Page Four

THE PEOPLES ADVOCATE

THE
PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

Published Weekly by the Proletarian Publishing
Association, Reom 20, 163 West Hastings Street,
Vancouver, B.C. Phone TRHRinity 2019.
editor: Hal Griffin

One Wear 2 $2:00 Three Months _$ .60
Half Year ——.__...$1.00 Single Copy ———--$ -99

Make All Gheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate

Vancouver, B.C. - Friday, August 25, 1939

—

~

=n
The Federationist

Aids Reaction In
Attacking USSR

SS 4)
T A TIME in world history when the trai-
torous policies of the Chamberlain goy-
ernment have brought the peace-loving peo-
ples of the world face to face with the greatest
erisis since the world war, when the need is for
clarity of the tremendous issues confronting
the people and, above all else, for united ac-
tion of the people to save peace, at this time
the CCF JIeadership in British Columbia
chooses to create confusion, to divide the peo-
ple and objectively to aid reaction in its at-
tempts to destroy the world’s first socialist
state. :

Here is what the Federationist says:

“One of the Vancouver dailies, in a leading
editorial, states that ‘if the pact is designed
to stay the hand of France and Britain in their
honest effort to bring peace and stability to
Europe, it becomes one of the most outstanding
examples of double-dealing and diplomatic
chicanery modern times have seen.’

“We would go further than that and say
that it is a betrayal, but not a betrayal of the
governments of France and Great Britain. ‘in
their honest efforts to bring peace and stability
to Europe.’ It is a betrayal of the working-
class of the world.”

Save that it differs as to whom or what has
been “betrayed,” the Federationist, in its own
words, finds itself at one, not only with the
capitalist press, but with the spokesmen of
the British Foreign Office, in its attack on the
Soviet Union. :

The CCF organ which has repeatedly denied
the attainment of socialism in the Soviet
Union, which voiced disapproval of the Soviet
Union’s swift justice against the Trotskyist
agents of fascism, now presumes to ask: “And
what of the consequences of the new align-
ment on the socialist and labor movement?”
Apparently, the writer of the Federationist ar-
ticle does not know the difference between a
non-agsression pact and a military alliance.

Insidiously the Federationist answers its
own question. “The results are already appar-
ent. Since the Russian revolution, there has
been a large amount of support and sympathy
for the Soviet Union- among the working peo-
ple of the world. Russia was regarded as the
bulwark against international reaction. The
Nazi-Soviet pact has done much to destroy
working-class confidence in the USSR.”

This, written before the non-aggression pact
was even signed, makes inescapable our own
conclusion that the un-named writer of the
Federationist article is indulging in some wish-
ful thinking.

The Federationist, while acknowledging that
““here is no doubt that the British government
would be willing to throw Russia to the fascist
wolves,” yet condemns the Soviet Union for
taking action calculated to prevent the British
reactionaries from accomplishing this very
ann.

The entire article abounds in contradictions
and distortions. Its concluding remark that
the CCF “must put forth every effort to work
with those forces that make for international
justice and consequently world peace,” is its
crowning hypocrisy. The same paper which
has constantly upheld the CCF. leadership’s
refusal to permit unity with other democratic
forces for defeat of reaction in Canada, thus
ensuring Canada a government pledged to
halt fascist aggression and to work for peace,
now talks vaguely of cooperating with those
forces “that make for international justice.”
Tt does not, significantly, define what it means
by ‘‘the forces that make for international
justice.”

Dismally the Federationist fails to give a
lead to the people in this time of crisis. It
ignores the consistent fight of the Soviet
Union for peace. It can only attack the Soviet
Union. It can only sow doubt and confusion
when the need is for confidence and clarity. It
does not point to Chamberlain as the betrayer
of world peace. It can only accuse the Soviet
Union of having “betrayed” the working class
of the world, in the name of which it presumes
to speak. It does not advocate unity of the
people to force a strong stand for peace from
the King government. It says only “that war
is made inevitable because of the social system
based on private property in the means of pro-
duction.” While declarnig that the “socialist
must strive te counteract the tendency to
adopt a defeatist attitude,” it spreads de-
featism.

We do not believe that the great majority of
CCF supporters who understand better than
their leaders, apparently, the unending fight
for peace conducted by the Soviet Union, the
necessity for the Soviet Union as a socialist
state encircled by capitalism to undertake
measures to defeat the machinations of its
enemies, will agree with the Federationist.
Rather, we believe sincere CCF supporters
will join with all other peace-loving Canadians
in demanding of the King government that it
break with the policies of Chamberlain which
have again brought the world to crisis and
talre a firm stand for peace.

