ee ge ie eek ea eS eae he ae Socred victory in the Ross- land-Trail byelection last Mon- day contains some vital lessons, for organized labor in particular. Naturally the Bennett govern- ment hails Monday’s vote as an e1idorsation of Socred policies, re- gardless of the Sommers conspir- acy-graft charges. With a drop of almost 2,000 Socred votes below its 1956 total, and am almost equal four-way division of the total votes cast, it is a Pyrrhic victory indeed. _ The new Socred member for Ross- land-Trail will sit in the legislature on a minority vote of 30 percent of the electorate. Both Liberal and Conservative candidates substantially increased their respective party vote over the 1956 tally, and particularly the Tories, while the CCF vote showed a decline from two years ago. It is this factor and not the con- clusions drawn by Socred, Liberal and Tory ‘“dopesters,’ that or- ganized labor, the CCF, and pro- gressive people generally must take a long hard look at. With CCF-Labor-Farmer all-in unity as set forth in the Canadian Labor Congress resolution in in- dependent political action, and strongly advocated by the Labor- Progressive Party, the constituency of Rossland-Trail could have been won for labor and progress. By and with such unity, Mine- Mill, the dominant union in the constituency, could have entered this byelection, united and de- termined to win. As it was, thanks to CCF leadership manoeuvres to continue with its “go-it-alone” out- look, the union vote was divided, the result inevitable. The CCF leadership returned Rossland-Trail to the Socreds. “‘A fine Christmas present,” chortled Premier W. A. C. Bennett. In its campaign against a Socred government immured in corruption, scandal and resources giveaways, the CCF leadership followed its standard pattern of “respectability” throughout, “rejected” LPP poli- Pacific Tribune Phone MUtual 5-5288 Editor — TOM McEWEN Managing Editor — HAL GRIFFIN Published weekly at Room 6 — 426 Main Street Vancouver 4, B.C. Subscription Rates: One Year: $4.00 Six Months: $2.25 Canadian and Commonwealth countries (except Australia): $4.00 One year. Australia, United States and all other countries: $5.00 one year, 'A fine Christmas present cies calling for unity to oust the Socreds, and as a result, invited defeat. In his byelection “post-mortem,” CCE leader Bob Strachan “called on the Liberals to support the CCF in the next general election in order to defeat Social Credit.” The LPP puts it much more realistically; in order to defeat the old-line parties of big monopoly come the next election, organized labor, the CCF, farm organizations and progressives generally, must begin speedily to build an inde- pendent labor-farmer-people’s al- ternative, founded on the broadest political unity, and registering that unity at the polls. A political al- ternative in which the CCF can be a vital and integral part, but not ea it. Then, and then only, will or- ganized labor and the people be able to deliver the Socreds, Lib- erals and Tories alike “one of the finest Christmas presents” we know of. Comment Tory bankruptcy ea and flushed from _ his seven-week world tour dispens- ing Tory blah, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker has arrived back in Ottawa, just in time to echo Fi- nance Minister Fleming’s flim-flam about the recession being ended, the economic climate warming up, ‘and prosperity just around the corner. Almost at the same time, Socred Premier W. A. C. Bennett was making the welkin ring in Rossland- Trail byelection with vivid pictures of “prosperity” in B.C. and on such a magnitude as to stagger the im- agination. One may look in vain at the “prosperity” masterpieces drawn by these Tory artists to discern any of the vital economic issues be- devilling this ‘land. Rising prices, reckless armament spending, cor- ruption, graft and monopoly price- rigging. None of these are to be seen in the “prosperity” doodling of Diefenbaker, Bennett and com- pany. While this rosy picture of “pros- perity” is being hawked around by Tory and Socred chieftains, other Tory hacks around Ottawa are speaking audibly about the “need of work camps” to take care of the gtowing menace of jobless work- ers: “relief” camps where the un- employed can be put to work—out of sight. This “relief camp” overture to the Diefenbaker - Fleming - Bennett “prosperity” symphony has a sini- ster place in Canadian history; the “velief camps” of Tory “Iron Heel” Richard Bedford Bennett of Hun- gry Thirties notoriety. The “relief camp” threat must be met in the same way; by mili- tant organization and demonstra- tive action of employed and job- less workers alike, determined that come what may, the effects of an economic crisis brought about by Socréd, Liberal and Tory govern- ments in the service of big busi- ness, will not be foisted on the backs of the people. That determination should be Labor’s objective for 1959! VER since the advent of Sput- E nik flights into space, num- erous of our leading politicians have had much to say on the need to “catch up with the Rus- sians.” Some few have: touched on the basic requirements of this “catch- ing up” objective. More schools, more colleges and universities; more of the national revenue spent on educational and scienti- fic pursuits instead of NATO armaments. More opportunities and greater encouragement to students in all fields of educa- tional effort, to the end that edu- cation can become a national as- set rather than a penny-pinching liability. And above all, much more en- couragement (moral, political and financial) to elevate the teaching profession to a position com- mensurate with the great res- ponsibility it is called upon to carry. Other so-called educationalists who have sounded off on the “catch up with the Russians” theme, having geared what little thinking they are capable of to a cold war climate, busy them- selves trying to minimize Soviet educational standards and achievements, hoping thereby to obscure the chronic evils of an education system built to the requirements and dominated by monopoly capital. “Catch up with the Russians...” Only last week the annual con- vention of the Association of Professional. Engineers of B.C. laid a few home truths on this “catching up” business ‘on the line. The first was that some 100 or more of this association’s membership were jobless as of May this year, with little change seen at convention time. Report- ing the engineers’ convention, the Canadian Press stated that «~~ at. all. times there ‘were many more engineers without jobs than positions waiting to be filled.” Little wonder that the association felt it necessary to warn “professional engineers seeking jobs .. . to stay away from BG The above is only one side- light on a situation which can be multiplied ad infinitum. This year of British Columbia’s cen- tennial, hundreds of university and high -school: students were unable to find seasonal jobs of any kind to help augment the fees required to continue their studies. The result was that scores of young students, their parents no longer able to pay such fees, had to terminate their studies and seek a. livelihood in other fields . . . fields already glutted with a growing army of nearly half a million jobless workers. Of course, there are poli- ticos and top-flight “educational- ists’ who find cheap and’ easy answers for just such situations. Such students are labelled “shift- less,” “lazy,” “misfits” and. se on. So why clutter up our in- stitutions of “higher learning” with such useless material? Bet_ ter to raise the IQ, barriers, “soup-up” the curriculum, and «drastically hoist the student fees. That way we “solve” the class-room and space problem, meantime lessening the risk of having our annual war budget endangered by demands _ for more money for education. When such stupidities as these “pass muster for an “intelligent” approach to a basic problem, that ‘of. providing full oppor- tunity to every Canadian young- ster to his or her inalienable right to an education and the pursuit of knowledge, one verity emerges plain as the nose on your face: we're not going to “catch up with the Russians” . .. or anybody else! The best we can hope for in the year 1959 under such cold war monopoly handicaps in the field of education and elsewhere, is to “catch up” with ourselves. If we manage that, then we may possibly “catch up with the Rus- sians.” December 19, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 7