LPP PRE-CONVENTION
rs

DISCUSSION

_ Says section on Canada’s women
needs to be greatly strengthened

By HAZEL WIGDOR

—TORONTO

T’S not good enough — Section 15 of the Draft Resolution oS “Canada's Women’! ' True, the
three observations are correct: that women have played an important part in the fight against mono-

poly prices, in industry and the labor movement, and, just recently, in the fight for peace.
LPP and its working class and . progressive middle-class allies to pay

it is especially important for the
attention to the problems of wo-
men and fight to organize them
for progress.

Have you ever been told you’ve
done “a wonderful job,’ when you
know very well you have not, and
you would much prefer a sharp
and thorough discussion on your
work, with a view to strengthening
it? It’s like getting a brush-off
with undiluted maple syrup.

To say Section 15 does that
would be a bit thick, but for the
sake of emphasis I’ll say it. Some
comrades may say, “Let it pass,
there will be a good draft resolu-
tion on women’s work coming up”
—a product of hard collective work
by students of LPP schools, both
men and women. I know that, but
how many comrades could guess
it from Section 15?

Read Section 14 over again.
What is so drastically necessary in
dealing with the youth question is
also drastically necessary in deal-
ing with the woman question.

Comrade Foster’ points . out
sharply in his article “On Improv-
ing the Party's Work Among
Women” in the November issue of
Political Affairs. “The forces of
reaction still have a hold on the
masses of womankind, including
proletarian women,” says Foster,
and he gives as one of his -exam-
ples the vote in the Italian elec-
tions, There is a tremendous
underestimation and neglect of
of this aspect (says Foster) and
the weakness of our practical work
reflects our theoretical neglect.
There has ‘been almost nothing
fundamental written since Engels
and Bebel (he contiues) and the
position of women ‘has changed
since then. The Communist Party

It’s true that

of the United States is establish-
ing a theoretical sub-commission
to delve into the whole subject,
with assistance from comrades
who are experts in biology, an-
thropology, psychology, etc., so
that all these factors may have
proper consideration.

Our own comrade Tim Buck,
speaking last week at a send-off
for Dorise Nielsen, remarked on
the underestimation of women’s
role on the part of men com-
rades. (This is true also of many
women comrades — let’s not get
into the bourgeois battle of the
sexes.) Tim pointed out that,
after all, 52 percent of Canada’s
population are women.

@

.At the peak of war production,
less than one-third of these wo-
men were actively engaged in the
productive process, sand today
there are many less. Yet, is it
not true, (in the words of A.
Landy) “. .. The key to the ul-

timate emancipation.of woman is
to. be found in the arena’ of mod-
ern industry and the historical
struggles associated with it,’ and
“. . . the activities and struggles
of the women participating in in-
dustry are decisive for the posi-
tion of all women?”
e

These are not questions to be
bottled, labelled, and put away on
the shelf marked “Women's Com-
mittee,” as a housewife does her
‘jars of preserves. Too often the
fight of women comrades to have
the question of women’s work pro
perly discussed is regarded with a
bored air of tolerance, with per-
haps.a teasing remark of “femin-

ism,”

Fears ‘atom war’ talk —
reflects U.S. propaganda

By HENRY MEYER

AY I submit my full appreciation of your excellent job of draft-
ing the main resolution for our coming national convention.
Your expose of the international and national situation, the proposed

electoral policy of the Party and
Party—which might stand out bet-
ter as a separate resolution—can
meet with no disagreement in gen-
eral by any Canadian Communist.
However, it being the duty of any
party member to voice his opinion
not only on the resolution in gen-
eral, but also on the details, I sub-
mit the following suggestions:

“The threat of horrible atomic
war hangs over our country.
While war is always horrible, I am
mainly wondering about the advis-
ability of using the term “atomic
war,” that is repeated at least half
a dozen times farther down. It
seems to me that we are falling
into the propaganda trap of U.S.
imperialism and thus furthering its
designs; especially since Vishinsky
Several times lately stated that
U.S. is not the only power who pos-
Sesses the atom bomb. While the

‘SS. government on the surface
May seem to disregard Vishinsky’'s
Statement, there can be no doubt
that it takes it to heart and weighs
the possibilities.

itler’s preparations for total
_ War encompassed gas, chemical and
bacteriological warfare, ghastly
Weapons never used by him for fear
Of retribution. It seems to me that
the atomic bomb has the same
Chance and has already been used
to its full extent—as a weapon of
Qtimidation.

The evaluation of rightwing s0-
‘al democracy’s aid to the imperi-

your appeal for the Fight for the

alists lack one point: While it is
stated that they aid and how they
aid, it ought also to be mentioned
why they aid the imperialists.

