THE ADVOCATE

Published Weekly by the Advocate Publishing Association, Room 20

163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. Phone TRinity 2019
EDITOR - HAL GRIFFIN

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Vancouver, B.C., Friday, November 17, 1939

To Admit Error Is To
Serve The People

Wy EN in September the BC provincial council of the CCF

i called a public meeting in the Moose Hall here to in-
augurate a campaign for defense of civil liberties the editorial
pundits of the capitalist press decried the purpose of the meet-
ing as senseless and unnecessary. Civil liberties in Canada
were safe, they cried; in fact, we were at war in order to
prevent Hitler from taking them away from us.

Tf there were anyone honestly desirous of protecting civil
liberties, freedom of speech and the press, liberty of meeting
and association, who were naive enough to believe these as-
sertions they must now be sadly disillusioned. For all over
Canada liberty is being attacked and foremost in the van of
those who would put gags in the mouths, cotton wool in the
ears, blinkers on the eyes and chains on the limbs of the Ca-
nadian people are precisely those who, like George McCullagh,
Colonel Drew, Premier Hepburn, won notoriety before the
war as admirers and would-be imitators of such aspects of
Hitlerism as suppression of trade union organization and elim-
ination of elected municipal and provincial governments.

All provinces are affected. All those who refuse to en-
thusiastically join the new unholy alliance of the self-styled
crusaders, Messrs. Manion and King are threatened.

Clarte, French-Canadian progressive weekly published in
Quebec, has been banned by the federal government. The
Clarion, published in Toronto has been raided and its busi-
ness manager, Douglas Stewart, arrested and charged under
Defense of Canada regulations on instructions of Ontario
Attorney-General Conant. It was Conant also who threatened
to prosecute 75 United Church ministers who issued an anti-
war message. And although the evident force of public opinion
led him to desist from this course for the time being, he it was
who recently placed two ministers of a minor sect in a Toronto
police dock to face charges of treason because they advocated
peace. Private homes are being raided in Ontario and radical
literature seized is made the basis of police charges.

All over Canada men and women have been arrested be-
cause they distributed a leaflet entitled “The People Want
Peace.” Five such prosecutions are pending in Vancouver.
In Duncan, BC, a young man has been torn from his family
and sentenced to three months in jail because he uttered a
remark that expresses the feelings of tens of thousands of
citizens. And in the provincial house a Conservative MLA,
without rebuke from either Conservative or Liberal leaders,
publicly appeals for lynching parties against Mrs. Dorothy
Steeves and pogroms against all who admire or agree with
her opinions.

5 | eee who are manufacturing this atmosphere of Gestapo-
like terrorism wish to spread shameful fear among the
people. Thus the printer of this newspaper, who is in no way
responsible for anything which we write, now feels that he
must act as our uninstructed censor and refuses to print articles
which the editor sends for publication. Yet the editor has
thus far received no single official complaint from the official
Dominion censor. According to the War Measures Act, how-
ever, says our printer, he could be made liable for articles we
write and publish and pay him to print, whether or not he even
reads them. And statements, true or otherwise, according to
the regulations of the Act, can both serve as a cause of prose-
eution.

Thus it is clear that what is now at stake in Canada are our
most precious Civil liberties of speech and press. The only way
to preserve liberty is to fight in its defense, and this paper
pledges itself to support and help this fight by all means in its
power. We call on our readers to support our fight against
Hitlerism in Canada and urge as a first step, that every help,
moral and financial, be given to aid the defense of the men
and women who are the first to be prosecuted under the War
Measures Act in Vancouver.

Defend Liberty At Home

WNW A recent editorial the Vancouver Daily Province quotes
I the manifesto of the British Communist party issued Oct. 7
and widely circulated in Britain.

According to the Manchester Guardian of Oct. 13 (from
which the Province derives its quotation) the British Commu-
nist party in a later press statement declared:

“By the rejection of a firm peace front with the Soviet
Union the British, French and Polish governments bear
equal responsibility with German Fascism for the present
war. That war is not a just defensive war, but an unjust
and imperialist war in which Britain and Germany are
fighting for imperialist aims, for colonies and world domi-
nation.”

