BEN SWANKEY

Sean Credit ‘funny money’ flopped

ge Social Credit party in B.C.
is spreading a lot of litera-
ture (which it seems is being
paid for by funds from Alberta)
dealing with monetary reform.
I don’t suppose the professional
Tory politicians who are so
prominent in B.C.’s Social Credit
party leadership say too, much
about this subject, but no doubt
many. honest rank amd file So-
cia] Crediters are being taken
in by the talk of money reforms
that promise to bring easy cred-
its, Therefore Pacific Tribune
readers may be interested. to
hear about some Alberta experi-
ences with Social Credit “funny

WILLIAM KASHTAN

money” (as we here call them)
theories.

Several years ago the Alberta
Social Credit government passed
provincial legislation called
“The Alberta Bill of Rights.”
Its professed aim was to guaran-
tee social security, a commend-

able objective with which the .

majority of people can certainly
agree. But how was this social
security to be financed? By tax-
ing the rich? Not at all! Social
Credit said it had a new and
painless method. The “solution”
proposed in the Bill of Rights
was as follows:

(a) ‘The provincial govern-
ment would issue ‘credit certi-
ficates” in sufficient quantities
to maintain a balance between
“the aggregate purchasing pow-
er of the people of the province,”
on the one hand, and “‘the esti-
mated collective prices of goods
and services” on the other.

(b) These credit certificates
were to be backed not by the
provincial treasury, but by a
“Capital Assets Account’? made
up of the value of the economic

resources of the province ‘‘with-
out distinction as to public or
private ownership.”

Crushing defeat of Steel raid.
indicates path to labor unity ~

NE OF THE most shameful
chapters in union history has
just closed. The Millard and
company raid on Mine-Mill in
Trail, B.C. has suffered a severe
defeat,
Steel union, according to their
own statements, spent over
$500,000 of steelworkers’ money
for this anti-union purpose. In
addition they divetted the time
and effort of many of their or-
ganizers—which could have been
put to far better use organizing
steelworkers and above all- to
winning decent wage agreements
for their membership. And yet,
“despite everything e Steel
leadership tried they were un-
able to destroy Mine-Mill.
Perhaps the labor ‘“states-
men” will draw the appropriate
lessons from their defeated raid-
ing antics and put a stop to it
once and for all. Certainly the
workers have shown they want
~none of it, which may explain
why Murray Cotterill was forced
to state that the Steel union will
withdraw from the field.
é€
The results in Trail are of
major significance. They mark
a crushing defeat for the raid-
ing, wrecking and anti-unity
policies of Millard and company.
In saying that it is equally obvi-
ous that they mark a victory for
the unity policy patiently and
perseveringly pursued by Mine-
Mil. and its leadership. It is ad-
ditional proof of the fact that
red-baiting is losing its efféctive-
ness and is bringing less and less
returns or those who use it.,
Above all the results emph-
asize that there is a turn in the
tide within the labor movement,
This turn in the tide is not
only manifesting itself in Trail.
The fact is that while Millard
and company were conducting
their raid, one of Steel’s big
locals, International Harvester
in Hamilton passed a significant
resolution calling upon the CCL
to re-admit UE. Nor is it an ac-
cident that this local should take
the position it did. ‘The workers
in that plant are fully aware of
the value of united action. They,

together with the Westinghouse ~

electrical workers and the Fire-
stone rubber workers had been

' meeting jointly for some time
to strengthen their mutual fight

for wage increases, These work-
ers are also aware of the fact

that with unions like UE, Mine- °

Mill and ur and Leather back
in. the CCL it would strengthen
all the unions that are part of
the CCL and the CCL itself in
the face of the growing attacks
on organized labor on the part

The leadership of the”

$1,000 the first week.

of reaction.
S % \
I don’t believe it is too far to
suggest that the attitude of the
workers in International Har-
vester reflects the thinking of

‘workers in most plants today.

The workers are only too pain-
fully aware that division in la-
bor’s camp helps the employers
and is used by them to under-
mine labor’s bargaining position.
They are also painfully aware
that the CCL which started off
with such great promise, is now
torn apart by internecine war-
fare, in most cases of an unprin-
cipled character, and is in danger
of falling apart. Unfortunate-
ly there are some militant mind-
ed workers who may even say
that such an event is much to be
desired. The fact is however
that the breaking up of the CCL
will not necessarily strengthen
labor but may, on the contrary,
seriously weaken it. The action
taken by the International Har-
vester local is therefore to be
welcomed because it indicates a
path of re-establishing -unity

within the CCL based on respect

for the autonomy of all unions
that are part of it.

In these circumstances the
best thing that could happen
would be for local after local in
all parts of the country to take
a similar course of action with
the objective of influencing the
coming CCL convention to adopt

a positive position on the issue,

e

A third example of the turn-
ing of the tide is to be seen in
the groundswell of solidarity
action which is developing in
support of the 6,000 textile
strikers in Quebec. These work-
ers have been on strike for seven
weeks and are as determined as
ever to hold firm until victory
is achieved. Growing numbers
of workers and their unions up
and down the country are rally-
ing to their support. Again the
International Harvester workers
have shown not only that they
value unity but that they under-
stand the meaning of solidarity
as well, for they donated $500
to the strikers with a pledge to
continue the $500 per month
until the strike is won. These
workers are not the only ones

who have responded so gener- ,

ously, Massey-Harris local, UAW
donated $500 also with a pledge
of $100 a month and a plant gate
collection. Westinghouse UE
donated $500 with $100 a week,
Mine-Mill in Sudbury donated
$500 with pledges of collections
weekly which has brought in
Ford

Local 199, UAW has. kicked
through with $100 with $25 a
week until three weeks after the
strike is settled. Other UAW
locals have also donated, like
CCM, Local 222, General Motors

‘in Oshawa, so/have a number of,

rubber locals like Firestone in
Hamilton,

e F

The significant fact to be
noted is that solidarity support
to a TLC afifliate comes in from
steel locals, rubber locals, inde-
pendent unions like Mine-Mill
and UE, not to mention numer-
ous. TLC locals throughout the
country. We have here real ex-
amples of unity and™ solidarity
which arises from a growing un-
derstanding among workers that
the fight in textile is not their's
alone and that the entire weight
of the labor movement must be
thrown into the balance to en-
able them to win.

