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Peace is patriotism

HEN ‘high Church dignitaries, hiding be-

hind the cloth of their calling, join their
voices with those who seek and plan war, it
is not an exaggeration to declare them moral
deserters from the Christian cause they pur-
port to serve. Therefore it is*a matter of
more than ordinary concern to find the Very
Rev. Dean Cecil Swanson, in evening sermon
to the annual Civic Service congregation in
Christ Church Cathedral last week, assuming
that Wall Street’s drive to war is a just and
righteous cause and all who oppose it “trait-
ers in our midst,’

As his text, the Very Reverend Dean
chose the Wall Street formula ““We need de-
fense” in place of the ageless prophecy, “They
shall beat their swords into ploughshares and
their spears into pruning hooks. . .”.

“We need to take precaution,” said the
Dean, as quoted in the daily press, “against
the traitorous element in our midst.”

And who are the traitors, Reverend Sir,
and in what are they traitorous? Those who
work for the ideal of peace and brotherhood
as a fundamental condition for outlawing
war? Or those who stockpile atom bombs and

other terrible engines of human destruction
behind the pretense of “defending peace,” as
a preparation for war?

The question is more than academic for
the millions of peoples of all faiths and creeds
who do the suffering and the dying, while a
few rich and powerful merchants of death
reap vast profits. The common people of all
political faiths who earnestly seek peace, do
not expect a truthful answer from those who
lead in the camp of war. They do expect the
truth from those who presume to interpret
Christ’s teachings. But perhaps, in this as in
other things, they expect too much;

If it is “treason” to work for peace, to ex-

pose the warmongers, to unite to stay their -

bloody hand, it is a far greater treason for
a high apostle of the lowly Nazarene to con-
fer his blessings upon the techniques of dev-
astating war as a pre-condition for “peace;

At best, the toga of red-baiting and anti-
Sovieteering worn by the latter-day pro-con-
suls of imperialism, from Hitler to Gruman,
is a foul and shoddy garment. It is exception-
ally so when draped about the person of a
leading churchman,

’

~ Who's protecting whom?

0. of those regrettable incidents by which
W the trade union burocrats periodically

smear the pages of labor history has now been.

cleared up. The story could well be captioned,
“Carl Berg, or the Mystery of the Police Ra-
dio Car.”

It all happened several months ago when
“Doctor” Carl Berg, OBE, arrived in Vancouv-
er with special commission from Trades and
Labor Congress top brass to destroy the old-
established Civic Employees Union, Local 28,
because of its refusal to travel the cold wat
path mapped out for Canadian workers by the
U.S. state department.

During the course of his union-wrecking
duties the beefy Carl Berg, who now uses a
Chamber-of-Commerce anti-communist patter
as adroitly as he once used the “revolutionary”
language of ‘the Industrial Workers of the
World (IWW), felt that he might be in need
of some “police protection”. As a result a
police radio car and five police officers of the
Vancouver force “stood by” on the evening of
a Local 28 union meeting, at which time Berg
fondly hoped he and his stooges would be in-
stalled as the gauleiters of Vancouver’s civic
workers.

The civic workers however had other
views on the matter, and promptly cancelled
the entry visas of Berg and his motley court
retinue. The meeting was quiet and orderly,
as all trade union meetings are when organi-
zed provocation. is kept “out of bounds”.

Then the $64 question forced itself into
the open. Who ordered a police car to “stand
by” at a duly constituted trade union meeting ?
“Not me,” Berg disclaimed with something
of a smouldering of his old well-feigned [WW

fire. “NOt “us,” asserted Vancouver Trades
Council’s NPA twins, Birt Showler and IR.K.
Gervin; a shade red in the face. Fred Dougher-
ty, the delegate from the Police Federal Un-
ion assumed the “responibsility” of having
‘the police car “stand by” with the air of a cop
who feels he can toss his police union (or sis-
ter union) around much the saine way as ‘he
would a refractory drunk.

But the matter didn’t rest there, and cor-
rectly so. Local 28, backed by other sections

~and wreckers becomes the

of the labor movement, took the question to
the Police Commission, That body, together
with police chief Walter Mulligan, are to be
congratulated for laying the ugly facts on the
table for all to see.

