorism as a means of redressing eriey- ances while at the same time desiring to have them exposed and removed. There is no doubt that the Doukhobor immigrants were de- eeived when induced to emigrate from their native land and ill- treated ever since their arrival to the present day. First of all, they were given a guarantee of exemption from military service jn Canada, yet when conseription was in force every form of pres- sure outside of physical force was exerted to hound religious and pacifist convictions, and in viola- army against their tion in spirit of the agreement entered into ernment with them. This violation of the stroyed—taught them. What is required is to break the ties which bind the exploiting Doukhobor hierarchy with the capitalist provincial and federal an impartial public imyestigation 1s needed, not the sitting-on-the-lid policy of the Pattullo government in connection with the Hedley Mines scandal. governments. In any case onto and many A.F.L. unions are after all, the C.1.O. in it today as its most powerful section it Company, had not suspended the unions agreement still goes on through muli- taristic propaganda in textbooks in use in the schools. Moreover, there is the extreme exploitation of the Doukhobors by the retention of elements of feudalism. L ; these exploited and betrayed people strike out in the manner which tzarism and the 1ld Russian capitalism—now happily de- His job is to outlaw this inalienable right they just as the Trades and is not dual to the will talk except for burned; but all the causes ot them into the by the federal goy- Against all of this — In Trotsky’ s Footsteps Following up their despicable anti- pnity and other disruptive work within the CCE, the Vancouver Trotskyists have sent a mimeo- graphed letter to CGF clubs, which in sneering language and burlesque denunciation of Trotskyism, calls mockingly for the re-instatement of A. M. Stephen by the provincial executive of the CCF ang for unity. The signature to the malicious screed is ‘Malcolm Ewen,” a for- gery compounded of the first name of the chairman and the surname of the secretary of the Communist Party of BC, Malcolm Bruce and ‘Tom Ewen, respectively. This mythical person is represented as secretary (pro tem) of an equally mythical “People’s Progressive Party.”” The purpose of the letter is ob- yious. By linking up Stephen (and those in the CCF who support his reinstatement and strive for unity) with the Communist Party, a Peo- ple’s Progressive Party (which doesn’t exist) and anti-Trotskyism, the authors of the letter hope to make people believe that a new party has been created as a rival to the CCE. The address given as the place from which the document came is ¢hat of a small Chinese laundry on West Pender street. This work of the Vancouver let- ter of Trotskyists, as clumsy as it is contemptible and cowardly, is about what one can expect from followers of the murderous traitor who col- Jaborated with Hitler to destroy so- cialism and restore capitalism in the Soviet Union and to parcel out © the Japanese militarism fatherland to Hitler, and Trotsky and his fellow conspirators. workers’ This is the same gang which,-at the meeting in the Auditorium at which the Spanish delezation spoke, distributed a scurrilous leaflet slan- dering the heroic opponents of Franco, Hitler and Mussolini. And the same gang can be expected to cantinue their nefarious work as lone as labor organizations tolerate them. The provincial executive of the CCE have been warned over and over again of the activities of these counter - revolutionary degenerates. Way, more, they have had specific cases brought before them, such as the case of Ferguson, who admitted he distributed the Trotskyist leaf- leis at the Spanish delegation meet-. ine: Yet he was not suspended from the CCF, while Stephen, a sup- porter of the Spanish peaple against fascism, is suspended. It is nothing less than a disgrace that the CCE is permitted to be made a refuge for such an organized band of disrupters and enemies of unity and progress. The latest manifestation of their activity, the forged letter, is another warning to the CCF. It was conceived and de- Signed as a provocation to lead to further expulsions of all those who exercise their democratic rights to | the PEOPLE ’?S ADVOCATE An Open Letter to J. 5. Woodsworth a | ~ 4 Dear Mr. Woodsworth: My attention has been drawn to an article written by yourself en- titled “The Canadian Front.’ This article is obviously on the question of unity and the people’s front movement in general and, as such, it calls aloud for cor- rection. Perhaps the most glaring example of this need is the ertrayagant last paragraph but one. ‘here you in- Sinuate that the main interest of the Communist Party in elections is to defeat CCF candidates and you use the following words in connec- tion with fhe Hamilton by-election: “Why should they, in the pres- ent by-election in Hamilton, in a riding where there are very few Communists and where the preju- dices are strong against Commun- ists, send Tim Buck to say that the Communists would support Jacl. O’Hanley, the CCF candidate, thus playing right mto the hands of our political opponents? The Conservatives got 8107 votes, the Liberals 7291, and the CCE, with the ‘aid’ of Tim Buck, 3536.” Mr. Woodsworth, this statement is unworthy of you. You insinuate here that I deliberately went into Hamilton to injure the chances of your candidate and you leave un- stated the facts which show clear- Iy that such was not the case. Let me remind you of them. I spoke in Hamilton on February 19th. The by-election did not take place until March 22, more than a month after- ward. Your campaign had not even started. The meeting at which I spoke had been arranged during January, be- fore the date of the by-election was announced. My address did not deal with the Hamilton by-election or with Mr. O’'Hanley’s candidature. In an address to 2000 workers, which Jasted an hour and a half, I referred to the forthcoming by-election only onee: in a three-minute appeal for united front effort behind the CCF candidate. Pertinent Facts Were Omitted It is clear, therefore, that you are misrepresenting the case when you insinuate that my speech was aimed at injuring the chances of Mr. O’ Hanley. It is necessary, how- ever, to remind you of a still more pertinent omission of fact in your statement. You know that Alder- man Stewart Smith was scheduled to address a public meeting in Ham- ilton during the final week of the campaign and that Mr. Garland ap- roached our local comrades at the eleventh hour to canced it. The hall had been rented for more than a week, advertising was out and a radio broadcast had been arranged. Tf our motives had been as you suggest, this would have been our golden opportunity. What was the response of the Communists of Hamilton to Mr. Garland’s proposal? You know, Mr. Woodsworth, that they immediate- ly cancelled all arrangements. A1- derman Smith was advised not to proceed to Hamilton and Mr. Gar- land's fear was allayed. Why did you canceal these facts? Why did you write that misrepresentative in- sinuation with the suggestive quota- tion marks? Surely you are not go- ing to adopt methods which you have hitherto refused to accept re- sponsibility for when they are used by other spokesmen of your party? “A little tolerance.” indeed! But for the fact that the deadly seriousness of the situation forbids levity, one would be tempted to smile at your somewhat lugubrious explanation for the poor showing made in the federal elections. To dismiss thetremendous surge of the masses away from the Liberal and Conservative parties; as you do, with the remark that “the CCI ran into hard luck,’’ is, to say the least, like trying to describe the deep- 2zoing crises which mark the dis- integration of declining capitalism in the terms of a dice game. What Unity Could Have Achieved A united front agreement such as the Communist Party proposed to the CCF during the last federal elec- tion campaign would have changed the whole situation. We may hold different opinions as to whether we could hawe attracted more or less people from the Stevens’ camp or Social Credit movement during the actual election campaign, but nobody can question the statement that our joint movement would have been in a tremendously stronger position to organize the disillusion- ed voters after the elections were OVEer: Rerrettable as it may be, one compelled to note the fact that your opposition to united action flows mainly from a narrow, rigid concep- tion of parliamentary, electioneer- ing, organization. One of the out- Standing examples of this is to be seen in your petulant reiteration of the complaint against my candida- ture in North Winnipee and that of Malcolm Bruce in Bast Vancou- ver. : Anybody who did not know that the Communist Party has been. or- ganized on a Dominion-wide scale in Canada since before you were elect- ed to the Dominion House in 1921, would imagine, by the way you refer to these things, that our party was organized the year before last. is advocate changes in policy within the CCF; and to make it appear as if the Communist Party, indi- | vidual Communists, are organizing a party in opposition to the CCIt.— M.B. or If you insist upon preventing any measure of unity or even temporary united front electoral agreements between the CCE and the Commun- is tParty, then at least be consis- tent. Wace the fact that the Com- People’s an official statement from yourself ae — | munist Party, which, incidentally, has more active, regularly dues- paying members than the CCF, has a perfect right to run its candidates in those constituencies which prom- ise the most support to our party and the policies that our candidates advocate. : Time To Study Problems Objectively Tt is time that the Socialists of Canada were given an opportunity to consider the problems confront- ing our movement in a more dsi- passionate manner than you seem willing to permit. Even if we leave aside the world-shaking develop- ments in Burope and deal only With the immediate problems con- fronting the Jabor movement in