BANNEEING "THE FRUIF

Why the Government Stops the History of the CPSU

By TIM BUCK

Le [ HE customs ruling prohibiting importation of copies of the Histery of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union (B) into Canada from the United States is a glaring example of the
ength to which the King government is going in its efforts to satisfy reaction. The “explana-

tion” that the book is prohibited because it advocates foree and violence is ridiculous.

The

eee Paragraph of the entire book upon which such an “explanation” can be based is one of
a ee on page nine which states what Marx and Engels taught the working class concerning
e historical inevitability of socialism as a result of the struggles of the workers arid the over-

throw of the capitalist system.

if the Right Hon. Mackenzie
King prohibits repetition of pub-
lic facts such as these (which are
already available in most public
libraries in Canada) he may soon
be asked to prohibit the bio-
Braphy of the famous grand-
father from whose rebellious au-
dacity he strives to catch reflect-
ed glory. Certainly he will be
asked to prohibit biographies of
lis great little grandfather's ally,
Louis Joseph Papineau. Of sev-
eral of the greatest figures in
British history such as, for ex
ample, Oliver Cromwell, he will
have to prohibit not only biogra-
phies but records of speeches and
letters and sermons as well,

It is obvious that if the King
government were governing its

actions by considerations sug-
gested in the official “explana-
tion’ it would also prohibit the

importation of Hitler’s Mein
Kamf. That feverish collection
of misinformation, prejudice, and
incitement to war, riot and race
hatred, is admitted entry, how-
ever, with every facility that a
Liberal government can grant to
poison our people’s minds.

The official excuse is that the
History is banned because it ad-
yocates force and violence is too
flimsy to be even considered as
the real reason. The real reason
why the King government adopts
such extreme measures to pre-
vent Ganadians from reading this
important book springs from an-
other source. The real source 15
to be found in the fierce hostility
of big capital and all its reaction-
ary supporters to the tremendous
events and working class achieve-
ments that the Short History of
the C.P.S.U. CB) records and ex-
plains.

History of Working
Class Victory

T IS the history of the party

which has led a hundred and
seventy million people, of varied
nationalities, through gigantic
struggles to Socialism. The his-
tory of the only party and the
only people that have so far ac-

complished this historic task
successfully. Furthermore, the
history of the Communist party

of the Soviet Union since Novem-
ber, 1917, necessarily includes the
history of every decisive issue
that has confronted the USSR
itself. That part of the History,
therefore, is a history of one
sixth of the earth in the period
of transition from capitalism to
socialism under the conditions of
hostile capitalist encirclement.

Tt is the history of the struggle
foreshadowed by Lenin when he
wrote, in August, 1915, that the
victory of socialism would pos-
sibly come first in one single
country and not simultaneously
throughout the capitalist world
as the wishful thinking of the
social-democrats had led work-
ers to believe. Lenin pointed out
the tremendous significance of
such a victory. It would mean
that the victorious proletariat of
that country would have to or
eanize socialist production in the
‘face of the opposition of the hos-
tile capitalist world and would
have to stand against the hostile
capitalist world “attracting to its
cause the oppressed classes of
other countries.” (1)

The Short History of the CPSU
CB) is the record of how that
historic task has been earried
through to date. Itisa record of

world, and history, shaping
events. It is a history in the
bighest sense of the term in

that it describes not only what

1. Selected works Vol. 5,
141.

page

the Communist party and, under
its leadership, the Soviet people
have done, but why and further-
more, to the discomfit of reac-
tionaries throughout the capital-
ist world—how. the gigantic prob-
lems bave been solved success-
fully. How the schemes of in-
ternational capital and reaction-
ary governments have been de-
feated and the victory of socialism
achieved. This, and not any Spe
cial advocacy, is what reaction
hates and fears and it is in the
effort to comfort reaction that
the Kine government has banned
this record of mighty socialist
achievement while allowing Hit-
ler’s vicious Mein Kamf to enter
Canada freely and circulate
everywhere to the detriment of
the morals and the mutual rela-
tionships of Canada’s people.