In the chapter about our election
policy we read: “.... in the other
constituencies (where we do _ not
intend to nominate candidates for
the Party) the Party will support
CCF, labor, farmer or farmer-labor
candidates on the basis of the fol-
lowing general considerations: For
peace and Canadian independence;
repudiation of Wall Street’s Mar-
shall War Plan...ete.” We are here
making an impossible condition to
the CCF candidates who would not
be CCF candidates at the present,
if they agreed to it—the CCF lead-
ership would see to that. The con-
struction of the above quoted pas-
sages, in whith the CCF is men-
tioned first of the candidates to
get our conditional support and thus
attracts the main attention, is
barmful, if we hope to attract the
CCF rank-and-file support through
it. This is, of course, our purpose,
as the CCF leadership will only dis-
card its reactionary stand under
pressure of the party’s rank and
file. If instead of “the Party will
support CCF, labor, farmer or farm-
er-labor candidates . . .” we had:
“the Party will support labor, far-
mer or farmer-labor candidates —_
CCF candidates included . . .” the
condition would to my mind be
logical and more digestible. In that
ease the election slogan must also

While I would like to have con-

tributed to the pre-convention dis-
cussion on other points, concen-
tration was necessary, so in order
to make sure that this not-quite-
virgin territory of women’s work
gets some tilling of brain soil, here
is a Lenin gem to go hunting for
among his buried treasure: “The
thesis must clearly point out that
real fredom for women is possible
only ‘through Communism.

+. - And it will also supply the
basis for negarding the woman
question as part of the social] ques-
tion, of the workers’ problem, and
so bind it firmly to the proletarian
class struggle and the revolution.”

to raise two.points. The first is in

Stresses importance
of accurate figuies

By KAY REPKA

iT contributing to the pre-convention discussion on the draft resolution
for the third national convention of the LPP, I wish at this time

the interests of being as accurate as

possible in our estimation of the economic situation in Canada today.

In Section 6, “Coming Economic
Crisis,” the resolution states:

“By July, 1948, Canadian indus-
trial production had declined 24.5
points from the 1944 output peak
of 198.8. From April till July 1948
the production index dropped by 10
points, an indicator of the serious
effects of the Abbott-Howe auster-
ity plans imposed in November of

to make ‘Canada an economic and
political dependency of the U.S.”

There is no doubt that the lat-
ter part of this quotation correctly
describes the aim and effects of
the Abbott Plan, but I think the

to be desired in interpretation of
statistics, The Canadian Statistical

Review, which gives the yearly in-

Leaders drag CCF into

imperialist war camp

By ALD. JACOB PENNER

—WINNIPEG

HE Draft Resolution of the National Executive proposes that
the policy of defining our relation with the CCF be changed. [|

am referring to the policy adopted

last January, which centered on the
I fully agree that in the present
situation this slogan is wrong, It
is wrong in relation to the main
problem facing our country—the
preservation of peace. It was
plain last January that the Mac-
kenzie King-St. Laurent govern-
ment had landed Canada into the
Wall Street war camp, against
the will and the interests of the
Canadian people. To defeat this
government, therefore, became the
paramount issue in the country.
The only possibility existing to
achieve this was a high degree of
unity of all peace-loving people
at the polls to elect a CCF govern-
ment. From this stemmed the
policy as adopted at the January
National Committee meeting.

Today the CCF leadership has
irretrievably lined up with the
war camp. It is pursuing the
same fatal policy as the Atlee-
Bevin government. A CCF govern-
ment in Canada today would line
up solidly behind the Wall Street-
Bevin war policy.

©

A deeper analysis of! the posi-
tion of the CCF by the National
Committee at its January meet-
ing could have avoided the error
of adopting a wrong slogan. It
was noticeable already at the time
that. the CCF leadership had no
intention . of repudiating Bevin’s

war policy, but was endeavoring

to popularize same among its
membership. Now the transforma-
tion is complete; the CCF leader-
ship is complete; into the war
camp on all fours and is putting
the ‘screws tight on those of its
members who are in opposition to
this policy.

The CCF leadership is now using
all the means at its disposal to
make its war policy acceptable to
organized labor, ‘This was particu-
larly in evidence at the Toronto
CCL convention. Rightwing social
democrats here in Canada and

be revised to “For labor-farmer-
CCF-LPP unity on behalf of peace
and Canadian independence.”

e

The statement on the Daily Tri-
bune: “Due to serious objective dif-
ficulties the campaign . : . ended
in a temporary defeat.’’ It would
clear away much still remaining
disillusions and cynicism if we
stated frankly: “Due to wrong eval-
uations .. .” instead of using nebu-
lous terms like “objective difficul-

ties.”

at the National Committee meeting
slogan “‘Elect a CCF Government.”

