Peze Iwo THE PEOPLE’S ADVGCATE Kin 9 What Kind of Free Speech? sions jam The January 13 issue of the Peoples Advocate contains a they SHOOON: the open shop em- A letter by William Offer in reply to an editorial of the previous é lee oe ube ae ees Weekl issue which criticised his action in the Vancouver Trades Coun= x bor cauG ee es. are sy Commentary — January 20, 1939 4 THE -PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE Published Weekly by the Proletarian Publishing Association, Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street, VWancouver, B.C. Phone Trinity 2019. One: Year = $2.00 Three Months _._...$ .60 Halt Year $1.00 Single Copy ——-—-.- $ .05 Make All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate Friday, January 20, 1939 L Offer’s attempt to justify such ac-— cil in moving an amendment to a motion of censure against tions as the exercise of “the right President Jamieson. to free speech and assembly” ill Several delegates had expressed sharp disapproval of Presi- pecemes) one who Pre es 2-2 Be dent Jamieson’s action in serving as chairman of a public rally DESEO alae es of the Non-Partisan Association during the Vancouver civic elections. This disapproval was erystallised in a motion of censure presented on the floor of the Trades Council. Offer’s amendment read: “We recognize simply conceding the right of the right of every person to ex- “freedom of speech and assembly” press his political opinions pro- then clearly his years in the labor WVancouver, B.C. - By Ol’ Bill - Black Toryism Furnishkes A Warning Offer’s democratic verbiage does mot alter the cold hard fact that mo man can serve two masters. True, every trade union leader has the right of free speech but if this richt is to be exercised against the interests of labor, then labor aiso Nationalism ©f 2! the peoples who were pla- = eated, appeased, disposed of, allo— Exploited. cated, dislocated, or otherwise manhandled by the Big Four at the Wersailles ANADA’S present session of Parliament and Senate was not a week old before ; - ware of me ; E : the Canadian people were made awa Vidinge it does not involye this what reaction seeks to accomplish if demo- cratic vigilance relaxes for one moment. The first occasion was the speech by Hon. R. J. Manion, new Tory opposition leader. Much of Mr. Manion’s contribution to the debate was confined to a personal and some- what childish attack on Premier King. But here and there he showed his teeth to the Canadian people. He didn’t believe in tax- ing big business—let the worker and farmer . talke if on the chin. He thought the govern- ment was spending too much—reduce the budget and let tne unemployed take up another notch. The new Tory leader's words belied his handsome face. Right on his heels came another speaker, this time the cold and bitter Senator Arthur Meighen, the very personification of black Tory reaction. : Senator Meighen was even more outspoken +han Manion. He made no attempt to hide his hatred of all things progressive, his de- mand for greater profits to monopoly capital, for a stop to government “extravagance in maintaining social services. These two key speeches’ by recognized spokesmen of reaction in Canada came as a warning of what would happen if they were again given the chance of putting their plans into action. And both speeches indicated that the session will be the scene of the most bitter struggle between the forces that want re- form, progress and recovery and those that want to block all moves leading to jobs and recovery. Does Canada think along the lines laid down by Manion and Meighen? Our millions of workers and farmers, small business men and professionals say no! They want the government to act, but they want those acts to be progressive. 2 The Manions and the Meighens want a stop to “sovernment spending,” an extension of gnonopoly rights, amalgamation of the Ca- wadian National and Canadian Pacific. | The people want a broad housing program and federal public works schemes, a trans- €anada highway, the St. Lawrence Seaway yroject, construction of the Alaska Highway <5 whole number of things which will pro- vide jobs and assure recovery and by the same token guarantee democracy. That's why Canadians are watching the session of Parliament with keener interest and greater hope than for years past. That's why Premier King must answer his own question—whither Canada?