By TIM BUCK

Coldwell wasted time red-baiting

while needs of

Coldwe}}
Why th

many o
80vern:
—if th

letter I have just received from M. J.
illustrates perfectly one of the reasons
€ labor movement doesn't succeed in winning
f the improvements that could be extracted from
Ments—even such as the St. Laurent government

i demands which express deep ana popular needs
as ya i orKets Were voiced in the House of Commons
‘ Part of broad popular struggles to achieve them.

to noe it became evident that St. Laurent intended

‘ “Solve the House of Commons in a hurry—before
p Udget was dealt with—I sent a telegram to the
- -Broup pees and to the leader of each parliamentary
to Protest that action be seken before dissolution
Memployeg € families of Canada’s growing army of

UR
ade

Ointing out that the increased cost of living has
hur pont rates inadequate, I urged that the maxi-
Person fnefits be raised to $16 per week for a single
for oo 1% $26 for a married couple with $2 additional
dependent child. To meet the difficulties
both families and municipal authorities by
Certain Jeno: of stopping payment of benefits after a
- ameng €ngth of time, I urged that the regulations be

€d to provide for payment during the full period
“ployment. To meet the situation created by
Ct that so Many workers being laid off are not
the present unemployment insurance scheme
at the ‘government accept responsibility for
Yed workers who do not now receive benefits.
es sir Such as I proposed was necessary. A lot
He ake are unemployed and many more are going
Ty tela ployed before the year is out. When I sent

ia em to Ottawa, the Dominion department of
broughens Was that 290,000 workers were unemployed
certai Out the country. It is unfortunately, almost

mo. that by the time seasonal jobs run out at the
this year there will be 400,000 unemployed

Wor :
'Kers dependent upon unemploment insurance bene-
e Or relief, -

Seated fo,

© practic

Covereg by
Urged th

“iL unempio

of ne action I proposed was reasonable. Because
tu ey rate of contributions, the accumulated
Commission” disposal of the Unemployment Insurance

Pay on is now very large. The commission could

maitlign® higher rates 1 suggested to more than a
— fop shy Workers for a full year, even if the contributions

€ rest of i rkers contributin
Were stopped, the three million wor g

for uF Couldn't be argued that there was no’ precedent
tcreas action because the government, to prevent
anes from securing an electoral advantage, had

iney
few q @ old-age pensions by $10 per month only a
“Ys before, ;

lng a instead of seizing upon my proposal] and head-
eat leagt neistent House of Commons demand for action,
the a to the extent of the action taken to mitigate
1d, ditions of the old-age pensioners, M. J. Coldwell,

: 4 8Y by which my telegram could be turned

Attempt the Labor-Progressive party. In a rather silly

reply t in the direction he addressed the following
! to Mme on May 3: 2

¥ 4
26, 1. Wish to acknowledge your telegram of April
“Which Which you insist on action by the parliament
the ,t#8 since been dissolved on the problem of
a now unemployed. May I re-
trom You that it is futile to expect this sort of action
Cor the Liberal-dominated parliament and while the
Out 4, pPosed the Liberal party consistently through-
the g last election you and your party advocated
Section of the Liberal party.”

bys olawen is badly in error on both couhts. Prodded
ries, the Liberal-dominated parliament had
nf netly that sort of action only two days before
liamer telegram. That same Liberal-dominated
fnt did increase unemployment insurance bene-
ang ic Previous occasion to meet increased living costs
L boty, 2 Liberal-dominated parliament which en-
“Uployy ct, the old-age pension legislation and the Un-
| Tefusay qu Msurance Act. For Coldwell to excuse his
be don, ». 2° anything by claiming that nothing can
e 8 is thoughtless, to say the jeask! |

© Second point Coldwell is even more in error.
did not advocate the election of the Liberal
ent in the last election or any other. Every
UE the 65 Lep cangidates who ran in that election

"ast a Liberal candidate. The LPP advocated

fo, cons Umably the CCF MP’s as a whole, looked around —

face of the growing danger of a new

read these things
. rapidly.”

jobless neglected

electoral unity so as to enable labor and CCF candidates
to defeat the Liberal candidates in enough constituencies '
so that Mackenzie King would not be able to form a
straight Liberal government and would have to choose
between a coalition with the Tories against labor or a
coalition with labor against the Tories.

The results of the election showed that the LPP
proposal was absolutely correct. Had the CCF leader-
Ship joined in such a united effort the CCF, PP or
united labor or famer-labor candidates could have been
elected in 18 or 20 of the constituencies which, through
lack of electoral unity, fell to the Liberals,

A coalition government in which the working class
and the farmers had a genuine voice would have taken
Canada along a different course than the one now be-
ing pursued by St. Laurent. Certainly it is hard to
believe that the shameful spectacle of the government
leading an illegal plot to smash the Canadian Seamen's
Union, or the shocking police brutality at Asbestos
would be tolerated if labor were a full partner in the
Dominion government. But that is the point upon
which Coldwell is quite clear. While pretending not to
understand the social and political meaning of political
coalitions and talking virtuously about opposing the
Liberals, he has integrated the CCF completely with
the Liberals on all the fundamental issues of St.
Laurent’s policy.

CCF names spite
candidate in Trinity

—TORONTO
AG Trinity LPP candidate Tim Buck’s campaign to
beat the Tory hit full stride, 33 persons gathered in
Dewson Street school to re-nominate the CCF’s 1945
spite candidate, Herman Voaden. They spurned a tele-
“graphed unity appeal from Stewart Smith, chairman of
the Toronto and Yorks LPP Committee, which was
introduced by Ontario CCF chairman Andrew Brewin
as coming from “Stewart Smith, chairman of some-
thing or other.”