“The continuance of the war is not in the interests of
the British, French and German peoples. The volume of
support received for the manifesto of Oct. 7 has shown
that growing numbers of workers and anti-fascists have
reached similar conclusions on the character of the present
war.”

The Province editorial remarks that this attitude differs
from that expressed in an official statement of the British
Communist party issued on Sept. 14. It might with equal truth
point out that this paper also was, in the first weeks of the war,
confused and indefinite in its attitude to the war, implying an
attitude of conditional and critical support and suffering from
the mistaken idea that such an attitude could serve to make
this a war different in character from that of 1914-18.

We were wrong. Further thought, study and discussion, the
further development of events themselves, served to convince
us that there was no justification for these hopes and the only
honest approach to mistakes is to admit them openly and try
to correct them immediately—particularly when what is at
stake is the lives of millions of people.

On such vital issues equivocation is dishonest and deceitful
and fear of immediate personal or political consequences is
cowardly and opportunistic. To oppose a war, from which the
people can gain nothing, is easy before it starts and after it
ends: to offer limited and critical support as does the CCF in
its official stand, expressed in BC by its leader in the House,
Harold Winch, is also easier. Lo publicly admit political error
is more difficult.

Cer AND FRE WAR

By FERGUS McKEAN

i Geren following the outbreak of imperialist war in Europe, far-reaching changes
have occurred in the relationship, not only of classes, but also of group interests of the
same class. This phenomenon is not confined to the belligerent countries but may be ob-
served in practically all of the neutral states as well. Group imterests are rapidly super-
seded by class interests. Note the unanimity on all basic issues announced by the leadership
of the Liberal and Conservative parties in Canada or Democrats and Republicans in the

United States.

This unanimity so readily dis-
cernible in the ranks of the
bourgeois parties is not confined
to them alone but also includes
the parties of the petty bour-
geoisie. The political represent-
atives of all the propertied class
and those in the organizations of
the s-working class who follow
their behest, fall! over each other
in their haste to grab their share
of the profits and graft to be
made from the war. Hormer prin-
ciples are forgotten and supposed
socialists and labor leaders are
transformed overnight into ard-
ent, flag-waving imperialists.

The alignments which former-
ly existed in France, for instance,
of the Popular Front on the one
hand, composed of Communists,
Socialists, Radical Socialists and
the Federation of Trade Unions
and the national front of fascist
and right wing parties of the
other, is now replaced by a com-
mon front of all officially recog-
nized parties from the Cagoul-

ards to ~the Socialists. These
eonstitute the imperialist war
camp.

The only opposition today is
the outlawed Communist party,
with 500,000 members, the larg-
est party in France, which has
2,000 of its leaders imprisoned,
and the working people who sup-
port it. The arch social-patriot,
Leon Bium, demands of the Com-
munists, either that they with-
draw from the Communist In-
ternational or renounce their na-
tionality. Blum and Jouhaus, in
order to paralyze Brench labor,
again split the trade unions.

Ss
O IN Canada the same process
of dividing the population
into camps takes place.

The Conservative party pledges
its full support to the Liberal
governments. Social Credit fol-
lows the Conservative lead, while
the CCH national council pledges
economic aid in the war. Not to
be outdone, the Trades and Labor
Congress of Canada, dominated
by the top officialdom and with-
out any consideratfon for the
rights of labor, gives unqualified
support to the King government
in the prosecution of the war.

Thus history repeats itself, al-
though in a different setting. As
in 1914,, so in 1939, the top lead-
ership of the Social-Democratic
parties and trade unions conyven-
jently forget their solemn. pledges

and climb aboard the imperialist
bandwagon.

How does the CCF national
council reconcile its stand of
“jimitation of Canadian partici-
pation in this war to the sup-
plying of Canadian resources to
the Allies” with its Regina mani-—
festo, which states: “We stand
resolutely against all participa-—
tion in imperialist wars’? Can
“against all participation” be in-
terpreted to provide for “limita-
tion of Canadian participation’’?
Qf course not

ENUINE socialists cannot

agree to such equivocation.
The war is either a just, progres-
sive war Or an unjust imperialist
war. It is either in the best in-
terests of the working people
and social advance, or it is
against their best interests and
retrogressive. Representatives
of the working people must take
their stand accordingly.

