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Three new

committees

in world peace effort

pve preparatory committees
which now been _ established
: will have responsibility
the bling delegations to
Risse Orld Peace Congress in
and from various regions of
ae ‘s In addition to commit-
ai Tom Quebec and Ontario,
aed reported on, British
aaa la, Alberta and Manitoba
4 aN committees set up.
a ancouver, a B.C. commit-
: 20 was elected at a meet-

Ing My -
Foulkes. 30 chaired by Dr. J. G.

B In its call to the meeting the
*~: Peace Council reminded
Sijuc a peace of the commu-
meetin the March consultative
tion He In Moscow in prepara-
E or the autumn Congress.
int Ee unique emphasized
the da S search for solutions to
exist pects of war which still
A nN the world will require
tical neiciPation of various poli-
Ment eligious, and social move-
Btoups evel as community
Walks of ees from all

Moe Representative
a than 75 representatives
chureh nity, labor, ethnic and
indivi Sroups, and interested
, uals attended and, from
Concern n there were proposals
desireg Ing the type of»delegates
heir Ee and suggestions for
return hs for peace when they
The Tom the World Congress.
FSt meeting of the newly

elected committee was to be
held within days of its election.

In Alberta a preparatory com-
mittee of 12 was set up at the
time of a provincial Peace Con-
ference in Edmonton, June 2. A
meeting of about 40, chaired by
Doug Tomlinson of the striking
Hotel and Restaurant Workers,
elected a committee which is
scheduled to meet again June
24, to consider nominations of
delegates.

In Winnipeg, representatives
of a number of organizations, in-
cluding the Manitoba Peace
Committee, the Black Action
group, the Association of United
Ukrainian Canadians and the
United Jewish People’s Order,
met and elected a preparatory
committee of 12.

Urgent Need

The aim of the regional com-
mittees and the six-member
committee for the whole of Can-
ada is to achieve a representa-
tive delegation to express the
views of Canadians at the World
Peace Congress. While the size
of the delegation will have to
conform to accommodation of-
fered by the international organ-
izers, the Canadian committee
stresses that widest participa-
tion in the preparations is essen-
tial. The concerns of Canadians
on subjects related to peace are

-invited and, financial assistance

to assure Canadian participation
is also welcome.

&

Grape workers need help

TORONTO — After eight long
years of struggle the United
Farm Workers Union won their
right to represent the working
people who pick grapes in South-
ern California.

Their right to their own union
is now being jeopardized by
criminal raids conducted by the
Western Council of Teamsters.
Jessica Govea, a Farm Workers
representative, who came to the
Toronto Labor Council before the
1970 contracts were won to get
support for the grape boycott,
was back in Toronto last week
to get the Council’s support in
their latest struggle. She told
the delegates of what is happen-
ing now in the Coachella Valley
in Southern California:

“I am here today to tell .you
that the eight years of struggle
are very much in danger right
now. The contract we signed in
1970 expired on the 14th of
April, On the 15th of April, the
growers of the Coachella Valley
signed a sweetheart contract
with the Western Council of
Teamsters. On the 16th of April
we initiated our strike again.

“It’s probably the toughest

strike we have ever had.

“This struggle is not for high-
er wages. It’s a struggle to de-
termine whether we can keep
the union which we have fought
for so long.

Help as Before

“Only two growers in Coach-
ella, out of 30, have renewed
their contracts with us. Those
sranes from those growers will

have the Farm Workers union
Jabel-on them. None of the rest
will.

“We need your help again.
The workers are very strong.
They will not be intimidated by
the chains, guns and_ brass
knuckles. The workers are very
courageous because we know
now what having our own union
means and we love it too dearly
to give it up.

“We are asking you, who

—LNS CARTOON

helped us before to please con-
tinue helping us in any way you
can. We are asking you to do
what you did before.. We are
asking you not to buy grapes
that do not have the Farm Work-
ers union label.

“When you refuse to buy non-
union grapes, you are saying to
us — ‘We believe in you, we be-
lieve in your. right to have your
own union, we want to help

a9

you’.

Exewssmay Author by-passes class struggle

Nat .
lonalism, Communism and

a

Pane Labor. By Irving Mar-
ess, a, University of Toronto
$4.59 256 pages. $15 cloth,

Paperback,

in he book, as the author says
to Preface, does not claim
Canad objective history of the
Of the cr, Congress of Labor nor
Of the c O in Canada, much less
a3 a anadian labor movement
Petiog “hole, in the turbulent
Wha Tom 1935-56. Rather

amine” author proceeds to:
~

One cae “two basic conflicts
tetnay»  cTnal and the other ex-
threat’ p.namely the “internal
the ae the Communists and
Americana threat from the

Nase
Must fairness to the author it
Reig ae Stated that no bour-
ag fe oran to date has done
the hist factual research into
Movement of the trade union
ENee t Mt, with particular refer-
and th the contending forces
2 mace Ce battles to organ-
itty “SS Production industries
M Steg Verful industrial unions
{Uto, ne. wood, electrical,
Masg €r, textile and other
Canag Production industries in
tiveg ine Iso, while the author
earth © this research work to
Pre €vidence to support his

“COnc :
ites rived notions about is-
N thi, ,. SOCial forces involved

S *
Positive nflict, he is forced to a
Clay rol "cognition of the cru-
a Party Played by the Commun-
an Jap Of Canada in the Cana-
h Though Movement.
ve ae On the whole they
y histo. rather badly maligned
a the pans and commentators
thube t ae there seems little
of Commune’. Contribution of
va the cya ists to the creation
4 lable in Canada was in-
a Dering CY Were activists in
tS anes Organizing work-
'red these attributes.

