- tection of American arms as the-

Ase a iT Dh i

© Second of two articles

Will

By TIM BUCK

Canada

become an
American
colony?

“integration” of Canadian economy with that of the United States are allowing their

6 mouthpieces of the greedy capitalist interests who advocate what they call

avarice to blind them to several very important features of post-war developments
in world economy. Having secured a firm legal grip on an enormous proportion of our
country’s natural resources, and confident that they will be able to secure control of all
other natural wealth that is opened up, they seek now only the fancied security of being an

integral part of United States in-
dustry. <

What they overlook is the fact
that the Truman Doctrine into
which they are trying to fit Can-
ada is actually the immediate rea-
son why the crisis in world cap-
italistic economy broke out when
it did. The Truman Doctrine,
whose avowed aim is to stop the
_ spread of socialism, is but the

_ general political conception of

the American monopolists in.

their struggle for world suprem-
acy.

The Marshall Plan is the econ-
omic side of the Truman Doctrine,
and the only thing that is definite
about the Plan so far is the fact
that it is a plan for the economic
division of Europe. The economic
division aimed at is not merely
between the New Democracies
and the West. Fundamentally it
aims at re-establishing Western

_ Germany and its Ruhr Valley

under the domination of Ameri-
Can finance captal and the pro-

1e of capitalist economy in

It is evident that if tne Mar-
shall Plan should be _ carried
_ through on the terms already an-
nounced by spokesmen of the
United States government, Bri-
tain cannot succeed in the drive
to raise her exports to 170 percent
“of prewar volume. Similarly, in
that case, France will not be able
to carry through her Monnet
Plan of industrial development.
These are but two examples of
the ruthlessness with which Unit-
ed States imperialism is pressing
its policies even at the expense
of its imperialist allies,

The drive of United States fi-
nance capital is world-wide in
scope. Britain was the main cen-
. ter of world trade for more: than
a hundred years, but today there
is in progress a ruthless effort
to bring world trade under the di-
rection and control of American
finance capitalist interests.

e@

aims of the Truman Doc-

trine and the Marshall Plan
are the immediate cause of the
world trade crisis. The funda-
mental source of the crisis lies in
the historical deterioration of
capitalist economy, but there is
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1947

little doubt that the crisis could
‘nave been postponed for some
considerable period if the post-
war policy indicated in the Yalta
Agreement and the Potsdam
Agreement had been carried out.

Had such loans and credits as
were available been granted to all
countries in terms of their need
and the degree to which they had
suffered in the war, and had this

“been combined with the policy of

developing trade and exchange
between all countries regardless
of the social and economic sys-
tems adopted, there was a possi-
bility that European economy
could have been established on
the basis of cooperation between
capitalist and socialist states,

President Truman and Secre-
tary of State Marshall wiped out
all possibilities in that direction
when they discarded the funda-
mental agreements upon which
the Yalta and Potsdam declara-
tions were based, and set the
United States the task of re-es-

_tablishing the domination of fi-

nance capitalism all over the
world. d

Those interests and politicians
who short-sightedly imagine that
Canada and the Canadian people
will be, or can be, either pros-
perous or satisfied in the role of
a producer of raw materials for
American industry are shutting
their eyes to the above facts.

Henry Wallace declared shortly
after the President proclaimed
his doctrine: “President Truman
cannot stop world progress. .. .”
It could be added that the present
effort to stop world progress is
forcing the peoples of numerous
countries in the Old World to de-
velop their economies out of their
own resources and thereby to
speed up the change which is
taking place in the pattern of
world economy, | '

e

‘ requires only a few minutes’
‘study of the statistics of world
production to see that the Sec-
ond World War brought about
revolutionary changes in the pat-
tern of world economy as welt
as in the pattern of world politics,
For example, consider the change
taking place in Europe, excluding
the USSR.

The countries of Western Eur-
ope used to be economically deci-
sive on that continent. Today
that is not the case. The decisive
sector of Europe is now its Hast-
ern part, The New Democracies
which tried so hard to cooperate
with the capitalist countries of
the West are being compelled to
build their economies out of their
own resources and, because they
receive no credits or cooperation

from the West, the countries of |

Western Europe have until now
lost the advantage of the New
Democracies as a market for fin-
ished products and as a source
of raw materials.

For the people of the New De-
mocracies this is unpleasant, but
it does not create an intolerable
or impossible situation. ‘They
know that the people of the USSR
were in a considerably more dif-
ficult economic position immedi-
ately after tne First World War,
and yet, starting with little more
than the bare earth they built a
mighty socialist industry in less
than 20 years.

The industry of the USSR,
which today is second only to the
industry of the United States in
its capacity for production, was
built without foreign loans or
credits, with extremely little for-
eign trade, out of the labor power
of the people applied to the na-
tural resources of their own land.

The peoples of the New Demo-
cracies know that they can do
what was done in the USSR.
There are 100 million of them, all
living contiguous to each other.
Poland has very large resources
of coal and iron ore and will de-
velop her iron and steel indus-
tries to serve all the New De-
mocraciés.

Yugoslavia is rich in base met-
als and particularly in bauxite.
She will develop her base metal
industries and particularly her
aluminum industries to serve the
entire continent of Europe if nec-

essary.

Czechoslovakia has a highly de-
veloped manufacturing industry,
including heavy industry, which
gives all the New Democracies a
tremendous advantage over the
situation which prevailed in the

USSR, when the people there
started their industrial recon-
struction.

