THE PEOPLE

Published every Wednesday by The People Publishing Go., Room 104, Shelly Building,
119 West Pender Street, Vancouver, B.C. Telephone: MArine 6929.

EpITor Har Grirriy
MaNacine Eprror’ ---..2-. Kay GRrecory
Busmyess MANAGER -----..----2-2:-.--00.-- EpnA SHEARD

Six Months—$1.00 One Year—$2.00
Printed at Broadway Printers Limited, 151 East Sth Avenue, Vancourer, B.C.

—s

Victory In 1943

qe YEAR 1943 opens, in Lieut.General A. G. L. McNaugh-

ton’s words, with the glint of dawn on the horizon. Neither
for us nor for the oppressed peoples of Europe is the long night
of waiting past, but the new year holds the promise of being

all that 1942 might have been had Hitler’s armies been obliged
to fight on two major fronts at once.

On nearly every front the armies of the United Nations are
taking the offensive, in the Soviet Union, in North Africa, in
Burma, and in the Pacific, in the Solomons and the Aleutians.
And in the difficulties attending his attempt to maintain his
African bridgehead at Tunis while simultaneously striving to
stem the Soviet offensive on the eastern front, Hitler must
already see the pattern of his eventual defeat when he is forced
to fight on two fronts at the same time in Europe itself.

The desperation of the Axis warlords, who have set out to
impose their barbaric fascist rule upon the world and arrayed
all free peoples against them, reveals itself in their speeches.
Hitler can no longer boast, as in other years, that the coming
year will see the triumphs of German arms consummated, not
when those hollow triumphs have so soon been transformed
into defeats by the skill and valor of the Red Army, and not
when the Allied armies are moving into position against him.
Mussolini, his armies shattered in the African desert, can only
exhort the Italian people to prepare their defense against an
Allied invasion. Tojo can only warn the Japanese people that
despite the conquests made by Japan’s armies in the past year,
“the real war is now starting” and they must prepare to face
the United Nations’ counter-blows.

e
ee none will be deceived into believing that victory is
already within our grasp and that the coming year will not
demand greater efforts, greater sacrifices and, when our superb
Canadians go into battle, greater suffering.

The enemy is not yet defeated. The Nazis maintain their
tyrannical rule over Europe with increasing difficulty, but
still they maintain it and still millions of enslaved workers
in Germany and the occupied countries continue to produce
armaments for them. Not until the Nazi armies are sent reeling
back upon Germany itself can the guerrilla centers in Europe
become the fighting fronts of entire nations striking against
the hated invaders and their quisling supporters for their liber-
ation. And this can be brought about only by the Allied in-
vasion of the continent for which all peoples have waited and
worked so long.

The coming year will present even greater difficulties, but
none that the national unity of the Canadian people forged
and strengthened in common struggle to destroy Hitlerism
cannot surmount. It will pose even more complex problems,
the problems of war and-victory and, it may well be, of peace.
But in giving leadership to the entire people for solution to
these problems, labor will be able to draw the vast experience
it has gained in solving the problems of war production. Labor,
exerting every effort on the production lines to make 1943 the
year of victory, can place its indelible imprint upon the peace
that can crown the year with bright promise for the future.

(Continued from Page One)

effort likewise cannot stand up against the facts. The ma-

jority of the officers unseated by his action have consistently
supported the principle of the seven-day continuous produc-
tion week, while the majority of the members of the admini-
strative board appointed by A. A. McAuslane have been
identified throughout with the six-day plan, and some of them
are still opposed to the principle of continuous production.
Is it then, in the interests of the war effort to replace elected
officials who have fought for increased war production?

There is no evading the conclusion that President Mosher’s
action is, at the least, ill-considered and not dictated by the
broad needs of the trade union movement in the war effort.
The first reaction of many members of the Boilermakers Union
may well be to quit the union in protest, but this will not
help to repair an unfortunate action. It will only weaken the
union in its fight against anti-labor employers and in its
struggle for full labor partnership in production.

There should be no desertions, no ill-advised attempts to
break away. Whatever is done to obtain repeal of this arbi-
trary decision must be done through the collective unity of
the union membership.

Bersaglieri Bisoni

By ILYA EHRENBURG
OX there lived in Italy a Duce. And there also lived in
Italy a certain Bisoni who had one goat.
“The Mediterranean Sea belongs to us,” cried the Duce.
“The goat is mine,’ modestly said Bisoni.