War conditions provide a test-
ing ground for all who profess
to lead the working class. There-
fore it is not surprising that
sharp rifts have already occurred
in the provincial leadership of
the trade unions and more pro-
nounced in the CCE. Compare
Harold Winch’s statement, “We
are in a war for liberty, freedom
and democracy to drive Hitler
out of Europe. We accept that
statement,” with Mrs. Steeves’
“there is no use teaching Ger-
Imans civilization at the point of
the bayonet when we haven’t got
any ourselves.”

It is quite clear, unity between
people with such divergent views
cannot be maintained indefinite-
ly. ‘The sincere working class
elements within the CCE leader-
ship will draw closer to the peo-
ple in opposition to the warmongs-
ering, profiteering bourgeoisie,
while the opportunists and car-
eerists will eventually go over
entirely to the camp of imperial-
ism. Already certain professed
socialists vie with the fascist
lackeys of the monopoly capital-
ists in their scurrilous red-bait-
ing and anti-Soviet slander. They
are the ones who now uphold the
banner of anti-communism.

Grace Macinnis, in her Pedera-
tionist column “World at a
Glance” of Nov. 2, referring to
an article published in the United
States which she says predicts
the Nazis and the Soviet will join

forces, goes on to say: “These
Nazi leaders are not thinking of
the masses. They simply see a
brighter future for themselves in
a bolshevized Germany.” So, a
eommunist Germany will not
help the masses but create a
bright future for Nazi officials.
Where is the spokesman for the
capitalist class who can prove on
this gem of ‘socialist’ reasoning?
Ss

EE conflict between the posi-

tion adopted by such people
as Harold Winch, Arnold Web-
ster and Grace Macinnis on the
one hand and the courageous
stand of Mrs. Steeves, Colin Cam-
eron and Sam Guthrie on the
other, only serve to prove the cor-
rectness of the prediction of Di-
mitrov that, precisely because of
such differences, the continua-
tion of the war will lead to the
disintegration of the parties of
Social Democracy.

However, this does not mean
weakening the unity of the work
ing class. On the contrary, it
means its further unification, 2
unity that will be built up from
below and not through agree—
ments with the top leadership-
Obyiously there can be no agree-
ments between any section of
the working people and leaders
who support the profiteering
monopolists against the interests
of the working people.

The struggle of the working
people to maintain living stand-
ards, to curb profiteering and to
preserve civil liberties against
the attacks of monopoly capital
will intensify with every day the
war continues. The solidarity of
labor exemplified during the
present attack by the provincial
government on the leadership of
the Pioneer miners will continue
to grow.

Having corrected the hesitancy
and erroneous illusions enter-—
tained during the early days of
the war, the Communist party
takes its stand in firm opposition
to the chauvinists and profiteers
on behalf of the real interests of
the working people of Canada.
We realize quite clearly that
there will be casualties in this
struggle between capital and la-
bor, But we also realize that
from the suffering and privation
of the present conflict will- be
created the preconditions for a
new social order on the greater
portion of the globe.

MAN FN THE MOOR

By FRANK PITCAIRN

A WAN from the Moon made a trip to London and Paris this week. He desired to find out

what the war is about.

Happening to land in Paris, he asked: “For what are you fighting?”
“We are fighting,” said Premier Daladier, “for the freedom, the wellbeing, and the demo-

cratie rights of the common people against the menace o

“Splendid,” said the Moon Man.
“Tt should like to meet represent—
atives of these common peopie. I
should be glad, for imstance, to
talk to the leaders of your larg-
est working-class party.’

“We have just locked them up
in jail,” said Daladier, “and if you
ask that sort of question here
we shall pop you in the cooler,
too, to learn about democracy.”

So the Moon Man took off for
London in a hurry.

«s SEE by the posters and the

papers,” he said, “that you are
fighting for democracy, freedom,
and the destruction of Hitlerism.
Also for the security, civilization
and well being of the ordinary
man.

“Tell me, please, what steps
you are taking in pursuit of these

estimable aims.”
“Well, this week,’ said Cham-
berlain, “we have taken the fol-

lowing steps: We are hurrying
through parliament a Bill abol-
ishing local elections. This is in
the interests of democracy.

