MAURICE RUSH
ae in a while does a
€ along that meets an
t need of the day and
Peles quality of its
a book is the excel-
ety of: Tom Mc-
orge Glows Red.
Published by Progress

ning back on a lifétime of
#8 More than 52 years were
a the struggles. of
Beeorking and farm folk
aM of the most turbu-
sin Canada’s history,

Be Glows Red is the
ish peenoirs of a destitute
0 tog Mmigrant. blacksmith
' di to become one of the
“ng leaders of Canada’s
~. communist movement.
Ory, told in a warm,

Gloquent way, yet with |

Ut
: 3 depth is not that of a
ee an.observer of the
ie 20's and °’30’s
‘on our country to its
in It is the highly inter-
da et of a man who
‘Cading role in those
ois more than most
Pe the struggles of
+ toiling farmers and
Uring that period.
f the Communist Party
ae Tim Buck, hun-
Ee atnists refused to
€ conditions and
ously went out among
; of Ean mbloyed, unorgan-
Otpaniz S, women and youth,
a and unite them to
to dite. to fight for the
~, lle, for security, for
» tor democracy.

ane
his early years, from
Shire fe tonehaven, Kincar-
‘ ith cotland, in 1891, he
ly 8reat warmth—about
flue ttdhood and those
aly his life, and of
n to emigrate to Can-

» aS a young man of
patho had already served
ken neiceship to become a
Me oe ee es 8
inc ) years after his
anada’s prairie pro-

~W Read the Book

3

™ blacksmith
‘volutionary

Almost by instinct Tom Mc-
Ewen knew as a young man that
his lot lay with the exploited
and downtrodden. He gravitated
to working class and socialist
ideas at an early age, describing
his first contact with revolu-
tionary ideas after his arrival in
Canada. He joined the Socialist
Party of Canada, and while re-
cognizing its merits, soon saw:
the weaknesses in their policies.
In February of 1921 he became
a member of the Workers Party
of Canada, which later became
the Communist Party, serving
that party in many posts,
through 52 years of his life.

He played a. major. role in
bringing into being the Farmers
Unity League, which was led by

Communists, and which was the.

prime mover in the struggle to
put a stop to ~forced sheriff's
sales. One of the great merits of
the book is, that it contains an
appendix, the constitution and
by-laws of the Farmers Unity
League, a document of great his-
toric importance. :

Along with a
est among Canadians about the
Hungry Thirties, there has, in
recent months been an outpour-
ing of “Labor Histories” of that
period.

Invariably, however, these
“histories” _ completely ignore
the role of the Communists: in
that period, or if they do give
them any récognition, pass them
by quickly or
red-baiting remarks.. Particularly
misrepresented by such “labor
historians” is the role of the
Workers Unity League. Tom
McEwen’s book renders a_ his-
toric «service to

count of the history of the
Workers Unity League and the
great struggles it led. Who can
tell that story better than Tom
McEwen, who presided at the
founding of the WUL at its in-
augural conference. in Toronto,
early in 1930, and was elected
national secretary at the found-
ing convention in August, 1931,
and remained its general secret-
ary during the turbulent and
stormy years of
bring , trade unl
to workers in
industries? :
Between 1933-36 the WUL,
under McEwen’s leadership and
that of many outstanding Com-
munist organizers in the basic
industries, organized and led ap-
proximately 90% of all strike
struggles in Canada, and in the

on organization
Canada’s basic

majority of these struggles, des-.

depression and econo-
and after bitter
pstantial gains.

pite the
mic crisis,
struggles, won su

However, :
limit itself only to the organiza-
tion and struggle of industrial
workers for economic
It set out to organize the great
mass Of unemployed workers
and to lead a Canada-wide strug-
gle for social legislation, many

of which were raised for the
he WUL and by

ed by Tom McEwen
demanding non-

contributary unemployment !n-

d other social and

today, an
ed, were

growing in‘er-.

with disparaging -

‘the Canadian -
labor movement with his ac-

‘signal contribution to
our literature and history |

ganized mass campaigns around
these issues during the Thirties.