Canada, the conviction is irresistible that the Canadian labor movement must have a measure of unity or it will not be able. to utilize the oppor- tunities with which it is confronted. It should not be necessary for me to remind you of the terrific price that the working people will have to pay for failure; the tragic warnings of Germany and Vienna are still all too fresh. It is necessary, however, to point out to you that the re- eent developments in Quebee show quite clearly that the forees of re- action are striving steadily to de- velop their own Canadian forms of Fascism. Your own speech upon the subject in the House of Commons shows that, in Quebec, the Tascist trend is already at an advanced Stage. Surely you are not going to sug- gest that it was called into being by “militant action’’ On the con- trary, you must: realize by now that only the widening and strenethen- ing of the working-class and progres- sive front can stop its further spread. : You yourself have changed your attitude tremendously in this con- nection during the past year. The cablegram from your National Coun- eil to Dr. Bethune, the activity of the CCF in defence of the strikers at the Holmes Foundry in Sarnia, the fact that the CCE has identi- fied itself with the Oshawa strike, are all Significant signs that the CCF is turning more definitely to- ward those forms of activity which you and other leading CC@E’ers used to condemn. EI welcome this. I welcome it in the name of the Com- munist Party and on behalf of all redical workers. We are prepared to go the limit to make these activities successful and to repeat, in every field of ac- tivity, those things which we have done to make our joint activity in defence of Spanish democracy such an outstanding triumph of working- class effort. We cannot achieve suecess, however, if you, as the leader of the G@EF, are going to re- sort to weapons which are worthy only of contempt Mr. Woodsworth And Trotskyism In this connection, I want to reg- ister a warm protest against the calculated injection of Trotslyism into your article on the People’s Front. You cannot be ignorant of the political character of the Trot- skyist movement, in Canada as well as throughout the world today, and yet you say: “Tf the Communists are so keen for a united front, why not begin by having a united front of* the Stalinites and the Trotskyites?” Mr. Woodsworth, you know that more than 300 Ganadian boys are fichting in defence of democracy in Spain. Letters home show that in their ranks there are members of the CCE and members of the CCYM. standing shoulder to shoulder with members of the Communist Party, offering their lives as the supreme sacrifice for that which we all hold dear. You must know that one of the Worst enemies they have to meet during: this war is the enemy behind their lines, composed of the dregs which have been cast off by the healthy revolutionary members of the Anarchist movement: who have become soldiers of the Republic, and the counter-revolutionary Trotsky- ists who have joined forces with these dregs in an effort to gire eounter-revolutionary help to Fran- ca’s “5th Golumn*: in the work of disrupting and, if possible, demor alizing the heroic defence of the Spanish people. The CCE has no more in common with the counter-revolutionary ac- tivities of the Trotskyists than we have. The rank and file members of the CCE are members of the CCE because they want Socialism. MThev art proving, day by day, that they realize the correctness of our con- tention that the struggle to organize our forces for Socialism involves the struggle to organize our unions, our unemployed movements, our popular demonstrations and electoral activi- ties—all our forees for defence and for gains today. BC Provincial Election To dismiss all these tasks and the problems they raise in the airy way that you do in your article does not do justice to the needs and the in- terests of the Labor Movement. British Columbia faces an election on the first of June and the results will depend mainly upon whether or not those people who want toa defeat the reactionary big interests are united. There are enough of them so that if they go into the elections as a united bloc. British Columbia will probably have a CCF government after June ist. Qn the other hand, let there be no illusions, the big interests will April 23, 19383 Make No ae ee or the = lish Liberal press- Mistake and a large Soetos of the Labor press also, to the stand of the British Government on the Spanish question is not only a mis- ta’xen but a dangerous one. To write that the British lion’s claws -| are becoming blunted and that any butchering gangster like Franco - ean twist his tail with impunity, is to show an utter lack of under- standing of the studied policies of the gang of Tory fire-eaters and sword-rattlers, ex-Liberal turncoats and renegade self-styled socialists that constitute the National Gov- _ ernment. The most powerful battleship in the world does not refrain from sinking the fascists pirate ships be— cause the British lion in his old age has become cowardly, but because the baby-killer Franco is an ally in their plans to keep Reaction in the saddle in Europe. Qn every occasion in which the forces of law and order in Spain in- flict a crushing defeat on the friends of Baldwin, Hitler and Mus— solini, the British Government be- comes ‘perturbed.’ This is per— fectly in accord with the judgment of Marx, ninety-three years ago- Replying to Ruge, in the Franco- Thirsty? Moscow’s ultraamodern breweries manufacture real beer. “German Annals, he refers to “Eng- Jand, where perplexity has been ele- H. Gargrave Corrects Us The People’s Advocate received a letter from H. Gargrave, provincial secretary of the CCF, protesting against a news iteni which appear- ed in our paper of April 16, headed “Hy Gargrayve Quits Meet.” The letter is a long one, and very abusive. We are charged with “de- liberately distorting stories pertain- ing to working-class interests,” “dis- erediting CCE executive members,” and he does “not expect any redress in this matter.” We do not at this time print Gar- erave’s letter in full, for we have no desire to discredit him. Bui that part of his letter which corrects the news story we are pleased to print. The only paragraph in The Peo- ple’s Advocate story that he corrects runs as follows: “Garerave held that a two-third majority was required when his motion was defeated, but was un- able to convince the majority of the delegates.” The correction made in his letter is as follows: “Jn accordance with the instruc- tions from my club, I moved to rescind a motion carried by the District Council at their previous meeting. Considerable discussion arose at which time if was point- ed out that the Norquay Club, from whose delegates the original motion emanated, did not endorse this resolution. Despite this fact, the two delegates from this club voted against the motion to re- scind. Upon the motion being put to the floor, on the chairman’s count, the vote was fourteen for —ten against. The chairman, A. McGeachey, ruled that it took a tivo-third majority to rescind this motion.” It will be seen from the paragraph in the news story and Gaysrayve’s correction, which we gratefully ac- cept, that the story said that Gar- erave, not the chairman, raised the point of a two-third majority béing required. Surely this was mot sa serious error, nor one that could be regarded as a deliberate attempt to “discredit CCH members.” However, we are pleased to make the correction, and assure Comrade Gargrave that the error was not made deliberately. | effort and victory. strain all their energies to secure the election of a-government more favorable to them than the present one is. A serious responsibility rests upon your shoulders. Blectoral unity ean be achieved in BC ond, if neces- sary, the united front agreement upon which it is based can be as temporary as the election campaign for which it is arranged. You alone can utter the decisive word which will turn the entire anti-capitalist movement in BC towards united Tf you refuse to utter that word, if the position you Stated in your article remains your unchangeable attitude towards the election policy ef the CCE in British Golumbia, then you will be sending the GCF forces into action against all other anti-capitalist. forces: to divide the vote and open the victory for Reaction, - I hope that you will change your mind while we still have time to win. Yours for Socialism, < TIM BUCK, General Secretary, Communist Party of Canada. yated to a system.” j This “perplexity” which shows itself as “perturbation” at the “yic= tories of democracy, is the product of several hundred years of hypo- eritical diplomacy or diplomatic hy— pocrisy, whichever you will. We must remember this when we read their lying statements to ex- cuse the blockade and starvation of the people of Bilbao, that they are “trying to prevent 2 general European war.” Liberty-loving people throughout, the world must not confuse the idealistic phrase with its realisic content. That is the end-product of diplomatic chicanery and deceit in the mouths of political scoun= darels and is not a bit different from Book Review BULLDERS OF BRITISH co- LUMBIA—By William (“Old Bill’ Bennett, 50 Cents. Here is a book of considerable historical value that will be an eagerly sought addition to the library of any progressive reader. A hook written by a man whose name has become a legend among the working class of this province and far beyond; who, however one may differ with him, must be re- spected for his knowledge both of Labor’s history in Canada, and e particularly in British Columbia, any other form Ce See Engels’ and of Socialist theory. “We Are From conception of 2 In “Builders of British Columbia’’| Kronstadt” or art as Old Bill writes as he speaks—frank and to the point. Into this work he has poured a wealth of material. of information that will be priceless correct,_that it should depict cehar— acter in all conditions of life and that the propaganda should be in the work itself, — then “We Are a aus f pede eee . eee From Kronstadt” is a work