‘Cause and effect’

N A lead editorial on the. re-

sumption of nuclear tests in
the Soviet: Union under the cap-
tion “Cause and Effect”, the
British Worker of October 25 places
the issue with brilliant clarity for
its readers.

First the announcement of the
Soviet government on August 31

_ On its resumption of tests: “Any
experiments with nuclear weapons

instil alarm in people and make
their hearts heavy. And if the

Soviet government has neverthe-—

less decided to carry out nuclear

‘tests, it has been with a heavy

heart. =

The “DW” emphasizes that “it
is necessary to recall these words
because of the campaign now be-
ing conducted by Tory and right-

~ wing labor leaders and by. some

newspapers, which present the
Soviet leaders as callous and brutal
characters who are deliberately
Setting out to poison mankind.”
- Such a campaign is, not oe
to Britain. Sparked by U.S.
perialism it reaches into em
NATO alliance country.

To this anti-Soviet war hysteria
the “DW” poses some very pertin-
ent questions: “When the Ameri-

_¢€an and British tests were taking

place year after year, not above
their own territory, but over other
people’s territory, where then were

the protests from the Tories and
the Amercian rulers?

“If they are so concerned about
fallout why were they silent then?
Why did they try to play down
the effects of the tests? Why,
above all, did they refuse to reach
an agreement years ago on stop-
ping tests?”

The “DW” supplies some irrefut-
able answers: “There would be no
Soviet tests today if the Western
powers had not turned down every
Soviet proposal for getting rid of
nuclear weapons and tests and
achieving disarmament. There
would have been no Berlin crisis,
creating the conditions in which
the tests have been resumed, if
the American and British imperial-
ists, with the support of Gaitskell
and the socialist international (to
localize read right-wing CCF-CLC
burocracy) had not rearmed West
German militarism and given
nuclear weapons to its armed

. forces.”

The solution advanced by the
“DW” in its “Cause and Effect”
editorial is one which every patri-
otic Canadian can fully endorse;
« ... to unite all the forces of
peace in a great new effort to
change Western policy and end the
cold war’; and as the “DW” puts
it, “Nothing should be allowed to
divert us from this duty.”

Editorial comment.

IBERAL chieftain Lester Pear-
son says Canada’s resolutions
in the UN aimed at Soviet nuclear
tests “didn’t go far enough”.
Lester wants the Soviet Union
branded by the UN as an “ageres-
sor’, and almost busted the family
TV saying so.

A few days previous to the Pear-
son plug for hotting up the cold
war, Diefenbaker, taking his cue
as usual from Washington, said
much the same thing with a wider
range of words and a finer show
of ersatz “indignation.”

Then came the New Benuree:

Party national leader, the Rev.
Tommy Douglas. On a local TV
broadcast Thomas not only wants
the Soviet Union branded as an

“aggressor” if she doesn’t stop the |
tests, but intimated that the USSR |
be regarded as “an outlaw among ni See

nations.”
_ Had all three used the same lung
power protesting when the U.S.,

Britain and France were nuclear:

testing — triple the number ex-

Pacific Tribune

: Editor — TOM McEWEN
Associate Editor — MAURICE RUSH
wustne: Mgr. — OXANA BIGELOW
Published weekly at ~
Room 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouver 4, B.C.
Phone MUtual 5-5288
Subscription Rates:
One Year: 4.00 — Six Months: $2.25 |
Canadian and Commonwealth coun-
tries (except Australia): $4.00 one

year. Australia, United States and
all other countries: $5.00 one year.
Authorized as second class mail by the
Post Office Department, Ottawa, and
for payment of postage in eash,

ploded by the USSR, their protests
now would have made sense. Since

they didn’t all it makes is anti-
Soviet propaganda.

HE Ontario Labor Relations

Act stipulates (among other
things) that it is illegal for work-
ers to go on strike during “the
time specified in a ‘labor-manage-
ment contract,

“A ‘Toronto magistrate, one
Thomas Elmore, ruled on October
18 that workers have no legal right
to strike, contract or no contract;
that no law exists upholding the
right to strike.

This court ruling not only tosses’

the Ontario Labor Relations Act
down the legal drain, but challenges
a fundamental right of labor —
the right to strike.

Shades of Tolpuddle and the
anti-labor savagery of the 19th
century! The “law” says no strike
before a union contract expires,
while a legal nonentity rules all
strikes, before or after contract
expiry, as being “illegal.”

“The law,’ as Dickens’ Mr.
Bumble once caustically remarked,
“is a h’ass.”

The Elmore court rukng stems
from the long drawn out strike at
the CPR’s Royal York Hotel, dur-
ing which the CPR, in violation of
the provisions of the Ontario Labor
Relations Act, arbitrarily fired a
number of its striking employees.

The Hotel and Restaurant Work-
ers Union under whose jurisdiction
the Royal York strike is being con-
ducted, took the matter into court.
Result, the Elmore ruling which

holds all strikes “illegal.”

