REPLY TO COMMUNIST ‘CRITICS’

~ Abella’s history revisited

By TOM McEWEN
ationalism, Communism,
and Canadian Labor by Irving
martin Abella (University of
°ronto Press).
This book, as the author points
hice atl in the preface, isnota
Story of Canadian labor, or
€ven that segment dealt with in
Considerable detail. But it does
Bevide much material for the
pot of Canadian labor. It
provides evidence thatthe
a hor has some basic qualifica-
a ns as an historian, inthathe
ae tpermit political bias to
a up reality, as so many so-
falled labor ‘“‘historians”’ do.
a the unions dealt with, at the
C €rgence of the CIO into
anada; Steel, Mine-Mill, United
: €ctric, Lumber, etc., some of
Een Scarcely out of their
tj Tyonic stage at that point of
_ me, roughly 1935-65, events and
ten cPments are fairly accura-
a Portrayed. Omissions
aac are, some big ones, suchas
ae or no mention of the basic
eS of the Workers Unity
fee and its pioneering role
7 1e early formation of the
W industrial unionism.
* an Second serious criticism
a or any other book ona
; ae theme, is the author’s
i ce political carelessness of
Bees When searching for ‘‘refer-
Welle ; his partiality to select
a nown labor phonies, turn-
any Tenegades, etc.,nevera
dane Choice when seeking to
7 orce the authenticity of
aed of a literary work. The
ic and views of the
on labor ‘‘leader’’ Pat
Salsb Y and those of J.B. (Joe)
Now tyne? communist deserter
the ae Zionist, run through
Yellow: of Abella’s work likea
In thread.
ia writer’s opinion, the
Possib| asic criticism, quite
its 1V 1t should have been the
aha the author; complete
is quit On of the class struggle. It
havin € Possible of course, that,
ae files of the Canadian
€Y sour gress to serve as his
book fe. materials for the
Undan of he wouldn’t have
to the: a Irectreference there
Number ort Struggle, since a
Organi the top leaders of that
latep Zation used to insist in
os years ‘that the class
a

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struggle no longer existed’’; that
is until the greed of exploiting
monopoly, plus the needs of
their own membership, brought
them back to the realities of
life.

While we are well aware that
the ‘‘intellectual’’ Liberal
literati who seek to probe the
whys and wherefores of or-
ganized labor quite oftenregard
the class struggle as non-existent
or as something to be hidden
away and not tampered with,
they also fail tosee thatitis the
dynamic motive force that
propels the very thing they are
presuming todeal with. Thus the
very unions author Abella deals
with, as well asthe Communist
leadership and/or membership,
were and are motivated in that
‘‘sreatest of all wars’’ as Karl
Marx described it — the class
war.

Having access to the rich do-
cumentary files of the CLC, one
would have assumed that inthe
voluminious materials on union
raiding and busting, the hunt
for greater handfuls of union
membership per-capita, the
massand individual expulsion of
Communists from the union
groupings they themselves had
organized, policy documents
loaded with the poison of class-
collaboration, etc., that author
Abella would have ‘‘smelled
out’’ and recorded something of
the class struggle. But nosiree,
he was content to take Pat
Conroy or J.B. Salsberg’s word
for it. A liberal trait in which
author Abella is not alone, but it
doesn’t enhance the content of
books nor boost their sales turn
over.

Nevertheless, I found Nation-
alism, Communism, and Cana-
dian Labor a very refreshing
exercise. Nowhere does the
author ‘‘red-bait’’ or present
specious explanations for or
about Communist leadership.
He could well have left
‘‘Nationalism’’ off the title,
since there is little to sub-
stantiate it one way or another in
the content. But it is a worth-
while effort, valuable to every
student of Canadian labor, and
proof that the author has the
capabilities for greater (and
much needed) works on this vital
subject.

The worst possible thing a so-
called ‘‘reviewer’’ can dois to
read into a book, (any book)
things that just aren’t there.

InB.C. we havea plethora of
such ‘‘reviewers’’ who do just
that. In The Grape of May 23, an
offshoot sheet spawned from the
Georgia Straight, one Jack Scott,

TOURS

254-2313

erstwhile ‘‘communist’’, nowon
a diet of ‘‘Mao’s Thoughts”’ and
Trotskyite divisive bilge, at-
temptsa “‘review’’ of the Abella
book, under a characteristic
caption, ‘Did it commit
suicide?’’— meaning of course,
the Communist Party. Aside
from his customary snide and
slanderous comments re the
Communist Party, Scott would
have his readers believe that
Abella poses the same question
in his book. While Abella is in
error in posing the sources of
U.S. domination of Canadian
labor, nowhere does he resort to
the groundless allegations of
Scott.

Precisely one month later The
Vancouver Sun _ Weekend
magazine section ran a blurb by
one Ian Adams under the title
Reminiscences of a Radical,
portraying Scott as a “‘revolu-
tionary’’ and philosopher, with
background to match the port-
rayal. Funny, butalltheplaces
Scott was alleged to have
breathed ‘‘revolution”’ and an
end to capitalism, the workers
never heard of him.

But they did know that Scott,
as an organizer for Mine-Mill in
the Northwest Territories in the
midst of union negotiations fora
new wage contract, deserted his
post and left his Local member’
ship high and dry. Nothing very
“revolutionary” about that. The
Adams blurb reminded us of the
story of the little girl makinga
rag doll, but couldn’t finish the
head— she had run out of rags.

Another ‘‘reviewer’’_of the
Abella book, who promises more
of the same, is one John Stanton.
Writing in The Peak SFU
Campus organ, Mr. Stantonalso
found the wherewithal in
Abella’s book to berate the Com-
munist Party and to take it to
task for its ‘‘crassinability. . .
to understand the National
Question in Canada’’, thereby
fostering the ‘‘objectively
unnecessary dependence of
Canada’s: unions upon their U.S.
counterparts’.

For many years as a leading
Communist in B.C. and else-
where, I cannot recallone single
instance during the years of
lawyer John’s connection with
the Communist movement in
which: his legal or political
‘advice’ on any matter
affecting the trade unions of
Canada, or Canadian Independ-
ence was worth more than the
proverbial wooden nickel. Now
armed with Nationalism, Com-
munism, and Canadian Labor,
John becomes an ‘authority’ on
all three — all of which
emphasizes the moral; never
read anything into a book which
isn’t there.

Better read the book for

yourself.

oe

LUG)
ass

2TAM
ter
-t10

Review Board silent

Cont'd. from pg. 1

and cultivated the ground for
unbridled monopoly profit-
eering. And with branches of
many U.S. _ corporations
dominating the Canadian
economy, the price pressures
here will be powerful indeed.

And still the Prices Review
Board has said nothing or done
nothing toalleviate the situation

much less take steps to end it.

Unless the Board moves
quickly to investigate monopoly
pricing practicesand demands
the authority to force justif-
ication of price increases and
roll back prices, in short, moves
to curb the power of the food
monopolies, the London or
Tokyo steak may be a thing of
the not-too-distant future.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1973 PAGE 7