These are: (1) that Carl Berg requested
“police protection” from, Police Federal Un-
ion president Fred Dougherty; (2) that the
PFU executive “hired” five officers to “stand
by” union-wrecker Berg; (3) that the “hir-
ing” of this police detail to stand watch on
a_ trade union meeting was okayed by top
TLC-AFL personnel; (4) that Police Super-
intendent Fraser Dunlop’s orders not to use
a police car on such work was ignored by,
executive members of the PFU; (5) 7 Dhar;

according to President Fred Dougherty, the-

five officers were paid for this “special” work
by the police union, which in turn billed its
parent body, (TLC-AFL) to foot the bill.

Thus the mystery of the police radio car
*has been solved, but there is still some unfin-
ished business — dirty business. Why should
any trade union, or any section of the Van-
couver public be called upon to pay for “pro-
tection” (read, to promote provocation) for
Carl Berg? If Berg feels in his vocation of
union-wrecking that the Vancouver labor at-
mosphere is “dangerous,” let him remain it.
his home town in Edmonton where the trade
union rank-and-file can deal with the hazard
he himself represents.

Further, it is the function, among other things,
of the Police Federal Union to uphold the law
by maintaining bona-fide, government-certi-
fied unions in the democratic conduct of their
own affairs, and against those pie-card agents
of reaction, who, under various pretexts seek
to weaken, disrupt and destroy such unions.
(Although this may be beyond the grasp of
men like Fred Dougherty who have a special
political axe to grind).

A very dangerous precedent is established
when “police -protection” for labor fakers
prerogative’ of a
small group within the Police. Federal Union,
rather than that of Chief Mulligan and the
Police Commission. ; *

\ .

A® announced this week, the price of milk

in Victoria and other Island areas has
been boosted another 2 cents, bringing the
retail price to 21 cents a quart.

This is what our war-minded “econom-
ists” in Victoria and Ottawa term “curtail-
ing consumer spending,” The amount we
pay now for the milk Junior doesn’t drink
goes into guns instead of “butter.” The
small dairy farmers will not, and have not

Milk before munitions

benefitted from the steadily rising curve ’
of milk prices. .Those who make the real
killing are the big dairy monopolies, who -
cash in on both guns and butter, by hijack-
ing Canada out of its normally required
milk consumption,

If ever there was an issue which should
stir mothers, housewives and husbands in-
to flooding the Coalition government with
indignant protests, this milk racket is it,’

people the truth about the rotten and corrupt “peanut”

“reverse accusation.”
of Chiang’s standing who could take the U.S. for a trifling six billion |

TOM McEWEN

As We See lt

i fase Seattle Post-Intelligencer in its January 10 edition carried an
“exclusive” letter from an American army officer in Korea to

‘his brother in the US. There is littlé in this letter that is not already

well known to ordinary people of average intelligence. Perhaps the
most important feature of the missive is its between-the-lines admission
that the hard facts of history and dialectics are beginning to. break
through the hidebound skull of U.S. army brass — at least in the
middle and lower layers. ‘
Quité” evidently ‘the Koreans have taught this U.S. army officer
much more in the course of six months than all his years on the
parade ground. First, the importance to men of :
what they are fighting for.

A people fighting for their homeland, their right
to govern themselves in their own way, their
right to freedom from foreign imperialist aggres
sion, exploitation and rule. Inalienable rights that
have too often been promised, but always sub-
verted by foreign imperialism, The incendiary
bombs of Yankee imperialism can burn cities —
but not ideals. That is the essence of Korea’s
magnificent struggle. The Korean, people and
their Chinese allies know. what they are fighting
ORE By

And on “our” side? A billion-dollar. press and radio; an army of

journalistic and literary prostitutes; a twenty-four-hour-around-the-
clock propaganda barrage, with the MacArthurs, Tafts, Hoovers, Tru-
mans, etc., pulling out all the stops and whooping it up from
dawn _to dark about “democracy”, “our free way of life” and so on,
ad naseum,

Yet here is an American officer of the U.S. Army, with its UN
shoulder straps, flag and all, equipped with everything—except men
who know what they are fighting for. Unimpressed by the numerous
and varied explanations given, it is apparent that the Gi’s in Korea
are trying desperately to figure out what the score is,

_ “The Korean incident”, says this American officer, “has taken an
abrupt'and surprising turn. At first we needed mechanical arma-
ment to beat the T-34 tank, the Russian: anti-tank rifle, the 120 mm.
mortar, We got our fine 3.5 bazooka and the Patton tank. Great!
That was our kind of war and we won with mechanics, electronics,
heavy maintenance equipment, fancy come-apart bridges.