In 1945 Buck polled 7,488 votes. Voaden’s 3,425 proved
sufficient only to lose his deposit and elect the Tory.
LPP spokesman Charles Sims tops the poll for alder-
man in Ward 5 which embraces all of Trinity, and LPP
provincial leader A. A. MacLeod has whacked the Tory
in Bellwoods provincial riding three times running.
“Only a united front of all trade unionist and progress-
ive-minded people in Trinity riding can defeat the Tory
and reclaim Trinity for the people,” said Smith’s wire.
“This is clearly shown by the vote in the last federal
election.” :

“We would also ask you to consider the fact that
the LPP is contesting very few seats. One of these is
Trinity where Tim Buck, our national leader and a
great spokesman of labor and the people, polled over
twice as many votes as the CCF candidate,

“In the present election Tim Buck is the only can-
didate who can defeat the Tory. His election will
ensure the most ‘powerful voice in the fight for social
advance and express the deepest strivings not only of
LPP workers but CCF workers as well. He will be a
needed spokesman in parliament’ for peace &nd_ his
election will be a victory for all people, strengthening
the fight to force concessions from the government in

crash and mass
unemployment. - She
_ “T remind you that our united front efforts in the

' last provincial election resulted in the return of 11

CCF members from Toronto constituencies and I now
appeal to your convention to refrain from nominating
in Trinity so as to ensure the defeat of the Tory and
the election of a great people’s champion in the person
of Tim Buck.” ‘
Brewin, who came to chair the meeting, said, “I've
before and I intend to read rather

Cards were not shown and there was no way of
knowing how many of the 33 persons (in addition to
Brewin and two reporters) were members of the Trinity
CCF organization. ; :

Voaden termed Skey (exposed by Buck for his
connections with the gold mining corporations) as an
“innocuous, genuine back-bencher.” Skey’s record in-
eludes spearheading the drive to scuttle price controls
and classing the United Nations as “a millstone around
our necks.” ‘

Where right wing
politics lead

i —NEW YORK
Meee American unions are heading into 1949 wage
negotiations with the club of the anti-labor Taft-
Hartley law still suspended over their heads. Repeal
of the vicious law as promised by President Truman is
five months overdue, a fact for which both the right-
wing labor leaders and the Truman administration are
equally responsible.

But labor still has a chance to win repeal of the law,
which has created tremendous bargaining difficulties
for unions in the past two years. The reason is the
role played by Representative Vito Marcantonio of
New York, sole Progressive in the House of Repre-
sentatives.

Marcantonio emerged as the real representative of
American labor, in ¢ontrast to outright betrayals by
their right-wing leaders, during two days of rapid-fire,
dramatic maneuvers in Congress earlier this month.

The House of Representatives, dominated by the
same reactionary coalition of Republicans and southern
Democrats that distinguished the previous Congress,
Was considering as a substitute for the Taft-Hartléy law
a bill even worse in content—the Wood bill..

The fact that the House was debating a new vicious
anti-labor bill instead of complete repeal of the Taft-:
Hartley act and restoration of the Wagner act was in”
itself evidence that the Truman administration had
abandoned its campaign pledges and that right-wing

leaders had failed to apply sufficient pressure on Con-
gress.

Announced policy of right-wing labor was to keep
rank-and-file workers away from Washington and to
rely solely on the Truman administration to fight for
Taft-Hartley repeal. Left-wing unions which mobolized
their members to go to Washington found that con-
sressmen were interpreting the absence of wide-scale
labor pressure as proof that the workers were not con-
cerned about repeal of the law.

& 3 : ae

_ As debate of the Wood bill opened, Truman admin-
istration forces immediately conceded defeat on out-
right repeal and announced that it would be necessary
to compromise. They introduced \a counter-measure
which contained five of the worst Taft-Hartley features,
including the use of injunctions to break strikes and
an expanded version of the hated anti-Communist affi-
davits,

While right-wing AFL and CIO leaders did not have
the nerve to endorse this anti-labor compromise publicly,
they sent their Washington representatives scurrying
about to convince liberal and progressive congressmen
to vote for the measure as the “lesser evil.” Strategy
of the administration ostensibly was to win over some
votes from the southern Democrats.

However, when the actual vote came, it was clear
that the “compromise” was clearly one-sided. Truman
administration leaders were seen literally dragging a
liberal congressman to his feet to vote for the com-
promise. The southern Democrats, however, remained
in their seats and the compromise was lost.

In a mood of anti-labor hysteria, the House then
adopted the Wood bill by a margin of 14 votes. Quick
thinking by Marcantonio, who had also battled stren-
uously against the administration's false compromise
move, saved the administration from a erushing defeat.
He invoked a parliamentary device which provided for
another vote the following day and gave the administra-
tion ‘time to round up some new votes, The second
time the administration succeeded in killing the Wood
bill by three votes.

_No sooner did the unions get a breathing spell,
however, than the Truman forces announced Plans for
a new retreat. The first compromise they had sponsored
was obviously too’ pro-labor, they said, and if would

now be necessary to appease the Taft-Hartleyites even
further.

While this will probably bring token protests from
right-wing labor leaders, the fact is that they are no

more anxious for outright repeal of the Taft-Hartley
law than Truman himself,

They are particularly eager to keep the anti-Com-
munist features of the law, which have been the chief
weapon in their war against the left unions. That
union-splitting war continues with ever increasing in-
tensity in striking contrast to the strange paralysis that
Overcomes the right-wing leaders in the Taft-Hartley

‘fight,

Against these activities stands a warning by Mare-
antonio: “Let labor learn the lesson of this debate.
That lesson is to make a militant fight for outright
repeal of Taft-Hartley without any concessions, We
will get repeal if the fight is made.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 20, 1949 — PAGE 9