Rank-and-file CCF, labor unity
needed to win fight for peace

—TORONTO

Emphatically stressing that the fight for labo: unity must be intensified, ‘Tim Buck, national leader
of the Labor-Progressive Party told the 3rd annual convention delegates in a “summing up” address,

that the defeat of the warmongers

policies is realized within the ranks .of labor.

Buck, summing up two and a
half days of discussion on the pol-
itical report he delivered on open-
ing night to more than 1.000 dele-
gates and observers stressed that
the fight for unity could” not be
won unless it included reaching:
those tens of thousands of CCF
supporters who are as yet deluded
by the right-wing social-democratic
leadership.

“The fight for peace,” the LPP
leader said, “must be made ‘the
fight of all who desire peace. We
will not shut the door on anyone,
particularly on the supporters of
ther GOs) @

Buck reiterated the LPP’s re-
pudiation of the 1948 election slo-
gan—Elect a CCF Government—
pointing out it had been an error
to attempt to achieve unity at the
top, but emphasized that the
struggle to influence the rank-and-
file for progressive policies would
be carried on with new vigor.
“The CCF leadership,” he said,
“takes a pro-war position which
We denounce, but we do not dis-
associate ourself from the rank-
and-file.” ‘

“The policy of struggling for un-
ity down below, said the LPP
leader, would bear fruit among
the rank-and-file of the CCF,
among whom there is a growing
realization that the top leader-
ship is betraying the principles
of everything the CCF was sup-
Posed to stand for.

Referring to the coming federal
elections. Buck stresesd that it
would be totally incorrect to as-
sume that the LPP has to place
its support behind any party, or to
tell the workers to vote for the
candidates of any of the war part-
ies, including the CCF whose top
right-wing leadership had placed
itself squarely on record behind
the proposed North Atlantic war
pact and the war policies of the
St Laurent government.

“Today,” he said, “we cannot tell
the workers that the CCF is the
progressive alternative to the two

could only be acheived

if the struggle for. unity around progressive

old-line parties; it is no longer the
progressive alternative to the Con-
servatives or Liberals.”

Buck pointed out that between
the present time and the date of
the federal election that it -was
possible changes might take place,
changes which would find the LPP

TIM BUCK

placing its strength behind inde-
pendent labor candidates, farmer-
labor representatives, or “break-
away CCF candidates.”

“At the present time, however,
if the CCF was seeking election
on a program based on war poli-
cies it would be impossible to tell
workers to vote for that party’s
candidates.”

The burning issue now and in
the coming Dominion election,
Buck pointed out, would be that
of peace. And ‘in those constitu-
encies where all candidates were
dedicated to supporting a war
program “it would be a marvelous
demonstration if the people went
to the polls in their tens of thou-
sands and wrote on their ballots:
‘Keep, Canada Out of ‘War’!”

Ontario labor urges

seamen be

Continuation of labor's suppor
‘Canadian seamen was strongly
sessions of the Ontario Federation

Sharply worded resolutions, covering a

for justice and union recognition
were passed without a single dis-
“senting vote. PRES
The convention ‘wholeheartedly
condemned the action of the gov-
ernment in ‘permitting the sen-
tence of young workers to long
terms of imprisonment and their
Mearceration in . penitentiaries
with common criminals,” and de-
manded from the Solicitor-General
of Canada “a remission of sen-
tence for the accused in order
that a grave injustice be rectified.”
M. EB. (Buster) Nuttall, a CSU
Port agent at Cornwall, Ontario,
well known in B.C. labor circles

British deporting

Malayan workers

i —SINGAPORE

British authorities in Malaya

have begun mass deportations of

unfavorable to the colonial govern-
ment,

Although most industrial work-

ers in Malaya are of Chinese or
Indian origin, and belong to fam-
ilies that have been in the country
for many generations, the govern-
ment puts anyone it does not like
aboard ships and sends them
“home.” : -

rc

&

set free

TORONTO.

t for the cause of the 60 imprisoned
indicated here last week during the

of Labor (TLC) annual convention.

ll aspects of the seamen’s fight

during the war years, was given
three months’ imprisonment last
week on the trumped-up charge of
“seizing and confining” two scabs
aboard the CSL freighter Acadian
last June. Despite strong defence
evidence that the strikebreakers
had voluntarily accompanied the
CSU pickets off the ship, the pros-
ecution made strong attempts to
hang a “kidnapping” charge on
Nuttall.
-- GSU headquarters in Montreal
brought to 300-year-old Canada
Shipping Act under fire in Mont-
real, charging that if has not only
served to railroad 75 seamen to
prison for defending ° their legal
union rights, but is now being used
by the ship operators to bar Can-
adian seamen from securing jobs
on Canadian ships. — :
“The Canada Shipping Act,”

says the CSU, “has put 75 seamen’

pehind bars for terms ranging
from six months to two years on
charges of ‘trespassing, because in

keeping with its 17th-century ori- |

gin, it does not allow trial _by
jury. Now this Canada Shipping
Act, which was utilized by anti-
union. shipowners to imprison
strikers, is Being used to bar Can-

adian seamen from the Canadian
fleet.”

ny

\

‘| the University of Toronto.

Marxist classes
open this month

Spring sessions of the LPP
Marxist Classroom begin on
February 28, and applications
should be sent to Room 211,
Shelly Building, this week.

Students have a choice of these
five subjects:

1. Canada; the Communist
Viewpoint, instructor Elgin Rud-
dell; é

2. What does the LPP Stand
For? instructor, Bert Whyte;

3. Marxism and the Trade
Unions, instructor, Alf Dew-
hurst;

4. The Marxist Philosophy. in-
structor, Sid Zlotnik;

5. Fundamentals of Marxism,
instructor, Vi Bianco.

Classes will be held once a
week for six consecutive weeks,
and prospective students are urg-
ed to get applications in without

Forty or fifty teen-agers took

store broken.