From such a ruling it should be
clear that the issue is no longer
the private affair of Ontario labor
or the H&RWU, but now becomes

the business of, and a challenge ™
all labor. To B.C. labor the Elmore
ruling is a “Bill 48” with an ex
set of shackles added; the det
of a hard-won fundamental ri
long established by sacrifice, bl00
and suffering — the inalienav®
right of labor to withhold its labo
power in order to win the ful
measure of the fruits of its 10

Doubtless organized labor in 0
tario will appeal to the high
courts in an effort to have th
reactionary. ruling reversed. That
will be quite as it should be. But,
reliance on the legal wrangling?
of monopoly - dominated courts
without accompanying mass actio®
and unity to preserve and -extell
fundamental basic rights, will only:
end in greater attacks upon Jabot
by a profit-hungry U.S.-Canadiat
monopoly oligarchy, so well epitom=
ized in the Royal York repressio™
of striking workers, many of the
with long years of service to thé
CPR actopus.

The Elmore ruling is a a
threat to all organized labor. Une
challenged in Ontario by a unilet
Canadian labor movement, it cat
spread like a disease from ¢0@
to coast, affecting every tra
union.

The recent spate of anti
rulings and legislation, taken ¢ 1
gether with the stepped-up political :
activities of the RCMP across
Canada aimed at intimidating la? i!
and the progressive movement, @
point to one conclusion: The né
for more vigorous action to defel
the demcratic rights of the pepP
and their organizations. eS,

Tom
McEwen

N THESE trying times of econ-
| omic crisis and tensions one
commodity is never in short supply,
i.e. “advice.” All kinds of pundits.
from alleged “statesmen” -to beer
parlor politicians unload barrels of
it hourly, on what has to be done

-to get Mother Earth back on a
- balanced orbiting run. Invariably

=~ _ails-us:.

Recently Prince Phillip unloaded.

‘a gob of it for the benefit of the

_. harassed British people. “Let’s pull
- our fingers out’? quoth the noble

prince “and get down to work.”

decidedly vulgar connotation, gen-
erally associated with highball,
sweatshop, and similar specie of
speed-up. bosses. ?
Such unprincely lingo coming
from a prince may be an indicator
of the developing ‘“‘democratic’”’ pro-
cesses by which it is said that
princes and paupers eventually
acquire a “common level” in the
scheme of things, Be that as it may,
it is scarcely likely the British
people (or others) will heed this
princely “advice” too seriously, par-
ticularly from one who has never
been known to do a useful produc-

it is the wrong. “advice”! on what.

- Out in these parts any reference
to pulling “our fingers out” has a-

tive day’s work in his whole life.

Of course Prince Phillip is still
a young man, and a Socialist Bri-
tain would undoubtedly remedy
that ommission with typical British
thoroughness. But until then royal
princes, plugging for the Manu-
facturers Association, should tread
lightly on this ‘‘pulling the fingers.
out” theme. It’s like a drone telling
a working bee to “get busy’ —
and everyone knows what happens
the drone in a working hive?

* oa x

We note The Citizen (North Van-
couver) editorial scribe unburdened
himself last week to congratulate
the North Shore District Council
for ‘not dignifying this twisted
group by inviting them into Coun-
cil chambers.”

_ This “‘twisted group” which drew
Citizen editorial ire was a delega-
tion from the North Vancouver -
Communist Party which presented:
the Council with a four-page brief
on civil defence (see page 7) and
the utter fallacy of its fall-out
shelters propaganda. —

Like most broken-to-the-leash of
coldwar propaganda editors, The-_
Citizen editor has nothing to say
on the merits or otherwise of the
brief presented by the Commynists.

That is easy to understand. Those

trained to say “yes, sir” to every
coldwar insanity are limited in
their ability to discern the truth,
even when it is in front of their
noses. Hence it is much easier to
serve up a batch of ignorant anti-
Communist bilge to their readers
than to deal intelligently with the

' the fee, then launched out into @

* te.
merits_of a case; to shout “Moscow”
with a well-trained vigor instead |
of a critical appraisal of what the |
Communists write, do or say On
any specific issue.

The October 12 edition of the
Fernie Free Press took a similar —
dive into its coldwar swill barrel
and came up shouting “commun-
ism.” It appears that the FFP ran ~
an advertisement for the local Com-
munist party group on the issue of
“No War Over Berlin”, pocketed —

full-length editorial blurb on the
Communists’ “empty parrotings of —
the Russian hierarchy which does
their thinking for them.” Bk
To such editors we would rec | |
ommend a reading of a famous —
speech, made by an equally famous |
New York editor, John Swinton.
Speaking at a banquet given in his —
honor by his fellow-editors on the —
subject of a ‘“‘free-press,” Swinton — Ei
reminded his colleagues of the mom —
opoly press that “we are intellect
ual prostitutes,’ nothing more. For —

“many of his more modern crafts: |

men John Swinton could well hav@ |
ommitted the description ‘intel
lectual” since that appendage 1?
coldwar journalese no longer ap"
plies.

The prime freedom of a coldwat
press is “freedom” to twist and —
obscure the facts in a cackle. 0
anti-Communism, The Citizen edi-
torial caption of “Time Wasted”
was well chosen. It fitted the blur? ~
it crowned with amazing perfec
tion, that of substituting McCarthy> ~
ism for common sense. j

November 3, 1961—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pa8