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“Brotherhood Week.”

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Tom
McEwen | :

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qTB= story is as old as the empires that

Preceded Rome, and as young as
yesterday. With each succeeding gen-
eration the players and the stage set-
ting chang—but the play, never. It
€xpresses the age-old desire of the forces

_ Of darkness and reaction to extinguish

the light of progress.

At Easter time it is renewed in the
Story of a Garpenter who challenged
the absolutism of the Caesars and spoke
for the common people. But the people,
in their ignorance, were incited to cry,
Away with Him... release unto us
Barabbas.”

Nineteen hundred years later, in this
told war era of the fifties, misguided
People are still being encouraged to
Shout “Away with Him,” and the pro-
cess is helped along by having “released
Unto” them a 1953 carbon copy of a
Barabbas, the latest being one Pat

alsh. ;

Two weeks ago in London, Ontario,
the Very Reverend Dr. Hewlett John-
Son, Dean of Canterbury, was scheduled

to speak at a public meeting for peace

and brotherhood, just about the time
When those who deny human brother-
hood in Korea and Kenya were subject-
ing us to the hypocritical pretenses of
The people who
Came to hear the Dean speak of peace
Were deprived of that opportunity. An
Organized mob of students from the
University. of Western Ontario, armed
With cowbells, stink bombs and bronx
Cheers,” to quote the Toronto Daily Star,
broke up this meeting.

The president of this university, a Dr.

_ Edward Hall, unlike the Roman pro-

Consul Pilate, is quoted in the same.
hewspaper as stating: “He (the Dean)
Sot what was coming to him . .*. and >
I think it is wonderful. This will do
Something to belie people who say Can-
adian universities are riddled - with

‘Communist supporters.” .An exceed-

ingly high price to pay for “respect-

ability,” even on Marshall Plan terms.
Pilate got out of his part in a. similar
action by calling for a basin of water.

In our day when -someone talks for
Peace—for an end to the ‘killing in

- Korea and elsewhere, for an end to the

Yankee-inspired cold war, on all pro-

-Sressive peoples and nations, whether

he be the highest dignitary of the
Church or a. street-corner agitator, the
Cry is the same, “Away with him .

' Crucify him.”
®

Last week in Vancouver, the editor
Of the Canadian Jewish Weekly (Vochen-
blatt), Joseph Gershman, addressed a
Public meeting. The subject of his talk
Was peace—and an expose of the new'
Cold war weapon of anti-Semitism’ levell-
ed by the imperialist warmongers

- &gainst the Soviet Union and the New ©

Democracies of Europe. ‘
A handful of local Zionist followers

2, Planned to break up Gershman’s meet-

“Ing, and failing that, at least to disrupt

it to the point where it would be im-
Possible for the speaker to express: his
Views. RAs

In this the Zionist disruptors did not
Score a “victory” like the London hooli-.
Sans and their university head. The
indignation of the audience, Jewish and —
Non-Jewish alike, compelled these vest-

ea

/

pocket thought-controllers to leave the
meeting in a body, their flag trailing at
their heels. ; ;

This business of organized hooligan-
ism to suppress freedom of speech is, as
we have said, as old as the struggles of
the people. When we were still a
small gaffer in a faded kilt and spend-
ing our childhood days in a small town
mainly noted for its poverty and smell
of decayed fish, the news got around
that Emily Pankhurst was coming to
town to address a public meeting. Of
course we didn’t know then that this
great crusading woman was fighting a
battle for millions of women all over

the world — the battle for women’s”

equality in the scheme of things. (We:
only learned of her great devotion and
sacrifice to that cause many years later.)

Our schoolmarm gave us a pep talk
on what a bad woman Emily Pankhurst
was, how she was stirring up a lot of
trouble, and how. we’d really be good
little girls and boys if we’d go to the
meeting on the village green and whoop,
it up with lots of noise so that the speak-
er wouldn’t even be able to hear her-
self. (

We did, and it was great fun to have
our own. poverty-ridden parents give
full-throated approval to our childish
whoopee by joining us in making an
ungodly din.
into the old game of “Away with him”
—-an old stunt to silence the voice of
human progress, equality and dignity!
e /

At a little social affair for the PT last
week, sponsored by the Kitsilano press
club to boost the present financial cam-
paign to keep this paper rolling, we met
an old-timer who told us an interesting
story which fits into this exploiters’
pattern for suppressing, progress.

The founder of the British Labor par-

ty, the late Keir Hardie, himself a life--

long worker for peace and human pro-
gress, had led a concerted campaign to
halt the predatory Boer War of 1899-
1902. “At the conclusion of that war
Hardie went to South Africa to help
heal the wounds of war by forging a
labor party which would’ unite Boer,
English and other African people into
an all-embracing movement against a

common enemy — imperialist exploita- .

tion. es
In 1904 our old-timer was still in the

“army of occupation,” his outfit billeted =.

at Arrowsmith in the north Transvaal.
Keir Hardie was scheduled to speak in
this town, no doubt much against the
will of the imperial “pukka sahibs” back
in London. ‘The army- brass doing a
job for their paymasters at home, gave
the battalion a pep-talk along the old

familiar lines, “Away with Him,” and.

stand by Barabbas. In short, smash up:

Hardie’s meetings, stop him from talk-.

ing socialism—and call on the army
stores for a full ration of eggs to do

the job.

In those days there was no Soviet

Union, no New Democracies of Europe,
no People’s China. But there were
ideas germinating, ideas that were ‘preg-
nant with the dialectic of social change.

