io on vere

et i ke by

alee ene) es sree

Fa TO TK aro ro PY Po 0 Og SQ

Political fireworks |
For a squib —

BY LESLIE MORRIS

LTHGUGH they are acting as if it were, the idea of a

New -Party is not and will not be the private property of

the right-wingers in the labor movement and the CCF.

If it is-to have historic significance the New Party will
be- fundamentally a grass roots movement, not a movement of
the brass.

This difference between a private political monopoly and
a genuine mass movement, spells the difference between - life
and death for the New Party.

If the right-wing brass has its way and succeeds in screen-
ing the delegates to the founding convention to make-sure
they are “safe,” that is, guaranteed in advance not to think
for themselves but to think as Jodoin, Knowles, Lewis and
Company want them to think — then the chances of a politi-
eal breakthrough will be reduced to nil.:Because one thing
is sure: the New Party will not successfully challenge the
erafty Tories, Liberals and Social Crediters unless it goes
all out to defeat them with a militant people’s program. If it
is really a New Party it will be produced by the people.

Trade unionists and members of the New Party con-
stituency clubs should look on the New Party as their own,
their political property and go by the hundreds to the found-
ing convention. If that is done, instead of being a ‘‘safe’’
gathering of “screened” delegates it will be a genuine political
demonstration, then the outcome will be what the grass roots
want—a really New Party, not the right-wing led CCF under
another name.

Why do the right-wing brass want to. keep it in “safe”
channels? For one thing, not so much because they fear the
Communists but because they fear the people, the masses... Noth:
ing upsets a right-wing leader or puts the fear of God into him
more than masses of people in motion.

Their conception of politics is that of the “elite” and the
“crowd,” the “chosen” and the “heathens”, the “leaders”~ and
the “led’’. It is the same conception of politics as Diefenbaker’s
and Pearson's. The other day Senator Thorvaldson, national
chairman of the Tory party, said that the recent meeting of
his party was dull because it was not: intended to be the
hoop-la convention which chose John Diefenbaker as the
mew leader.

It is exactly this conception of politics that has to be
rooted out of the labor movement: People: make history, and
masses of people in motion make the politics that count.

* * *

And. so it is that the founding convention of the New
Party should be a mass gathering, and all the nicely-con-
structed obstacles to the expression of mass opinion can and
should be broken down. The “‘brass’” has to given way to the
“srass.””

Can it be done? Yes, it can. That means to put aside any
motion that the founding convention of the New -Party is-a
foregone conclusion, that everything is cut and dried, that
the right wing is in complete control, that the wishes of trade
unionists do not count for anything in the face of machine-
eontrol,

x z *

If the pattern of the New Party is to be Claude Jodoin
hobnobbing with Big Business,on productivity and other class-
peace councils (thereby accepting in advance labor’s respon-
sibility for the mess the capitalists have gotten the country
into) then the New Party won’t be worth a vote.

But Claude Jodoin and his colleagues, strong though
they may be, are not the working class; they are not the
father or mother at the employment office or on welfare,
they are not the speeded-up railway worker wondering if 20
years’ seniority will hold his.job another six months, neither
are they the ordinary worker and farmer who see in the
idea of the New Party the chance to get a new deal.

* * *

We hope to see a convention in Ottawa at the end of July
where the voice of the people of Canada is heard, and where
délegates will make sure that the idea of the New Party will
mot fizzle out in a squib but will become the political fire-
works the people of this country are waiting for.

as FOR SURVIVAL’ WARNS

Government considering
acquiring nuclear arms

A nationwide petition opposing nuclear. weapons for Gaaeds is to be “a
the-Canadian National Committee for the Control of Radiation Hazards. It is. M

presented to Prime Minister Diefenbaker about June 1.

This decision was announced
at the end of the committee’s
annual two-day conference in
Toronto last week. The com-
mittee also adopted a sub-
name—the Canadian Commit-
tee for Survival—which it is
hoped will become the sole
title.

Indications are that the
commitee may become a cen-
tre for many of the various
peace groups now active in
Canada. The Toronto Commit-
tee for Disarmament was
granted the right to affiliate. .

The petition decision had
scarcely been announced when
Defense Minister Harkness
moved in with an _ attack
against Dr. H. L. Keenley-
side, chairman of the radia-
tion control committee.

Harkness told the Commons
that statements made by Keen-
leyside in a speech in Toronto
were “subject to very grave
doubts.”

Keenleyside had criticized

ted!

the defense minister for ‘‘per-
sistent - attacks on what. he
calls pacifists, neutralists and
ban - the - bomb committees.
These attacks, he said, .were
clearly designed to cover,
without actually saying so,
anyone who is opposed to the
acquisition of nuclear weapons
by Canada.

DR. H. L. KEENLEYSIDE
... hits Defence Minister
Harkness

Vancouver Island Communists
urge B.C. steel industry

The Vancouver Island An-
nual Regional Conference
meeting at Nanaimo called for
the establishment of an iron
ore smelter and a steel rolling
mill on the B.C. coast capable
million tons of pig iron a year.
of smelting and rolling one
milion tons of pig iron a year.

The resolution adopted at

velopment of the Columbia
the conference stated that de-
for a Canadian power grid
would provide the power need-
ed for a steel manufacturing
industry and make available
power for the industries which
would be attracted to B.C. by
the development of a steel in-
dustry here.

Their father murdered by colonialists

Francois, Patrice Jr. and Juliana, children of Patrice Lu-
mumba, the national hero of the Congo. The drawing was
done in Cairo by the Soviet artist N. Oseney.

In a subsequent press it
view in Regina, Harknes j
mitted that “the great maj?
of people who have join ;
ban-the-bomb movement ”
done so to express their i

“But,” he charged, “!
are some people in these of
ments who are in it to wen
the will of the people.” 4
said he did not include Bf
leyside as one of these. — ;
~The ‘anti-nuclear weap?
tition reads in part: :

“The nuclear powet>—
ready have enough poms
kill all the people in the wo!
The spread of nuclear west!
to more nations would
crease the danger of nul
war breaking out and ¥)
make disarmament harde
negotiate. fe

“The Canadian gover
is considering the acquis! e
of nuclear weapons. Such
pons offer Canada no def f
whatever against the ™
threat, the inter - contin@)
missile, and little if any
fense against manned H-
ers.

"Their acquisition w%
also handicap or desir0Y ,
leadership Canada is o
toward disarmament.”

The: radiation control ‘
mittee, formed in Edmont?
1959, and which now
branches across. the cou
has moved its headquarte®
Toronto. :

Dr. J. R. Kidd, direct
the Canadian AssociatiNy
Adult Education, was 70h
executive director. His
begin immediately in be
cation headquarters at
George St., Toronto.

Steel worke"
win 21¢ hou!

A wage increase of gy i
hour bringing the mee ll
rate to $2.62 was neg ofl
by the Marine veel
Boilermakers Industria
Local No.1 for eigh f
fabricating plants in *
ver. wo
The increase was any
by the union this week: sC

The new increase is fo!
out over three years iD. yh
increments. It will prin of
helpers rate to $2.36 22. 4

The union has shows } “of
settlement and the earl, gi

year.

April 7, 1961—PACIFIC cRreUNE :

in the shipyards that ‘pi
can be won by worker