THE ADVOCATE

Page Five

By F. DANIELS

I IE6GHTER FOR FREEDOM

—COPENHAGEN.

IGHT years ago Berlin was plastered with gigantic posters: ‘Who votes for Hindenburg de-
% feats Hitler!’ said one of these posters, and it carried the signature of the German Social
Pmocratic party. Who votes for Hindenburg y otes for Hitler!” said another one of these post-

f

la sited for this best representative
iy y German labor, for Thaelmann,
‘rl von Ossietzky, winner of the
jbel Peace Prize, who later died
jom the sufferings of five years

an je eens of camp, wrote then,
4

im than five millions then

ithe spring of 1932, an article in
Ute weekly ‘Die Weltbuehne’
i} Guich finished with the phrase: ‘I
a v-e for Thaelmann” In this ar-
t
L

a to power if the German labor
td progressive forces did not
lite. Tht article was a forceful
dictment of the policy of the

: “%:rman Social-Democrats.

sn spe at ne 2 v4

‘No one has worked harder to
_ jing about this unity of the Ger-
‘jan working class than Ernst
t thaelmann, leader of the German
* Hmmunist party. A longshore-
» Gan before the first imperialist
; orld war, Ernst Thaelmann pos-
' $sses all the high virtues which
arl Marx has Joved and prais-
> | in the German working class.

| When, in 1917, Karl Liebknecht
| Jade his historical demonstra-
 Eazet

against imperialist war,
jaelmann was among those who
iderstood the profound import-
t Fice of this revolutionary act,
€ Sid he waS among those who
} jorked for the ending of the im-
}rialist slaughter through a pop-
ar uprising,

He felt, from the very first day

the October Revolution, the
abreakable link which connects
= ‘ie masses of the Soviet Union
id the workers of the capitalist
yuntries.

While at the head of the Com-
junist party, Hrnst Thaelmann
ade it the task of his life to
sing about unity of action of the
bor Movement which alone
' }uld protect it from fascist slav-
s Unswervingly he tried to
srsuade the Social Democratic
orkers of the terrible dangers
hich the rising Nazism repre-
-tmted, and he approached the
@>cial-Democratic leadership nu-
\.erous times wth proposals for
5 united front. They were all re-
» cted,

WN the November election Hitler,
. for the first time in four
ars, had lost votes, two million
= them. The Nazi movement
"as in the midst of a terrible fin-
neial crisis and torn by internal
sud between Hitler and Gregor
Vtrasser. The German workers
‘ere burning for action. They
) it the chance to crush fascism
srever in Germany. Goebbels,
). his book, From the Kaiserhof
>) the Reich Chancellory, gives a
i sscription of the extremely dan-
ferous situation of the Wazi
irty at that time.

} Again the Social-Democratic
adership. came to its rescue.
istead of using the fighting will
> the Social-Democratic masses
|, create united action with the
Tommunists against fascism, it
srned its hopes to the reaction-
try successor Herr von Papen,
\:eneral yon Schleicher, and the
Viazi leader Gregor Strasser- For
hree months Social-Democratic
"saders were in secret meeting
§ ith these fwo men, and the idea
vhich guided them was to ‘Tre-
Norm’ the reactionary von
Schleicher cabinet by taking in
Nollowers of Gregor Strasser and
'rade union leaders.

These three months of negotia-
ions gave Hitler just the time to
-ecover from the shock of the
W5st elections, to find new finan-
lial support, to oust Gregor
Strasser and to come to an agree-
nent witk von Papen, which led
o the nomination of Hitler as
Reich Chancellor. These three
months gave the reactionary
Social-Democratic leaders just the
Sime to extinguish the burning
jesire and will for fight in the
Social-Democratic Masses and to
¥xill in them the belief that effec-
live resistance against Bitler
sould be put up.
e

™ can understand this ‘leit-
motly’ of the Social-Demo-
cratic policy only if we remem-
S@ber that their Ebert “hated social
revolution like ithe j/pestilence,”
Sand that one of their leaders,
Friedrich Stampfler, who is now
in the United States, wrote a
few months ago in the official
German Social-Democrats that
‘Bolshevism is worse than capi-
calism.”