—by taking the nation’s problems “by the face” and pro- ducing results. If he does, all our people will extend him their fullest backing. Ganada, Too, Can Defend Barcelona LI, EVES are on Spain these past few weeks and all democratic Canadians are filled with admiration at the heroism otf those Spanish people who are once again holding back Franco’s latest and greatest offensive with little more than their bare hands and courage. Wrussolini’s present drive on Barcelona which, by his own calculations, should have fallen several times during the past two and a half years—has again proven what the Loy- alists have maintained since the fascist rebel- lion broke out, namely, that given the treat- ment due them by the democracies, Franco's armies would have been smashed long since. But it is becoming dangerously apparent that heroism alone will not stop fascism. Bombs, guns and tanks must in the end over- come bare hands; the defenders of Barcelona ean not withstand hunger—that other ally of ~scism—torever. Canada’s aid to Barcelona is long past due. Along with the other democracies, our trib- ute to the Spanish people’s heroism can be made now in the most concrete way—hby al- Jowing Spain to buy our surplus wheat, fish and dairy products. Surely not much of a sacrifice. We have too much of all these soods, Spain has too little, though possessing the money to purchase them. Here is a proposal that no Canadian can ¢urn down. Let’s urge that our government make it realizable. Now that the Tokio Nichi Nichi has openly threatened “retaliatory measures against the mainlands and dependencies of Great Britain and the United States,’ Ottawa should of- ficially recognize the folly of providing Japan with war materials suitable for use in carry- ing out that threat ... and clamp down an embargo against Tokio. council.” This amendmnet trans— formed the real issue to a question of the right of free speech and re- sulted in absolving president Jam- jieson of any eriticisni and actu- ally justifying his action in sup- porting the Non-Partisan Associ- ation in its bid to defeat the CCF and Labor-Progressive candidates, © including William Offer himself who was a CCF aldermanic candi-— date. According to Offer, however, “this in no way defended or at- tacked Mr. Jamieson but it did ecencede him hte right of freedom of speech and assembly, a right which organized labor has always foucht fer. - 3: Wot satisfied with having justi- fied President Jamieson’s action of supporting Non-Partisan candi- Gates against those of labor and the CGF, under the guise of the “right of free speech and assem- bly,” Offer then sought the en- dorsation of His union for his ac- tion, and afterwards stated: “As my union has always supported the right of free speech and as- sembly they wholeheartedly sup- ported my action; and further- more, have returned me to the Trades and Labor Council to rep- resent them for ~ another year. This, I think, should be a con- elusive anSwer to your scurrilous, deplorable editorial.” The above statement clearly shows that Offer presented the issue to his union membership as one of free speech with himself in the role of defender of that democratic privilege, and because the union membership endorsed his action in the light he presented it he proceeds to condemn the Ad- yocate’s criticism of his action as being “scurrilous” and “deplor- able.” If Offer is So naive as to assume that a labor leader has the right openly to align himself with the avowed enemies of organized la- bor, assist these members in de- feating working class candidates and then defend this action as movement have taught him very little. Just what is the role of the Non- Partisan Association and who are the people who lead it? The Non-Partisan Association is the successor of the infamous Gitizens’ Teague which was or ganized by the Shipping Hedera- tion to smash the waterfront strike of 1935. The chief spokes- man of the Non-Partisan Asso- ciation is Gerry McGeer, who was also the chief spokesman of the Gitizens’ League. As mayor of Vancouver and spokesman of the Gitizens’ League, McGeer con- ducted a vicious red-baiting cam- paign against the strikers and ex- pended over $80,000 of the Van-— couver taxpayers’ money on sSpe- cial police to assiSt in smashing erganized laber on the Vancou- ver waterfront. Other leading lights of the Non- Partisan Association are Col. Edgett, who also played a prom- inent role in smashing the strike, Gol. Nelson Spencer, Brig.-Gen. Gdlum, Austin Taylor and several other big business heads,, includ- ing some of the worst anti-labor open shop employers in BC. The Won-Partisan Association partici- pates in Vancouver civic elections for the sole purpoSe of retaining control of Vancouver civic sovern- ment for big business and prevent- ing the election of labor or pro- gressive candidates. Is it not clear that when leaders ef organized labor in Vancouver belong to or support such a group they are assisting the enemies of erganized labor; are preventing the election of labor candidates and by so doing are working against the best interests of or- ganized labor and the working people generally? Tt is to the Shame of Yancou- ver labor that certain leaders be- long to and support such a group. Labor leaders are