‘THE circulation drive for PT
circulation is well past the half-
time mark, in terms of time. But
not in subscription and sales re-
sults. In fact, much as we hate to.
say it, except for a few bright spots
j of devoted effort, the drive asa

whole has barely got off the
ground.

: What are the stakes at issue in
this drive?

A world to win by the winning
of readers for peace, progress and
Socialism. Or a world to lose by
leaving it to the lying distortions
and soothing syrup illusions of a

prostitute monopoly press. It is
just as simple as that; a struggle
to win the minds of working men
and women for the things that
.count—for them.

For the PT it is much more than
just a matter of increased circula-
tion and finances. It is oneof sur-
vival as a fearless voice in the
struggle for the Canada of Tomor-.
row. That is why this drive for
new and old readers must get into
high gear—Now, Today!

That’s it in a nutshell, so alto-
gether, let’s get going!

BCE ‘beneficiaries’

TWAS the night before . ..’, no,
not Christmas but the night be-
fore the Socred takeover of the
B.C. Electric back in 1961. There,
was some “transferring” of assets
to be done.

Doubtless the BCE monopoly
director boys, Messrs Purdy,
Mainwaring, Grauer et al, high up
in their illuminated penthouse,

had got the old reliable “grape-

vine” tip-off that a Socred heist
was coming off. Hence their “fore-
sight”’in the transfer of a sizeable
chunk of BCE cash assets before
the Socred take-over boys “moved

a

For the BCE monopoly octopus
gang the old adage about bein
fore-warned is fore-armed” coul

always be made to pay off hand-

somely. Old hands at making pro-:

fits look like losses, these BCE di-

rectors expeditiously extracted

some $850,000 or so from the “as-
sets” kitty and stached it away for
themselves. ae

Now with the “Law” satisfied
that an extra $27-million or so out
of the pockets of the taxpayers and

COMMENT

Once again Canada joins the
U.S. chorus to vote against Peo- ©
ples China being seated in the
UN.

We don’t “recognize” China, we,
are afraid of the voice of her 700-
million in the UN, we join in the
imperialist slander against her—
and we sell her hundreds of million
dollars worth of wheat. Not out of
humanitarian reasons, but because
we “‘need the business.” Isn’t it
about time this coldwar stupidity
was ended?

* * *

Has the British Tory party gone
“stark, stairing mad’ in their sel-
ection of a die-hard ‘blue-blooded’
Munichite to lead them to final
disaster? Two thirds of the British

eople, plus a good half of the
umo-ized Tories say “‘yes”.

into the pockets of the BCE share-
holders makes the Socred takeover
all very “legal” and proper, and’
the Socred “violation” of the Brit-
ish North America Act duly noted
—and forgotten (until the next
takeover) the BCE director boys
are out in the open again to divide
their stached-away swag.

Just who will get what or how,
much isn't important. The import-
ant thing is for working people to
know that here is an open and
barefaced steal of nearly a million
dollars of BCE cash assets, which
rightfully belong to the people of

C., by virtue of the takeover,
but which now goes into the well-
lined pockets of a few erstwhile
BCE directors, old hands at the
old game of “put and take”.

When the “Law” winks an ap-
proving eye at such thievery no
a see eH a oe pln

0 ! But it all helps to point u
(so far) Who:the real Spanehie®
aries” of the BCE takeover are—
and they aren’t the people!

M R. Justice Hutcheson ruled in
’ B.C. Supreme Court last week that
the Seafarers International Union

(SIU) must pay “libel’’ damages
amounting to $5,000 to William
Brannigan for describing the plain-
tiff as a “Communist”, “Commie”,
etc. in one of its union publica-
tions.

This court ruling is of more
than passing interest to working
people in B.C. and elsewhere. In
handing down his decision the
learned judge managed a three-
deck judicial titbit; to delve in the
political muck of coldwar for “‘pre-
cedents” which would show Mr.
Brannigan as a most grievously
injured person, morally that is; to
publicity, slander and smear a legal
Canadian political party, the Com-
munist Party, and lastly of course,
to take a $5,000 kick at the SIU
whose popularity at the moment is

“something less than zero. ;

In arriving at his verdict Mr.
Justice Hutcheson leaned heavily
upon “precedents” set by the late
Mr. Justice O’ Halloran and the:
late Mr. Justice Robertson, whose.
coldwar rantings against “‘com-
munism”’ are again being repeated
by The Province init s “hurrahs”
for the Hutcheson “award.”

By some tortuous mental gyra-
tions the Old Lady of Cambie
Street sees the danger “‘to our way

‘of life’’ somewhat lessened by this
judicial ruling, since “everyone”
is now supposed to have “‘a pretty
clear idea of what kind of a per-
son a Communist is.”

_ Clear as mud. A ruling which
provides Mr. Brannigan with a
Supreme Court certificate of politi-
cal purity, plus $5,000. (when he
gets it); a ruling which slanders
the integrity and aims of a legal
‘Canadian political party from the

_comparatively safe vantage point

Drive needs ‘oomph’ A coldwar ‘libel’

Comment

of a Supreme Court sanctum —
where the exercise of opposing
opinion can be effectively shut

out.

