By TIM BUCK

of the Revolution.

A new book—Canada and the Russian Revolution b
Tim Buck—has just come off the press. :
The Tribune is pleased to publish a chapter from this
most interesting study in depth of the impact on our coun-
try of that great breakthrough — when the workers and
. peasants of Russia took power into their own hands and
established the first socialist state.
Other chapters in the book include World War | and
the Working Class, the Impact of the October Revolution,
the attempt to Crush the Socialist Revolution, and the Fruits _

We are sure you will want to read the whole book.

SRE Regge

< ADDITION to its profound inspira-
tional effect upon the working class,

the October Revolution exerted a
powerful influence upon bourgeois
politics also in Canada. Before the
First World War, Canada had been
sheltered to a considerable extent
from the cries and changes in world
politics by her dependent relation to
Great Britain. The Liberal Party’s pro-
posal, in 1911, to change that relation-
ship by entering into commercial Reci-
procity with the United States was de-
feated, but the fact that the proposal
was made’ showed that the realities of
‘Canada’s relationship to Britain had
outgrown the old forms. The world
changes ushered in by the Socialist
Revolution in Russia, made it impos-
sible for Canada to return to the old
relationships after the first world war.

.For one thing the end of capitalism in

Russia had crystallized the change in

_the relations of strength between Brit-

ish and United States imperialism. This
alone was decisive for Canada. In ad-
dition there was the fact that, with the
tremendous expansion of industry dur-
ing the war, Canada had ‘become an in-
dustrial-agrarian state.

Relatively few of us realized imme-
diately that, henceforth, this country

was going to be involved in a new way

in the conflict of interests between
United States and British imperialism.
But, the majority of us wonderéd aloud
how employment at a living wage was
going to be provided for the hundreds
of thousands of workers suddenly made
unemployed by the end of the war, as
well as for more than a half million
soldiers then being demobilized. It
could not be done on the basis of the
Anglo-Canadian-United States trade
triangle in the political relations that
had prevailed before the war; that was
a matter of wide public agreement.
The extent to which uncertainty was
accepted as the prevailing state of mind
at that time, is illustrated by the fol-
lowing. A “National Reconstruction
Committee” was set up by a number
of big capitalist organizations in co-
operation with the federal government.
The chairman of the committee was Sir
John Willison, a prominent “senior
politician. During January 1919 Sir
John Willison asked a number of trade
union bodies in the city of Toronto to
assign a representative or two repre-
sentatives to exchange opinions with
him concerning possible projects that
could be undertaken to provide em-
ployment. District 46 of the Interna-
tional Association of Machinists (the
Toronto District) elected the writer and
Bill Hagen our local Business Agent to
meet with the Chairman of the Na-
tional Reconstruction Committee. We
went to the meeting armed with the
following modest proposals: (a) that
the federal and provincial governments
co-operate in Canada-wide develop-
ment of Hydro-Electrical Power under
public ownership, construction to be

‘financed jointly by Federal and Prov-

incial governments. (b) that metal
working industries be converted to
build all*the locomotives, freight cars

November 10, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 6

and other equipment for the nationally
owned railways in Canada. (c) that
federal government build a nationally
owned merchant marine.

We sat opposite Sir John Willison.
He was flanked on one side by his sec-
retary and the other by-his stenogra-
pher. For two hours we explained our
proposals, buttressing them with such
facts aS were available. Almost the
only reaction of the chairman of the
National Reconstruction Committee
was his frequent ejaculation “Yes, yes,
but we must be realistic, we must
know that there is a demand.” At the
end of our “exchange of opinions” he
drew a deep breath and said carefully:
“I don’t know. what the government
will be able to do or, for that matter,
what can be done, but I want to assure
you men and the members of your
union that there is almost unlimited
money available to finance any project
that. commends itself.” That was the
file. and last communication between
our union and the “National Recon-
struction Committee.”

In the ferment of uncertainty and
disillusionment which characterized
that period, the impact of the Great”
October Revolution permeated the
spontaneous radicalization of the
masses with the idea of fundamental
social change. In varying degrees that
communicated itself to wide circles of:
the middle class also, particularly
among the farmers. Certainly the influ-
ence of the Revolution was the dyna-
mic factor which moved the farmers of
several provinces to’ contest elections
as organized occupational groups,
through their farm organizations.

