oo

TEN years ago, on October 13,

1942; the first issue of an
eight-page labor weekly, The
People, appeared in Vancouver.
And from that day to this,
through a decade of publication
Successively as the Pacific Ad-
Vocate and now the Pacific
Tribune, the paper has never
Missed an issue. It is more than
a record in continuity of publi
cation for a fighting labor paper
in British Columbia — it is a
proud achievement for the en-
tire progressive labor movement,
for the thousands of devoted

-Tteaders who speak of it as “our

paper,” give their spare time to
canvassing for subscriptions and

raise the money ‘to underwrite

its operating deficit.

The files of any paper are the
Measure of the accuracy with
Which it records the history of
Our times, the test of the policies
it advocates, the interests it rep-
resents. Knowing this, you
Might expect the daily papers to
burn their files, out of prudence
if not in shame, rather than go
to the expense of recording them
on film. ‘Their files hold the
Proof of their falsification of his-
tory. -The distortions and omis-
Sions in their reporting of events
Cannot stand the test of time.
Only the quantity of their output
and not the quality of their rea-
soning prevents their vast pre-
tense-of a ‘‘free press’’ from fall-
ing under the- weight of its own
mendacity.

All the screaming headlines
about “Red tyranny.” the false
dispatches about ‘‘Red massa-
cres,” the lies about the “Red
menace,’ through which the
Vancouver daily papers present-
ed their picture of the Soviet
Union’s birth in 1917 collapse
before this simple item in the
B.C, Federationist of November
23, 1917:

“Never in the history of the
world, did a revolutionary
movement show such vitality
and determination as that of
Russia, , . . The new govern-
ment is handling the situation
With great skill and profound
wisdom. Political and indus-
trial democracy are growing in
an orderly manner out of the
tyranny and chaos that gave
them birth.” ;

Thirty-five years after, as
Stalin propounds the theory of
the transition from socialism to
Communism and Malenkov re-
Ports on the tremendous Con-
structions of Communism trans-
forming the Soviet Union) is
there any question as to which
Papers published the lie and
each recorded the truth?

In 1939, when the Vancouver
daily papers were presenting the
betrayal of Republican Spain
and Czechoslovakia, the policies
of non-intervention and appease-
Ment of fascism, as the guaran-
tee of ‘peace in our time,” the
Pages of the People’s Advocate
Warned of the march to war.

The proof is to be found in the
files of the Pacific Tribune's
forerunners of the pre-war year's
from 1935 to 1940, the B.C.
Workers’ News, the People’s Ad-
Vocate and the Advocate, and

_ Particularly in the issues record-

ing those fateful months of 1939
leading up to the outbreak of
War,

“Chamberlain Aids Franco:
‘Second Munich’ Delivers Barce-
Iona to Fascist Axis.” (January
27). “Stalin Gives Soviet Un-
ion’s Peace Policy.” (March 17).
“Municheers Plan to Sacrifice
French Golonies to Mussolini.’
(March 30). ..\“First Outline of
Far astern ‘Munich’ Seen in
Pact: Chamberlain Yields as
Tokyo Boasts Victory.” (July
28). “Attempt Another Munich:

Mberlain Plans to Betray Po-
land by Danzig Sellout.” (Au-
Sust 18). ‘“Ohamberlain’s Poli-
Cies Leading World to War:
Plans of British Tories to Em-

enth
niversary

For more than! 40 years, William Bennett (top),
known to thousands of Canadians simply as “Ol*
Bill,” contributed his pungent columns to the labor
press. Tom McEwen, editor of the Pacific Tribune,
tells his story in He Wrote For Us, published last
January gn the second anniversary of his death.
And here are some of the scores of volunteer sales-

_men (bottom) whose work has enabled the Pacific
Tribune to triumph over every difficulty and main-
tain 10 years of continuous publication.

broil USSR in War with Ger-
many Smashed by Soviets.” (Au-
gust 25).

On June 14, 1940, the King
government suppressed the Ad-
vocate, the one paper in this
province which had consistently
opposed fascism and which con-
tinued to expose all intrigues to
redirect the war against. the
Soviet Union. It was banned be-
cause it told the truth — and
the truth had become too em-
parrassing to the Liberal govern-
ment. Not one of the three Van-
couver dailies, SO concerned with
freedom of the press when their
own privileges are infringed
upon, made any protest. They
too, found. the voice of one small
labor weekly most embarrassing.

Today the daily papers would
have their readers forget that

they ever favored appeasement

of fascism as fervently as they

now support the American
policy of cold war trade restric-
tions, rearmament of Japan and
West Germany and delivering
Canada’s people and resources to
American domination. With ut-
ter cynicism, they have turned
the question inside out to make
“appeasement” of any peaceful
understanding and trade with

the Soviet Union.

e é

When a group of us met in
September, 1942 to discuss
launching The People, it was

with the foremost idea of com-
batting the biggest lie of that
time —— the lie that the Second
Front could not be opened.

s

)

By HAL GRIFFIN

Again, the files hold the
proof. ‘The files of the dailies
contain innumerable editorials
expressing sympathy with the
suffering of our gallant Soviet
ally but all concluding that open-
ing of a Second Front was mili-
tarily impossible.