But now? There is no artillery, no tanks, no fancy war gadgets
opposing us — just bodies and bullets from rifles and some mortar.
Now, what does all our expensive fancy, heavy, accurately engineered
stuff count for? Nothing! They use simple, basic military tactics
on us and we have to fall back before their greatest weapon—men.”

Evidently Clauswitz is not reccomended as an authority in the
U.S. military manual, and especially his basic’ thesis on a people’s
war. of liberation. Men, simple peasant people, “just bodies’, armed
with a rifle—and a great ideal of freedom—hurl back the mechanized
superior “know-how” of Yankee imperialism like dirt before a hurri-
cane, :

. : ‘

Having made one correct deduction it is too bad this U.S. officer
couldn’t have thought the thing through to its logical end. that is, to
get out of Korea and leave the Korean people to heal their wounds,
rebuild their homes, and adjust their own affairs, in peace. But
no. Instead, he yearns for a few more pages from the propaganda
book of the late Doktor Goebbels, more of the Hitlerite Big Lie tach-
nique to support the super-bombers—against men with an ideal.
“For lack of a goal or a policy,” laments the object of a Hearst “scoop,”
“we cannot grasp the -fifitiative from one whose path is so clearly
lefined as is Russia’s.”

How is this ‘initiative’ to be built up that will give real one-
hundred-percent Americans something to fight for—enlighten them on
what they are fighting for? Simple as A-B-C: A new Menroe Doctrine
which will produce “. . . potent propaganda, deception, ruthless econ-
omy, quick internment of American Communists, throw out the fake
United Nations . . . use a loud version of the reverse accusation—
accuse someone else of doing precisely what you are doing—build
‘the armed forces for ‘peace’ and standardize our weapons.”

Well, you had the gadgets, General, but on your-own Say-so,
they don’t work against men fired with a deathless ideal. And it
seems to us who are close to the grist mills of Yankee war propa-
ganda, that your “initiative” formula is covered every minute of the
day from the Pentagon down to Dorothy Thompson. They strive
daily to underline your written opinion that “Truth is anachronistic
to propaganda, except in its use as a starting point for the planned
twist.” The fact that the Yanks are on the run in Korea would in-
dicate that the substitution of “planned-’ but very much twisted
propaganda .for truth is neithér a morale builder for the armies of

foreign aggression, nor effective against “bodies” with rifles and
an ideal. f

e@ Z :
Speaking of truth as it pertains to U.S. top brass, it may be
remembered that when General “Vinegar” Joe Stilwell returned from
the wars to his native land, every precaution was taken, including
virtual “house-arrest” to stop Vinegar Joe from telling the American
Chia:
Kai-shek. Now they have one of those “seasoned reporters” of the
Scripps-Howard propaganda factory, in the January 2 edition of the
San Francisco News, attempting to prove the “truth” of Vinegar
Joe's love and respect for Chiang, with a picture showing Joe pinning
the U.S. military Order of Merit on Chiang’s concave chest. This’ is
what our officer in Korea hankers for in his Hitlerite plea for
However, some may argue that a gangster

or so is indeed worthy of such an “honor.” ‘The lie might have been

put across successfully, had not an outraged wife published her ©

soldier-husband’s views in The Stilwell Papers (after he had to die
in silence).

Lying propaganda and super-bombers, no matter how “accurately

engineered,” can never win against people fired with the ideal of
pees Sa ue socialism. Too pat eiater, but that’s just how
Paci if C \ Mina I d # i | A
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Published Weekly at Room 6 - 426 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C.

Revessscettftessedl tsizsent Matilde

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 19, 1951 — Page 8

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