11

~

} of living. The na-
s is sufficient to
dard of living with-
* with capitalist diy-

yd take away a lit-
cir profits of course.
that in a country
we should be able
national movement
J oompel our govern-
@ clect the sort of

sat will support the
india to assert its
after the war. Is
can elect the sort
@: who will defend
# e people of Poland
Malism if they want
ible that we shall

‘ct the sort of goy-
will sign a 20-year
fial peace with the
g)2n the same terms
(1 government has

_are all needed be-
® ont have the sort
=: interested in so-
#@t home, we will not
® of government to
= 2s abroad. A sgoy-

1 fights for things
* a government of
gress at home. Be-
:, there are forces
iday to do such

3

& ed by free market
= iada.

ent decides prices.
fit decides the level
government de-
the national in-
The national in-
raised from 4%
f2 to more than 9
>}. The government
and in doing it
®t has not only de-
pian production in-
™ nels necessary for
has expanded Ca-
ry tremendously.
juSand new plants
f; 500 of them paid
ly the government
| the goverment to-

pow ov

shting stops, we in
be faced by the
ere do we go from
-ocnomy should end
'will mean the be-
f world. The ques-
ave-to answer is—
world shall it be?
© of developing and
fidian economy the
Fis been compelled
ig else, not intend-
it tried to prevent
F:ompelled to devel-
mployment for ev-
ean work, full time
every man who
fa farm and a de-
ything that can be
slieve Canada can
ipacity even if it
> anything in pay-
LWe have been told
Soent that there will
ity unless we can
{of our goods
day we are send-
E them abroad and
; paid for them and
/ prosperity, some
yer used to believe
ere in this’ position,
a morning’s News

7

Canada will spend
300 million dollars
2S and five hundred

to" maintain a de--

“Winnipeg municipal

munists

million doliars for ciyil needs.”

That makes exactly the same
amount of money as was the yalue
of everything we produced in
1939, everything—four billion, 400
toillion dollars’ That is all being
spent now either for the war or
for the government, and still, iook
at the miracle! More Canadians
have more now than at any time
in the past. Now, then, why is
this?

It is because the possibilities
for production are being utilized,
the people of Canada are being
put to work. If only that four and

a half billions dollars that is
being spent on war were now
being spent to build new modern
insulated houses, hospitals, lib-
raries, schools, and recreational
facilities and to provide scholar-
ships so that every boy and girl
capable of graduating could have
a university education, think of
what we could do to Ganada in
tour or five years. And in the
process of+realizing these things,

there is developing a life worthy”

of the people of Canada. This
was not planned by the govern-
ment—not at all.

Position Of Trade Unions

we has happened in the

field of trade unionism? You
know that the Dominion govern-
ment, in a desire to maintain
conditions at status quo, intro-
duced freezing legislation and
developed very intricate and
complicated measures to obstruct

the deyelopment of trade union-
ism and preyent any widespread
movements for the raising of
Wages. Yet, whereas in 1940, 300
thousand members were in: trade
unions, today more than 600
thousand members are in the
trade union movement and they
are still joining the trade unions
at the rate of 10 thousand every
month. if the war in Europe last-
ed until next year and it mignt—
I say might because it might end
sooner—there will probably be
700 thousand members or maybe
three quarters cf a million mem-
bers in the trade union movement
of Canada. A very powerful
movement, and the members of
this moyement along with their
families, will undoubtedly con-
stitute 25,percent of the entire
Canadian population, concentrat-
ed in the industrial centers.
Secondly, by virtue of the war
and wartime legislation, the trade
union movement has been com-
pelled, because Hitler meant de-
Struction not only of trade union-
ism but also the destruction of
democratic government, to adopt
a policy of everything for vic-
tory, everything to win the war.
The trade union movement real-
izes that we are engaged not in
a war between governments, but
in a war to determine the future
of mankind; whether fascism will
be destroyed and the road opened
for democratic progress or wheth-
er democracy will be destroyed,
the labor movement destroyed

and the first socialist state de-
stroyed.

And generally speaking the la-
bor movement has thrown in its
lot with the democracies, of
course, and has subordinated
everything to the interests of
winning the war. The leadership
of the trade ‘union movement has
taken a clear cut position of be-
ing determined to avoid strikes
and prevent strikes.

The government on the other
hand introduces ail sorts of leg-
islation, including wage-freezing
legislation, aimed to keep wages
at the status quo and yet under
the pressure of the rise in the
cost of living, the rise in produc-
tion and the rising public opinion
against sub-standard wages, it has
been compelled to modify con-
ditions and establish what might
be called safety valves in the
form of boards and committees
through which labor can present
its case and win wage increases,
in which it is proven it is bet-
ter to pay wage increases than to
continue the struggle to maintain
low standards of living for work-
ers.

As a result of these things, the
struggle to defend the economic
structure of the people became a
poltical struggle. Through the
Wational War Labor Board and
through all sorts of bodies it was
urged that the provincial gov-
ernment of British Columbia and
the provincial government of
Ontario set up committees to
consider compulsory collective
bargaining legislation. The trade
union movement was the main
spearhead for their introduction.

Generally speaking, the trade
union movement in Canada has
advanced tremendously, not only
in members but in really build-
ing opinion.

