You law n’ order fellers!”

A little incident .

'

, mer? father was an Armen-
i : ut Peter doesn’t remember

psue ather, His mother is Rus-
tors Peter's sister looks even

Poth Armenian than he does.
cho. live in Moscow, and
Take to’ call themselves Rus-

ane evening in Leningrad,
ibe Coffee, delicious Russian
ean and pastries, in the
tblege we were exchanging
Bie: You know how you talk
Oe. of get to know each
frien and the warm glow of
ne Ship that inevitably comes
Ng Such visits. *
and th talk drifted to the war
Bier” terrible ordeals of the
Sister People. Peter and_ his
« Were just children then.
« ne day,” Peter went on,
ead id sent me and my Sis-
read” the bakeshop to buy
+ Showing me with his
Ts, he went on, “You had to
Cage US little coupons, be-
«py Uread was rationed.”
«nO? everyone?”
tatin.2 YES) he said, “strictly
bed, with larger rations for
«yy, 29INg hard physical work.
< I! If we didn’t go and
Ose coupons on the way
\ We ¢ bakeshop! What to do?
Suldn’t go home and tell

lose

aa when us syndicate fellers heard these Black Panthers was
Shasin’ our pushers outta da ghetto we seen our duty was to help

mother. What would she have
done? Her working so hard, and
so worried about us, we just
couldn’t go and tell her that!

“We stood there weeping. Oh,
how we cried! Soon a crowd of
people gathered around.”

“Why are you crying?” said
one woman to us. ‘‘What’s hap-
pened?”

“We told her. They talked
about it and, as if by magic, they
worked it out among them-
selves. Mind you, bread was in
short supply. In our hands were
thrust enough bread coupons to
replace those lost. How happy
we were. Our tears stopped.” He
looked with unseeing eyes at the
wall, living it over again.

I wonder how many similar
stories could be told? Stories
about socialist people, the new
people, who willingly assume
responsibility for each other,
especially the children. And on
my way to Leningrad I had just
read in the paper that American
farmers had destroyed ten mil-
lion pounds of potatoes — not
that the people of the U.S.S.R.
need them, but others do. And in
America itself rivers of unneces-
sary tears are shed because of
the misery created by capital-
ism. ~ W.B.

Editor—MAURICE RUSH
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t

‘Gg, Pacific Tribune

West Coast edition, Canadian Tribune

Defend democracy now!

Danger! For two successive evenings
fascist types crept out of the dark to
attack the foundations of democracy.
The first occasion was a Canadian-
U.S.S.R. friendship evening with the
Soviet Ambassador present to honor
the greatest figure of the present cen-
tury, V. I. Lenin. The second was a
celebration of Hungary’s _ liberation
from fascism, with the Hungarian
Charge d’Affaires in attendance.

The first inkling of the plot came
when some Esthonian emigres claimed
they were a abee ae being harassed
by Soviet Embassy officials. This was
obligingly followed by a supporting
statement attacking the representa-
tives of the U.S.S.R. in Canada, from
no less a personage than Mitchell
Sharpe. Thus, with the help and con-
nivance of the Trudeau administration
and the public media, the stage was set
for this scum to launch its assault
against democracy and Canadian-
Soviet, Canadian-Hungarian friend-
ship.

These people neither speak nor act
for Canadians. They are against trade
with the socialist countries—trade that
would mean jobs for Canadian workers
and which could save the Prairie farm-
ers. They are enemies of democracy,
enemies of the labor movement and of
peace and progress.

- They want Canadians to help them
return the old order, rejected by the
people of the Ukraine, the Baltic states
and Hungary—an order in which their
privileged positions would be returned.
he 50 million Ukrainians who live in

the Ukraine, who know they are free

and choose to remain that way, would
give them a well-merited rebuff if they
tried it, as they did in World War II.

Some of the so-called “protesters”
collaborated with the Hitlerite forces
when they overran Eastern Europe
and the Baltic states. When fascism
was defeated in 1945, such elements
fled-to Germany with Hitler’s armies.
Later they found their way to Canada,
every one of them screened by the
RCMP. Those who were anti-fascist,
progressive, pro-labor or Communist
couldn’t make it. Those who had expe-
rience with the anti-labor forces, with
the fascist police, or who had collabor-
ated with the Hitler forces, even those,
it is said, who were members of Hitler’s
ill-famed SS, were more than welcomed
by the capitalist government of Can-
ada, and were given a gilt-edged wel-
come by the RCMP. In later years they
have been joined by those pro-fascist
and criminal elements who fled Hun-
gary in 1956 when their counter-revo-
lution failed. 2

Those ugly thugs, the Edmund Burk-
ers (John Birchers), were there, too.
They all belong together. They stand
for war, concentration camps, back-
wardness, and the curbing and muzzl-
ing of the labor and farm movements.
Thev are the dark forces of reaction
who, all down through history, have
wanted to set the clock back. Many of
them are the end result of extreme na-
tionalism.

In tribute to the Canadians who re-
fused to be intimidated, the celebra-
tions went on to a successful conclusion.

The warning has been given. When
Canada’s capitalist government and

press conspire, Canada's working peo-
ple suffer. A distinct pattern has emerg-
ed. Provincial governments. pass laws
against the unions, the so-called spy
scare is revived by the RCMP, threat-
ening speeces to use the army are made,
pro-war demonstrations are organized,
complete with hymns and flags.

They can't get away with it if the
Canadian working people understand
the danger and act together. The war
criminals hiding in our country should
be returned to their homelands for jus-
tice. It’s undemocratic to- allow the
ultra-right to endanger our interna-
tional relations, and to call for war on
the streets. Now is the time to write a
letter to your MP. Now is the time to
mobilize the trade and farm unions,
and all other people’s organizations, in
defense of democracy.

Open the door to
unity and progress

Local 707 of the United Automobile
Workers has submitted a resolution to
the UAW convention, to be held in
two weeks, calling for the removal
of all discriminatory clauses in the
UAW constitution, ‘he Canadian Re-
gional Council of the UAW has also
requested that this section of the con-
stitution be not applied in Canada,
making opposition to it virtually unani-
mous in Canada. Local 707 goes further
in its resolution, which has great signi-
ficance for the U.S. members of the
trade unions.

A member of local 707, Jim Bridge-‘
wood was removed from all positions
in his union on. the basis of these anti-
Communist clauses. In an historic vic-
tory for democracy he was reinstated
later on when the decision was revers-
ed. The victory had the effect of imme-
diately strengthening the struggle of
the trade unions for unity, for higher
wages and better working conditions.

Anti-Communism is used to confuse
the workers, to divide them, and to di-
vert their attention from their real

- problems, which are with the owners

of their places of employment. Anti-
Communism is aimed at silencing the
most militant and often the most knowl-

edgeable section of the working class,

When you have such a clause on the
bocks, it opens the. door to its wide-
spread use against the best sections of
Be working class.

tis a historic fact that every major
defeat and setback suffered fe He

“people has been identified with anti-

Communism, which isolated the Com-
munists, and turned the people’s atten-
tion away from the real issues, and
divided them. Conversely, every major
gain by the working people has been
when Communists were part of the
struggles, and part of the united front
movements.

Thus the victory for Jim Bridge-
wood, and now Local 707’s resolution
have far-reaching implications for
workers on both sides of the U.S.-
Canada border. :

It is to be hoped that when the UAW
convention meets, it will repeal artigke
10, sections 7 and &, of its constitution
clauses which bar Communists from
holding office. No other single act could
indicate the seriousness of the UAW in
tackling the real problems of its mem-
bership.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—-APRIL 10, 1970--Page 3