THE NATION LESLIE MORRIS CCF MP's use ‘white supremacy to make war policy more palatable N THEIR speeches in the House of Commons, CCF MP’s set the pace for the adoption of the mammoth arms bill of thé government by spouting “white suprem- acy.” Not only did M. J. Coldwell move a motion of want of confidence in the government because it did not rearm fast enough!, but he and Clarie Gillis lec- tured the government about how to make Yankee ag- gression in Korea more palatable to Canadians. “We did not develop democracy there,’ complained Gillis. Coldwell declared that “we have failed” to “pro- mote’? in Korea a “free, democratic nation.” He told the MP’s (who had just finished passing a slave labor act to break the democratic railway strike) that “unless we can say to the people of these Asiatic countries that We are going to deliver them from the oppression of the landowner... we are not going to be successful in winning ultimately the victory over Communist propaganda and agression in Asiatic countries.” He continued: “I deplore the fact that we have failed to. place before the Asiatic peoples the promise . . position.” Just as they did in the debate on the railway strike- breaking bill, the CCF leaders provided the propaganda approach for the government’s rearmament plan. We shall hear more about “democracy” in Korea as the wage-tax is increased to pay for bombers and tanks against the peoples of Asia. The CCF officials are in fact warning. the govern- ment that it cannot hope to have Canadian people en- dorse naked and unashamed aggression; agression must, they say, be larded over with a little “self criticism” about “Our” failures to “give” the Asian peoples ‘“de- mocracy.”’ “We did not develop democracy in Korea; “we” have “failed” the Korean people; “we” are going to de- _ liver them from oppression. ‘Who is “we”? Why, we white, Anglo-Saxon, ‘su- perior Westerners, of course! “We” are going to make the Asia people like “our” capitalist “democracy” wheth- . to improve their er they like it or not. If they resist, we shall shoot them down as Communists. “We” are going to bring them the benefits of Western civilization—complete with _ lessons on how to break railroad strikes, how. to contri- ~ bute to juvenile delinquency through movies, how to profiteer through raising prices while freezing wages, how to promise the 8-hour day as the Canadian parlia- ment did in 1921—and then renege on it for 30 years! This social-imperialism (as Lenin called it) is noth- ing new. Social democracy has always upheld imperial- ism in the colonies. The brand of “socialism” is for the western world. It is much too good for backward peoples, who must be told what to do by these gentry! This is the revolting method whereby the CCF right wing exploits imperialist, chauvinist “white supremacy” ideology for war-making purposes. “We” are in Korea, and may land up in China, In- do-China and the Philippines (no matter what Lester B. Pearson May say to the House of Commons), to bring, * “Western civilization to the Koreans.” That is precisely what Syngman Rhee and his gang- sters have been doing, with U.S, money and U.S. arms! It is precisely “our” way of life — complete with super-profits from colonial slave labor, puppet tyrants like Chiang, Bao Dai and Rhee, great Western corpora- tion holdings of resources, factories and lands, and out- right military invasion under cover of a phony UN de- cision—which Korean men, women and children are try- ing to defeat, They want their way of life, their new social order, based on land for the peasants and the factories to the working people, with the 8-hour day (which Korean workers established in 1945, years before the Canadian workers will do so!) and industrialization carried through not by Wall Street or St. James Street, but by their own hands and with their own control. The peoples of Asia have had a century of capitalist imperialist exploitation. The world initia- tive hag passed into their hands. The Coldwells and * | Gillises can try to sugar up St. Laurent’s war program all they want—but the people of Asia want none of our ‘liberating,’ none of our colonization. They will liberate themselves. They ask, and working class solidarity de- mands they be given, our fraternal] support, : LPP COLUMN T WASN’T a big meeting so far as aes Sa went But it was a mighty significant one ery day, during the great railroad strike, these workers met to exchange experiences and discuss what they might do to advance the struggle. Their meeting, attended by French and. English speaking railroaders, was one of several held in different parts of Montreal each day that week. And ongets around the Gene Debs club of LPP railroad- ers and in other towns in answer to the call of Tim Buck for all-out solidarity and unity to win the de- mands of the strikers. The Party organization as a whole went into action with dis- tribution of leaflets, of the Tribune special rail-strike run-off, and with work in the labor movement and the communities to arouse and strengthen popular support for the winning of the strike. The wonk in Toronto and Montreal was notable in this regard, but it was matched in a measure in many other ing on the degree of our alertness and initiative, and the forces available. But particularly important was the “turn that was made in the work of our railroad members and club; important for the job to be done today and to- morrow, The strike was an historic “preaking of the ice.” _ The company-cultivated tradition that in this countty, at least, a general Pera strike was “unthinkable, “couldn’t hi n,”’ has been 800d, ‘The Sedition had acted as a dead eu the workers’ demands, it had played into the peas the right-wing lieutenants of the bosses in the - of labor, the men to whom militant action is a night- mare, The mounting, unshakeable determ men, Ro 't6 be sheaths of their modest and ai ah mands, broke through, asserted itself in the strike a way that has made history. : the railroaders meetings like’ these were held in’ places, depend- shattered, it’s gone for By STANLEY RYERSON It is this, together with the strong, brodd wave of solidarity that swept through the entire labor move- ment, that makes feasible and realistic the call of Tim Buck and the LPP Executive, to keep up the fight today to win the original demands of the rail- waymen! This task is one to be seized upon by all our committees and clubs, by all our members in the labor movement and in the communities. The job includes: —Publication of Comrade Tim Buck’s appeal — “Victory Can Still Be Won by the Railway Work- ers!”