10 . I
Continued |

Canada Needs

kind. There is also a growing
realization that there must be
something about the Socialist
state that men, and women not
only want to live under but are
glad toe die to defend; are willing
to destroy 25 years of work for
and are willing to fight behind
the lines for as well as in front of
them.

These things are having a tre-
mendous effect on people’s think-
ing and when peace comes this
Soviet Union will not only be one
of the four great powers—Bri-
tain, the Soviet Union, the Unit-
ed States and China—but the So-
viet Union will be one of those
great powers to which the world
js going to look for guidance,
for material help and for the es-
fablishment of peace. And that
power will be next-door neighbor
ito nearly half the people of the
world and a next-door neighbor
to those nations of the world —
China, India and the countries of
the Far Bast—where tHe most far

reaching changes are foing to
take place. The Soviet Union will
be a big factor in these events.

| mention these things because
for thinking people they are fun-
damental. They are the things
that are going to tremendously
influence the world in the years
immediately after the war.

The Communist Party, or as I
should say at the present time —
the Communists in Canada—have
held to a certain and very speci-
fie group of opinions in these
questions, and our opinions have
not changed. We have fought con-
sistently and I think I can say
without flinching for the line of
policy and ior the international
alliances which are characteristic
of the United Nations today, and
we have fought for a line of so-
cial development in Canada and
throughout the world which has
new become possible because of
the result of the war and the
change in world alliances.

Mackenzie King And The Ban

UT at the same time we find
after careful investigation and
patient negotiation that the King
government is absolutely deter-
spined not to lift the ban from

the Communist Party. at least not
until after the next Dominion

election. The reason for the King
government taking this position
js not because of any deep repug-
nance to Communist policy. They
reason as follows: “Why should
we lift the ban from the Com-
munists? Who wants us to lift the
ban from the Communists? The

sf WE day, when I was a boy
in Glasgow, my mother

was wrapped in a paper called
‘Justice, in which was an edi-
torial about ‘socialism.

“That was a long time ago.
In fact, Engles was still alive.
But that editorial convinced
me, and ever since Ive been
-a radical.

“T pelonged to the Socialist
Party from 1907 until 1921,
when an underground Com-
miunist Party was organized in
Canada. About 100 people
erowded into an attic on Tor-
onto’s Queen Street for the
first conventon. Tim Buck was
there, so was Harvey Murphy,
and we called the new party
the ‘Workers’ Party,

“The police used every
method of repression. There
was a mine strike in Estevan,
and the RCMP shot several
miners and arrested the party
jeaders. And eight members
of the national leadership
were soon arrested—Tim Buck,
Tow Ewen, Sam Carr, Matt
Popovich, Boychuk, AS nau;
Malcolm Bruce and Tom Cacic.

“J missed that arrest. I was
in India, helping organize the
indian trade union movement.
After two months in jail I was
deported home. I got back to
find that while the eight lead-
ers were serving five-year jail
terms, the party had grown and
expanded in influence as well
as activity. The depression was
on, and unemployment
brought many to our ranks.

“The party was particularly
active in the trade union field.
Where before the emphasis
had been on propaganda, now
we were organizing consist-
ently. After about two and 2

Bill Bennett Says:

sent me out to buy a herring»
from a fish peddler. The fish

half years, the leaders were
released from jail, Tim last of
all. Mackenzie King was elect-
ed, and under public pressure
lifted the ban on the party,
which was declared illegal un-
der the famous Section 98.

“Since then the party has
continued to grow. Our actiy-
ity has always been directed
towards unity of working-class
people. We were anti-fascist at
a time when fascism was fash-
ionable.

‘Tye been in the Socialist
Party, in the OBU, in a jour-
neymen barbers’ union, in sev-

eral laborers’ unions, in a
woodworkers’ union. lve seen
the labor movement in Can-
ada mature.

“And Vm convinced that
Canada needs a new party of
Communists, which will have
the advantage of knowing the
blunders we have made in the
past, which Communists are
always read to admit. Our
Party will grow in the tradi-
tions of Marx and Lenin.”

Communists want us to lift the
ban; the CCF, Social Credit and.
the Tories. How many of them
will vote for us even if we do lift
ihe ban on the Communists? And
who is it that is fighting against
lifting the ban—who tell us not
to lift the ban? The Liberals,

A Party Of}

people wno voted 10r the Liber-
als, people who we may depend
upon for yotes and a large num-
ber of Tories who voted for tories
in the past and might vote for us
in the future if we don’t lift the
ban. So, we are not going to lift
the ban.”

Next Two Years Decisive

I CAN assure you this is abso-
lutely true and we were faced
with the question as to what
should we Communists do. Have
we got time to go through an-
other year of fighting for the lift-
ing of the ban. We have lost noth-
ing during the past year. Believe
it or not, the Communist move-
ment has continued to grow dur-
ing that period of trying to lift
the ban, just as it grew before
the ban was put op. Why? Be-
cause through 20 years of activity
the Communist movement has be-
come rooted as a working class
organization and has become
identical with the struggle for
everything the working class
needs, in the struggle against all
the things the working class
fears and in the struggle for all
those ideas to which the work
ing class aspires. We will grow
because our struggles are almost
identical with those things which
are in the interests of demo-
cratic progress and particularly
working class, but the fact is that
ewe are compelled to question
time.