- So. let’s stop social change!

“Away with Him” ... and release

unto us a Pat Sullivan, a Gerry Mc-—

Manus, a Pat Walsh. The supply will

last as long as the society that breeds.
~ them lasts.. The cold war president of

the University of Western Ontario pre-
fers such individuals to those who speak
for peace. So also does the monopoly
press which gives priority and emphasis
to their slanders and falsehoods.
“Away with him . .
to us Barabbas”—but the cry of the
people for peace is as wide as the world

and cannot be silenced.

Pacific TRIBUNE

Published Weekly at Room 6 - 426 Main Street, Vancouver 4, B.C.”

Y

Phone: MArine 5288 _ \
Tom McEwen, Editor — Hal Griffin, Associate Editor

: Subscription Rates:
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One Year $3.00
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4

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Printed by Union Printers Ltd., 550 Powell Street, Vancouver 4, BC. :
Authorized as second class mail, Post Office

Department, Ottawa

It was our first initiation —

. and release un-

c

struction In Moscow

eM

A total of 174 civilians,
including 62 children,
were killed in a U.S.
bombing raid on Pyong-
yang, North Korean capi-
tal, on February 24.

ww? 6

= —

Get on with the people's business

THE legislative mills in Victoria are grinding slowly, on the whole, a very coarse

grind, Partisan considerations put the people’s needs near the bottom of the
bin. Big issues like the BCHIS, the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration ‘Act
(ICA), Workmen’s Compensation Act and other pressing problems are being not-

~ too-neatly side-tracked by the Bennett government.

if the times were not so serious, the actions of the B.C, legislature would make

a fine burlesque; a government hanging by a veritable shoestring and trying to needle
its CCF Opposition, together with its‘handful of Liberal and Tory sidewinders, to
cut the cord and let it, “go to the country” for a majority vote to cure its lethargy
Tinkering with urgently needed legislation is a poor substitute for the loudly

- proclaimed commitments made prior to last June 12. Neither is the cheese-paring

of education costs and’a holier-than-thou furore on school textbooks calculated to
win. the electorate’s approval of legislative performance.

The remainder of this session of the legislature should be given over to the
people’s needs, to cleaning up the heritage of unfinished business left by the John-
son-Anscomb bunglers and to demonstrating to the people of B.C. that it was not
only “time for a change” but that the change is already here. Five weeks of political
sparring in Victoria leaves this last question still unanswered.

Vancouver Sun editorial on Pat
Walsh’s anti‘Communist diatribe is
compelled to dbserve that it lacks “the
ring of truth.” That is what might well
be called a gross understatement!
Thousands of Sun readers must have.
drawn much the same conclusion about
its editorial, “A Grain Of Salt.” Not
only does it also “lack the ring of

truth,” but it tops off: Walsh’s slanders ~

and fabrications by some choice ones
of its own. , For instance the Sun
terms the Communist agitation to save
the Rosenbergs . . . a shrewd move to
attain the opposite purpose . . . the

Rosenbergs dead can be. ballyhooed

throughout the world as martyrs to
USS. injustice and symbols of U.S. anti-
Semitism. But the Rosenbergs alive
and in jail would be a menace .. .”
Theretore, concludes the Sun, Com-
munist agitation to save the Rosenbergs
is in reality a campaign to make sure

Who lacks what?

Yankee imperialism burns them in the
electric chair. The Sun chides gutter-

snipe Walsh for not seeing this fine

point of distinction!
We often wonder, at each new revel-
ation, just how deep in the sewers the
editorial hacks of the daily’ press can
go 1n pursuit of infamy and distortion.
The Communists, and millions of
other decent people throughout the
world, want the Rosenbergs’ lives
sayed because they are the victims of
a cruel, hysterical and gigantic frameup.
Allowed to live, the years ahead” will
prove their innocence, and brand their
accusers aS war criminals and con-
spirators. Dead, they will indeed be
martyrs to the greed, bigotry, and —
infamy ‘of a war-mad oligarchy,
_ The Vancouver Sun editorial tells
its own story of moral bankruptcy,

totally lacking in the very thing ‘it ac

cuses the Walsh diatribe of lacking.

Documentary proof

ORE than one thousand UBC stu-

dents ~had an opportunity this
week to see the two Soviet films, Con-
and Soviet
Kazakistan, shown by the Canadian-
Soviet Friendship Society.

Comment around the campus follow-
ing the showing reflected the students’
deep interest and enthusiasm. It was
rumored that a few of the tory-bred
rah-rah boys had planned one of their
usual “disapproval” demonstrations,
but apparently they too, succumbed to
the drama of peaceful construction. for
the advancement of human knowledge,
culture and life, which these Soviet
films portray so vividly.

Wherever these Soviet films have
been shown to Canadian audiences,
they have left a deep impression, en-
tirely at variance with the cold war

‘

“PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 6, 1953 — PAGE 5

propaganda charge being level
against the USSR, that it is pes
paring for war.” The fact is that the
war preparations are in our own and
other ocuntries captive to U.S. im-
perialism where war needs take priority -
over the needs of peace.

These documentary films of Soviet
construction. explode the provocative -
contentions of the cold war propa-
gandists, for they show a people en- _
thusiastically building for a new era
of communism and peace. © §:

-In bringing such films to UBC
students and other Canadian audiences, .
the Canadian-Soviet Friendship Society
is performing a much-needed educa-
tional duty as well as a patriotic sery-

‘ice to Canadians, by helping them to

see the truth of Soviet peaceful con-
struction.

‘ ; } {