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EDITORIAL PAGE +

TOM McEWEN, Editor — HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business Manager.

Comment

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A people’s policy to beat the threat of depression

N every hand there are signs
sion aplenty that economic depres:
iS closing in upon Canada.
wt assurances of professional

EMMIS” can no | hid
o longer hide
that fact, ©

ee See, its evil course in grow-
down ass layoffs, in the closing
hiss. or ; curtailed oeprations of
Fa mills and factories, Already

mately one quarter of a
ing a Canadian workers are ek-
rn i an uncertain existence on
ance ate unemployment insur-
ae “aaa Thousands more
ready T not covered or have al-
Pech exhausted their benefits.
_ ae another million workers
time P2tt or shortened working

Bt pay envelopes corres:
Pondingly reduced. ‘

in ie iM rural Canada, whether
tatio, 6 a the prairies, in On

ve €c or the Maritimes,
ture are ae Producers in agricul:
Cold eri already experiencing the
iN the P of €conomic depression
Ih the midst of a bountiful crop.
Monta; w Provinces there are

i ans of unmarketed wheat.

ee

Bo importa
the h

the B.C. Trade Union
S$
(TLC-AFL), each in its own

ay, ch
a At igre UP some decisige history.
ays rh A Convention, despite five
hytlons doy erupted = McCarthy-like
Ysteria ‘ ered by the “hate Russia”
bor, the . aes ae top echelons of
Nimo “ vention voted almost
rallin = ‘n support of a resolution
. Negotiate asia of the big powers
se Peace,“ disputes which threaten

r
Sone a quclezate bo d

@-day orde y which had under-

Vern ivig, al of the worst anti-
tg tion of G Sold-war hysteria any con-
ae pe - has ever been subjected

lon tp ~ “> that was a tremendous de-
Among other things, it

ee labor “leaders”)
beat Bek in giving a lead to the
fects the 12° 2ePression insofar
teay omen, Nate Ives of working men
iting}. not be covered up with
- When the “labor”

0
anti their ant oe war have finished
‘labo ‘Soviet, anti-communist,
the problem of
and pay envelopes

“ Ce, Ysterics
Stiy remakes, ioe
n.

One 5
Wop tions fon olution for big power ne-
BPeace and the easing of
COR tao Telationships cancels
have Ofticers ne oth Contained in the
: a (which could well
Y any Chamber-of-

a

of Millan and all the frothy ora-
any, ana Reuther, Mosher and
NO small measure it

(badly needed to be -

This maturing economic depres:
sion is not some happening ordain-
ed by providence, something quite
beyond the control of man. Rather

it is man-made, the direct conse- -

quence of the suicidal policies pur-
sued by the Liberal government ot
Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent
—policies which have sold Can-
ada’s: industry, markets, resources,
independence, peace and wellbe-
ing to the war trusts of Yankee
imperialism.

Although the full adverse ef
fects of this maturing crisis are not
as yet being felt by all sections of
the working people, there is a
growing awareness in the ranks

also cancels out columns of bilge the
Vancouver Sun draped around IWA
= ”” spokesmen.
set notaebetly and significant that
the Sun picked a few. of these visiting
IWA “guests” for a real press seen
First, of course, was Walter Phillip
Reuther, president of the CIO and top
brass of the United Auto Workers ve
ion. Reuther was well featured in t z
picture section in numerous poses, ane
the Sun‘s| descriptive adjectives we
most extravagant. The CIO chief Abe
“dynamic,” “alert,” fiery,” a enn
century Moses,” an “architect of t . t
ture,” a “labor statesman’ and la or
2) brain trust.”
"Tha sup didn’t mention that the a
war policies Reuther has estes ia
most loudly in the past few years aes
resulted in restoring the bleak vie
of the Hungry Thirties to peat : ne
centres like Detroit, Windsor a ei
awa; that all his “escalator” pans as
tong-term union contracts have yee
disastrous for the mes oye wo.
and other industries: |

sta | commercial press buildup ni .
labor “leader” these are small ma seep
What really counts is how dyna a
one can be in fulfilling a cold war A ge
ment, and Reuther’s selection of ¢ nati
in “out-fighting, out-witting, and a a
ing” the Reds, puts this hey a sha
dynamic leader” ace high in t e pane:
ial cook house. Hence the press “ “cl
—and the large turnout of boss oo
and other business tycoons as — e a
of the IWA to hear this pie Sas Rae
tury Moses” point the way to the “Dp:
i nd.” ;
ee nd bow are we to get there? ypae
a “guaranteed annual wage. ra
don’t get us wrong, that ae a
annual wage” doesn’t mean t a iar
want to get paid for doing nothing. bie
from it. It simply means that in Fa
tion with: labor (as epreesnles Vy ey
like Reuther) “industry will a a ns
to schedule production over t ay ;
so that a worker need never pe i ; :

There is the small matter of ane ai
of course, the fact that a ey Be
will not permit him to buy ae ee
that he can produce, but don’t le

TC

of organized labor, and among
the farmers and small business
men, that something is radically
wrong, and that a halt must soon
be called to policies which are
bringing the nation’s economy to
the verge of ruin.