elected to posi- tions of leadership in order to safeguard and advance the eco- pomic and political interests of those who*elected them. This is has the right to censure such ac- tion and even to replace such lead- ers with others who will exercise this right in the interests of labor and not against it. It is high time the organized labor movement realized that trade union leaders cannot serve its interests and at the same time serve the interests of big business represented by the Non-Partisan Association. This applies not only to E. A. Jamieson but also to Birt Showler, leader of the Teamsters Union, who is known to favor the Non- Partisan Association. Organized labor should ask Showler whether he is working on behalf of labor or the employers ef labor when he aligns himself with the open Shop members of the WNon-Partisan Association. Is it not true that certain members of Showler’s union, over a period of weeks, daily drove trucks through the picket lines of the Bakery Workers’ Union durins the current strike at the Woman's Bakery, with the full Knowledge of Mr Showler? it would appear he is also at- tempting to outdo Gerry McGeer as a red-baiter when he used his influence to have the president of ene of the locals under his juris— diction expelled from the union on the grounds he was a Communist. Will Mr. Showler deny that by this action a trade union local of some 60 members was destroyed? Does he believe that such actions are in the interests of labor? Tt is the height of folly to sup- pose organized labor can go for- ward, obtain better conditions and higher living standards under the leadership of people who use such anti-labor, red-baiting tac- ties. The time has arrived when, if labor’s interests aer to be served, leaders must either serve the in- terests of labor both economically and politically and not the inter- ests of Big Business and the Non- Partisan Association or be re- placed by leaders who will. The Nazis Kidnap Santa Claus By MICHAEL GOED INCE Christmas, Santa Claus has not returned to His rein- deer farm at the North Pole. His neighbors and fellow - workers have been worrying about him. They started an investigation through the American consul at Berlin, and yesterday news finally came that Santa Claus is in a Wazi concentration camp. He is alive, thank God, even if his arm is broken, his head in bandages, and his last six teeth gone when a brave young Storm Trooper kicked him in the mouth. Santa Claus was attacked while coming out of the chimney of the first home he visited. For almost a thousand years Santa has met with nothing but friendliness in the homes he has entered. The whole human race has always loved this kind old grandfather and his sack of toys. This, unfortunately, and the fact that Santa has not-read the news— papers for a long time, left the poor old man unprepared for what followed. He virtually walked into a trap. A squad of Storm Troop- ers grabbed him as he came out the chimney. i) éé OWN with the Jews,” they shouted, in perfect rhythm. a college cheer. “Down with Free Masons, the Gatholics, the Gommunists, the Protestants, the Liberals, the ad- voeates of Swing music, the Czechs, the Socialists, President Roosevelt, Mayor LaGuardia, Stanley Baldwin, that guttersnipe Mickey Mouse, and all kosher meat! “Down with the Jewish Christ, and down with Roumania, the Af rican colonies of France and Eing- land, the Ukraine, Harold ickes, the Pope,. Lithuania, Poland, Al- sace-Lorraine, bicycle riders, and married couples who do not have large families! “Down with Charlie Chaplin! Down with the American Associ- ation of Scientists! Down with Braizi! Down with Robert For- sythe! Down with the Negroes, the Ghinese, the Armenians, and the Koreans! Down with the presidents of Smith, Vassar, Yale, Harvard, amd the University of Chicago! “Down with Thomas Mann! Down with American cameras and the Spanish loyalist mothers and their babies! Down with Aus- tralia! Down with Dorothy Thompson! S “In facet, down with everything" Down with Christmas and Santa Claus! We are Nazis, we hate everyone and everything! We are pbuilding a new brown world. For- ward, to the brown and bloody So they fractured Santa’s skull, dawn!” and broke his arm, and kicked in his teeth, and stomped on his bag of toys, and pulled out his white whiskers, in that jolly but system-— atic style they had been taught at their colleges of Strength Through Joy. Then they put a placard around Santa’s neck, saying, “I Am a Dirty Jew from the North Pole,” and marched old Santa through the streets, while people lifted their arms and heiled Hitler in a wonderfully trained manner — though it did seem as if many Congratulations— Void! Even the rigidly-censored Nazi press slips up sometimes. German trade paper, “Shoemar— ket,’ recently congratulated a Herr M. Pels on celebrating his