But a gendarme came and took
the goat because the owner had
failed to pay taxes. The Duce re-
ceived Hitler’s orders to send
about a dozen new divisions to
Russia. And so Bisoni found
himself on an eastbound train.

Here are some excerpts from
the diary of Private Bisoni of the
24th company of the third regi-
ment of the Bersagliere troops:

February: There is a heavy load
on my chest and there is no one
to have a heart-to-heart talk
with. The officers treat us so
very badly and punish us for no
reason whatever. That is why the
soldiers are in a bad mood.

April 16: Arrived in Cracow —
this is Polish territory. To think
of the pass to which they have
come. Children come to the roads
erying and begging for bread.
What a terrible sight all this is.

April 22: I was billeted in a hut
together with five other soldiers.
There were women and small
children. One had lost her hus-
band and two sons. She cries and
cries and looks at us with such
furious hatred. Actually she is

right.
May 21: Now we are at the
front. Awakening, we shouted,

“Down with the Duce!” There
was nothing deliberate in it, but
the lieutenant overheard and re-
ported to Captain Nardi, who said
we would be court-martialled.

August 1: The Russian artillery-

pounded away for a full hour.
Looking back I saw even the Ger-
mans fleeing. I too took to flight,
but before I could put up some
speed I was overtaken by Rus-

Sian artillery fire. There were
many killed and wounded in my
company. Captain “Nardi was
wounded. The colonel in com-
mand was also wounded and
many were killed. 2a

@

A usee the diary ends. Bisoni
was killed. Bisoni was an
ignorant, down-trodden soul, but
when they brought him to the
front,- he began to understand
many things. That is why he and
the other SBersaglieris shouted,
“Down with the Duce!” Bisoni
assures"us that this was not done
“deliberately.” No, the words
came instinctively from the

bottom of their hearts.
These words may now be heard

also in Italy. After “meeting”
some of the British “Four-
tonners,” the inhabitants of

Genoa, Naples, Milan and Turin
are beginning “not deliberately”
to cry, “Down with the Duce.’
And this healthy desire implies
aonther: “Out with the Germans.”

Bersaglieri Bisoni understood
that he was doing a lowly deed.
He saw the Germans oppressing
the people. He kept quiet.
obeyed his officers, and for
obedience he paid with his
He wanted to save hmself, and
before his death he wrote: “Be-
fore I could p ut up some speed.”

Perhaps other Bersaglieri will
learn a lesson from Bisoni’s fate
and begin to flee an hour earlier
than the Germans, and once
starting to run, put up the proper
speed and keep running to get
away from the ill-fated Don,
closer to the Tiber.

Tolya From Semyonovka

By DMITRI STONOV
OLYA was a 12-year-old lad—one of the many war orphans
who wander, starving, through German-occupied Russia.
When he joined up he said he’d been looking for the parti-
sans for over a week. He wouldn’t leave us. The fascists, he
told us, had murdered his parents.

One of us promised: “Tomorrow,
we'll fix you up with a nice uncle.”

Tolya shook his head. “No. I've
come to fight.”

The partisans laughed at the
child.

He ignored our laughter.

“Tl show you the way to Sem-
yonovka. You won’t meet-a single
fascist the whole way. And in
Prakochenka’s house in Sem-
yonovka there are 35 Germans.
You don’t want to let them get
away, do you?’ the boy cried.
“T’ll take you there myself.”

The detachment commander
unrolled a map. Semyonovka was
only 17 kilometres away. Tolya
knew every stick and stone in
the district, and gave such an
accurate and intelligent account
of the Germans there that the

commander decided to let him
guide us.
Thanks to Tolya, everything

worked as planned. The sentries
were where he said they would
be. We disposed of them, broke
into the house and captured all
the Germans there.

“T’ve avenged my mother and
father,” Tolya said.

“Now you can go and live with
the comrade we spoke about,’
said the commander.

“No, please — don’t send me
away,” the child pleaded.
“No one is driving you away,

Tolya,” the commander explained.
“I only want to see that you’re
properly cared for.”

“Let me stay with the detach-
ment! Tomorrow Yl g0 to
Chudinka to my aunt. I'll stay
with her a few days and find out
how many fascists there are. Then
I'll come back and report. Till
be very careful.”

