LABOR SCENE

by

54 BRUCE MAGNUSON

The most consistent and active
force for peace inthe world today
is the Communist movement, It
inspires the left and helps to
strengthen and move into action
other trends and movements,

This role of the Communists
infuriates the imperialists, who
are now trying to repeat —
vastly different conditions — what
they did in Spain on the eve of
the Second World War.

Only a little over one-third
of 1,200 Canadians who fought as
volunteers in Spain came back in
reasonably good health, The rest
gave their livesor were invalided
for life in the struggle to stem
the assault on peace and Spanish
democracy, which they saw as a
prelude to world war, The main
core of volunteers in Spain were
Canadian Communists,

When the Nazi panzer divisions
rolled on in 1939—41 there was
little or nothing to stem their
advance until June, 1941, The
united front for peace, which
Communists had long sought for
in vain, was now forged in the
fire of war. Unity of the world’s
democratic forces, spearheaded
by Communists, defeated fascism
and opened the way for demo-
eratic advance>

As soon as the war was won
the imperialists once again set
to work to reverse history and
retain the status quo for imper-
ialism. Through the means of
cold war they sought to isolate
the Communists from the working
class and the national liberation
movements,

But the powerful advance of
socialism reached the shores of
the United States in the Cuban
revolution of 1959, The national
liberation movement has all but
liquidated the colonial empires,
The struggle to reverse the
march of history is now reaching
its climax in the dirty aggressive
war waged by the United States
against the people of Vietnam,

Far from isolating the Com-
munists it is now the imperial-
ists and their agents within the
‘labor and democratic movements
who are becoming isolated, All
the way from the United States
Senate to the Vatican, the forces
for peace are marching and gain-
ing strength, A most conspicu-

ous and constructive role is
played in this movement by Com-
munists,

The Communist Party of Can- .
ada sent a delegation to Vietnam,
and this delegation reported back
to the people of Canada at large
meetings and via_ the’ public
information media, The report
has been printed and circulated in
tens of thousands of copies,

Moreover, the party has pub-
licly requested to appear before
the External Affairs Committee
of the House of Commons, Ithas
called for public hearings by this
committee to getat the facts about
the dirty war in Vietnam and
Canada’s role in this as a Mem-
ber of the International Control
Commission,

;The events of the last week has
shown conclusively where public
opinion stands on United States
aggression in Vietnam, Even in
the United States only a minority
is now prepared to support the
adventurist policies of the John-
son administration, This is of
utmost importance to the trade
union movement as the organized _
section of the working class,
whose leaders have long suffered
from delusions and divided loy-
alties,

On July 14, 1965, Emil Mazey
of the UAW put his finger on the
problem in a speech to the Amer-
ican Newspaper Guild in Detroit,
He said among other things:

*T believe that all injustices
that we are attempting tocorrect
in our relationship with our em-
ployer and injustices that still
exist in the shortcomings of our
society are very important to all
of us, but it seems to me that
the only way that we can reach
the full potential of the organ-
ized power of the American labor
movement is to be able to function
in a climate of peace, and Iam
concerned about the war clouds
that appear on the horizon, and

~ Iam concerned about the foreign

policy of our country. .

The time has arrived when
that concern is being translated
into action, The red-baiters are
doing their best, but their bite
is becoming less and less effec-
tive, While the dogs of war bark
ever more furiously in sheer
frustration, the peace train rolls
on to victory, :

The Ass’n of United Ukrainian Canadians

A CONCERT EVENING
In Tribute to Bard of Ukraine
TARAS SHEVCHENKO

&

| Honoring Ukrainian Pioneers who Immigrated |
: to Canada 75 Years ago

SUNDAY, APRIL 24th at 8:30 P.M.
QUEEN ELIZABETH PLAYHOUSE THEATRE

Tickets available at Co-op Bookstore
a. Adults $.150, Students 75c

341 West Pender St:

~ Water Research,

MEANING OF DAVIS’ SPEECH:

‘Ottawa has gone a long way
in sellout of Canada’s water’

By NIGEL MORGAN

The speech of Liberal MP,
Jack Davis to the Columbia River
Water Congress at Wenatchee,
Washington recently, (reportedly
approved by Resources Minister
Jean Pepin and Prime Minister
Pearson), is a clear indication of
the distance Ottawa is prepared
to go in betrayal of Canada’s
interests to the U.S,

It is the prelude to another
major surrender to the powerful
U.S. monopoly interests, seeking
to pressure Canada into diverting
its most valuable resource —
water — to the U.S, with the cal-
culated intent of stunting our
country’s economic development
which has all the potentialities
of rivalling their own,

Davis insults the intelligence
of Canadians when he compares
“water” to “power” exports, and
talks about “repatriation” of the
former, Past experience shows
once basic resources are com-
mitted for export and new in-
dustries, new population centres
become dependent on them, they
are lost, This he well knows.
It was the case with Niagara
power (even in Canada’s emer-
gency in World War II), and much
more so with water that involves
an estimated $100,000 million of
waterways and costly installa-
tions such as NAWAPA,

And Davis’ alarming state-
ment, that *there certainly will be
‘exchanges? of water between
Canada and the U.S.,” and that
“Mr, Pearson agreed this was
so’? — is not “idle chatter” as
B.C. Lands Minister Williston
would pass it off for. Reported
comments of Federal Liberal.
cabinet members, that if the
provinces do not act in certain
areas of their constitutional jur-
isdiction, the Federal govern-
ment should fill the vacuum,
indicates how far the Pearson ad-
ministration is prepared to go to
satisfy U.S, imperialism’s new-
est plunder attempt.