Vhat was the leading idea that
guided the Social-Democrats
when, in the post-war years, they
ealled themselves ‘the dam
against Bolshevism’ and offered
to the authors of the treaty of
Versailles, France and England,
heir services against the Soviet
Union. This idea guided them
mhen their spokesman, Otto
)Wels, declared in the last meet-
jang of the German Reichstag in
(which Social-Democrats partici-
‘pated, in March, 1938, that the
iSecial-Democrat party agreed
‘with Hitler's foreign policy. This

J

f

@le he foretold the rise of Naz

idea guides the reactionary Ger-
man Social-Democratic leaders
now when they offer their ser-
vices to British and French im-
perialism again.
e
IN the last three months before
Witler’s coming to power, the
German Communist party fought
under Ernst Thaelmann’s leader-
ship with its back to the wall in
order to save Germany from
Wazi barbarism and it continued
this fight underground when the
fascists banned the Communist
party.

In seven—years of-an uninter-
rupted underground strugele
against Nazism, the Communist
party has had heavy losses, More
than two-thirds of its function-
aries were killed or imprisoned.
Among them was Ernst Thael-
mann, who was arrested March
3, 1933, and who since, during
seven long years, has endured
the cruel fate of a prisoner of the
Wazis.

They could isolate him physi-
cally from the German masses,
but they could not kill the love
of German and international
labor for him. They could not

a and it carried the signature of the Communist party. And in big letters, it added: “Vote for
t

kill Thaelmann’s spirit which
Guides the German Communist
party and gives it the force to
withstand ruthless Nazi oppres-
sion and to lead, inside Germany
under conditions without paral-
lel in history, the fight for lib-
erty, socialism and against the
war.

Today Thaelmann is a symbol
for the fight against capitalist
exploitation and imperialist war
all over the world.

in Henri Barbusse’s novel, Un-
der Fire, the French ‘poilu’ dies
with the whisper “Liebknecht.”
Wow in the trenches of the Magi-
not line French Communists talk
of Ernst Thaelmann as they did
in the Spanish war, where in the
ranks of the Loyalist army a
Thaelmann Battalion was fight-
ing and defending the heroic city
of Madrid. And in the trenches
of the Siegfried Line smal] pam-
phiets are circulating asking the
German soldier to fight against
Hitler and the imperialist war,

and telling him the story of this ~

great son of the German people,
Ernst Thaelmann, who has de-
voted his life to the liberation of
mankind from exploitation.

INDIA STRUGGLES
FOR INDEPENDENCE

BOMBAY. ;

qe= Indian National Congress in demanding complete inde-
pendence for India has expressed the demand of the widest
masses of the Indian people, and as a result anti-war demon-
strations and strikes are spreading daily in the large cities and

throughout the provinces.

Barly in the war the Congress
resolutely declared against In-
dia’s being drawn forcibly into
the conflict. It declared that it
would not allow India’s resources
to be used for imperialist ends.

A wave of anti-war strikes and
demonstrations spread through-
out the country. Numerous ar-
rests took place among the revo-
jutionary-minded sections of the
population, a wave of repressions

_which continues to this day and

is the best proof of the anti-war
sentiment.

However, the declaration of the
Indian National Congress was ac-
cepted in different ways by the
Various political parties and class
groupings in the country.

The leadership of the big na-
tionalist organization of Indian
Moslems, the Moslem League, de
Clared that the Congress has no
right to speak on behalf of the
entire Indian people. One of the
‘Liberal’ leaders, Tadj Bagadur
Sapru, recommended that dis-
agreements with the British re-
garding India’s future state sys-
tem be postponed until a time
when “common danger becomes a
thing of the past.” He proposed
establishment of a provisional
federal government of India.

The statement of a British
journal, Roundtable, is worthy of
attention. Mahatma Gandhi, the
paper said, is the leader of a
conciliatory grouping in the In-
dian National Congress and has
declared for cooperation with
Britain in the war without con-
ditions.

These open statements in
Roundtable show upon whom in
India the British government is
orientating and basing itself.
But despite the reactionary
forces, wide masses of the people
are ardently supporting the de-
mands of the National Congress
and British imperialism cannot
avoid reckoning with it.

e

ORD LINLITHGOW, viceroy
of India, invited 52 political
and public figures to Delhi to
discuss the demands presented
by the Congress. Among these
were representatives of Liberals,
Hindu Mabhasabha and several re-
ligious groupings.

But this conference did not
produce the desired results. It
was then that the declaration in
which Linlithgow outlined Bri-
tains intentions to India were
published.