They helped build the CIO, and
helped it grow until it was
strong enough to do without
them. They did the work that no
one else was willing or able to
do. Although there are many
nasty things one can say about
the Communists, undeniably in
building a viable industrial
union movement in Canada,
theirs is a contribution not easi-
ly measured.”

The author questions the
“hasty and somewhat crude” ex-

pulsion of Communist and left-°

wing unions from the Canadian
Congress of Labor at the height
of the cold war, 1948-50. He con-
siders this action “was neither
necessary’ nor wise.” (Indeed
he notes that some red-baiters
have had second thoughts about
the matter)

“In most instances, the party
people were good unionists, and
the left-wing unions certainly
provided the necessary services
to their members. In fact, with-
out the contributions and activ-
ittes of these party people and
their left-wing supporters, the
task of organizing workers into
the CIO and CCL in the late
1930s and early 1940s would
have been more difficult.

“Yet in the immediate post-
war period these men — and
their unions.— who had done
much to build and strengthen
the industrial union movement
in Canada were ruthlessly re-
jected. Caught up in the anti-

‘Communist hysteria which hall-

marked the late 1940s and early
1950s following the Gouzenko
disclosures, and concerned about
its image and what the affilia-
tion of the “Communist” unions
was doing to that image, the
Congress _patriotically decided
to rid itself of its left-wing
membership . . . The Commun-
ists had to go and ways were

found to expel them. That these

‘ ways were brutal and perhaps

even unconstitutional was irre-
levant. What was important was
that they achieved their pur-
pose.” (From Abella’s Conclud-
ing chapter page 221)

It should be noted in passing
that some reviewers of Abella’s
book who still stick to cold war
tactics of red-baiting and lying
about the Communists, not-
ably Wilfred List of the Globe
and Mail and Morden Lazarus in
the May-June, 1973 Labour Re-
view of the Ontario Federation
of Labour, criticize the author’s
conclusions from their right-
wing and reactionary positions.

No doubt the exceptional bit-
terness of Morden Lazarus
arises from the way in which
Abella’s factual research has ex-
posed the crass opportunism,
double-dealing, manipulation and
class collaboration of the CCF
and right-wing trade . union
bureaucrats. :

This does not mean to say
that Abella’s book is flawless.
Far from it.’Sharing the common

-failure of most bourgeois intel-

lectuals, who invariably separate
leaders from those they are sup-
pose to lead and for whom they
express an attitude of paternal-
ism, at best, or contempt, at its
worse, Abella’s book reads like
a Sherlock Holmes thriller of
intrigue and manipulation
among the top leaders of the
CLC, the CIO and its constitu-
ent unions.

What is glossed over in this
book is the class struggle and
what it is all about, not just in
Canada, but internationally. The
role of the trade union move-
ment in a class society can be
none other than to uphold the
interests of wage labor against
capital. To perform such a role,

the movement must strengthen
its position in society through
unity and class struggle policies,
so that it may really ensure the
pursuit of an anti-monopoly and

pro-labor objective. This was of ©

paramount importance at the
time when democracy was fight-
ing for its life against fascism,
which was advancing under anti-
communist banners to save the
world for imperialist and mono-
poly exploitation against the
working class and its struggle to
widen democracy for the people.

Right in the opening chapter
Mr. Abella writes of “two crush-
ing blows” against the national
union movement in Canada in
1935. In his rather twisted
views, these were the Commun-
ist Party call for a united front
of the working class in Canada
and throughout the world to de-
stroy fascism and to prevent
another imperialist war, and the
birth of the Committee for In-
dustrial Organization — the CIO
— in the USA.

In the former case, “there was
fierce opposition to this ‘ukase’
from many quarters both within
the Communist Party and the
Workers’ Unity League,” which
later was allegedly dissolved on
orders from Moscow and _ its
members instructed to join the
Trades and Labour Congress of
Canada. The authority for this
allegation is given as J. B. Sals-
berg, ex-Communist and rene-
gade of the movement.

In the latter case, Abella as-
serts that “the formation of the
CIO doomed whatever possibil-
ity there remained of creating
in Canada a labor movement,
the majority of whose members
belonged to Canadian unions.”

The title of. the book’ is mis-
leading, as ‘are indeed biblio-
graphical references to some

names and interviews, which are
not directly quoted ih the book
but nonetheless listed, presum-
ably to lend wider acceptance to
the book and the opinions there-
in expressed. For those unfami-
liar with the history of the labor
movement during the period
under review, the greatest dang-
er is that such readers may end
up with the cynical feeling of
“What-the hell is the use? They
are all the same, a bunch of
unprincipled manipulators.”

Since undoubtedly many con-
troversial observations will be
made in published reviews of
this book, the best way will be
to read it with an open. mind
and draw conclusions on the
basis of one’s own conviction
and experience.

This is neither the first nor
the last historical review to
cause controversy. All this re-
viewer can say is, by gosh, we
are creeping closer to the truth
all the time!

What all this points up and
emphasizes is the need for a
complete and factual history of
Canada’s trade unions and broad
labor movement within the con-
text of economic, social and
political developments, both na-
tional and international, with
particular attention to develop-
ments since the turn of the
century. Such a history must
objectively record the struggle
between labor and capital, the
issues and forces involved, the
birth and growth of world soci-
alism, and the role of right-wing
Social Democracy, the Commun-
ists and the socialist Left in the
battle. for united action to
advance the interests of the
working. people, genuine peo-
ple’s democracy and _ world
peace.

—Bruce Magnuson

» PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 15,:1973—PAGE 9

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