fiftieth birthday. “Herr Pels,” it said, “is well known for his in- tesrtiy, untiring energy, and ex- pert knowledge of the shoe trade. May we express the birthday wish that Herr Pels will remain in our midst for many years.” Wext week, however, the fol- lowing paragraph appeared: “In our last issue we published a birthday notice about a certain Pels, which was sent to us from a source that we believed to be reliable. We have been the vic- tims of a hoax. Pels is a Jew, and we declare the birthday no- tice about him to be void.” The What Other Papers Say The BBC in announcing a recent visit of Sir Montague Norman, of the Bank of England, to Dr. Schacht, the Nazi economics ex- pert, explained that it was a purely personal visit, and that its object was to allow him to be present at the christening of one of Dr. Schacht’s grandchildren. And if we know Worman, the British people will be left holding the baby!—Daily Clarion, Toronto. Fifty million smackers were planked down within five minutes for the CNR bonds which were put on sale last week. Apparently the men of pelf have no objection to getting in on that CNR debt they deplore so much. By the way, are you one of those who believes money is scarce?—Daily Clarion. N more people only looked a little Sick, as if they had ptomaine, but could so many have ptomaine at the same time? @ T SEEMS that Santa didn’t have a lege to stand on. The poor old bewildered friend of children had never read the papers, as I said before, and simply wasn’t interest- ed in politics. He never thought of himself as a politcal figure, nor did the millions of children whom he tried to make happy. But the Nazi officers accused him, first, of being an internation- alist. Hadn’t he brought presents without discrimination to children of every race and nation? Yes, he answered, of course. Se they Ikicked him around some more for that, and called him internation- alist. Then they asked him, Are you a Jew? 3 I’ve forgotten, he answered. Don’t lie, they shouted, and kicked him some more. They produced the genealogical records. Santa. Claus is really Saint Nicholas, a Palestinian Jew who had once carried the infant Jewish Christ across a raging river, and has Since been revered by the worshippers of Christ. Santa means saint, and Klaus is a German diminutive of the name Wicholas. The evidence was plain that he was a Jew. Then they asked him the third question: Did you ever charge money for the present you gave? No, he answered. Why? they roared. It never entered my head to try to make money out of the joy and life of children, he confessed. That is Communism, they then roared, and beat him some more. @ O NOW Santa Claus is in a con- centration camp, where he has been condemned on the triple charge of being a Jew, a Commu- nist, and an internationalist. It looks pretty bad for the dear old saint. The Nazis realize he is a popular and well-beloved figure, and have placed a larger ransom en him than on the other Jews they have kidnapped. If all the children in the world will give a penny each, maybe we ean buy back our Santa Claus from the Nazis. They are badly in need of money and food for their wars, and will not kill Santa if they think they can get us to raise this ransom. What do you think, kids of America? Shall we start a collec- tion ot rescue our Santa, or might a better way be to first overthrow these horrible gangsters who kid- map even the children’s saint? . divide-up, none had the same privilege cr measure of self-determination as the Ukrainian people living on the southern slopes of the Carpathian mountains in the district called Ruthenia. They, at least, chose to live as part of the new Czechoslovak republic. This decision was reached by a plebiscite which was almost unanimous. They had no opportunity te con—~ sider the Soviet Union, but no Poland, no Hungary, no Rumania for them. Today, lying Nazi propaganda iS at work falsify— ing history while it is still in the making. General Haushofer, friend, confidant and fellow-criminal of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s number one stooge, writes in Geopolitik for November: “National sentiment is, developing in sub-Carpathian Wikraine; the popula- : tion desires union with all the Ukrainians, those of Poland, of Rumania and of Russia.” The national sentiment, aspirations and desires of the Ukrainians in Ruthenia, in Poland, in Bukovina, in Bessarabia, is not any stronger today than when the Germans were plundering in the Ukrainian lands of their Austrian allies or when the Kaiser’s armies set up and maintained a government of yes- men until they were driven out by the people of what is now the Soviet Ukraine. Croc dil The erocodile sympathy of the = = Wazis for the developing and fos- Tears. tering of “Ukrainian nationalism” is not new. The build-up of a Ukrainian national liberation movement by forcing the Ruthenians into an “autonomous state,” as a center for Nazi propa-— ganda aganist the Soviet Union, is not a new scheme, _ although it has been furthered by the aid of Cham-— berlain and Daladier in the smashing of the Czecho- slovak republic, of which Ruthenia was a part. Last spring, just after the conquest of Austria by the Nazi hordes, the official organ of Hitler’s agents in Canada, the Deutsche Zeitung fur Canada, pub- lished in Winnipeg, carried an inspired article en- titled “The Ukraine, a Huropean Probiem.””