of art, See i ie egneee SARE De eres oe triumph pOo Evers WORSE z ©! to come to Vancouver is another slightest. interest in the develop- slice of revolutionary history, 2 companion picture to “Chapayev, that again draws from the depths of life while Hollywood still ladles. ment of this province. : This is a book about British Co- lumbia; about the men and women, the workers who have built the 4 5 : th th. £ the province. To those hardy pioneers ae eee itis thes epic < who brought ‘civilization’ to BC = y- The author, Vishnevsky, was 2 sailor in the Kronstadt naval fore- es, the director, Dzigan, fought through the civil war and gradu- ated from the Soviet Motion Pic- and, incidentally, made a good thing out of it, we do not expect this book to rank as a best seller. But among progressive people generally it will undoubtedly | a if : Sane udeubiedis eave ture Institute, and the Red Navy The chapter’ dealing with the Parent ae sae 3 See foo shameful robbery carried on by the picture. Ere Ore eS Tt CPR. by the Hudson’s Bay com- other than Soviet influence. pany—"the gentlemen adventurers” impressed ebe Se ee re who traded into Hudson Bay and] SY? Chapaye enh Be SSE & anywhere else where “there were for the sailors, maybe: Already it has made 2 practical contribution to the struggle against Reaction. The story is woven around the defense of Leningrad in 1919 from one of the Russiab Francos, Yudenich. When Yuden- ish’s tanks, supplied by British Im-— perialism, came rolling on Lenin- grad, the defenders, soldiers, sail- ers and workers, had to learn how to fight them. And they succeeded?! Recently, when [Franco's tanks, supplied by Italian Fascism, ad- vanced on Madrid, the heroic mili- tiamen learned from this film, how the Leningrad defenders beat these destroying monsters. This part of natural resources to steal—are a brilliant revelation of a colossal eraft, a graft that makes MicGeer’s Lost Lagoon fountain and Hedley Mines insignificant by comparison. “Builders of British Columbia” contains many chapters on the strugeles of the miners, the street railwaymen, the loggers and fisher- men striving for living wages and decent conditions. The history of the Nanaimo miners’ strike of 1912 is supplemented by rare pictures of His Majesty’s forces swinging into action—a dramatic story of early strugzles im itself worth the price of the book. P ) If some chapters dealing with the picture was run Over and over more recent developments are a again. Battalions of tank-fichters were organized, and they, too, beat the tanks. Tf you want to know how it is \ | done, see for yourself at the Little Theatre, beginning on the 30th or this month. This is a duty you owe, not only to yourself, but to the movement. We, you and I, should constitute ourselves a sure founda- tion on which the Soviet films cat bank for support so that their in- fluence may spread to new and- hitherto untouched sections of the people, for to see is to be won and influenced by them. When Mussolini's fas- little dry, the dryness is well com- pensated by Old Bill’s breezy style. "They Say. == SX @ ff; —{ “The unions were created by Wall Street to bring about the control of Labor.’—Henry: Ford. “My place is marching with the workers rather than riding with General Motors.’—Ontario Labor Minister David A. Croll, ousted | Pjeture V u by Premier Hepburn. t a cist bullies, and the “Wascim means a war to the PosteardsS cheated workers and peasants under them, left Italy they were armed with more than tanks and guns. They brought with them also, posteards on which to send home to Sunny Italy news of the great fascist victories to be Wor in the Iberian Peninsula where the forces of Imperial Rome were de- feased 2000 years ago- These postcards are DOW being sent out of Spain, but they are not telling of fascist victories. In the rout of Mussolini’s braves, they ate falling into the hands of those who death with the churches because the ideals of Fascism are in stark and aggressive conilict with the ideals of religion.’—Rev. D. de- Sola Pool, Spanish & Portuguese synagosue. “Jn 1917, when producers sot one dollar for making goods, over- head people got another dollar for the various services leading up to the sale of goods to the con- sumer. But in 1932, when pro- ducers got one dollar, overheaders got $2.30."—Prof. Walter Rauten- are defending democracy in Spain, strauch, Columbia University. >) | and are being sent to France, Brit- RADIO BEVERY BEGINNING APRIL 27th Over Hear MALCOLM BRUCE and GUEST SPEAKERS on the Communist Party Broadcast TUESDAY, 7:30-7:45 P.M. ain, Canada and so forth, by the heroes of the International Bri- gade, the men who are proud to bear the names of Garibaldi, Thael- mann, Lincoln, and their comrades- in-arms. ment forces. It was a view of 2 church in Rome, the “Chiesa della Trinita dei Monti’ (the Church of the Trinity of the Mountains). The Milano and Roma. CJOR __)} Mussolini THE posteard! TI saw one a few days ago from 2 Canadian who is with the Goyern- publisher's name was A. Sorrochi, The Garibaldi Battalion will send