The entire public opinion of
India regarded Linlithgow’s state-
ment as unsatisfactory, As a pro-
test against the declaration resig-
nations were handed in by eight
of the 11 provincial governments,
made up of National Congress
members,

This move by the congress won
the widest popular support. How-
ever, it would be profoundly in-
correct to overestimate the de-
feats of British imperialism in
India.

Despite the fact that the In-
dian people are against render-
ing any aid whatsoever to Bri-
tain, the latter receives this aid
—true, not in the dimensions it
desires.

First and foremost to the aid

of Britain hasten the native

“princes, puppets and mainstay of

British imperialism in India.
Wearly 600 of these princes have
declared their devotion to the
British crown. Indian troops are
already arriving in the Near Fast
for use by Britain, and the first
units of Indian troops have al-
ready arrived in France.

On Feb. 5 Linlithgow made a
new attempt to arrive at an
agreement with the Indian WNa
tional Congress. The viceroy in-
vited Gandhi to Delhi for nego-
tiations,

But these also ended in failure.

NEW point indicating the

Sharpening of Anglo-Indian
relations is the decision of the
working committee of the Con-
Sress to carry through a cam-
Paign of civil disobedience.

The working committee resolu-
tion stresses that India must
have nothing to do with the Eur-
opean war which is being waged
“in the interests of British imper-
jalism.” The working committee
sets itself a task of struggle: In-
dia’s independence.

It is true that Gandhi succeed-
€d in postponing civil disobedi-
enece for several days. Nor is it
to be excluded that the agents of
British imperialism will exert
every effort to hinder the opera-
tions of the working commit-
tee’s decisions. But it is beyond
the power of a handful of con-
ciliators to weaken the striving
of the Indian people to win liber-
ation. The leading force in In-
dia against war is the working
class,

At the very outset of the war
the workers of Bombay cerried
out a one-day anti-war strike in
which 90,000 participated in an
extremely well-organized fashion.

The working class movement
in India is on the upgrade. Ac-
cording to the latest Reuters re-
port, 150,000 textile workers are
now on strike, demanding- im-
proved working conditions,

HE anti-war movement has

Siven powerful impetus to
the liberation struggle of the In-
dian people. Wide masses of the
people see that British rule
brings in its train not only pov-
erty and hunger but also war.

That is why the Indian people,
with renewed enthusiasm, are
fighting for complete indepen-
dence.

In the northern part of India,
in Waziristan, flames of revolt
are shooting up. British troops
operating against the rebels are
meeting with considerable resis-
tance. The echo of these Indian
events is spreading to all Bri-
tain’s colonial possessions.

Tt is no accident that the
chamber of representatives of
Burma, a separate British col-
ony, has adopted a resolution
condemning the action of Britain
in drawing its possessions into
war.

The Burmese chamber has de-
Imanded that Britain recognize
Burma’s independence.

FORUM
of the
PEOPLE

Furnley Gives
His Opinion

To the Editor: I was sum-
lonsed on the following charge:

that I did “unlawfully publish
writing likely to be prejudicial
to the efficient prosecution of
the war,” the ‘writing’ referred to
being two signs displayed at The
Motor Bureau on Feb. 10 read-
ing: ‘The big baboons commit us
to war, then call.on you monkeys
to vote for their management,’
and “We may get business from

the war, but we have no business

in it.’

Evidence against me consisted
of the statements of two police
officers that they had seen the
Signs in question.
messes were called nor was any
evidence produced to prove that
my signs had prejudiced or were
likely to prejudice the efficient
prosecution of the war.

I, finding myself in the position
of one held guilty unless he can
prove himself innocent, tool
about an hour as your newspaper
reported, to give my argument
why I was not guilty of the
charge.

The magistrate found me
guilty, and has given me sus-
pended sentence under bond of
$250 for the duration of the war.

I was going to appeal the case
but considered the effects on my
mind of trying to cope with this
modern form of British justice
might be likely to be prejudicial
to successful prosecution of my
private war against capitilism,
so did not do so.

Yours in fear and trembling,
FRANCES R. TURNLEY
Vancouver, BC.

