THE NATION

By LESLIE MORRIS

‘

Government forced on defensive

by Peace Congress stand

FE all his access to the front pages and the head-
lines, Lester B. Pearson, minister for external af-

_ fairs, came off second best in his exchange with Dr.
Py; a ndicott, chairman of the Peace Congress. If the Peace
Congress did nothing else than to bring the question
_, f foreign policy out of the secret despatch boxes and
into the open light of day, it has more than fulfilled.a
5 _Mission. But it has done more than that. Its inspiring
i Second Congress and the mighty peace rally whi h fol- %

lowed it, have put the Canadian goy-
“ernment on the defensive and the
“peace movement on the offensive—at-
the very moment when parliament is
in the middle of a Tory-forced debate
the outlawing of any ideas not to
the liking of the men in External
Affairs,

It was high time that the Truman-
Bevin foreign policy of this govern-_
ment became the subject of public de-
bate, as the start of public action to
‘turn the drift to war into a tidal
‘Wave for peace,” as Dr. Endicott told the Peace Congress

in his splendid keynote address. :

_ "Dhe government and its Tory, CCF and. Social Credit ~

eT

ett fupporters haven't a leg to stand on—and that’s why they .—

try to make peace a “Communist” issue, hoping as do all
_ Political bankrupts to hide their own doings” braid a
Screen of hoped-for préjudice.
. Peace is not a party monopoly, whetnent it is the
_ Party of Lester B. Pearson or the party of Tim Buck?
/, © M. J. Coldwell. Peace is a monopoly of the people—
| 80d the quicker they take their rightful place in making —
the great decisions. the quicker the. public air will
change from the foul and dank stink of war’ hysteria,
to the fresh and clean air of world cooperation to keep.
_ the peace.
a It is this power of the peace idea which has the
a Sovernnient scared and which causes every tuppeny-
cy he Penny civic official like Controller Balfour of Toronto
9 try to cover up his own civic negpence by jumping
°n the raucous bandwagon of Mars.
« . Since when did the people of Canada give a mandate
tr atomic war. When was the Baruch Plan of Wall
Teet to make atomic energy an American pognopalyy
Submitted for’ Aine consideration ?"

os

. Wert

Let the minister for external affairs tell the Cana-

dian people just when he was given authority to support
Chiang Kai-shek in China, A plebiscite of the people
‘would show that they ‘would take advantage of that op-
portunity to voice their opinion by denouncing the Chin-

ese tyrant who is the property, body and soul, of the-

North American corporations. ~

Let the government of Canada take a democratic
vote of the Canadian people as to’ whether or not they
want the atom bomb banned, and whether or not they
would declare in advance that the first government to
use the bomb would be a war criminal—and it would very
soon find out where public opinion lies on these questions.
The Peace Congress, by launching a new petition on
these questions, has dared the government to face up

to the issue.

_.. That's why the press and radio scream and mis-
represent the peace movement, and slander and vilify
Drs. Endicott and. Johnson. That is why we have the
mayor of Timmins inscribing his name in -the black
pages of history by calling these two Christian peace
fighters, “a pair of clowns”!

- The government is on the defensive, ee |

. It has been compelled to pass from a policy of ignot-
ing the Peace Congress to a policy of insulting and
publicly denouncing it. That’s the best proof that Ot-
‘tawa has no case to take to the people—that it senses
with the greatest sensitivity that Canadians are not the
willing Supporters of Truman, ae Sabian 3

; McCarthy.

, Regardiess of their views Saisie the reasons
for the critical danger of war—the Canadian people, and

the people of the world, are demanding an end to the |

" cold. war. Hence Pearson’s necessity for sending a letter
of “explanation” to the Peace Congress which any high
school. boy who is up on foreign affairs would have little
difficulty in answering quite satisfactorily.

The magnificent Second Peace Congress was a tribute

to the power of the peace idea. If it is followed by a fight

’ for labor unity on this question, if the CCF and trade
union masses and the church people are brought into it,
to form peace associations and’ committees every-
where, aS can and will be done, nothing can stop the

dream of V-E Day, 1945, from | bring) Severna 6 ~The fight .

tee BRaRe ag ee begun!

