~

oe) Build and strengthen Labor-Progressive Party

ae * THE Labor-Progressive Party has stood fortheas the

\

"Objective cireumstances, and
the militancy of the Canadian
people, combine to create an in-

creasingly favorable condition
for the rejection of the govern-
ment’s war program and its sale

MUM
of Canada's
Wall St."

independence to

(LPP Convention Resolution.)

= <i i
ALT THT EEE

play. Unity from below—of the rank and file—is the
way forward.

Up to now the trade unions, and consequently the
working class, have not played their full part in this
struggle because of right-wing control over the majority
of unions, and because the progressives have not been
militant, clear-sighted and aggressive enough in leading
and mobilizing the rank and file on the issues of peace
or war, but too,often have shown opportunist tenden-

 Cies to capitulate to difficulties.

“It is not lack of rank-and-file militancy, but the
failure to give that militancy proper ,and effective lead-
ership that is responsible for the continued power of
the right-wing CCF leaders and trade union bureau-
crats. d

The workers will fight, are fighting. Time and again,

_ as in steel, auto, marine, metal mining and lumber, the

workers have shown their militancy. Where they have
received good, militant leadership as in the progressive-
led unions, they have not only won better economic
conditions, but have taken part in the general move-
ment of the working class.

Confidence in the working class—that is the quality
1 Sethe must have to build the united front from

elow, ‘

“Masses of CCF members are disgusted with their.

leaders and are bringing pressure to bear on them. They
are prepared to come into a great progressive upsurge
against right-wing control. Unity between LPP and
CCF workers is in many instances the key to a flood of

. ve ; # “ . ®
- united front actions., Every Communist must adopt as

his or her personal slogan: “The fight for unity starts
with me!” eee

Independent working-class political action — which
has faced Canadian labor for a generation and whose
Solution is not yet fully ripened to the point where
a mass labor-farmer party is feasible—can be developed
on a local basis, in local elections and by the building
of the united front ‘on local electoral issues.’ But the
greatest stimulant to labor political action will be the
fashioning of the united front below on the peace and

related economic issues. To the extent that the right

wing is defeated within the unions, to the extent that
the mass basis of right-wing social democracy is crum-
bled by rank-and-file unity actions, to that extent will
the top CCF right-wing leadership—the main obstacle
to independent labor political action—be defeated and
the workers’ political power be liberated.

~ A program of working class
and farm unity
|. The labor movement must take up the fight for
; peace, every day, so that every industrial enter-

=| . Woy ys
prise, every union, becomes a fortress of the people’s :
Peace, movement.

2. Take up the battle against the St. Laurent war _

budget. Destroy the illusion which is spread that war
€conomy means prosperity. It means death and starva-

‘tion for the working class and its greatest ally, the far-

mers. In place of gearing the economy for the weapons
of war to be used against their fellow-workers of other

_ Countries, the organized labor movement must fight

and unity, |

The Party in the new stage -
of the fight for Peace

~ champion of peace and the independence of Canada
—the only Party which has refused to bow to the dic-
tates of the Yankee imperialists and their Canadian
Satellites. / :
_ Our Party can feel pride in the way it has stood firm
in the face of vicious attacks in this difficult period.
In the factories and the shops, in the trade unions,
among the farmers, women and young people, the LPP’
members have held high the banner of people’s struggle

Our Party is the vanguard ‘of the Canadian working

: class, whose historic mission it is to bring socialist con-

: Auta to the working class, to unite the theory of

arxism-Leninism’ with the practice of the daily

Struggle and thereby lead the workers to socialism.

_ _The sharpened danger of war has demanded a de-

_ sive turn to mass work by our Party.
ae This was called for at the National Committee meet-
_ 3ng in February, 1950, but only partially has been made.

he fight for it is still the main thing, particularly in

‘ ee fi

THE CRUSADES

A cartoon from Front, Brussels.
+ H

for policies leading to full employment and
peace by producing for peacetime consumption, com-
pelling the government to change its punitive trade
policy into_one of trade with all countries, especially
those in the socialist camp such as China and the

“Soviet Union, and by forcing a break with the policy

of economic subservience to U.S. monopolies and the
surrender of our raw materials and our manufacturing
opportunities to Wall St. y

3. The organized labor movement must lead the fight

. of all Canadians for Welfare, Not Warfare. The struggle

for the social needs of our people is inseparably a part
of the struggle against the war program. The labor
movement should take up the fight for a national
health and hospitalization plan, higher old-age pensions
starting at 65 with no means test, higher pensions for

the blind and for veterans, scholarships for workers’

and farmers’ children up to and including university,
the building of homes instead of bombs.