Modern Originators
Of Undeclared War

HERE are sections of the His-
tory of the CPSU (B) that
make anything but pleasant read-
ing to the reactionaries who are
striving to belitile the might of
the Soviet Union. Parts of it
are likely to be even less palat—
able to those chauyinstic imper-

ialists who resent mention of
“incidents” in which the role of
Britain has been so questionable
as it was in the attempts to
erush the youthful Soviet repub-
lic and restore control of Russia
to the landlords and the Roman-
offs immediately after the first
world war.

The History deals with this per-
iod objectively, but without
gloves, so far as the imperialist
states are concerned. It reminds
the world of the fact that Hitler,
Mussolini and Japan did not ori-
finate the practice of waging un-
declared ‘wars. After outlining
the efforts and self-sacrifice by
which the Soviet government
gained a respite the History
shows that the Entente powers:
“Britain, France, Japan and the
United States, started their mili-
tary intervention without any
declaration of war.” ... “These
‘civilized’ marauders secretly and -
stealthily made their way to Rus-
sian shores and landed their
troops on Russia's territory.” (2)

With collapse of the German
armies on the western front Ger-
man troops withdrew from the
Ukraine and Transcaucasia. This
did not relieve the Soviet people,
however. The Ukraine and, espe-
cially, Transcaucasia, were parts
of the territories in which the
Britsh government demanded
specal privileges as the price of

2 The History dces not mention
Canada, but the Tory govern-
ment under Arthur Meighen
sent a Canadian force to Si-
beria.

its military aid to the Russian
landlords and nobility. (3) Ger-
man troops were therefore
promptly replaced by British and
French forces. Sch was the bru-
tality of the Emtente forces of
intervention that they did not
hesitate to shoot whole batches of
workers and peasants in the oc
cupied regions.

Dealing with this aspect of the
undeclared war of the “demo-
eratic” states against the youth-
ful republic the History quotes
the example of the seizure and
prutal murder of 26 leading com-
munists of the city of Baku.
These facts do not make pleasant
reading for the reactionary im-
perialists. Its precisely because
they are so little known, however,
that the King government is
committing a crime against Can-
adian democracy by banning the
book which states them in un-
varnished terms and with com-
plete unquestioned authority.

Why the

Soviets Won

VEN if the History of the
CPSU (B) dealt with the
shameful story of imperialist in-
tervention alone it would be easy
to understand the desire of re-
actionaries to keep it from the
working Class. In addition to the.
salient facts of the crime of in-
tervention, however, the History
shows why workers and peasants
of the Soviet republic were able
to defeat the armies of interven-
tion, and their counter-revolution-
ary allies, the white - guardist
generals, in spite af the imper
jalist blockade and a general si-
tuation such that “not a single
military expert believed that the
Soviet government could win.”
The History shows why “the
miracie,” as Lenin termed it,
could be wrought and it goes fur-—
ther and illustrates exactly how
it was done. It teaches, by illus-
t¢ations from life, the tremen-
dous lessons that the war of in-
tervention and the Red army
which defeated the intervention-
ists provided. “The Red army
men understood the aims and
purpose of the war and their
leading core, both at the front
and in the rear, was the Bolshe-
vik party.”

3. This was acknowledged by
Winston Churchill in his book
The Crisis.

The History illustrates, by its
record of decisive events, the im-
portance of the proletariat win-
ning allies to its struggle against
yeaction, and nowhere does it
bring cut the importance of such
allies, and the wide possibilities
of gaining them, better than in
its record of the struggle against
intervention and civil war-

The allies who aided the Bol-
sheviks during those trying days
svere not alone the poor and mid-
dle peasants of the Soviet land.
Millions of workers in eapitalist
countries were inspired by the
Heroic struggle of the Soviet peo-
ple and the leadership of the
Bolshevik party. Millions join-
ed in the collections of medical
supplies, food, money and every
imaginable type of assistance to
the embattled Soviet government.
The struggles and successes of
the Soviet people enlisted the
sympathy and support of prole-

tarians of the whole world.
‘Hands off Soviet Russia,” be-
came the universal slogan of the
international workers movement.

In Canada that slogan was
raised in thousands of mass meet-
ings and demonstrations. The
Western conference, which
launched the movement to organ-
ize the One Big Union in March,
1919, adopted resolutions of sol-
idarity ‘with the Soviet govern-
moent, sent cables of greetings
and solidarity to the Soviet work-
ers and the Red army and called
for workers’ opposition to inter-
vention. The Canadian Gommit-
tee for Medical Aid to Soviet Rus-
sia, The Canadian Friends of
Soviet Russia, the Committee of
Technical Aid to Soviet Russia
and numerous other channels of
aid to the embattled Soviet gov-
ernment collected hundreds of
thousands of dollars and were
supported by all sections of the
labor movement and wide sec-
tions of the farmers. (4)

In that period every big strike
was marked by expressions of
solidarity with the Soviet fovern-
ment. When the British govern- ~
ment tried to ship arms and am-
munition to the Polish reaction-
aries for use in their unprovoked
and undeclared attempt to invade
Soviet territory the British work-
ers set up councils of action and
forced the government to stop
shipment on pain of a general
strike.