The New Democracies include
the traditional bread basket of
Europe in Hungary and Romania,
as well as some considerable re-
sources of oi] and rare industrial
minerals. It should be noted, also
that the 100 million people of

‘Central Eastern and South East-

ern Europe, associated together
in the New Democracies, have
first-class seaports on the Baltic,
the Black and the Adriatic Seas.
To the East of them, there lies
a great and powerful neighbor
with a population of nearly 200
million people and increasing
need for many of the things they
produce as well as increasing Sur-
plusses of all the things they
need

It can be said without fear of
contradiction that the New De-
mocracies will be a major factor
in world economy within less
than 10 years

¢
HE prospect of rapid economic

development in the New De-.

mocracies illustrates the rapid
changes taking place in world
economy as a whole.
is going to expand rapidly in
India. The Chinese people are
actually building industry in the
course of their national revolu-
tion. The New Democracies, the
USSR, and the emergent new
peoples’ republics in Asia. will
constitute the greatest group of
cooperating nations and their
economies are bound to develop
in the main on the basis of co-
operation with the socialist econ-
omy of Europe and Northern
Asia, ~

This is the developing pattern
of world economy, and this indi-
cates the path by which the Can-
adian people can best protect our
economic interests as a nation
and at the same time fit Cana-
dia economy into the. progress-
ive developing pattern of world
trade. }

Why should Canada become in-
creasingly dependent upon agri-
cultural and raw material produc-
tion? It was proven during the
war that Canadians can produce
as efficiently and as cheaply as
any country in the world. This
was demonstrated in the build-
ing of 10,000-ton Liberty -ships,
of British designed destroyers,
of British and French designed
field artillery and side arms, and
in the production of a thousand
and one important and precision
products needed for the winning
of the war.

The Dominion government was
able to establish huge industries
to meet the emergency created
by the war. With those experi-
ences and knowing the produc-
tive capacity of our people, let
the Dominion government start
the development of plans by
which, instead of shutting down
industries, Canada can start pro-
ducing many of the things we
now import’ from the United
States.

For example, consider the pos-
sibilities offered us by the needs
of the great pulp and paper in-
dustry. Canada produces 78. per-
cent of all newsprint produced
in North America, but Canada
does not build a single paper-
making machine. It is obvious
that an industry which produces
78 percent of the finished pro-

duct in addition to a very large

additional proportion of the par-
tially finished product, can main-
tain’ an industry to build the
‘machines. Can such an industry
be established?

It depends only upon whether
the interests in favor of estab-

lishing it can exert ‘influence
upon the government stronger
than those who want Canada’s
finished goods industries to be

Industry

diminished instead ofi ncreased.

The possibility in connection

with the production of machinery

for the pulp and paper industry

is only one of many that could —
be quoted. Mining machinery

and equipment, machine tools,

and so on are all wide open in-

vitations to the expanding of
Canada’s finished goods indus-

tries.

HY should Canada stop ef

forts to promote trade with
the “soft currency” countries’
Has not Canadian economy been
built on trade with the peoples
who are now included in the
“soft currency area?” Those
people are still there, they stil}
need our goods, and they could
pay for a very large proportion
of goods that they have tradition-
ally received with products tha

‘Canada needs. :

Instead of “bowing herself out”
of the present Empire trade unit,
Canada should take the initiative
in Gonvening a conference repre
senting the Commonwealth coun-
tries and the Empire. :

Such a conference can explore
the possibilities of a tremendous-
ly increased exchange of goods
between them on the basis of.
production and mutual needs.
Such a step, opening up as it
would the possibilities for in-
creased economic development of
a vast part of the world, would
lead logically to the development
of economic cooperation between
the Commonwealth countries and
the New Democracies and the
USSR.

To those who argue that such
a development would mean that
the Commonwealth countries
would be helping to build social-
ism, our reply is that the people
of the British Isles are very short-
ly going to have to face the alk
ternative of close cooperation
with the socialist. sector of the
world or complete dependence
upon United States finance capit-
alism, and there is no” assured
prospect for the continued ex-
pansion of Canadian economy
with a rising standard of life
excepting through the continued
Gevelopment of our industries
towards industrial self-sufficiency.

NE question does have to pe

answered, namely, “Can Can-
ada do it?” The best answer to
that is to found in the history
of all the smaller industrial
countries.

Every one of them has been
compelled to develop its national
economy in sharp competition
with big and powerful neighbors.
A reply could be found in ex-
amples in the Western hemis-
phere today. Mexico, which is
economically much weaker than
Canada, is doing it. Further
more, Mexico js carrying through
its struggle towards industrial
sulf-sufficiency under circum-
stances much more difficult than
any which threatened Canada.

Argentina, for entirely different —
reasons than those which should-
motivate Canadians, is also pur
suing a considered policy aimed
at the winning of industrial self-'
sufficiency.

If these relatively weak coun-
tries can adopt such national
policies and can achieve such
marked success as they have, why
should Canadians hesitate to
undertake to maintain and ex-
pand our industry also,

: Against the proposals of U.S.
finance capital that Canada be
comes an industrial hinterland
for the United States, let the
people of Canada be aroused to

fight to make Canada industrially

self-sufficient, nationally indepeD- ~
dent, and a partner with the
nations who are building a new
type of economy in a very large
part of the world.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 1