Have we the right, then, to sit
back comfortably and carry on a
campaign against lifting of the
ban when now there is a very
strong probability that the future
of Canada will be determined in
the next two years and that funda-
mental changes will take place all
over the world.in the next two

years; that the governments, both
provincial and federal, which will
determine what line Ganada is
to follow, will be elected within
less than two years?

From now on till December
of next year, there will be six
or seven proyincial elections in
Canada and there will be a Dom-
inion election in Canada and the
governments elected at these
elections will be the governments
that will be running the provinces
and the Dominion in the post-
war years; they will be the Zov-
ernments which will determine
whether Canada shall stand on
ihe international field for close
cooperation with the USSR in
carrying through the terms of the
Atlantic Charter to give every
people of every nation the right
to determine the economic poli-
cies they want and the type of
government they want or if Can-
ada shall line up with that grow-
ing and very powerful body of
reactionary opinion which is al-
ready carryimg on an internation-
al campaign in favor of setting
up some sort of government in
Europe which will be a continu-
ation of the governments set up
by the Versailles Treaty.

This is the alternative confront
ing the Canadian people and we
must decide how we Can influ-
ence the Canadian people most
efficiently in just which alterna-
tive they will accept.

Pesition Of St. Laurent

OW in this action we were

helped quite considerably by
the King government. Shortly
after the dissolution of the Com-
munist International and after I
had learned that the King gov-
ernment had determined there
should be no lifting of the ban
before the election, the Minister
of Justice, Mr. St. Laurent, was
asked a question in the House
of Commons. The man who asked
this queston 4s probably the most
violent anti-Communist im the
House of Commons, and is anti-
communistie not because he
knows anything about it but be-
cause he was elected on that sort
of program and means to stick
with it. This gentleman asked the
Minister of Justice the following
question:

“Mr. Speaker, I desire to place
a question before the Minister of
Justice. In view of the outlaw-
ing of the Communist Party of
Canada, is it the Minister’s in-
tention to permit that party to
hold an International Convention
on the 21st of August as its lead-
ership has announced?” (This
is the Convention at which we
propose to establish a new party.)

What was the Minister of Jus-
tice’s reply?

“The form of the question at-
tributes to the Minister of Jus-
tice a jurisdiction and an author-
ity which he doesn’t possess and
which he has no intention of as-
suming. It must be quite clear
that the Minister of Justice can-
not interfere with the right of
Canadian citizens to hold a con-

vention, provided that the objects
and purposes of that convention
are legal. If those who have pre-
viously formed a part of the Com-
munist Party desire, now, to rec-
ognize that their old party is out
lawed, to form a new party, of
which the constitution, the ob-
jects and the actions do not con-
flict with the law, then what they
do doesn’t concern the Minister
of Justice; they are free to do
as they please.”

I think he went out of his way
to announce that if the Com-
munists of Canada should decide
{o organize a new party, then that
party will be judged on the basis
of its program, constitution and
its actions. It is a very funny
thing—do you know that the pro-
gram and constitution of the old
Communist Party was absolutely
according to law? They were
drafted and distributed m tems
oi thousands of copies. In 1922
when we first established the
party as a public organization,
eur program and constitution
were absolutely according to the
Jaw. In 1937 when we redrafted
the program and constitution to
bring them up to date, they were
absolutely according to the law.

And we shall meet in Toronto
on August 21 and 22 and we
shall draw up a new program and
a new constitution and they also
will be absolutely according to
the law. | have no doubt about
that and absolutely no fear that
the department of Justice will
find any fault with it.

Parliamen |

REGRET it is nec

through all these i
if it is necessary, % iB:
jt is too much to ¢ —
the Gommunist mm
make its biggest co»
democratic progress, |

Why €an we mali
contribution by re}
forces in a national »
cisely because greai 7
will confront Canad: «=
two years will all b |
on the field of parli =
tivity. They will be ©
sues—the question
policy, the question j
policy, the question ©
lationships, and par:
question of whether ™
ing forward or whe ©
going back.

In Canada today ©.
almost universal op #-
democratic people tl =
try must go forwar =
war is over; there
universal opinion t &
has demonstrated i ¥
for tremendous imp —
the standards of li
want to go into it
morrow at my pub
will show that this
in the standard of @
necessary because m 50
of all the working
working for wages &
half of what the goy }

Canada Ai

rVHE war has tran

ada in more Wi
First of all, it has
Canada economical] &
no longer the ect
which it was before
fore the war the
was. still the bigs
determining whats
duced and what its’
for. The free mar
jhe main determin
to how many peor
employed and how
be unemployed. /.
market was the ©?
determining whethe
be any expansion 0)
dustry and under
of industry that ext :
take place. And al!
of our governmer
upon this.

The basic policic |
ernment in Canad 4
War were policies 3 ~
tain a scarcity; thai
function of goyel |
also maintained 1a
but their main task
tain searcity becat
cannot thrive unlé
maintained and pi
maintained unless
searcity of goods 2
eall some sort of
iween the sufficient
and the purchasing
people.

As the purchasint
people declines, st
of goods on the &
decline and the g¢
forced to hel}
searcity by t
by subsidizin
ment. All other Pp
upon this general
general necessity.
compelled the §&
change this. The \
the government to |
aimed entirely atv
onomic system of T
in putting these Pp!
fect. The Dominic
has transformed €
omy, Canadian et