“Lp COLUMN

t 1c quality.

ITHIN: three days we suffered the ‘loss of two’

_ splendid comrades. Each. time, the shock and >
hurt made any attempt to, put feeling ‘into words
an unbearably difficult thing. Yet silence ‘alone
Would not do, words had to be spoken. Life, not
Just the forms we use to voice sorrow, forced us to
face the main thing that was lost, the lesson we'd
; shave ‘to learn, in time, from the comrade that was
“Sone from us. ‘ Aaa

Sty
In Toronto, on May’ 2, Uisowel: awe, Weuehet

Jean and Jim, and wife of Nick :
Argyros. The blow came without
Warning, and was unbelievable. In

the loss of a young comrade, with —
‘ What) should have been | half of
| her life still ahead, ‘there’s some-
| thing even more cruel. ;
‘In Montreal, on \May 5, Homes |
‘| Duval, husband of Hilda, one of
the builders of our French-Cana-
dian movement from the | early.
‘thirties uP to ‘the present; one
‘| who, long troubled with illness,
ate fought at nd fought to carry on the work.
his” ‘prime, taken from us. i

AN at ‘the funeral, at the araveudsn & Soerpantten paid
' tribute to our fallen, on behalf of ‘all who had
known and worked with them, on pehalf ue the
» Party which was the meaning of their life.

that which was Zingied oer
y was ‘a certain —
of see ag

i i

: In the case of. each,
\ by those ‘who spoke. for the —

} Here was a comrade in whom the relation ot
_the self to thé rest of the collective of Party

< ers was mature and sound. This_ ‘was SO wan ever

¥ Brae deciding thing, the determining, thing, was eve

daughter’ of’ Tom McEwen, sister of rae and."

fs dualism} ‘and the striving of the new,comradely,

cue Wi The resisting ego, the petty-bourgeois eabnicelt: try

is the quality that's

| Quality of character, and work: the quality ‘eis
tion,

ach

"By STAN LEY RYERSON

of devotion —

ven ‘Party as a whole, the need of the eetcas
the personal worry or prnaccuneven was always a
secondary: thing. :

Selfless devotion to the cause of the working class, -
to the Party: this is what Comrade Dimitrov placed
first, in ‘speaking of. ins criterion saat restos ks
- leadership.

This quality is never ostentatious. It is never
‘proclaimed. It is not. expressed in great speeches
or brilliant writing. — It cannot be imitated or “put
“on.” It is a quality of being that is sensed in work. |
We strive for collective work, most time we have |
to fight sharply and hard to achieve it. Always. in :
Be form or another, ‘there is the problem of the
individual and the team, the ego and the collective; —
‘the resistance of the hangovers of bourgeois indivi-

- workin
are ‘the ‘relationships:
‘Communism. -

_ class aatipe’ ot the to prevail. — ‘For these
the ecoe, of the” future:

to hang on, to justify themselves, camouflaged . as
‘minor virtues such as “over-aggressiveness”
similar ‘disguise. But -gesticulation can’t measure up,
the test is work and the: real. seep yoabtns developed ‘3
‘in the work. S
And here ‘it’s proven, hay’ Gommunuihist ovation -
decisive. Only with it does
contact with the masses become the means to. ad
vance the struggle; only with it do ability to orien- —

tate and assume responsibility, and disciplined firm- | —

ness, become qualities of Communist leadership.
-~In this devotion is the. seeret of the steuchness,
of ‘Bolsheviks. A :

By This quality was Comrade Meo’s. .
ae is the. quality of our ‘Party.

et he certain victory _ of our cause, we fight to.

e ptr fesse, Mie more , Fally, ours,

or=-]"

“This was the quality of Comrade ‘Isobel. ae

“In the face of the enemy, and, Edtahotde eS

‘LABOR FOCUS By J. B. SALSBERG

Conroy throws
a boomerang |

AST week we drew attention to the acrobatics Pat
Conroy went through tc show he really never left the

war camp. He. did that in a ietter te all CCL local
unions after he realized that many rank-and-file members
took serionsly the decision of the CCL executive to op-
pose the manufacture of atom bombs. Conroy went to
great lengths to convince the CCL membership to do
nothing to ban the atom bomb.