In. the provincial general election in
Ontario in October 1919, the “United
Farmers of Ontario” nominated UFO,

ie. Farmer candidates in every rural _

constituency. The newly-formed Ont-
ario Labor Party, in some places local
Independent Labor Parties, nominated
candidates in a number of urban con-
stituencies. In the election, the UFO
captured 45 of the 110 seats. Eleven
Labor candidates were elected also so
the two groups agreed to co-operate to
form a government, with the Labor
group receiving two Ministries; Labor
and Social Welfare. Thus was formed
the first Farmer-Labor Government in
North America.

As provincial general elections were
held in the provinces of Alberta and
Manitoba, the farmers of those prov-
inces turned their farmer organizations
temporarily into election machines and
captured majorities in each of those
provinces also.

The turbulent movement of the far-
mer towards unity for organized poli-
tical action as an occupational group
reached one of its peaks during the
summer and fall of 1919. Simul-
taneously working-class resentment
against the reactionary Tory govern-
ment was also at its height. There was
mass resentment against the ruthless
and lawless methods by which the Win-
nipeg strike and a dozen other big
strikes across the country had been
broken, against the way the govern-

The Socialist revolutia

ment was conniving with employers
and leaders of “International” unions
-to smash Canadian unions set up by
the workers, against the betrayal of
the essence of all the glowing promises
made during the war. In that situation
the Liberal Party held a national con-
vention in Winnipeg in August’ 1919 to
choose a new leader in the place of the
deceased Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
e

Five candidates were nominated for
the leadership, one of whom was Wil-
liam Lyon Mackenzie King. The deci-
sive difference between King and his
four opponents was that they saw the
task of the leadership as following in
the footsteps of their late departed

‘leader, while King. saw that the prob-

lems in and confronting Canada had
changed radically as a result of the
war. As authors of a biography of
Mackenzie King write of him in that
convention:

“His analysis revealed to him that
there was developing everywhere, in-
cluding Canada, a sharp antithesis
which was increasingly becoming the
subject matter of politics. Rule-of-
thumb politicians like Sir Wilfrid Laur-
ier recognized the existence of this an-
tithesis, but their theories, in so far as
they had any, could not explain it.
Mackenzie King not only recognized it,
but understood it.

“The social antagonism which Mac-
kenzie King so clearly appreciated was
a product of the economic growth that
his country had. experienced during the
years of his manhood.

“Mackenzie ‘King understood this
fundamental element in Canadian poli-
tics. He appreciated both the actual
power of the rich and the potential
power of the poor . . . and he worked
to create faith in the power of concili-
ation.” (The Age of Mackenzie King,
by H. S. Ferns and B. Ostry, pp. 327-8)

Let there be no mistake about which
side Mackenzie King was on in the
class war, or as to where his sympa-
thies lay. He had resumed public poli-

tical activity in Canada only.
year and only after the Leade
vention was decided upon. Hé
turned to Canada. after wo
tinuously, since the defea
Laurier Liberals in the “Col
election, at designing and }
company unions for the Roc
terests in the United States
zie King’s name had become @™
with the history of the bloody?
of the coalminers in Souther
against the Rockefellers, th
the terrible massacre of WOM
children in the strikers’ tent ®
Ludlow on April 20th, 1914
of the fact that he designed
duced in the mines the comp
which finally eliminated
Mineworkers of America from
mines of Southern Coloradd: %

-In the process of developiier
ory and practice of company ©
specifically during the years A
he was in the employ of the ©
ler interests, Mackenzie Kine,
personally intimate and frie”
John D. Rockefeller Jr. The My
did not end with his return
and becoming Prime Ministel ag)
contrary it ripened. When Kine

retired from active public Lae a gl
\

in politics, John D. bestowe
a $100,000 upon him. rust?!
When Mackenzie King f° 4
Canada and resumed public ,
early in 1919, he addressed # ad
of meetings of business men : ii
of local associations of f
Party. The following quota
from his own published te*’
ber of those speeches, 15
illustrates the image of him
was seeking to establish o
masters of industry and fine
“It is coming to be seen tha,
trol of labor by its leadet i
dependent upon its organiza
conservatively directed unl0l
is among the unorganiZ isfh
ciplined workers that Bolshe i
L.W.W-ism (revolutionary *