abroad are now openly playing the
role of the agents of the bour-
geoisie in the ranks of - labor,

above slogan, I have no doubt
that the Party will nominate can-
didates in a larger number of
constituencies than originally con-
templated, “to elect a strong
group of LPP MP’s to the next
Parliament.” The deciding factor
as to whether we nominate or
don’t in a constituency will be
our strength in the  particulat
area and not whether that con-
stituency is represented by a CCF
member in parliament. It is also
plain from: past performances of
the CCF leadership that they will
endorse only those candidates no-
minated by the CCF organizations,
in the constituencies, who are fully
in line with the official foriegn
policy of the party and are pre-
pared to indulge in red-baiting and
slanderous statements toward the
Soviet Union. Candidates not pre-
pared to take this line during the
campaign will be repudiated by the
leadership and “official” candidates
eupocuse to fight the regularly
nominated candidate,

The LPP cannot support such
candidates. In constituencies where
Wwe will not nominate because of
insufficient organizational strength,
our endeavor during the campaign
should be to build up strength by
coming forward with our own pro-
gram and seeking to rally around
such program, ideologically and
organizationally, those sections of
the people who are repelled by
the CCF war policy.

In such action on our part, I
believe, lies the answer to the
question “What is the alternative
to a Liberal or Tory government?”
In the present period where the

CCF leadership has led their party
into the war camp and where
there is as yet no strong enough
opposition inside the party mem-
bership to expect a reversal of
this policy, the CCF is not the
alternative. At present there is
no alternative in the in the sense
of the possibility of a government
coming into office, as the result of
the 1949 federal election, which

would take Canada out of the

war camp. _

However, our Party can do a
e

PACIFIC TRIBUNE —

1947 as part of a long range plan/

earlier part of it leaves something |

As a result of discarding the|

;dexes of industrial production in
| Canada from 1937 on, and monthly
| from 1946 on, shows that, while the
| index dropped, from Apri] to July
lof this year, by nine points, this
| may in part be aecounted for by
‘regular seasonal variations in pro-
duction. Last year in the same pe-
riod it dropped by 6.3 points, and
‘by the end of the year had risen to
ione point higher than’ the April
| level, while in 1946 in the April-July
period it had dropped by 12.3 points,
and by the end of the year had risen
again by 14.4 points.
e

There is nothing in the figures
yet published to prove that there
may not be a similar development
| in 1948 also. In both the preceding
|years the index dropped still fur-
, ther in August, and that has been
the case in 1948 also; the August
figure, which presumably had not
yet been issued when the resolu-
tion was written, is half a point
lower than the July index, while _
in the two years previous it was
lower by three and four points re-
spectively, notwithstanding which —
it still surpassed the April level
by the end of the year. This may
indicate that the downward trend
is less marked this year than in :
previous years; or it may reflect _
the effects of the beginnings of”
armament orders. The upward
swing in the remainder of the year
may be equal to that of earlier
years, or it may not, but in any
caseێ a comparison of the trend
over the three post-war years
should lead to great caution in pre-
dicting the general trend of events
from a four-months period, the va-
|riation during which short time
could be (though it may Not be)
accounted for alone by seasonal] Va-
riations in industry. ere

The Abbott Pian is no doubt
having its effect on the Canadian _
economy in shifting the emphasis _
in production from finished goods
to raw materials, and in other ways.
The figures quoted in the resolu-
tion may be an indication of its ef-
fects; but they are not necessarily
So; on the other hand, the figures —
which appear in the next four

for the rest of 1948, may entirely °
disprove this assumption. I think

that the wording of this section of

the resolution should be reconsid- _
ered in the light of the compara- —
tive figures for earlier years, and
that only those conclusions which
follow inevitably from the figures _

might follow.
° :
The other point I wish to raise
came up during a collective discus-
sion of the resolution. The resolu-
tion makes mention several times of _
the atomic war-mongering drive to
war of American imperialism and
its satellites, and quite rightly so

features in the world today.
this connection it seems to me that
the possibilities of the development
of atomic energy, the most revolu-_
tionary technical advance of our
time, for peaceful, constructive pur-

poses, once it is freed from the

control of the American military,
| Should be given some brief consider-
|

of attention its destructive possi-
bilities are receiving in the world. oO

great deal at the present time and __
during the election ) to
‘people around’a ‘policy to preserve
peace. The confusion the mono- —

of a very large section of the

people through their powerful

‘propaganda apparatus in placing
the responsibility for the present —
tension from their s| to

that of the Soviet Union, will have —
to be countered and their lying
demagogy will have to be ex-
| Posed now and in the election cam- _
| paign. i ‘ ‘

DECEMBER 17, 148 — PAGE 7

months, indicating production levels

Should be drawn, not others which __ :

as this is one of the predominating __

ation, to offset the terrific amount _

influence large sections of the

polists have created in the minds _