-Newfoundlanders allies for labor

NEWFOUNDLAND is going to
become Canada’s tenth prov-
ince. Of 176,000 Newfoundlanders
eligible to vote, 77,869 voted for
union with Canada, 71,464 for re-
storation of responsible govern-
ment, truly a narrow margin for
such a serious step of relinquish-
ing national sovereignty and be-
coming a province of Canada.
Newfoundland labor’ and demo-
cracy would have been better
served if the vote had been for
responsible . government as 4
means of obtaining independence
from British, Canadian and Yan-
kee imperialists alike.

’ Canadian labor will extend a

‘hearty welcome to the tough, mil-
itant fishermen, iron miners and
paper mill workers of Newfound-
land. Joseph Smallwood, leader of
the Newfoundland confederation
forces, an avowed Liberal who
made a noisy debut at the recent
Liberal national convention, says
that “politios in Newfoundland
are non-existent . .. The country
is pretty well divided between Lib-
eral and Tory. I know of not a
single Communist in Newfound-
land ... If ever there was an
unfertile field for communism,

_ that field is Newfoundland.”

Smallwood is whistling in the
windy dark. Newfoundland is the
most fertile field for the develop-
ment. of a powerful Communist
movement, for a strong advance
of the trade unions, for far great-
-er participation of the working
class in politics, Confederation
will undoubtedly hasten this pro-
eess. Smallwood thinks that the

ever for working class politics
and action.

It is hard to think of a more
conceited and ignorant man than
the pompous Smallwood. Consider
Newfoundland’s history: It is
England's oldest colony. Discover-
ed by John Cabot on June 24, 1497,
Newfoundland in 451 years was
so savagely exploited by London
millionaires and St. John’s blood-
suckers that her people suffer one

a]

than any other

of the lowest standards of living
in the world.,

In 1933, after stormy mass bat-
tles which swept aside the corrupt
Squires government, Newfound-
land was deprived of all semb-
lance of independence! A British
cruiser lay off St. John’s while the
London millionaires set up their
MacDonald Commission govern-
ment. The people of Newfound-
land were squeezed harder than
ever to pay the interest and ser-

. vice charges on the $90 million

national debt.

The Newfoundlanders need ex-

pect no gentler treatment from |

the bankers and monopolists who
run Ottawa, the King government
and the industries of this country,
and the interests casting covetous
eyes on the rich resources of Lab-

rador. Their only hope for a bet-

_ ter life lies in unity and struggle

against big business. The LPP un-
doubtedly will give them indis-
pensable assistance.

The Wall Street men wanted
the restoration of responsible gov-
ernment in Newfoundland, not be-
cause they favored real independ-
ence for Newfoundland, but be-
cause they figured that, with re-
sponsible government at _ St.
John’s, Wall Street could have
more easily treated Newfound-
land like Puerto Rico. As it is,
the U.S. dominates Newfoundland
via the three big war bases—Fort
Peperill at St. John’s, Fort Mc-
Andrew on Placentia Bay, and
Harmon Airfield at Stephenville.

Churchill gave these war bases
to the United States for 99 years.
/ Uncle Sam will not willingly give

them up, for they are key points
in Washington's plans for imper-
ialist war.

@ 4
During the First World War, I
sailed with;Moses Smith of Span-
iards Bay,-Newfoundland, He was
a naval gunner, a strong, hard
man. He told me many stories of
the bitter hardships of his people.
Twenty-odd years ago I dug coal
alongside of many Newfoundland-
ers in Cape Breton. They too spun
many a yarn of the misery and
hunger which forced them to mi-
grate to the tough Cape Breton
coal mines to slave for BESCO
and Roy Wolvin. *

They love their native land
which is rich in natural resources.
They love the stormy seas so abun-
dant in fish.

Yes, the Newfoundlanders are j
grand, hard-working, hard-fight
ing folk. Labor of Canada will
fight shoulder to shoulder with
them, and despite Smallwood, w@
may be ‘sure that we are going to |
achieve that unity, consciousness —
and organization of the Canadian —
and Newfoundland workers and
farmers which will really bring ue
the real independence, the bettel

‘life, and the peace we so sorely
need.

Engels foresaw Canada’s pattern

By STANLEY RYERSON

N a letter written in Montreal,
Frederick Engels jotted down
his impressions of the trip by
boat from Toronto: ,

“We arrived here yesterday,
after having had to turn about
between Toronto and Kingston
because of a storm... and tie
up in Port Hope. Thus the two
days from Toronto to here turn-
ed into three. The St. Lawrence
and the rapids are very pretty.
Canada is richer in ruined houses
country but

is in a retrogressing and decaying
country. Here one sees how
necessary the feverish speculative
spirit of the Americans is for the
rapid development of a new
country (if capitalist production
is taken for a basis); and in
ten years this sleepy Canada will

-be ripe for annexation. . .. Be-

sides, the country is half-annexed
already, socially—hotels, news-
papers, advertizing, etc. all on
the American pattern... .”
The date: September 10, 1888.

By J. IZARAY

Spain.

, tillery
[rant |

" ©ut there in the provinces of

I am going to tell you what

] have just come back. The mud
still sticking to my shoes
comes from the mountains of

ences with pride, for after hav-
ing lived in these mountains,
made bloody by constant fight-
ing, I can tell all the friends of
- Spain: “Spain will rise again.” —
oe F
After four days’ march we had
reached the height at Gudar, and
the Guadalupe River was flow-
_ ing beneath. Just as the sun was
coming through the mist we saw
three men approaching.

The leader of the group was
a young man of 30. We knew
that he had been the resistance
leader-in one of the Teruel towns.
He had taken to the mountains
after narrowly escaping capture
by the civil guard.