But the more serious side of the
story is that the outbreak was an
open manifestation of the growth
of anti-Semitism in the area. The
question is, what brought it on?

After the Donnybrook I ques-
tioned some of the lads who were
leaders of the gang.

“Aw, the Jewish kids have all
the privileges around here,” said
one. “Sure, piped up another,
“they’ve got a dandy community
center. What have we got? Noth-
ing. Why should the Jewish fel-
lows get all the breaks?”

Had the Jewish youth ever of-|
fered to sharé their facilities with
them, I queried. ‘Well, sort of,”
admitted one lad. Then quickly he
added, “But they’re getting too
strong around here.”

Anti-Seniitism is a habit-form-
ing drug. Supply it to young peo-
ple denied the rights and privi-
leges they feel should be theirs,
and they become dupes of the
race-haters and red-baiters,  re-
cruits for fascism.

But these youngsters weren't
yet poisoned by anti-Semitism.

delay.

writer Coray Campbell.

“It is my firm conviction that
for a number of years in our
union there has been a systemat-
ic technique of restricting rank-
and-file democracy and control.”

Campbell relates one personal
expérience which substantiates his
claim. He writes:

“I was elected by secret ballot on
two different occasions to attend
the winter trade union school at
This
school, as you know, was financed
by the international office and the

a national school for the purpose
of building a leadership in the
locals. %

_ “Despite frantic warnings on the
part of officialdom in my union
here, the workers decided after con-
tinued threats and warning that
IT was their considered choice to go
to the school.

The members of Local 3302 in-
sisted that the anti-communist
clause was not to be tolerated
and to show their utter disgust
and revulsion of feeling toward
the invoking of this Duplessis-
like technique, they decided in
the face of threats of ‘adminis-
tration’ and’ the blocking of bank
funds to finance the sending of
, their choice.

This was no idle gesture on the
part of* my local

“It meant that they had agreed
to pay tuition fees, plane fare both
ways, wages and expenses (which
was an expenditure in the neigh-
borhood of $500).

union locals here. This was to be]

They were street-corner’ kids

Community center best
solution for ‘gang war’

By PAT RYAN

part in their first “gang war’ at

the intersection of Oak and West 16th in this city not long ago. A
few noses were bloodied and a_ plate-glass window in a hardware

looking for a community center
and jealous of a minority group
which already had one.

Often the “gang” watched the
Jewish lads, after having enjoyed
a dance or social at the Jewish
Community Hall, drop into the
local coffee bar for a coffee and
hamburger. Naturally, the lads
and girls were dolled up in their
formal best.

Resentment among the corner
gang grew, finally spilled over in-
to insults and a planned “rough-
house.”

These youngsters aren’t juven-
ile delinquents—not yet. But they
could become that, and worse, if
they continue to be neglected and
starved of normal entertainment.

Solution is the building of an
Oak Street community center open
to all-the youth of the area. This
would take the youth off the
streets, give them a meeting place
and solve many of their problems.
All that is lacking is adult leader-
ship to organize a citizens’ move-
ment for such a center.

Millard’s union dictatorship
challenged by local steelworker

A letter’ from a UREN steel worker to C. H. Millard, national director of the United Steel-
| workers’ of America in Canada, blasting the union’s dictatorial leadership, has been made public by the

Pointing out that he is “‘a foundation member of local 3302 in Vancouver,’ Campbell declared

\

COREY CAMPBELL

“My local has less than 200 mem-
bers. I resigned the honor bestow-
ed upon me rather than put my
local to this expense.”

Campbell challenged Millard to
open the columns of the union pa-
per, “Steel,” so that a rank-and-
fie discussion could be held on the
Charges he had made. e

To date Millard had remained sil-
ent on the charges and has not
even acknowledged Campbell’s let-

ater:

‘The U.S.-supported Greek
rested additional thousands of u

2.000 civilian political opponents

-Re-trial of unionists protested

LAKE SUCCESS

Greek government re-trial of two labor leaders, whose pre-
vious death sentences were commuted after an appeal by United
Nations General Assembly President V. Evatt, has been protested |.
by the World Federation of Trade Unions and by the governments
of Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. :

government, which recently ar-
nionists, admits having shot over
.during the past two years.

IWA goon squads
in Island town

Faced with goon attacks on
WIUC members similar to those

last December. a delegation from:
WIUC Local 81 and Women’s
Auxiliary 61 protested to last city
council meeting here against per-
mitting a situation to develop
where men can go around armed
with blackjacks and beat up per-
sons on pubiic streets.
Appointment of the delegation
came after a WIUC member had
been waylaid in a lane and beaten
severely around the face and head
by two blackjack-wielding IWA
thugs. The man received a gap-
ing wound in the back of the head
which necessitated five stitches.
Heading the seven-man WIUC
delegation and two members of the

retary of Local 81, who called sharp-
ly to attention the attacks made a
short time ago on J. Rinta, the
WIUC member who was slugged.

Position of the delegation was
that they wanted to prevent a
lawless situation from develop-
ing and thus being forced into
‘taking retaliatory measures for
their own protection.

The mayor’s reply was to the

the courts could do much about

enough to declare martial law or
call in extra police--a somewhat
remarkable confession of helpless-
ness in the face of goon attacks.
The best the council could prom-
ise was to publish the fact that a
blackjack is an offensive weapon

would be charged.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 18, 1949 — PAGE 7

—LADYSMITH

made on strikers at Campbell River

Auxiliary was Jack Atkinson, sec-

effect that heither the police nor —

the matter unless it became bad.

and anyone found carrying one