And lastly, a ruling which pro-
vides the opportunity for a pass-
ing kick at the SIU, which, “lest
we forget”, came to Canada in the ~
first place to do a union-smashing _
job, with the “learned” approval
of the Hutchesons, O’Hallorans
Robertsons, et al.

To an ever-increasing sector of
the world’s working peoples, it is
considered to be a great honor to
be described or recognized as a
Communist, “learned” judges not-

_ withstanding. It follows that Bran-
nigan’s “libel” victory is one most
non-Communist (as yet) working -
men and women would be quite
happy to lose.

“1 believe some of our chaps
are thinking of turning
professional.”

Tom
McEwen

T he. cost of being a satellite to U.S,

imperialism comes high. It is not
always paid in the same coin by all
subordinate states, but it is paid. In
Some cases, as in Canada, the major
policies of old institutions such as’
government, finance, trade, organized
labor, etc., are influenced, designed,
and determined by a foreign U.S. domin-
ation. :

~ Now where’ in the world outside of

so thoroughly under the dictates of a
U.S.-resident hierarchy. Not even in
the allegedly more ‘‘backward’’ Latin
American countries, where US.

nif ae ee ‘ib
Pacific Tribune
_ Editor — TOM McEWEN
Business
Published weekly at:
Room 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouver 4, B.C.

Phone MUtual 5-5288 |
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year. Australia, United States and
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Authorized as second class Ytaail by
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Mgr.—OXANA BIGELOW.

‘and for payment of postage in ¢ash:

omy and government is oppressively
evident.

U.S. penetration, ownership and con-
trol of Canadian resources, aided by
successive Tory and Liberal govern-
ments, has now reached the staggering
total of close to $60-billion. Many of
Canada’s basic industries are almost
wholly U.S. owned or controlled. So
much so that even the ‘‘fast buck?’
mentality of sections of Canadian mon-
opoly are becoming alarmed and pro-
testing, but as yet feebly.

This sinister penetration has its par-
allel in the field of Canadian Labor

Canada is a trade union movement ~

domination in all other affairs of econ- .

through the media of big ‘‘interna-
tional’? unions, and in which the over-
all leadership reposes almost exclusive
in the hands of a U.S.-resident AFL-
CIO hierarchy.

This U.S. union leadership in large
measure constitutes the labor *‘lieuten-
ant’’ appendage of the U.S. State De-
partment. Its policies, domestic or for-
eign, its coldwar aggressiveness and
anti-Sovietism correspond in every
detail to State Department mentality. In
point of fact these labor lieutenants
can outstrip their State Department
Spokesmen any day in the art of anti-
Socialist vitipuration and coldwar pro-
vocation,

This sinister parallel of U. S. dom-
ination of Canadian affairs, economic,
military and political, coupled with an
AFL-CIO dictatorship over the internal
affairs of Canadian’ labor, (the latter
presently accentuated by the current

. “*trusteeship”’ issue affecting Canadian
labor), now serves to highlight the
larger issue now brought into perspec-
tive; that of Canadian independence
from U.S, domination.

It is now becoming patently clear
(or should be) that these two vital
issues are inseperable in their content
for Canadians; the right to detemine
our own affairs in Parliament, and ‘in a
democratic trade union local of working
men and women, free from outside
domination and interference, To win’
Sovereign dignity and independence for
our country and full trade union au-
tonomy,

As an ex-president of the old Trades
and Labor Congress of Canada, Percy
Bengough once put it in one of his
brief moments of independent thought,

(before the Liberal King government,
the shipowners, and the U.S, Hal Banks
gang got fully going with their job
of smashing the Canadian Seamens:
Union) ‘‘cooperation ever, domination
never,”’

And it should be noted in passing
and never readily forgotten, that the
same forces who are now.clamoring to
get the Hal Banks gangsterized SIU out
of Canada, including judicial
designer of the ‘‘trusteeship’’, are in
large measure the same people who
approved bringing this gangster-ridden
outfit to Canada to wreck a good Cana-
dian union. :

The Norris ‘‘trusteeship’’ issue has
tossed a hot brick into the lap of
Canadian labor. The prime job is now
to transform it into something it wasn’t
intended to be; a powerful weapon for the
advancement of Canadian trade union
autonomy; the right of Canadian unions ~
to determine their own affairs without
interference from the AFL-CIO high-
salaried ‘‘running dogs’’ of U.S. im- —
perialism, and equally important, with-
out interference by the monopoly-dir-
ected state apparatus of a pro-U.5S.
Liberal government in Canada. The
prime purpose of the Norris com- |
mission wasn’t exactly designed to ad-
vance the cause of Canadian trade union
autonomy, but (unintentionally) it has
served to project that long-overdue
issue to the forefront.

Nor should the fact ever be forgotten
or overlooked, viz.; that as the struggle
for Canadian trade union autonomy is
pursued and advanced, so: also is the
larger objective of Canadian indepen-
dence, sovereignty and peace brought
closer to realization.

the

October 25, 1963—PAGIFIC TRIBUNE—Pag