This in fact is the big task
now of the aia’ labor move-
ment.

Priestley and Scott

H. SMITH, Vancouver, B.C.:
Having tried to regain some
‘Jeft’?? support by writing col-
umng which could conceivably

be construed as support for Paul

Robeson and Dr. J. G. Endicott,
the Sun’s trained seal, Jack
Scott, scurried for shelter again
last Friday by declaring (a)
that ‘I believe Robeson is doing
a disservice to his race and to
the cause of freedom’’ and (b)

that Endicott’s charges of germ _

warfare are “ridiculous” and
“pewerful propaganda in Com-
munist countries.”

Jack Scott igs very similar in

many ways to J. B. Priestley,
and the following comments by
K. Simonov, which appeared in
an article in Soviet Literature
entitleg ‘“‘A Suggestion for a
Funeral Oration on the Civil
Demise of the Late Writer, J.
B. Priestley,’’ apply equally well
to Scott. Wrote Simonoy:
' “It was his ‘left sympathies’
that those in the saddle appre-
ciated, for they created the il-
lusion of ‘bourgeois freedom,

“Such ‘left’ authors have not

In plain English, the govern-
ment proposed to issue cheques
against wealth which it didn’t
own or control—the CPR, the
packing plants, the coal mines,
the natural gas and oil it has

given to the big American oil -

trusts, etc. Now of course such
certificates would be worthless.
You can’t issue a cheque or
wealth yoy don’t own. (if I
were to issue a cheque on money

. which you may have in the bank

I’d land either in Oakalla Jail
or a B.C. insane asylum. And
yet this is exactly what the Al-
berta government proposed to
do!) It ignored the fact that
such certificates can’t go on cir-
culating endlessly without a day
of reckoning; that sooner or

’ later someone must pay for each

$100 worth of credit issued and
that if the government wouldn’t
be prepared to redeem them
with hard, cold cash from the
provincial treasury, then people
wouldn’t want or accept them
for fear of getting stuck with
them.

Money as a medium of ex-
change in our country today is
the result of the capitalist. sys-
tem, not a cause of it. Control

of credit doesn’t mean very:

much unless it is backed up by
control of wealth. Just print-
ing more money (to make up
the difference between wages
and the money value of goods
produced) will only bring infla-
tion, i

The cailse - of the evils of our
society is not that there isn’t
enough money printed. The
trouble is that while the majori-
ty of the people combine to pro-
duce wealth, they don’t get it
—that same -wealth is funnelled
in the form of profits into the
hands of a few rich men. These

multi-millionaires can do this.

because they own the means of
production. .

' To abolish the evils of capit-
alism, we need to abolish capit-
alism itself. The people need
to gain control of the wealth
that has been produced, pro-
duction needs to be for use and

the least intention of overthrow-
‘ing the edifice of

capitalism:
But upon discovering some insig-
nificant wart on the body of
capitalism they raise such) a hue
and ery over it that one might
yeally think there was such a
thing in the bourgeois world as
freedom of speech, and that they
were its prophets.

“But that is where the value
of such ‘leftists’ lies: they con-
trive to deceive some into be-
lieving that there is no cause
more oble than to
warts; while others are half per-

suaded that perhaps the anti-

wart campaign is only the be-
ginning and that something
more serious will follow (vain
hope! )”’

Three of a kind

A. STRATTON, Vancouver,
B.C.: “It is estimated that more
than two million civilians have
died in Korea, the majority of
them children.’ (Los Angeles
Times. )

I thought you might like to
reproduce, in connection with
the above, a poem written by

combat -

Social Credit has long sine?
abandoned its experiments wil
“funny money” and given up
fight against monopoly. Mail

yevenue-producer for the $0

ernment is oil, but 65 percent °
all Alberta oil is in the hands °
American oil trusts. This wot
not have been posisble except fF
the Manning government's del
erate policy of giving the
away to U.S. trusts.

not for profit. That will be go*
cialism, That is what the
is working for and in its Be
party program the path by which
Canada can and wil] reach
cialism is clearly laid down.
In the meantime the way
curb. the monopolists and
increase the purchasing power
of the people is by determin
and united action by the woh™
ing people of B.C. around *
practical reforms proposed
the LPP election platform.

ip

'

Hugh Hardyman. It appears as
“Bitter Aloes,” which cat
bought from Hugh Harayma™
2135 Los Amigos, La Criscent™
California. Price, 10 cents. —

Dy
Here is the poem:

Leopold, Adolph and Ha?*Y:
‘Perched on a griddle in io
Quarrel and fight

Over who has the right)
To ring tthe coking pell.

“No one can beat my record
aeopgut angrily cried. _
“When I was king
Of the rubber ring
Eleven million died.”’

jeoret

“In twenty
Adolph, ie
“Time is the measure tO ee
In six years I : :
Baked a Maidenack pie _,,
/Ot fully six million Jews:

years!”

“J beat you both,” ‘natsereh
Harry

Swelling with righteous pride

“Inside a year be

In my war in Korea

Two million natives aied-”

' PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 30, 1952 — pace ‘