The recent session of the Labor-
Progressive party's national com-

‘mittee, analysing the causes and

course of this growing economic
crisis, declared unequivocally that
the problem could be met, that the
Canadian people, united in a
singleness of purpose, could beat
the threat of depression, maintain
productive employment at pros-
perity levels, and throw the bur-

4

trouble you, gentlemen!

The Chamber-of-Commerce falange in
the IWA audience nodded their heads
in approval, coughed discreetly, and left
with the general idea that “brain-trust-
er’ Reuther had made a point—upon
which capitalism, being capitalism, could
be hung in order to save its life. But
they readily recognized that “brain-
truster” Reuther’s confusionist nostrums
provided a handy obstruction to hold
back workers from fighting to beat back
the depression now. And that, for them
and for their lieutenants in the ranks
of labor, is a very important factor!
Since “dynamic”, Walter Phillip Reuther
and his “annual guaranted wage got
such a buildup in the press, it is im-
portant that working men should study
this revamped idea with new interest.

nd. only to “Dynamo” Reuther
eae our own Charles Millard, also a
“guest” speaker at the IWA convention.
Millard’s key “message” to the IWA
(despite the recent CCL convention ges-
ture towards greater unity with the
TLC-AFL) was to sell the IWA on the
idea of raiding any and all TLC-AFL
unions in Canada which had anything
to do with wood. “Pulp and paper, fur-
niture, anything which depends on
wood,” said Millard, should belong to
the IWA. And anyway, the Trades
and Labor Congress is a subordinate
body to the AFL,” so you are really
doing a job for real Canadian auton-
omy” when you break into TLC unions.

ll as others,
ost steel workers, as well as

sift acres that achieving a satisfactory
settlement for the thousands of striking

- gold miners in ‘Northern Ontario is a

for
ig enough problem at the moment fi

pailed Steel Workers’ Union leadership,
without Millard promoting IWA ‘“‘juris-

diction” over 60,000 other workers in_

and paper, hard-rock mining, or
ae pibisict nibs unionized and oF
der contract. The rank-and-file unity
now being expressed in many unions,
including the great Mine-Mill union, in
support of the striking gold miners,
sands in sharp contrast to the splitting,
epee policies advocated by Millard

at the IWA convention.

den of capitalist crisis upon the
backs of exploiting monopolists,
rather than upon the people.

This path advanced by the LPP,
‘‘a democratic people’s alternative
to the crisis-producing policy now
followed by the St. Laurent gov-
ernment,’ shows the way (in fact
the only way) to beat the threat
of depression. It involves a unit-
ed people’s struggle for the restor-
ation of Canada’s markets, within
the Commonwealth and with the
world. It necessitates a break
with the Yankee dollar-strangula-
tion of our trade by Wall Street,
which shuts out more than half
the world from mutual trade re-
lations with Canada.

The LPP proposals to beat the
threat of depression are not only
“thought - provoking ideas’ as
some have termed them. Seized
upon by millions of people: who
see their very livelihood threaten:
ed by suicidal government policies,
these proposals can become a
mighty force for Canadian inde-
pendence, peace anr brosperity.

aA

Ten years ago

(From the files of The People,
October 23, 1943)

Locals of the International Union of
Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, with
some 8,000 members in B.C. hardrock
mines and smelters, will shortly be
united under a B.C. district council, with
a headquarters office in Vancouver, it
was announced by Harvey Murphy, in-
ternational representative.

Fifteen years ago

(From the files of the People’s Advocate,
October 21, 1938) -

As a result of publication in the Peo-
ple’s Advocate of a series of articles ex-
posing the extent of Japanese fascist
organization and economic penetration
in B.C., the question is to be raised in
forthcoming sessions of both the prov-
incial legislature and parliament. The
series, written by Hal Griffin, editor of
the People’s Advocate, following an ex-
tensive investigation, bared the activi-
ties of the Japanese consul in Vancou-
ver and named a number of mining com-
panies controlled by Japanese capital
in which Canadians were acting as front

~men.
* * *

F. A. McGregor of Ottawa, combines
officer of the federal department of
labor, this week commenced his probe of
charges that a combine, controlled from
Winnipeg, dominates fruit and vegetable
marketing in B.C. and the three prairie
provinces. The charges were first made
by Godfrey Isaacs, Oyama grower, before
a meeting of Okanagan fruit. growers
and have since been supplemented by
further evidence furnished by growers

elsewhere in the province.
ae *

*

Two Vancouver members of the Mac-
kenzie - Papineau Battalion, Corporal
John Malone and Corporal Thomas Han-
non,~have been cited for outstanding
courage in the Canadians‘ last action on
the Elbo front in Spain. Some 800 vol-
unteers, now demobilized, are awaiting
transportation back to Canada.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 23, 1953 — PAGE 5

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