The second was a smiling
young man, not more than 18
years; yet he already had 25
sorties to his credit.

The third man,
from Santa Cruz de Mova, had
been a sergeant in the Republi-
can armies during the Civil War.
Released from a Franco prison

a peasant.

Engels, the co-founder with
Marx of the science and the
parties of struggle for socialism,
was not only acquainted with
Canada. He understood it in
its conflicting conditions of
growth.

At the time of his visit the
main period of intensive ‘ndus-
trialization still lay in the future.
If he “foreshortened” the ‘per-
spective of. developments that
have led to today’s attempt at
American domination, the “mis-
take” was understandable.

His conception. of the’ main
course of Canadian capitalist de-
velopment had been outlined in
another letter, six years before:
proper, ie., the countries occu-
pied by a Huropean population,
Canada, the Cape, Australia, will
all become independent. . St:
(November 12, 1882).

The evolution of capitalist
Canada from a colony to a posi-
tion of independence after the
First World War, fully bore out
‘the prediction—as did that of
the other dominions. But for
Canada, more directly than for
the others, the prospect of Amer-
ican penetration as Engels saw it

Spain fights

in 1945, he went back to his vil-
lage.

He told me what had happen-
ed on the day of his return to
his native village.

“I saw the civil guard,” he
said, “take one old man away
simply because his son had join-
ed the guerrillas. Two hours
later, he was hanged on the out-
skirts of the village. So I took
to the mountains again myself.”
e : :

Together we went on our’ way
toward guerrilla headquarters.

Everywhere there were signs
of violent fighting. Forests had
been burned down, and not a
sign of cattle or domestic ani-
mals.of any kind. ~~

One of the peasants told me
how the guerrillas had had an
important camp in the derelict
area through which we were
passing. Two thousand Franco
soldiers had set fire to the for-
est, so that 700 acres were
ablaze.

Surrounding fields were ruin-
ed, but the Civil Guard simply
beat up any peasants who dared
to protest.

*

was present—and pressing—from
the early days of industria] cap-
italism. Under imperialism | (of
which Engels only lived to see
the beginnings, and .which Lenin
was to grasp in its fullness) the
issue of U.S. domination was to
emerge on new terms, raised to
a new power. This, in the time
of the death crisis of capitalism,
and when socialism already in
being is the power in the bright
‘ascendant.

It was on August 5, 1895 that
Frederick Engels died. If today
we recall his Canadian visit it
is to emphasize a point that it
inevitably brings to mind, yet
which needs much emphasis. _

Not only his writing on Ameri-
ca—on the Civil War in the
United States, and on the Ameri-
can labor movement in particular

—but all his work, with which |
- that of Marx is inseparably link-

ed: all this is part of the heri-
tage of the Canadian working
class. . .. A heritage yet to be
taken in full possession, as the’
guide to action that Engels em-
phasized it must become.

A revolution in human thought
—the greatest ever'—was wrought

by these two comrades in apply
ing materialist dialetics to the
reshaping of political economy:
natural science, philosophy. B'

its culmination was in practic® —
in the fusing of science ‘ane
struggle: in the forging of thé -
party and the working out of

the policy and tactics of the
working class. (“Marx justly

considered that without this side

to it materialism was irresolute

one-sided, and _lifeless,’—Leni?

Teachings of Karl Marx.)

In a life-long struggle for th®
party and its revolutionary policy
Engels and Marx together com
batted the pressures of opportu!
ism which crystallized in th®
80's in what was to become
right-wing social-democracy. ‘Th
laid the foundations, in theory
and in action, for the titanic
successful struggles that the
working class was to wage —
the new century.

the

A turn, in the course of |
struggle and as part of that
struggle, to more study of t?
science of working class ema
cipation that Engels, toge
‘with Marx, created: that is now
we can best mark this anni
ary. 5

The guerrilla unit escaped,
mainly owing to the help receiv-
ed. from the peasants everywhere
they went. And in many places
»the guerrillas were able to take
their revenge on the Civil Guard.

After an hour’s march we
reached a small vailey and saw
some 20 men, dressed in heavy
uniforms and wearing blue ber-
ets, brought from civil life. They
were carrying rifles and machine
guns. :

These men joined us in our
march, They told me the heroic
story of their own adventures
against the Civil Guard and
Franco’s armies, ‘
eo ‘ ‘
They told me how the Civil
Guard tried to deceive the pea-
sants into believing that they
scored great military successes’
against the guerrillas, For ex-
ample, in one place they claimed
to have shot 84 prisoners. ‘

They took eight prisoners out
of their prison by night, and led
them to a cave that had former-
ly been a guerrilla hideout. They

killed the prisoners by grenade

and told the villagers next day
to go out and‘see for them-

selves their great “victory” ove?
this “guerrilla unit.”

But the villagers knew from
the ragged clothing and
emaciated bodies of the victims
that they were not guerrillas
but men who had been long 1”
prisoned. ree

The guerrillas receive food and
clothing from the peasants —thi
best that is available. ‘nee

My companions told me many
stories of guerrilla action that
keep the Civil Guard consta?
on the alert.’ ae

The guerrillas entered one vik
lage where the mayor and th
appointed loca] councillors nad
been acting in a particularly ©
potic manner, Fetching yer
out, the guerrilla leader :
them that on the next co
he and his companions —

return to “square accounts.

Another guerrilla, from
Cruz, described how they ©
bushed the Civil Guard @
seized their ammunition an
equiprhent to restock themselve*

These are the exploits of 5°.
of the guerrillas who Keck ge
Republican flag flying ove? ™
areas nominally held by

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 13, 1948—P*