Seores Attack
Qn Labor Press

To the Editor,—Three hundred
years ago a Man named John
Milton said this about freedom of
the press: “Though all the winds
of doctrine were let loose to play
upon the earth, so Truth be in
the field we do ingloriously, by
licensing and prohibiting, to mis-
doubt her strength, Let her and
Falsehood grapple: who ever
knew Truth put to the worse in
a free and open encounter?”

By banning the Clarion the gov-
ernment can hardly be said to be
on the side of truth.

JAMES STOKES.
Vancouver, BC.

Hits Conditions
In New Zealand

To the Editor: Hats off to the
Wew Westminster Trade Union
committee and many thanks to
‘A Swede’ for his comment on the
Swedish Socialist party in your
March 1 edition. Let's make
‘Swede’ a comparison with the
highly-touted Labor party of New
Zealand,

Excerpts from a letter from
people who went ‘down under’
some time ago will speak in bet-
ter words than my own.

“New Zealand is importing no
more building supplies, and her
Stock is running low. Up to now
She has opened very few of her
naturdl resources. Because her
pound is so low she loses quite
a bit on the exchange of goods,
So that accounts for quite a bit,
and yet the people are led to be-
lieve the war alone is the cause.
You really don’t know where you
Stand.

“This doesn’t seem to be a land
of milk and honey as it is said to
be. I would not advise anyone
to come down here at present.
The most a man can get working
as dad does is £5 ($25) per week.

“Men’s clothing runs about the
Same price as in Canada, but is
of much inferior quality. Wo-
men’s duds are out of the ques-
tion, and shoes and hats are ter-
rible. Room and board runs
about £2 a week. Hood prices
are outrageous.

“Tt’s tough getting a job at
present because they want you
to join the army.

“Irrespective of the fact that
the Labor party has produced a
flourish of prosperity, one signif-
icant point stares us in the face.
Social democracy is not a basic
foundation on which can be laid
the infinite security of a state.

“The cry of the New Zealand
Capitalist should be, ‘Thank God
for the Labor party!’ for has not
the Labor party patched up the
deflated tire of the capitalist?”

A SLAVE.
Vancouver, BC.

Wo other wit- -

SHORT
JABS

by OF Bill

Press Every capitalist newspaper boasts of its circula-
5 tion. It attempts, for business reasons, to con-
Drive. vince its readers and advertisers that it has a
larger circle of people in its following than any

of its rivals.

Several United States papers claim circulations in excess of two
millions, one tabloid even reaching three and a half million for its
Sunday edition. In Britain, one breezy, sunshine dispenser in which
the ex-minister of war, Hore Belisha, lately appealed for British unity.
in a war against the Soviet Union both in Finland and in the Black
Sea area, advertises itself as the paper with the largest circulation
in the world. It prints four million copies of each weekly issue.
It is to be noted that these big floods of lies are weekly papers.

Their claims to being the biggest in the world are only correct if
considered as lies. As papers informing the people of the truth, they
take a back seat. Before the hand of MDaladier struck the
French people, L’Humanite, official organ of the Communist party
of France, was selling close to two million copies daily. It is banned
today, but in spite of that, in spite of Daladier, the Paris Surete (the
French Scotland Yard) and the Two Hundred Families who own
France, it is appearing in twenty thousand copies daily.

But coming back to the real biggest paper. There is one that is
as big as the two largest papers in Britain and America put together.
It does not proclaim this fact to encourage advertisers, for it does not
carry advertisements of any kind. It does not have to lie to please
anyone. The result is the best newspaper published in any country.
It prints eight million copies daily. Because of the size of the country
it is printed in three different editions, north, central and south, all
three being word for word the same. It is the Pravda, official organ
of the Communist party of the Soviet Union.

There is nothing to compare with it anywhere, either for size or
quality. In this Advocate press drive we will do well to take Pravda
for our model. We should aim at building a paper that does not need
advertising and that is big enough in circulation to reach the homes of
every individual whose interests are opposed to those of the capitalist
class.

If we get the circulation we will not have to worry about the ads.
We won't have to worry about donations either. But now, the dona-
tions are absolutely necessary. We have to do our share in this col-
umn, so it is up to every reader to get busy and seee that we do as
well as we did in the last drive. Remember, $305.02.

Whose

Dock? dance of the PCFU held a few days previously.
It was headed, ‘Dance converted into vote-catch-

ing rally for Ian Mackenzie,’

In the following issue there was published a vigorous and indig-
nant protest, over the signatures of two officials of the PCFU. The
contentions of the Advocate were flatly denied in that document and
child-like political innocence claimed for the members of the re-
sponsible committee.