Commenting upon the magnifi-
cent demonstraticns of solidarity
in those days Lenin wrote: “The
jnternational bourgeoisee has on-
ly to raise its hand against us to
have it seized by its own work-
ers.”

4. Delegates to a UFA conven-
tion in Edmonton contributed
nearly $2000 in a voluntary
collection for famine relief in
1921.

Reaction hates to have these
facts brought to the attention of
the worikng class particularly as
an integral part of a systematic
exposition o fthe entire gigantic
struggle in which the workers
were victorious and imperialist
reaction met defeat But the
events recorded by these facts
were part of the most stupendous
change that mankind has ever
witnessed. It opened a new epoch
of human histery and the King
government places itself on a par
with the inquisition by trying to
prevent the Canadian working
class from studying the truth
and the rich lessons it contains.

Facts of History

TUDY of those lessons is doubly

necessary for Canadian work-
ers now when a large part of the
world is already involved in the
second imperialist war. One of
the richest sections of the BHis-
tory of the CPSU (B) is that
which deals with the role of the
Bolsheviks during the imperial-
ist war of 1914-18 and its lessons
are pregnant with meaning for
the working class student of to-
day. “The Bolsheviks were not
mere pacifists who sighed for
peace ...’ Linking up the cause
of peace with the cause of the in-
ternational working class, they
held that: “the surest way of
ending the war and securing a
just peace ... was to overthrow
the rule of the imperialist bour-
geoisie.”

In the situation existing today
study of the history of their
struggle against the imperialist
war provides a fuiding line by
which the road of peace and pro-
‘eress may be followed. Today, as
in 191617, Communists link the
cause of peace with the cause of
the international working class.
Today they are able to point with
pride and assurance to the
mighty USSR as proof of the
correctness of the policies for
which the Bolsheviks under Len-
in and Stalin have fought.

The achievements of Socialism
and a new, higher type of demo-
cracy, is now a fact of history.
It is true that none of the text
books used in our piiblic schools
admit it but it already influences
the world in a thousand ways,

This achievement has been the
objective toward which the ef-
forts of the Soviet people, under
the guidance of their Communist
party led by our magnificent
teachers, Lenin and Stalin, have
been directed for nearly 20 years.
Little as big capital relishes it,
the achievement is concrete ana
too obvious to be denied. No gov-
ernment of an English-speaking
country, indeed, no “democratic”
government except that of Mac-
Ikenzie King has gone to the
length of prohibiting the official
history of how it was done. Bor
the good name of Canada and to
make this historic book available
to the Ganadian working class
movement it is to be hoped that
public protest will compel with-
drawal of the departmental rul-
ing under which it is now kept
our.

SHORT
JABS

by OV Bill

L

iow much honor, or glory, ow

A Rum common decency, is shed on th | : Thi
Affair. city, the courts, the judges, th

bottles of the demon rum? |
The cops were found not guilty. But if nothin 7
more comes out of Mayor Telford’s charges, th |és
dirty linen washed and hung out on the line i jf
this odorous affair should justify our energeti {>
mayor in the eyes of all right-thinking people wh
have the welfare of the city at heart. ile:
If some of the citizens who gave evidence, th |=
police who -admittedly accepted presents (no |i
bribes), of the much discussed jorums of rum ans¢
the legal dignitaries involved in the case, are typice | a
of the social and intellectual standing of the cit), pyil
we must be in an advanced stage of moral degre  &:<
dation. ad
The cops admitted getting the rum. One of ther if
claimed a four-year-long friendship with the taxi 7+
man who donated the fiery liquid; a man who we -7.
coupled with another of the witnesses by MeCro; |
san, the defense lawyer, when he spoke of *
couple of scoundrels and plackmailers.” Most pe ©
euliar friendship for a man who is already rein |
stated on the police force. 2
‘And now that it is proposed to ask the city coune)
to feot the bill for the legal costs of the two cop;
will the city council get the rum? And if the coun
cil does get it, who will get in on the drinking of it