@oO LITTLE Tolya from Semyo-
novka became a scout. He was
cautious, intelligent, quick-witted
— but at need could appear to be
an idiot boy. When the Germans
questioned him, he was always
able to account for his movements,
and his stories always checked.

Tolya learned to use a revolver.
He hated Germans with every
fibre of his small being.

He took revenge on the fascists
for all his kinsfolk and friends,
for his murdered compatriots, for
the burned villages, the trampled
fields, for the torn and bleeding
earth. And at the same time
dreamed of the future when the
Germans would be driven out.

“When I grow up, I shall be an
automobile engineer,” he told us.

“That’s swell,’ our commander
would say. “That’s why I want
to get you across the front line
so that you can go back to school.”

“No,” Tolya would reply. “Tll
stay with you until the spring,
and then an :

“And then sgh)

“Then I'll stay on some more.

. -’ he laughed. “It’s wartime,
you know.’

Tolya from Semyonovka never
lived to realize his disam. He
will never see the spring. ...

They trapped him at last.
Twenty Germans. He used his
revolver. We found the bodies
of three German soldiers along
with his.

We buried our Tolya the day
after we caught the 17 remaining
Germans. They paid for his death.

We stood for a long time be-
side the little mound. On a piece
of wood we had burnt the words:

HERE LIS
TOLYA FROM SEMYONOVEKA

™~

SHORT —
JABS

by OF Bill

F

s
Memories
HE arrest of five executive of-
ficials of the Anaconda Wire

and Cable Company, a subsidiary |

of Anaconda Copper Company, re-
vives Memories In the mind of
any one who has been connected
with the labor press for any length
of time. The Anaconda is the
largest of the snakes of the
South and Central Ameri-
can jungles. It crushes its
It is a good name for the huge,
monopolistic copper concern
which has its headquarters in
Butte, Montana.

About the end of the last war
and for many years after, the
Butte miners had a paper of their
own, the Butte Bulletin. Many of
us agreed that the Bulletin was
the best labor paper in the United
States. It was edited by Bill Dunn,

who afterwards joined and be- — 1:

came a leading member of the
Communist Party.

It was published under difficul-
ties, the principle one being the
Anaconda Copper Company itself.
I remember Bill himself telling
me how they used to get the paper
out. At times a Miners’ guard
had to stand by with loaded guns
so that the editor could work at
his job and the machinery be op-
erated. When things quietened
down somewhat, Bill wrote his
editorials with his guns handy
and if he lay down +o sleep, right
in the plant as he had to do, his
wife mounted guard with the rifle.

For years hired gunmen of the
Anaconda attempted to put the
paper out of business by shooting
the editor, but fortunately. they
were not as good marksmen as
the girl-Russian, Lt. Lyudmila
Pavilichenko, who visited Amer-
ica this year. At times they or-
fFanized raids on the plant but
were always thwarted in their
plans by the Butte miners.

Today thousands of copper min-
ers are in the U.S. Army, fighting
to rid the world of Nazism and
fascism, so many, in fact, that
there is a shortage of capable
miners for the production of that
vital war metal. The urgent need
for increased copper production,
however, does not appear to have
worried the higher-ups of the Ana-
conda Cepper Company. The
eharge against them of selling
worthless and rotten wire and
cable, endangering the lives of the
soldiers who are fighting the bat-
tles of the country, is a proof that
the Anaconda is carrying on under
the slogan of “business as usual,”
that profits are the main concern.

The Roosevelt administration
should see by this action of the
Anaconda, even though it is
through a subsidiary company,
that this grasping corporation is
willing to fight the government to
maintain its profits, just as it
fought the Butte Bulletin and the
Butte miners. It should throw out
the people at the head of the Ana-
eonda as the Canadian govern-
ment did in the case of the Malton
airplane factory, and replace them
with men who want to win the
war before anything else.

That there are others among
the leaders in the United States is
made plain by the fact that this
crime only came to light through
“a tip from the Soviet govern-
ment.” -

Admirals All

“The English,” says Voltaire,
“shoot an admiral now and then
to encourage the others.” It is a
very good plan with some ad-
mirals: to mention three of them,
Kolchak, Horthy and Darlan. Kol-
chak and Darlan are gone. Speed
the day when MHorthy follows
them! =