“Secondly, we produced on
Monday night some statistics to
prove that the rise in the cost of
living is only half what it really
is,

“This is in the interests of the
wellbeing of employers who will
not have to raise wages much.”

‘But will the working people
not protest?” asked the Moon
Man. ‘Will they not demand
higher wages based on the real
eost of living?”

“Many of them are,’ said Cham-
berlain. “The miners, the engin-
eers, the cotton operatives, and
tens of thousands of others. But
that is where our third important
step this week comes in.

“You see on Wednesday we
got the trade union leaders to
agree to establish a joint indus-
trial council with the employers
which will be used to sidetrack
wage demands, strike threats,
and so on.’

“In this way we hope to ensure
that while profits go up and the
cost of living goes up, wages will
always lag behind. We call this

‘equality of sacrifice in the inter-
ests of civilization’.”

“Is it dangerous,” asked the
Moon Man, “to attack the mass
of the people in this fashion?
May they not turn against you?”

“Dangerous or not, it is abso-
lutely necessary,” replied Cham-—
berlain. “We cannot run a war
on any other basis. The cam-
paign against working-class con-
ditions and for the undermining
of their organizations, is an in-
separable part of this war.’

“And which side are these La-
bor and trade union leaders you
speak of really on?” asked the
Moon Man.

“On our side. That is because
they are democrats, fighting for
the wellbeing of the peoples
against Hitlerism.”

“TJ see,” said the Moon Man, as
he took leave of Chamberlain,
“that you are very fully provid-
ed with at least one of the com-—
modities of my own country.”

“Which?” enquired the Prem-
ier. :

“Woonshine,” said the visitor.

- THE course of the week the
Moon Man gathered material
for quite a full report to his local
newspaper, the Moonbeam.

Some extracts from his rough
notes for his article have come
into my possession.

They are somewhat fragment—
ary, being mostly random obser-
vations scribbled down under
various headings. _

For instance, under “leadership
in democratic war’ he has writ-
ten:

“Reputed big man government,
now head of admiralty, was head
of same department in last war
for democracy. vidently has
long practice fighting for demo-
eracy. Understand he is famous
for great democratic victories at
Sydney Street, Antwerp, Galli-
poli, General Strike and Scapa
Flow. Very sporting type. When
810 people drowned in British
battleship he complimented their
attacker.’

A little later on he writes:

“TJnderstand prime minister
‘has been specially selected to

f Hitlerian dictatorship.”

conduct war against Hitlerism on

ground he knows all about it,

having played principal part in

building up Hitlerism.’ 2
eo

INALLY there is a rather con-

fused section under the head-
ing “war aims.” Here the Moon
Man seems to have somewhat
lost track and his notes are little
more than telegraphic jottings.

“‘Fight for freedom’ — see In-
dia. Viceroy refuses freedom de
mands negotiations this week.
Remember secure interview In-
dia Office explain this.

“‘HWtiler our only enemy.’ Ask
Gamrose about newspaper pub-
licity this week. Declare real en-
emy Soviet Union Socialism. Ris-
ing tide bolshevism, etc.

“Security and peace.’ Get Hali-
fax Explain contribution to
peace. Advantage ef British
newspaper and diplomatic incite—
ment of Scandinavia, Finland,
etc, '

“Am informed real war aims
cannot be published because no-
body would fight for them if
they knew what they were.
Therefore necessity pretendims
war aim is just to ‘smash Hit-
ler.’ Ask ministry of information
their views on this.’

if HEARD later that the Moon
man, on the basis of his ob-
servations, wrote a very interest-
ing article for the Moonbeam
which nearly caused a disaster to
his professional career. For hard-
ly had it arrived in the office
when he received a telegram
from the editor saying:

“Pind Facts You List Frank-
ly Bnecredible stop. Unbeliev—
able Such Things Possible
Stop. Lay Off Booze Return
Immediately.”

After an anxious exchange of
telesrams the Moon reporter fin-
ally convinced his editor that his
account was indeed factual and
that all the things he said were
happening really were happen-—
ing.

