Harry Pollitt By LESLIE MORRIS Harry “Pollitt died the other day, far from his beloved Britain, off the coast of. Australia. He was on his way home from a speaking tour when he died aboard ship. On Saturday, duly 9, he was buried at home. of It is due to the Liberal government’s suppression of free | speech that Harry Pollitt was never heard on the platform in Canada. He tried to come on the invitation of the Communist Party, but was refused admission, the last time in 1948. It is a pity,-because Harry’s powerful gift of agitation and verbal pic- turization, his intimate Knowledge of the British labor move- ment and his warm proletarian manner, would’ have made a deep impression on Canadians, just as Tom Mann and William Gallacher did when they came to Canada before the Second World War. I first read his name in the Daily Herald in 1920 when working as a lad in British industry. That was the time of the Hands Off Russia committees, founded in November, 1919, to stop the war against the young Soviet Republic. In May, 1920, the British dockers prevented the sailing of the Jolly George | with munitions to Poland for use against the Red Army. Polish | nationalists under Marshal Pilsudski had attacked the Soviet | Republic with the full backing of the British government, led by Lloyd George. But the Jolly George never sailed. Harry | Pollitt’s name was prominently associated with that historic act. * * * The Hands Off Russia committees, the Shop Stewards’ Movement, the Councils of Action of the trade unions, militant | wnity in thousands of meetings and demonstrations, co-opera- | tion between Ernest Bevin, George Lansbury, Arthur Hender- | son, A. A. Purcell, and the Communist trade union leaders | Robert Williams and Tom Mann—this was the atmosphere of | | 1920. And- in the middle of it all on Aug. 3, 1920, the Com-| munist Party of Great Britain was formed. Lord Curzon, the | foreign secretary, had just despatched an ultimatum to the| Soviet government and the capitalist press was shouting for | war. Orders were sent to the British fleet in the Baltic. British | troops were used to break a strike of dockers in Danzig against | loading munitions for the Poles. of the British labor movement in those days. In August, 1920, | the young Communist Party carried through its first cam-| paign—against war. Four days after its foundation it sent a| letter out to its branches, saying: “Comrades, the government mist-be told in plain terms that the workers will not have war | against Soviet Russia. The Communist Party, in the first days | of its existence, must be worthy of its mission.” And it was. The party which Harry Pollitt, the boiler- maker, helped to form, was worthy, and has remained so al- though the British labor leaders, the men Harry worked with | im those days, went over to the other side. Lenin said in a speech on Oct. 15, 1920: “England thr ed to make war on Russia; the English workers prevented this. eaten- | ” * a * Memories come back of assication with Harry. Thirty- three years ago, the first titne we met, when he gave good advice to this young man going to study socialism: .“Ah,”’ Lancashire tones, ‘ba goom, lad, and I wish ’'d-had the chance when I were your age!” When we were in China in 1956 and Harry’s heart was | acting up, he said one day. “What a lot of loot we’ll have to} give back to the Chinese people. Why, the British: Museum | is full of it, stolen from these people by British colonels and robbers masquerading as men of culture! How’d the English | like it if someone came along and pinched Stonhenge and took the Abbey apart?” A big heart, full of life for the common man and hatred for those who swindled and exploited him. * * * in in Nis y Pollitt was straight out of the tradition of the €hartists, the first political movement of the workingman. He was the creation of the industrial revolution in Lancashire, where the masters taught the child-slaves to sing Jesus Bids Us Shine to keep them awake at the looms on their 14-hour | work shift. Harry Pollitt, with Willie Gallacher, John Gollan | and his comrades of the British*Communist Party, had they | won the le: i Harry adership of the British labor movement, would have | given Britain good government and socialism in their time, | instead of Macdonald’s knee breeches and Butskellism. | The party Harry helped to found, and whose secretary | | | he was for 27 years, will do that yet. The great British work- ing class will come to its.own-and world history, will take| another leap forward. | of | “Since of the bosses } and | off, this would have meant: Dief's Bill of Rights leaves people's rights unprotected Prime Minister Diefenbaker’s Bill of Rights last Thursday passed second reading in the House of Commons and will now be referred to a special 15-member committee for study. The lack of democratic safe- guards for labor and the peo- ple is a fundamental weakness |of the prime minister’s bill in- | troduced first to: the House of Commocns by him on Sept. 5, 1958 as Bill C60. The bill makes no mention |of the right to work, to educa- tion, to organize and _ strike. What rights and freedoms are proclaimed in .the bill are. not covered by protective provi- | sions, . | The prime minister’s Bill of | Rights ignores, as do mest of its critics with the exception the Communist Party, the fact that Canada does not have its own constitution. Our con- it is impossible to support your wife on your | pay let me introduce you to jone of our finest divorce | lawyers.” re { | | |stitutional rights are covered | by the British North America | Act legislated bythe parlia- , ment of Great Britain. The. Communist. Party, in its |program and in many public |statements over the years, stands for a Bill of Rights em- bodied in a Canadian constitu- tion drafted and adopted by a federal government-convened constituent convention. The constitution must safe- guard the national rights of the French-Canadian nation, provicial rights, the rights of the native peoples and the many national groups resident in Canada. : The CCF has charged in the House debate that the biil falls far short of the guarantees needed for human rights and should be ‘hoisted until the provinces could be consulted: Liberal leader Pearson pul main emphasis on reliance on courts to protect democrati¢ rights—a stand which will not be popular with labor. e One of the outstanding -fea- tures will be the many and varied ‘Scandinavian, Slavic and Jewish dishes which will be served. No picnic lunches are necessary—just bring the family and enjoy the delicious “eatabies”. provided in the In- ternational Kitchen. There will be swimming, pony rides and all types of sport events as well. The program will feature a prominent. labor and farm spokesman; the judging of Biggest Labor-Farmer picnic yet August 14 Plans are well under way to make this year’s annual Labor Farmer picnic. the biggest yet, this wae announced by the Vancouver and Fraser Valley Labor- Farmer Picnic Committee this week. ae Miss Labor and Miss Farme which will be followed. by # well’ arranged. musical pr?” gram. Remember the date—Su™ day, August 14, starting at 1 am. in the popular Be Creek Park in Surrey. Buse will be arranged for those who do not have cars. Use this occasion to expre® your desire for Labor-Farm@ unity, for world peace, secu ity and progress. The high cost Last year the three top Ca- nadian 9° o,f total of $2,770,000 in salaries bonuses. If each of them had worked a 40-hour week, for 52 weeks of the year, and with no time ® $307.29 an hour for Chair- man Cordiner. @ $371.06 and hour for Pres- dent Paxton. @ $653.43 an hour for chair- man of the finance committee, Reed. A ten-minute coffee break would cost the company $50 for Mr. Cordiner, almost $62 for Mr. Paxton and almost $109 for Mr. Reed. For a two-week paid vaca- tion the bill totes up to: ® $24,676 for Mr. Cordiner, ® $29,648.80 for Mr. Paxton, @ $52,274.40 for Mr. Reed. Now, here’s a spot where the company could really do some economizing. General Electric. offi- | cials in U.S.A. “took home’ a | | soveort | SOUTH AFRICAN | WINES 0 BRANDY wines and brandies. Winnipeg Labor Council. July 15, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pa?? Photo shows students and trade unionists picketit Winnipeg liquor store protesting sale of South Aft The protest was initiated by — at e —By courtesy Winnipeg Tribu?