¢ : The acceptance of any gift by”
Public policeman or other public sen
Spirit ant from one who stands in sus &<

an umenyviable position as that ascribed to thes #5
accusers and witnesses by such an outstandin =i
public-spirited member of the legal profession 4 fe
George McCrossan, whether as a bribe or merely: |)
present denoting a firm and deep friendship, is im px
defensible New Work’s energetic and progressiy ©
LaGuardia has recently issued, correctly, the may:
oral dictum, that no one connected with the cif *@:
government shall take or give even a Cigar. So” i,
should be here. iS

The calibre of “public spirit’ which obtains i
this city among the elements opposing Telford we —
indicated by one of the defense witmesses who a
mitted that he was influenced to tell the truth é
he knew i, to the police, because his company
business had dropped to about $5 a day after “th
mix-up.” =

The judge, too, showed a bias which proved h =
was no Solomon. He was confused in his judick e
poise as in his English. He did not believe a polict |=!
man “would sell his birthright for a rotten bot)
of rum.” Just whether it was the bottle or the ru
which was rotten is not quite clear. The cops wk
were not bribed would probably be better able!
pass judgment on the quality of the rum than &
learned cadi.

A news item in the mornin |
paper announced that an 6
man had dropped dead in @
street the previous day. Just a commonplace pie
of news; nothing dramatic or tragic about it as th
paper told the story.

But when the real facts are known, the incid& 4;
bears all the marks of the tragedy of the workit
class. He was an old-timer, 60 years of age. He he
come to Vancouver when Hastings was only 2 co
trail. He had been a sailor in his younger day
then worked for the department of fisheries a
marine, making records of the tides on the coast.

In February of this year he was afflicted with
slight stroke. Treated at the General hospital, }
spent his savings meeting his bills. He came Gi
broke and had to go on relief for the first time
his life. The doctors told him to take nourishi
food—they did not tell him how to get nourishi
food on $13.20 a month, after paying rent and pr
viding himself with clothing. 3

Wor did he collapse suddenly and die on
street. The facts are that he fell sick in his roor
His landlord sent him to the General hospital iné
ambulance.

His landlord claims that the hospital people te
him he had TB, and they either did nothing +
could do nothing for him. He was turned loose fro
there at three o’clock the same day. Byesix o’elot
he had managed to get close to where he livt
down town. It was then he collapsed on the stret
not from TB but from a cerebral hemorrhage. *
passed a pioneer! a

Another case relates to a woman whose paren
were here before the fire. LPhey helped to Jaun'
the new town and make it what it is today. Th
are dead now, but their daughter, about 50 yee
of age, is the owner of the home they built @
of the fruit of their labor.

She has fallen on the hard times from which met
people suffer in this age of prosperity. One rest
is that she has been unable to meet her taxes f
the statutory period and now the city is going
take her home from her. Such is the fate of anoth
pioneer!

Pioneers

With their original ballyt
She Done worn out and stripped of
Him Wrong. giamour, the Oxford group &
had to turn to some new line to keep themselves
the limelight. “Moral Rearmament” was the answ

But “Moral Rearmament” is not going over
well It is taking quite a beating from the otf
kind of rearmament, the rearmament which Pp
its money on battleships, tanks, planes and
tillery.

A century and a half ago, Emgland’s great
admiral, Nelson, stated that “the best negotiator *
Europe today is a battleship.’ Rearmament }
again brought Europe to that stage. :

Moral Rearmament is responsible for only ©
worthwhile contribution, and that, which is to =
good, to the merriment of nations, rather than)
their politics. It has given us the best piece of 1!
pulling in a generation. t

Mae West, the lady of the Grecian bends, ©
climbed right up to the top ranks since she joi
the union in Hollywood. When she told Dr. BY}
man, the leader of the “Moral Rearmament” me
ment, that “Its philosophy has been a great heb
and that she “had been practising its philosophy,
recent years,” she started a ripple of laughter]
Hollywood and in the American newspaper we
which will take a long time to die down.

It’s a long time since a visitor to America |
had his lege pulled so beautifully. Buchman did ©
appear to know he was being joshed when she \
him, “You're doing fine, Doctor.” a

When she further told him to get to Bill Fick
the most likeable montebank in America, B
they start their next picture, and get him full
moral rearmament, she probably had in her
eye a demijohn of corn whisky or Jamaica sr

But then, how was poor Buchman to know eil
Mae West or Bill Fields.