He then received the following
telegram:

“Why Do They Stand For
It Query. Reply Urgent.”

and |
OPINIONS |

RITERS in Germany, Aus
Czezchoslovakia, Taly 4

tria,
and Spain—exiled for their anti-
fascist activities — have during
recent years found refuge in
France. But now in France, as
in the countries from which they
fled, they once more face concen-
tration camps. News brought to
Wew York by Erika Mann, ang
other writers, indicates that al
most all Austrian. and German ~
writers, up to the age of 60; in
spite of their known antiNazi
beliefs, have been summarily
seized and confined under primi—

barbed wire enclosures. zd
To the long list of exiled writ
ers facing their second period of
persecution, is now added a list —
of French writers imprisoned —
because they called for peace or
questioned the motives of Dain-
dier. :
The following German and ~
Austrian writers are known to
have been taken into custody
some have been released unde
surveillance: E
Franz Werfel, Friedrich Wolf,
Herman Dunker (who is very ill),
Balder Olden, 3
Walter Mehring, Rudi Feistman, ©
Karl Obermann, Kurt Stern, Eliz
abeth Karr, Kurt Kersten, Hans
Watonek, Alfred Wolfenstein,
Wolf Frank, Maria Frank, Fel
Timpe, Max Shroeder, Otto Hell
er, Ruth Lenz (Jensen) and
many others. :
Reports came last week that
the French novelist, Louis Ars-
gon, who was in the United
States for the Writers’ Congress
this summer, has been imprison-
ed for his anti-war writings and
speeches, although he had before
this been publicized as serving in
the front lines
= = =

ONTENTS of the authoritative
news sheet, The Week, pub-
lished in London, are transmitted
by cable to be published simuitane
ously in New York The New
Work editors usually mail back a
copy to London, where editer
Claude Cockburn keeps a file of
US editions.

Recently, the British censors,
who allow the cabling of the con-
tents from London to New York,
have been confiscating the same
material when it is mailed back
from New York to London.

“The censors feel that reading
my own publication might put
dangerous thoughts in my head,”
Cockburn commented.

—MID-WEST CLARION,
Winnpeg.
*

+ *

AST week a Federal Grand

Jury in New Work indicted me
with a demand that I be im-
prisoned for ten years. American
newspapers from coast to coast,
Republican, Democrat and Sa
Cialist, have hailed this indict
ment, and expressed the hope that
it will be sustained. The Grand
Jury acted the next day after the
Republican Party National CGem-
mittee issued a demand for this
action, in the name of Congress-
man J. Parnell Thomas of New
Jersey.

Since today is my first public
appearance since this indictment,
perhaps my audience will pardon
me if I speak about it briefly,
since it is directly connected with
the larger subject of our meet
EES 3 5

My real ‘crime,’ therefore, is
denouncing equally both sides in
the present criminal and preda-
tory war, in advocating a real
neutrality in thought as well as
in deed, and calling for the quick-
est possible ending to the wer.
That is not mentioned in the in-
dictment, however, because on this
question the great majority of the
American people are much closer
to my position than they are to
those who want to send me to
prison.

So, this political prosecution of
the Communist party, designed to
halt its agitation against the im-
perialist war and against Am-
erican involvement in it, is dressed
up as a purely “criminal case”
It is such a transparent hypocrisy
that even many of the worst Te-
actionaries are crying out against
it, perhaps with uneasy consck
ence about similar infractions of
the rules in their own circles and
families. It would indeed be i
teresting if Attorney-General Mur-
phy would begin to unearth and
publish all the cases of travelling
under pseudonyms by prominent
Americans!

Mr. Murphy might find out, for
example, that the name J. Parnell
Thomas is

tional Committee to pick out J.
Parnell Thomas to voice its dé&
mand for my prosecution Tf0F
using pseudonyms in past years,
for this gentleman is himself
sitting in Gongress, took his oath
of office, and is drawing a federal
salary, under a pseudonym. He is

City, born to them on Jan. 16, 1895, [
and christened by them with the
name “John Parnell Feeney, JZ”

—_EARL BROWDER, in 2 {7

speech at Boston, Mass.

A ee Oe ETL REA

thar a

4 “3. it

Gustav “Regler, -

peer reset TN TEIN NETS

itself a pseudonym. §
Yes, it must have been a puckish J
and mischievous fate which di- ©
rected the Republican Party Ne ~

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