He couldn’t, of course, say they shouldn’t take the
Sor resolution seriously, that it was adopted only be-
cause of rank-and-file pressure and
that it was meant to defeat, rather

than _intensify, the growing peace
“movement in the country. No, he
, couldn't be as blunt as that. So he

dragged out all threadbare lies which
Wall Street and their junior partners
in Canada have been peddling for
some time. The falsehood about the
_ Soviet Union’s refusal to agree to in-
spection and the hypocritical pretense
that he is asked to “support Russia
against Canada” was his defense for
trying to keep the CCL away ea fhe Agee front. But
what are the facts? ©

A. Y, Vishinsky, Soviet foreign minister, delivered A

historic speech before the Special Political Committee

of the United Nations on November 10, 1949. The speech
was entitled, “On Prohibition of the Atomic Weapon and
Establishment of International Control.” After showing
how the U.S. “control plan’ was a disguise for refusal
to ban. the atomic weapon, and after tracing the position
of the USSR before and after it possessed the Sieenic

_ weapon, Vishinsky: said:

“Basing itself-in its principles of protecting peace and
strengthening the security of nations, recognizing that
the employment of the atomic weapon is incompatible
with membership in the United Nations, recognizing that
employment of the atomic weapon is contrary to the

honor and conscience of nations, the Soviet government

cut statement didn’t affect Conroy and company.

*

has insisted for several years, and insists now, on the pro-
hibition of the atomic weapon; it has called, and continues
to call, for the immediate elimination of this weapon of
aggression and barbarism’ from nationa] armaments,

“Notwithstanding that fact that it possesses the atom-
ic weapon, the Soviet government stands, and intends to
stand in the future, by its old position that use of this
weapon must be unconditionally banned. The Soviet gov-

ernment also stands by its old position in regard. to

control over the atomic weapon, considering that such

control will be essential in order te make sure that the

decision prohibiting the production of atomic weapons_

is observed.

: “It was in accord with these fundamental principles —
that the Soviet government already two years ago pro-_
posed the conclusion of a convention prohibiting the
atomic weapon and a convention greg eed ‘strict in-~
ternational control. {

‘These clear words oer the eyes of iuadonde of
millions of people throughout the world. They dispelled

the monstrous Wall Street lie spread in order to conceal

But that clear-
They
prefer to let the U.S. state department do their thinking.

its mad preparations for an atomic war.

As for you and your workmates, cut out the quotation
from Vishinsky, or better still, get the full text of that

great. speech, and use it as ammunition in your fight.

against the labor agents of the imperialist warmongers
and in your_ struggle to win all honest people for the
growing sent front in our country. ;

- Conroy’s other piece of deception about “supporting
Russia against Canada’ is truly contemptuous. Conroy,.
who supports the U.S. imperialist war policies, knows we
are not faced with the alternative of supporting “Russia
against Canada.” No such altefnative can arise. The
only question before us is whether we should support a
policy which calls for the outlawing and the destruction

' of all atomic weapons or. whether we should support a
_ policy of building more and bigger atom and hydrogen

bombs_in preparation for a war of annihilation, Those

who support the policy of outlawing atomic weapons de-
fend Canada. Those who support the Wall Street policies _

of building atomic weapons are betraying Canada. It's

“as simple as that and no amount of squirming by. Coan,

roy and his like will alter this fact.
The final, conclusive proof of whethér one is for peace

_ or -war, for or against Canada, is whether he is ready to

subscribe to the simple resolution of me Es ases Peace
Congress which states: -

“swe demand the unconditional prohibition of ‘he

Gre tril roched nea aroriminal Seal gousageont we
ca Pherae thal acres 2 tarts Se ait ac Sa :

. 2
_ ship’ will ignore Conroy's latest circular letter and will —
} for ‘the defense of SA:

" Those who agree with the straight forward declara-

: tion will join the peace movement. We are convinced that
“i i rank-and-file of the CCL unions agree with that de-

tion even if Truman, Pearson and Conroy do not.
t is why are also certain that the CCL member-

“become part of the people’s movement for woe and

1

PACIFIC. TRIBUNE — May 19, 1950. — PAGE 9

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