U.S. pressing

The NAWAPA scheme is well
advanced, And a well planned,
lavishly-financed pressure cam-
paign is underway to put across
this biggest sellout in Canada’s
history. Only last week the U.S;
Congress gave approval to a bill
authorizing Dr. Roland Rennie,
director of the U.S, Office of
to undertake
water research on an ‘‘interna-
tional” basis.

Requests for negotiations with
the “appropriate” authorities in
Canada have been adopted by the

U.S. Senate, Numerous deputa-
tions and “task forces” have

been visiting Canadian centres,
meeting governments, Chambers
of Commerce and various other
authorities to promote the
scheme,

And what can happen once the
matter reaches the “international
bargaining table” behind closed
doors was most clearly illus-
trated in the case of the 16-year
fight against the eos 1 River
betrayal,

The U.S. monopolies are
steadily muscleing in, pressing

hard to make us the waterboy

for America. Having polluted,
wasted and mismanaged most of
their own water to satisfy their
monopolists’ insatiable greed for
super profits, they°ve now set
out to control and divert our
water supply, They not only
want our water — bui a built-in
guarantee that the flow of Can-
adian raw materials to the U.S,
will continue, with preservation
of the expanding Canadian market
for their manufactures,

And, what better way of guar-
anteeing it and moving to eventual
U.S. absorption or ‘customs un-
ion’ (which the Bennett govern-
ment openly advocates) than by
draining off essential energy and
water sources,

What this does to Canada’s
highly unfavorable balance of in-

. 2. ee ener
- Dyad in the Daily Worker, Londou

‘“‘From now on bomb only for peace!”

ternational payments and job
opportunities, is no concern of
theirs, so long as they reap super
profits out of the deal,

This is the real question which
Lands and Forest Minister Ray
Williston, for all his other rea-
sonable replies to Davis, ducks,
How much dependence can be
placed on Williston’s criticism
and opposition to the Davis Fed-
eral plan has to be considered
alongside the Bennett govern-
ment's giveaway policies in the
field of natural gas, oil, lumber
and minerals, The role of Willis-
ton and Premier Bennett on the
Columbia, and the lack of fore-

_ sight demonstrated in the present

power shortage in B,C, can't be
quickly forgotten,

The main barrier to Canadian
industrial development and rapid
expansion of processing. and
manufacturing is the anti-Can-
adian policy of continental inte-
gration pushed by U.S, and do-
mestic monopoly interests for a

fast buck and closely linked to”

the suicidal, military obsession
of American imperialism around
the world,

Today the future of the Can-
adian people is in the scales,
Canadu’s decision on use and
development of its water re-
serves can mark the turn, Op-
position to the massive water
giveaway the Pearson yovern-
ment is promoting is mounting,
The battle lines are taking shape.

In een to the Communist

April 15, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 6

- Canada’s national

Party, the national NDP, many
trade union organizations (in-
cluding the B.C. Federation of
Labor) the United Electrical
Workers, Fishermen, and Mine
Mill and Smelter Workers) —
spokesmen of the governments of
Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C,
and sections of the Liberal party
(around former Resources Min-
ister Laing) have expressed con-
cern.

Even the influential Vancouver
Board of Trade has called for
“an immediate assessment of
water resources independent of
similar investigations in the U.S,

.We are not prepared to admit
it is an international problem...
That is the feeling of most Can-
adians . .. Studies and analyses
for determination of needs are
matters to be undertaken by Can-
adians for Canadians.”

NAWAPA

The so-called “North Ameri-
can Water Alliance Plan” is not
a plan for Canada, any more than
water export can be termed a
water exchange,” as Davis tries
to make out, Introduction of
the term “exchange’’ is part of
the Yankee “soft-sell” tech-
nique. NAWAPA is a plan to
drain off Canada’s water, Eighty
percent of the supply would come
from Canada, its promoters ad-
mit.

It is sheer nonsense to talk
about “water surpluses,” There
are already serious shortages
beginning to be felt on the Can-
adian prairies and parts of On-
tario, Future needs for a popu-
jation of 50 millionare immense,
rivers are
strictly a Canadian resource,
They must not be alienated. It
is time that Canada told the U.S,
firmly and bluntly, this is our
water and we intend to develop
and manage it on the basis of
what serves Canada best, Water
is life, It is irreplaceable and
must be conserved. It must be
protected from foreign profit-
eers, from pollution and waste,
More than that, it must be de-
yeloped and utilized to attract
and develop industry and raise
the level and diversification of
Canadian agriculture,

‘

The NAWAPA concept, that
water is a *continental re-
source,” should be quickly and

flatly rejected, There is a place
for international co-operation,
of course, but co-operation can
only be based on the full, all-
sided, long-term interests of both
countries, And the surrender of
Canada’s water is not negotiable
at any prices

Canada’s 27th Parliament has
a supreme duty that can and
should be honored quickly by
decision to launch a thorough
study of Canadian water re-
sources; Canada’s long-term
and immediate requirements:
and the best means of meeting
these needs,

Davis’ Wenatchee promise to
the American
serve, if nothing else, to stim-
ulate a quick, broad, widespread,
public reaction to help compel
such a course,
easier to protect our water re-

sources once their potential is _

being harnessed and realized.

trusts should -

It will be much |

sie