By JOHN: WEIR

From Glace Bay to Nanaimo
they know and love Annie Buller

ECEMBER 9 was the

_ birthday — her 60th
— of Annie S. Buller, vet-
eran Communist _ leader,
known and loved by work-
ing people from coast to
coast. Here a wellknown
labor editor, John Weir,
pens a tribute to her.

| a Annie — and when you

say that among militant
workers anywhere from Glace
Bay to Nanaimo you don’t have
to explain who you mean —
is 60.

I would have written “60
years young” if that phrase had
not beconie trite through hypo-
critical misuse — and yet in
Annie Buller’s case it is true,

for while the fires of youthful
ardor usually subside to a warm
_and constant glow with | the
years, with her the flames of
enthusiasm keep leaping to the
Stars as they always did.

Those of us who entered the
Young Communist League of
Canada in the twenties with the
fresh impact of the greatest of

_ all revolutions hot in our hearts
sometimes are a little hurt and
bewildered when it penetrates
our consciousness that we ap-
pear somewhat ancient in the
eyes of the youth of today.

In the struggle you may age,
but you don’t feel yourself
growing old . . . And sometimes
we forget that Tim Buck started
studying and. propagating soci-
alism when he was a mere lad.

. -Annie was a teen-ager when
with Beckie Buhay and others
she began her work in the socia-

_ list youth movement in Mon-

She was 20 when they, togeth-
- er with Alex Gauld and a few
other socialists (only a handful,
but what a handful!) helped to
i and joined in the tre-
mendous militant ‘actions
against conscription and imperi-
alist war in 1916 — actions in
which hundreds of~ thousands
took demonstrative part.

_. And by this she was helping
to lay the foundations for the
party, for what was it that dif-
ferentiated those that were to
become the Communists of Can-
ada from the dogmatists, the
“spitoon philosophers” and the
“Jet’s not do anything rash” re-
formists of that day, if not the
policy of wedding socialism to
the workers’ struggle, to the
people’s movements, to light
their path towards the goal of
remaking society on a new
basis?
_ Thus Annie, the young girl,
entered the movement as a mass
worker, an inspired agitator, our
Rosa Luxembourg, our La Pa-
sionaria, our Elizabeth Gurley
Flynn. ;

_ But the flames of enthusiasm
are fed by faith, and our faith
comes. from knowledge and in-
sight. As soon as she could,
young Annie Buller went to
school to deepen her Marxist
understanding, exhibiting Com-
munist unity of theory and prat-
tice, of the heart and head.

Herself an agitator, teacher

and organizer, she always ap-
-preeiated the role of the work-
ers’ press, which she served at
various periods as business man-
ager and circulation builder.

_ My first recollection of Annie

_ is when she was manager of The .

Worker in its early years and
how we “younger fry” (at that
age a few years seem eons;

later on you “catch up”) would
come to her call to help out and
to take bundles to sell at the
gates of Massey-Harris.

This Communist attitude ‘to
the press, not as an aloof “in-
tellectual’" enterprise, but as an
intimate and integral part of
the movement, a reflector of
and weapon in the workers’
struggle, is and always ‘was a
characteristic of Annie Buller.

There are so many things that
one wants to say on this occa-
sion. Annie’s contributions have
been so tremendous and, so var-
ied, her talents and abilities so
diverse and rich . . . There are
the stories that the miners tell,
in Drumheller Valley, in Cape
Breton (where she shares with
Jim MacLachlan the warmest
spot in the coaldiggers’ hearts),
in Estevan...

When in the fall of 1931, at
Estevan, the Mounties poured
lead into the peaceful parade of
striking miners, their wives and
their children, leaving three
men dead, the powers-that-be
foreshadowed Hitler’s Reichstag
Fire frame-up and arrested An-
nie Buller, who had inspired the
miners to hold fast in their fight.
And, in our smaller way, like
Georgi Dimitroff was to do at
Leipzig (and as Tim Buck had
done in his address to the jury

earher and A. E. Smith was to.

do at his trial later) Annie Bul-
ler stood up in the dock and
threw the accusation into her
accusers’ teeth.

xt % xt

Annie is a party person. That
means more than just being a
member of the party. It means
being a person who understands
that without the party the work-
ing class will blunder, flounder
and make unnecessary sacrifices
on the road to the fulfilment of
its destiny. ; si

It means realizing that purity
of party principle and unity of
party organization are the most
precious things that can be. It
means merging one’s personal
lifé with the life of the party,
in which: the individuality of the
person really unfolds and true
personal happiness is also found.

Annie Buller is that kind of
person. She sets very high de-
mands on herself and at the
same time she feels and knows
the problems and difficulties of
others, which are so often un-
spoken, and she finds the way,
to help, to encourage, to give
confidence, to-inspire — to blow
the warm spirit of comradeship,
enthusiasm and joy into party
work. j

Annie Buller was and is
beautiful in all ways. May she
continue to give comradeship,
inspiration and leadership for
decades to come.

Let the young people, enter-
ing the revolutionary movement
today, model themselves on An-
nie Buller. Let our girls know
that there can be no greater
compliment than to be told that
there is a spark of Annie Buller
in them. Let our lads know that
when an oldtimer says that they
should be “half the man that
Annie Buller is” he is wishing

them very well.

% sos Bos

On your 60th birthday Annie,’

we thank you for being what
you are and giving what you
have to Canada and to the cause
of socialism. We can repay you
only with our love and by multi-
plying our ‘efforts in the move-
ment to which you gave every
waking hour of 45 of those 60
years.