Tom McEwen’s account of the
great struggles of the relief
camp workers and the “On-to-
Ottawa Trek” led by WUL or-
ganizer Arthur “Slim” Evans,
and Evans’ encounter with R. B.
Bennett, makes particularly in-
terestirig reading. A valuable
addition to the book is the pub-
lication for the first time of the

‘Constitution of the ‘Workers

Unity League, a document of
major historic importance. .

e
For his services to the work-

ing movement, Tom McEwen

“forfeited” as he says, close to
seven years of his life, in four
separate prisons. He was arrest-
ed with Tim Buck and “The
Eight” Communist leaders and
was an eye-witness to the at-
tempt on Tim Buck’s life in
Kingston penitentiary, an event
which shocked the country and

speeded the demise of the Ben-

nett Tory government. 2

Tom McEwen was also a.cen-"

tral figure in the famous “Free
Speech” struggles in the late
90s and early ’30s. His account
of these struggles in Toronto
during which he was often ar-
rested and sometimes brutally
beaten by the police, makes
vivid reading today when the
working people are again con-
fronted with the need to wage
an all-sided struggle for demo-
cracy against attempts to take
away their hard-won rights, and
against the efforts of. world
reaction to impose fascist mili-
tary dictatorships . .

- Tom McEwen summed up his
life’s philosophy in.a paragraph
on page 91: “I had chosen the
‘Holy Grail’ of Communism be-
cause I had already been con-
vinced, a conviction which be-
gan in my childhood days, that
a new and brighter future must
inevitably follow this economic,
social and political chaos which
brought recurrent tragedy and

ruin. to the great majority of
mankind. To choose, as the im-
mortal Georgi Dimitrov, put it,

whether to be the ‘hammer’ or.

the ‘anvil’ in human affairs;: to
pound or be pounded upon? I
have never had occasion to re-
gret that choice when I took up
the ‘hammer’.”

Tom McEwen brought these
same qualities to his work as a
labor editor and columnist. To
him the pen was a hammer with
which to shape what is to be.
Bringing to bear his vast experi-
ence in the working class strug-
gle, Tom McEwen proved that
one can only be a great editor if
he keeps his roots close to work-
ing class. struggles and takes
part in that struggle. He used
his pen mercilessly to expose
every charlatan who tried to
mislead and divide the working
class. Using humour and biting
sarcasm, Tom McEwen was able
to dissect the -“phonies” and
leave. them stripped bare.. He
never lost sight of the main ene-
my and used his pen to expose
corruption and exploitation by a
dying capitalism. Sharp as it was
when turned against the peo-
ple’s enemies, his pen was equal-
ly warm and comradely when
writing about workers and peo-
ple who suffered. It glowed like

a beacon when he wrote about
the successes of the new social-
ist world.

For 25 years he was editor of
the Pacific Tribune and before
that did considerable’ editorial
work on the- Toronto Worker
and edited the farm paper The
Furrow. His weekly column in |
the Pacific Tribune continues to
bring to bear the full weight of
his hammering pen on the ene-
mies of mankind.

His chapter on “Labor Jour-
nalist” contains many ideas of
great value to today’s editors of
working class papers, and to
those aspiring to become work-

ing class journalists. -

_ The Forge Glows Red is a
signal contribution to Canadian
literature and history. It is the
stuff of which future plays, dra-
mas, books will be written.
(What -a wonderful film or TV
series its contents would make
if the media was not capitalist
controlled?) Not only will old
timers who lived through the
Thirties find it interesting and
exhilarating reading, but the.
young generation of today will
find in it inspiration and courage
for today’s great struggles and
those which lie ahead. :

of the Thirties, to”

the WUL did not ~

demands.

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for by the
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1 1974—Page 7 |