But murder will out, as the authors of the ‘penny horribles’ used
to write. In the Vancouver Sun of March 13 (unlucky day), one
of the staff writers of that paper writes up the new Fishermen’s
dock, which does not belong to the fishermen.

The article endorses to the full the statement of the Advocate,
that the dance was turned into “a vote-catching rally for Tan Mac-
kenzie.” The union is certainly being played for q political sucker
by some of its officials. Two of these, Burnett, chairman of the
fishermen’s dock committee, and Gorry, president of the Vancouver
local of the PCFU, are so highly honored as to get their mugs blazoned
on the pages of the Sun, for the good work they did in this connec-
tion. Neither of them are fishermen. Burnett is associated with the
Aberdeen Fish Curing company and Gorry iS an independent fish
buyer and packer. ,

Tt is easy to understand then, how the Sun reporter can write about
the Fishermen’s dock: ““This project would still be in the dream
Stage but for one man’s cooperation,’ Gorry says. He refers to
Hon. Ian Mackenzie, minister of pensions and health... . Fishermen
of the PCHU are all for Ian Mackenzie.”

And again: “Mr. Burnett and Mr. Gorry, Dan Martin, Percy Sabin,
feneral president of the PCFU, the men who five unlimited credit
for the dock to Mr. Mackenzie, deserve much commendation them-
Selves.” Eiven the Sun newshawk recognizes the difference between
the businessmen, Mr. Burntt and Mr. Gorry, who, with the imperial
Qil company, are interested in the Fishermen’s dock from a business
angle, and the plain fishermen Dan Martin and Percy Sabin, whose
only use for a dock is some place to tie the boat up to. It looks like
Dan Martin, who did so much to build the union, is being played for
a sucker too—no photos of him in the Sun.

According to the Sun, the $50 a month rent the union was to pay,
is a growing concern. It is to increase after the second year to $100
@ month, $175 in the fourth year and $250 in the fifth year, with arbi-
tration to settle the rent thereafter. It looks as though the fishermen

are to pay for the nice present of Tan Mackenzie and the Imperial
Oil company.

A month ago there appeared in the Advocate,
an article about an incident which occurred at a

And the Sun man is wrong in one place. Fishermen of the PCEU
are not ALI for Ian Mackenzie.

Surrender Wot so long ago Socialist and Liberal writers
and newspapermen who escaped from the fascist
No Weapon. hell of Italy found a democratic shelter in Paris

and other French towns where they could print
anti-fascist journals. These were smuggled into Italy to aid in the
struggle for freedom against Mussolini’s brand of tyranny. All this
is now ended.

The first paper to go was La Voce degli Italiani, published by the
Italian People’s Front, which refused to adapt itself to any anti-Soviet
policy. Lately, three pink socialist-liberal papers which fell in with
the official line at the beginning of the war, have been ‘indefinitely
suspended.’ They are, I] Nuova Avanti, Guistizia e Libera, and Giovane
Italiani.

Their compliance did not save them nor will it save any paper or
group in the face of utter reaction!

The Soviet

Hammer.

Picking a successor to Hitler, who will be amen-
able to British and French imperialism, is a pop-
ular sport in certain quarters at present. Neville
Henderson, who was British ambassador to Ber-
lin when ‘appeasement? was the motif of British foreign policy and who
worked hard to give concessions to Hitler during that period, is takin s
a hand in the game.

His nominee is Goering. Henderson appears to be an authroity on

all the inflections, the nuances, of blackguardism. We will take his

word for it. He says, ‘‘Goering might be a blackguard, but not a dirty
blackguard.”

To Follow One of the chief agents of appeasement for
Chamberlain, was Neville Henderson, Bri-

Hitler. tish ambassador at Berlin during the whole
period of that treacherous foreign policy. He has a candidate for Hit-
ler’s job in view. Goering is his choice apparently.

Answering all arguments, he says, “Goering might be a blackguard
but not a dirty blackguard.” Take your choice! ’

PUBLIC MEETING

ORANGE HALL
¢

9OOOOO

Gore Ave. at Hastings

SUNDAY, MARCH 24, at 8 p.m.
MALCOLM BRUCE — Speaker
Subject: “The Irish Faster Rising.”
SILVER COLLECTION é

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