In this picture taken at the Toronto celebration of the 30th
anniversary of the Communist movement in this country, Annie
S. Buller (left) is seen with Mrs. Mildred Ryerson and Mérs.
Anne Smith. Standing in the background is Stanley B. Ryersom,

'
REPLY TO JEWISH WESTERN BULLETIN

Jewish people ill-served by |
falsifying facts of history

a Nazi Germany there were

Jews who cooperated with the
Nazi executioners in the exter-
mination of millions of Euro-
pean Jews. In the Western

countries today there are Jews
who are cooperating with their
governments in the Eden-Dulles
policy of threatening the very
existence of the state of Israel.
One such is Leo H. Marcus,
executive director of the Zion-
ist Organization of B.C. Writing
in the Jewish Western Bulletin
of December 2, Marcus derides
the spirit of Geneva and casts
aside the slightest semblance of
discretion: in his blind preju-
dice against the Soviet Union.
“How can the Soviet Union
boast of being one nation which
fervently desires peace, when
she is placing world Jewry in
the most critical position that
it has ever known?” he asks.
“How can Russia talk in terms
of peace on the one hand and
on the other hand supply Egypt
with armaments which eventu-
ally may be used for mass
slaughter of men, women and
children in Israel?” :
Firstly, Marcus is inaccurate
since it is Czechoslovakia, not
the Soviet Union’ that has en-

tered into the trade agreements
with Egypt in which arms are
being bartered for cotton.

“Secondly, Marcus is ungrate-
ful to Czechoslovakia which

‘supplied arms to Israel when the

young state was battling for its
life in 1948, whereas the United
States turnéd a cold shoulder,
and placed an arms embargo
against Israel. Marcus would
like the Jewish community to
forget this.

Thirdly, in addition to being
false, Marcus is ungrateful again
when he charges the Soviet
Union, which saved hundreds of
thousands of European Jews
from Nazi death ovens, with
destroying the Jews within its
borders. This, of course, is an-
other invention designed to jus-
tify the Israeli government'’s or-
ientation on London and Wash-
ington, a policy which is becom-
ing more discredited every day.

$e xt

Marcus could perform a real
service for Jewry everywhere
if he would point his finger at
the real enemy. Surely he
knows that Premier Nuri Saaid
of Iraq, addressing the British-
U.S. created military alliance of
Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran and

Who planted mike in Czech embassy?

® gti Czechoslovak embassy in .
Lo

ndon has cleared up the
“microphone mystery” which
was gleefully seized upon by
the daily press throughout the
Western countries after the
British Foreign Office had is-
sued a statement implying that
an embassy official had planted
a microphone found in the em-
bassy to spy on his own am-
bassador.
' A statement issued by the
Czechoslovak embassy said that
in March this year, when the
embassy was moved from Gros-
venor Place to Kensington
Palace Gardens, three men pre-
senting themselves as_ relief
removal men, took up floor-
board in the old building and

removed wires and equipment.

Later inspection showed that.

these floorboards “had been
marked in a particular way. The
remains of cables for micro-
phone equipment were
found.”

The statement criticized Brit--

ish papers which, knowing that
the incident took place long
before the present Czech am-
bassador arrived in London,
nonetheless made personal at-
tacks on him. _

It denied that the embassy
had ever protested about the
matter, declared absurd

had investigated the ambas-
sador’s residence, and accused
the “British side” of leaking
false reports about confidential
discussions,

In April this year the matter

re

also”

the’
story that the Foreign Office .

Was mentioned by, the Czech
minister of foreign affairs to
the British ambassador in Pra-
gue in the course “of a dis-
cussion.

~

Two months later the British
embassy presented a docu-
ment claiming that the micro-
phones had been placed by a
Czech embassy official who left
London in 1948 and claimed as
proof that, the offical had
bought 1,100 microphones from
British surplus stock.

The .Czech government re-
jected this attempt to incrim-
inate its former employee as
being without foundation.

All this was confidential and
between the Czech ministry of
foreign affairs and the British
embassy. 4

PACIFIC TRIBUN]E —

Britain (with U.S. state depart-
ment observers represented) in
Bagdad last month had this to
say:
“Iraq will not hesitate to use _
her resources for the assistance:
of any state subjected to Israeli.
aggression. in accordance with.
her Arab League obligations:
...’ He must know the Jew-
ish Telegraphic Agéncy re-
ported on Sunday, November
-20, that the Turkish president
had pledged military aid to:
Jordon in, the event that coun-
try is attacked.

Israel could secure arms from
the countries of the Soviet bloc
in the same way that Egypt has,
without military commitments.
The Socialist states have made
it clear they do not demand

that the price of arms be the —

surrender of independence and.
participation in aggressive mili-

tary groupings. This fact has.
been recognized by the -Israeli~
Zionist leader and minister of

the interior in the first Israeli
cabinet.
who recently called for a new-

~ policy in the Tel Aviy news:
paper, Latest News. He wrote:: ©

“The United States wants

Egypt on its side at all. costs. .

Egypt on the other hand is: fol-

lowing a policy: of neutrality; °
and is now beginning to recelve,
-assistance from the East... ;

“Can there be any. doubt that
our loyalty to the U.S. has
brought us nothing. but -
trouble?
doubt we must change. our for-
eign policy?” 4

In.place of the blind hatred’

displayed by Marcus, in place of

provocative statements and acts;

the vital interests of Israel de-
mand an entirely. different @P-_
proach. What is. required 15 —

Itzchok. Greenbaum, _

yy.

Can there, be any —

peaceful negotiations betwee? ~

Israel and her Arab neighbors: ig
This is the conclusion already

reached by Rabbi Israel Gold-  ~

stein, president .of American —

Jewish Congress, who propose
recently that the Big Four

_ should guarantee the peace
_ the Middle Kast.
JOVROU RIVE DUR ee ogee UTD