—for distribution both among railway workers and. among workers and in the communities every- where that we have organization; \—Radio talks, newspaper ads,: Smnpodsing Com- rade Buck’s message; —Support to the work of progressives among the railroaders, whose leaflets, bulletins and general acti- vity -are of tremendous importance for the advance of militant policies for the winning of the demands, for pressure on the Joint Negotiating Committee; —Use of the Tribune among the railroad workers, building steadily from the good beginnings and gains made during the days of the strike; —Follow-up in the building of the ‘LPP among the railroaders: no longer can this be left to the in- definite future, left on the shelf, neglected’ politically and organizationally. On the contrary, the fresh breeze of history has awakened a new appreciation of the need and the possibility of serious headway in recruiting railroaders into the Party. ‘The resolve to follow through, to maintain the work at a steady pitch, is inspired by Pine knowl now reaffirmed in the struggle, that it is our Party among the railroaders that fights for sound, militant ‘ policy, for democracy and the full expression of the thoughts and will of the men, against exploitation and for the better life. The struggle is in a new stage today—one that’s a challenge to the whole Party, because it’s a challenge to all labor and all democratic Canadians: (Unity in support of the railroaders’ demands, everywhere, right now! ‘ . our country.” LABOR FOCUS Burnt offering to Harry Truman HE leaders of the American Federation of Labor have declared war on Korea, China and Viet Nam. This does not mean of course that they intend to cross the seas to fight for the “American way of life.” Like other prudent warmongers, they will stay at home, cheering on the troops, applauding the bombing of the civilian population, and sacrificing the interests of their trade union members as burnt offerings to President Truman. In @n emergency, the so-called Free Trade Union Committee of the AFL, headed by vice-president Mat- thew Woll, has issued a seven-point program to assure “the peace and security of the entire world.” Obviously afraid that the Korean people’s refusal to maintain “peace”? by helping the U.S. invasion forces will cause the American workers to question the demo- cratic nature of the regime they are asked to support, the committee urges that any democratic opposition to the government’s war policy sshould be crushed in the — following way: “The departments of national defence, state and justice—together with a commission of private citizens representative:of labor, management, the farmers and the _ public—should be charged with preparing an effective democratic program to uproot, paralyze and eliminate all such traitorous Fe hai agencies and activities from Boiled down, what does all this drum-beating mean? Briefly this: The AFL leaders are pledging their support in advance to the imposition of repressive measures in | the U.S., to the sacrifice of the democratic rights of American trade -unionists, in order to keep Korea for the U.S.A., Formosa—Chinese territory—for the discred- ited little group of bandits surrounding Chiang Kai- shek, and Viet Nam for French colonial interests—and ‘ Wall Street. ‘ f Here is the testimony of a man who should noe an American, a Republican, an anti-Communist and a personal friends of Syngman Rhee—but not, it would seem, a hypocrite. He is Houston W. Meade, who served as a personal representative of Lt.-Col. McCollum, high- — ranking Military Government officer in southern Korea, and who escorted the first UN mission into northern Korea. He was interviewed in New Jersey by a cor- — respondent of the Londan Daily Worker. _ On the question of whether Meets are two “Koreas,” Meade said the northern and southern Koreans are “about as different as North tand South Jerseyans. They’re all Koreans, and they all want their country run by Koreans. It’s silly to ask who fired first. When that 38th parallel began to be looked on as a permanent division, we began to guarantee a shooting war in Korea.” Asked about friendship between the Korean people and the Soviet Union, he declared that northern Kor. eans had “taken better” to Soviet friendship than south- ern Koreans to U.S. methods, because: “The Russians > didn’t call them ‘gooks.’ They treated the Koreans as equal human beings. “The Russians didn’t make Communists of the Ko- reans. The Japanese did—and we did.” What were U.S. methods in southern Korea? Meade pointed out that the American Mi Government. had cut wages of Korean workers lower those paid during the Japanese occupation. “We couldn’t get crews for our trains in 1946. There _ was starvation in South Korea. The warehouses bend bursting with rice, but we had trouble main‘ : train schedules because the Korean crews couldn't es up for work. They would be out trying to scare py. aa black market rice for their families.” . : Does Syngman Rhee represent the Korean people? “Dr. Rhee is as good an American as a Korean can be,” says Meade. e And what about Korean supporters for U.S. inter- = vention? His reply is blunt and to the point. - “We have no allies in. Korea. These are fighting us for their independence. They ‘t see us as any different from the Japanese. We can demolish the Korean people, but we cannot beat them. awe can do now is get out.” — : Thus, it is against an entire people fighting for its independence that the AFL leaders—the fathers of the “Scab International”—are making war (by proxy). It is to crush this struggle for independence that that they are prepared to sacrifice the democratic rights of the Ameri- : can trade union movement. : A little longer, and these champions of liberty will be clamoring for of the “subversive” accounts of the American War of Independence in school text. It is the miserable little men like Matthew Woll who, when fascism knocks at the door, open it and say: “Come in.” , e From the August 9 issue of the World Federation of Trade Unions Information Bulletin. Peace? It's terrible! world, U.S. News and World Report, authorita- oe Te ee : its August 4 issue: ngs é I a eee Peace is Russia’s propaganda game. Peace moves by Rus- siaenight now could embarrass U.S. They would get much support in a world fearful of war. U.S. resisting could be made to appear in favor of war. U;S. accepting would appear as beaten in Korea.”