. The pur pose of this unsigned “special correspondence” was to show that the Ukrainian people, all of them, are as different to the Russians as the Breton Hrench are to the Florentine Italians and the Catalonian Spaniards; that the Ukrainians were scandalously treated by the Russians; that what they need is a liberation movement to free them from the tender mercies of the Third International, from the Com- munist despots. And, of course, the liberty-loving and high-souled Nazis are not only willing but eager ; to father this “liberation movement,” since “the Uk-— raine is entitled to liberate herself from the Soviet Union at any time.” : The liberating fervor of the gang Cupboard of murderers and thieves who Love. have smothered every semblance of liberty in Germany, the burning desire for UE- Yainian freedom, may NOT have its basis im the fact, as stated in the Deutsche Zeitung fur Canada, that “the Ukraine, which has been deseribed as the granary of Russia, formerly supplied about 70 per cent of the whole Russian cereal exports, with a cultivation area of about 112 million acres. Thirty million head of cattle were at hand, while five-sixths of the beet-sugar and two-thirds of the tobacco pro- duction of all Russia came from there. The ¢oal re- serves have been estimated at 56 million tons. Fur- thermore, the land has rich deposits of silver, lead, mercury, copper and iron ore.” But remember the Russian proverb, “The chicken dreams of millets,” and that the half-million German soldiers in the Ukraine in 1918 robbed the country of one and a quarter billion bushels of grain, 120 million pounds of beef, 400 million eggs and everything else that was not nailed down. They would be doing it yet but were chased out by the Ukrainian people. This is what Hitler meant when he told the world about two years ago what the Germans could do if they only had the Ukraine. All their moves today, the setting up of an “autonomous” state, and now, dickering with the Grand Duke Viadimir to become king of the Ukraine, are all part of the settled policy of robbery and spoilation of other peoples—on which fascism is founded. A Vicious Ti isan anomalous situation which = = places the King government in 2 Buttinski. reactionary position, when the Nazi disturbers of world peace are allowed to main— tain an official spokesman and active worker im Ganada, who interferes with the internal life of the Canadian people, as Consul-General Roedde did a few days ago when he denounced Bishop Sinnot’s criticism of Jew-baiting and persecution of religion. We remember how another King government ex pelled the trade representative of the Soviet govern- ment from Canada on the demand of the British Tory fovernment in 1926, although Mackenzie King himself admitted the meanness of the action he was: committing on that occasion, when he partially apologized to the Soviet representative, and tried to take a little credit to himself when he said, “My grandfather, too, was a revolutionist.” And since the organ of the Soviet government, Izvestia, is banned from Canada, why is the scurri- lous organ of the Nazi party and government, Deutsche Zeitung fur Canada, which aims at the destruction of all Canadian democratic institutions, allowed to circulate here without let or hindrance? The Prime Minister should be made to explain this during the present session of Parliament. Iron Among the unctuous laudatory phrases that garnished the pages Gall. of the local daily press during the recent visit of the Iron Heel, no references were made to the outstanding accomplishments of his career,—the jailing of the Communist Party leaders and turning the Mounties on the Treklers at Re- gina. Nobody among the hand-shakers and spouters said 2 word about “derelicis,’ Bennett's mame for the unemployed Canadians on the eve of the last election. On his own showing, Bennett was described much better in Chatham, N.B. when he was leaving there to inflict himself on the West. Speaking in Calgary at a farewell banquet, he told how a Chatham jour-— nalist advised him he had “the three qualities which will ensure success: some ability, great persistence and perseverence, and the essential of the trinity, gall.” That newshawk knew his “great statesman.” Ben- nett sure has the gall! L~-;