As W. S. Adams, writing in
the British publication, Modern
Quarterly (Autumn, 1952), ob-
serves in his article, ‘‘“Second
Thoughts on the Second Front’”’:

“Every war since the inven-
tion of printing has produced
its crop of memoirs and self-
justification, But in both world
warsi special circumstances have
assisted the
truth: the First gave us the
pubiication of the secreti treaties
by the Soviet government; the
Second is producing a mass of
personal record from the de-
fenders of our Western. Chris-
tian civilization, often more
remarkable for the claim to
foresight in preparing for a
third world war against their
previous allies than for as-
sumption of the credit for gain-
ing the victory in the Second.
It is these conditions which
make a search for truth among
the memoirs a liberal education
in the diplomacy of our time.”

And Adams emerges from his
“search for truth among the
memoirs’ with proor of the
duplicity and broken promises
which delayed the opening of the
Second Front from 1942 to, 1945.

Who then was right in advo-
cating policy —- the Vancouver
dailies, contending that a Sec-
ond Front was impossible, or
The People, campaigning for a
Second Front from its first is-
sue?

e

The policies of national be-
trayal as expressed at Munich
and again in the reluctance to
open the Second Front have
their expression now in the drive
to a third world war. When the
headlines of the dailies uphold

Truman’s policy of UN interven-
tion in Korea as they once up-
held Chamberlain’s policy of
non-intervention in Spain, there
is a difference in time. a differ-
ence in circumstance, a differ-
ence in the world situation, but
no difference in intent. :

The intent is to deceive their
readers, to convince them that
the road to war is the way to
peace,

' The Pacific Tribune, exposing
such policies and fighting to
arouse and organize its: readers
around policies of peace and na-
tional independence that serve
the people’s interests, continues
a tradition that goes back be-
yond Confederation to the very
beginnings of British Columbia.

It is the tradition of the

Caribeo Sentinel, fighting for
the rights and demands of the
Cariboo miners during the Fraser
River gold rush days of 1860.

It is the tradition of Amor De

Cosmos’ British Colonist in Vic-
toria, leading the struggle for
responsible government and
Confederation,

emergence of.

It is the tradition of The Red
Flag and the Indicator of Chris
Stevenson and ‘Ol’ Bill’ Bennett
in “1917.

It is the tradition of the B.C.
Workers’ News, the People’s
Advocate and the Advocate in
the Hungry Thirties.

The B.C. Workers’ News
championed the cause of the
unemployed fighting for work
and wages. It,fought to organ-
ize the unorganized and sup-
ported the strike struggles out
of which many of the province’s
strongest unions emerged. It
led the struggle against the
“iron heel’ policies of the Ben-
nett government that culminat-
ed in repeal of Section 98.

Its successors, the Peopte’s
Advocate and the Advocate, were
clear voices raised against fasc-
ism amid the clamor of a daily
press praising Hitler, defending
Franco, extolling Mussolini.

The People’s Advocate led the
movement for the boycott of
Japanese goods, for an embargo
on shipment of war materials to
Japan, It exposed the men in
high places who were. profiting
by the Japanese war on China.
It told the story of the young
Canadians of the Mackenzie-
Papineau Battalion and cam-
paigned to bring them the sup-
port of a united people’s move-
men at home demanding aid for
Republican Spain.

Where the Advocate was forc-
ed. to relinquish the struggle
temporarily in 1940, the Peo-
pte picked it up in 1942 with its
éall for a Second Front and pro-
duction for victory.

So, in the post war period, the
Pacific Tribune has continued
this proud tradition.

Alone among papers in this
province it hailed the establish-
ment of the (People’s Republic of
China as an event second only
in historic significance to the
founding of the Soviet Union.
But students of the future will
search the files of the Vancou-
ver dailies in vain for recogni-
tion of this profound truth.

Warning of the snares of Am-
erican economic aid, combatting
the folly of cold war trade re-
strictions, exposing American
domination of Canada, indicat-
ing the dangers of involvement
in the North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganization, the Pacific Tribune
fights to rally the working peo-
ple to a defense of their living

standards, their democratic
rights, their independence as
Canadians.

Above all, the Pacific Tribune
fights for those policies that will
lead to peace, bringing its read-
ers the truth of Soviet policy,
ripping apart the elaborate falsi-
fications out of which the daily
papers draw their warmonger-
ing headlines. ,

Pitting its strength, the
strength of the working people
who maintain and support it,

against. the efforts of the dailies
to enmesh them in lies and pre-
pare them for war, it speaks
with thé voice of the people for
peace.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 24, 1952 — PAGE 11

PEAS Gee ae ee

Tae