Lahor Unity Developing

GAIN, we find all over the

country a “going together,’ a
going together of the working class
movement and large sections of
the middle class, and of the farm-
ing communities; a general rec-
ognition that there has got to be
some sort of progressive change
when this war is over and an
equally general recognition that
this change will only be brought
about if there is unify in the
ranks. We see all this reflected
in an increase in the labor vote,
particularly in BC, while the CCF
has an excellent chance of being
the government after the nexé
provincial election.

In various parts of the country
we find the same thing. Alder-
man Jake Penner ran for the
council on
November 14 and was elected not
only at the head of the poll but
he had more votes than the other
two put together. Joe Salsberg
ran for the city council in Tor-
onto against a Tory and a Lib-

eral and he got far more than
iwice as many votes as the Lib-
eral and almost twice as many
more as the Tory. The CCF here
announced they are getting an
increasing number of votes at
every election.

The workers who worked in
the shipyards, if they happened
to be members of an AFL union,
didn’t feel vicious toward a work-
er who was a member of a CIO
union. They only felt it is teo
bad there is not one trade
union center in Canada to unite
them all. The average worker
knows that it is only because so
much of our energy is spent in
fighting each other that the trade
union movement has only 600
thousand members. If we only had
one national trade union center,
or if the two natonal centers
would only cooperate on common
policies and certain jurisdicton,
we would haye a million workers
organized within this year with-
out doubt.

CC CAAT

CHARLES STEWART

President, Street Railwaymen’s
2 Union

“I want to feel that as a Cana-
dian I have a right to be a Com-
munist, and to support the party
of my choice. ... We must draw
into the movement great numbers
of progressive people. .. .”

E. E. LEARY
President, Vancouver Labor
Council

“No other Party exists with suf-
ficient discipline and knowledge
to tackle Canadian problems. We
need a Communist Party—to act,
among other things, as a defender
of labor.”

ACTA UT

Cooperation With The CCF

IMILARLY on the political
field, it is scarcely reasonable
to even hope that we should have
one political party ot the work
ing class. I wish we could. I
want to say Here and now, speak-
ing as’ the national secretary of
the Communist movement, the
man who was national secretary
of the Communist Party at the
time it was outlawed and one of
the founders of the ommunist
movement, one of the first five
people to get together and say,
>We've got to have a Communist
Party in Canada” — I am ready
now to throw in my lot with a
movement, if it was possible and
if I could get agreement on it,
that would allow the leadership
of the CCF and the leadership
of the Communists to get togeth-
er and agree on a program which
represents the real interests of
the Canadian people in a struggle
for socialism, and out of that
agreement a national united con-
vention from which would
emerge one political socialist
movement of Canada.

It could be done. It would give
a tremendous boost to the general
labor movement and the general
democratic movement of Ganada.
But if it is not being done at the
present time that does not say it
can’t be done or that it Is not
possible to have some measure of
cooperation. In my opinion, it is
nossible, even without a formal
united front, even without a for-
mal agreement between the Com-
munists and the CCF, to have at
least that negative agreement that
we will not deliberately go out
to oppose each other where op-
position will only have the effect
of defeating either side.

Now, I don’t want to become
controversial, but I must illustrate
what I mean by one example. We
have made mistakes. After all, if
aman as great as Lenin, a giant
among men, could admit he had
made mistakes and learn from
them, it certainly should not be
difficult for us amateurs to ad-
mit we have made mistakes—and
we have tried to learn from then
and we have tried in this present
provincial situation in Ontario to
avoid anything that could be sug-
gested as a mistake of the type I
have in mind. You know there are
96 constituencies in Ontario. We
haven't got enough members to
be able to run 96 candidates, of
course. It doesn't mean, however,
that we have to run a candidate’

.

in every place. We cannot run a
candidate in every constituency;
neither can the CCF.

So our position is that while
we are a political party, we have
a specific political philosophy,
very clear cut and laid down in
writing. It has been developed
Since 1848 and brought to the
peak of its climax by the works
of Lenin and the Soviet Union.
We hold by this philosophy and
we fight for the proposals we
fought for consistently in the
struggle to achieve socialism; and
naturally as a political party, we
are going to run some candidates.
But we feel in view of the exist-
ing situation that even if we ran
three candidates in the whole
province of Ontario, maybe that
would be enough to put forward
our program and we could run
them in just those constituencies
where we have a majority of sup-
port. And in the city of Toronto
Where there are only eight con-
stituencies, we would take one,
only one. We have two aldermen
sitting in the city council and
the wards from which they were
elected are recognized as radi-
eal wards, where our alderman
have been elected year after year
except when in “retirement.” And
they have not only been elected
year after year but have been
elected at the head of their polls
every year. In 1939 in the area
covered by Saint Andrew’s ward
i received more yotes than the
Liberal and Conservative candi-
dates put together. I mention this
to show we are not without sup-
port.

We said we would run a candi-
date in St. Andrew’s ward and if
the CCF wanted to run candidates
elsewhere we would support
them, but let’s not have any con-
flict.

But in the wards where it would
have been possible to elect their
Candidates the GCF ran a woman
who had absolutely no hope of
defeating the Liberal candidate.
But where the Communist ran a
candidate, the CCF nominated
their second strongest candidate,
announcing it was necessary to
defeat Salsberg whatever else
happened.

We cannot haye unity under
these circumstances. We believe
it is possible today, in view of
the tremendous possibilities for
change and the growth of the left

(Continued on Page 12)