To stop the brazen profiteering of the rich, to bring
down prices by combatting war economy inflation, the
workers should fight for a 100 percent excess profits
tax to be devoted to consumer subsidies to lower- the
price of food necessities so that more milk, butter, bread,
meat can be consumed for the benefit of consumers and
farmers. alike. ' ' seaciateniibaiicciaateal

4. Higher wages to meet rising living costs, the exten-
sion of the 40-hour week to all workers, and the vast
improvement of working conditions, is the main weapon
with which the working class will combat higher prices
arising from war economy inflation. The LPP warns
against deceptive propaganda spread by the right-wing

im

CUUUTAAUTTAUUUTOUCAU EUSA EUAU VECO UE ALEC EO TEED ULEE TELAT TEE TE EEE
_ “Opposition to the Big Lie and
the demand for peace is declared

by the Canadian warmongers to
be ‘appeasement’ when actually
the danger of imperialist war is
increasing precisely because of
the systematic appeasement of

the U.S. warmongers." _—

eQUUUALOEELL ECU OUTUUEE ACEO ECE CEU EEO PE ATTA EEE EEE CEE EEE

iv

\
this new stage of the fight for peace which will strain
every ounce of energy of our Party, will bring new tests

of loyalty and ability to weld new bonds between this
' vanguard and the masses in the development of the

working-class united front and the people’s unity for
peace. oe

These can be met only through the daily practice
of criticism and self-criticism, the inner law of develop-
ment of Communist parties, by means of which they

a
S)
e

Prion

“No conscription of Canada’s youth!”

CCF leaders in favor of price controls as against wage
increases. The working-class strength is sufficient tc
compel higher wages and to stop wage freezing. It is
here that the unions can-exercise their collective strength
in the most efficacious manner, and they must not
permit the demand for price controls to sway them from
the path of wage struggles, particularly as it is the law
of capitalism that real wages always lag behind price
levels. Even if prices were controlled and frozen today,
wages would remain too low for the working class.

5. Farm-labor unity fer peace and the economic and
social needs of the people—this natural alliance be-
tween workers and farmers, founded in the exploitation
of both groups by monopoly capital, which is opposed
by the right-wing labor and farm leaders in the interests
of monopoly capital, must be forged alike by the pro-
gressives in the labor and the farm movements.

Among the farmers, and especially the mass of sub-
sistence farmers, a new national policy is needed which
will end the sacrifice of Canadian farm export markets
to the U.S. The old farm markets must be re-established
and Canada must reach out to new markets that are
now developing as the colonial peoples win their free-
dom and because the’ socialist states have removed the -
former restrictive imperialist trade practices and have
breached the international trusts and cartels. Peace and
markets—the great aim of the farmers, should be sup-
ported by labor as mutually beneficial. Better prices to
the growers while food prices are kept within reach of
the working-class table through consumer subsidies—
this is the common bond of anti-monopoly action which
can bring labor and the farmers together in the great
battle for peace and economic welfare.

Labor and farmers should cooperate in abolishing
the present practice of grading wheat and replace it
by a scientific system of grading according to baking
and milling qualities. The payment of $2.00 per bushel’
for No. 1 wheat and immediate payment of at least 25
cents a bushel on all wheat marketed under the 1945-
49 agreements, will help the farmer’s living standards,
and provide bigger domestic markets for industrial
goods, Higher wages and better conditions for the in-

' dustrial workers also provides better markets for~the

farmers.

6. The defense of democratic rights by the organized
labor movement, which is the main target of fascism
and so must be the fiercest defender of democratic

_tights, must go! together with the struggle for peace.

7. In the struggle for united action of the working
class and its organized labor movement, the indepen-
dence of our country from US. imperialist domination
is ‘primary. Our working class cannot separate this

struggle from the fight for its economic needs and for

e

peace, because at every point the Yankee domination
of our country comes into play and must be resisted.
For the working class, the freeing of the organized labor
movement from U.S.-imperialist control via the top
leaders of the CIO and AFL and their lackeys in Can-
ada, is the starting point, because if organized labor
can win its autonomy and self-government, then a great
blow. will have been struck against the St. Laurent
government’s subserv‘ence to the U.S.

*

assess errors, root out weaknesses and draw the lessons
for so improving the work of individuals and com-
mittees and clubs that the work of the Party is brought
more and more completely into line with the demands
of the struggle. :

While our Party has accomplished big things ‘in its
mass activity, right opportunism in practice still is the
main obstacle to the mass work of the Party, reveal-
ing itself in passivity, tailing behind the workers, fear
of the masses and underestimation of their willingnesss
to struggle, reluctance to test all policies in the actual
struggle, subordination of politics to narrow practicality,
or in practice denying politics and the political struggle
in the trade unions (economism)—all of which leads
to a failure to fight for the united front from below. -
It is also accompanied by “left” sectarianism which sub-
stitutes “radical” phrases for actual struggle policies
based on the feelings and demands of the workers
i anes or substitutes speculation for concrete ana-
ysis.

The cure for these shortcomings is twofold, and it

can be applied only through the constant practice of

criticism and self-criticism. First, it is the fight to initi- —
ate, organize and lead_mass movements and struggles |

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 2, 1951 — PAGE 13