aad

Communist Pa tty statement:

Labor must ensure Canada gets
a genuine labor-farmer party

“In April the Canadian Labor Congress will hold its convention in Montreal. One
of the most important items of business will be the new party which the 1958 con-
vention in Winnipeg decided to organize,” says a statement issued this week by the
national executive committee of the Communist. Party of Canada.

Text of the statement fol-
lows:

The people of Canada’ need
such a people’s party: a party
that would stand for peace and
disarmament, for higher pur-
chasing power for workers and
farmers, against high mon-
opoly profits, and for really
democratic laws in the inter-
ests of the working people that
would check the anti-labor
drive of the monopolies.

With such a program, labor
and farmers could be united
together in one political move-
ment representing the major-
ity of Canadians.

Only a minority of workers
and farmers are CCF-minded.
But a majority of them are
dissatisfied with the old-line
parties, and would respond to
a genuine people’s party, with
a-broad platform of democratic
and social reforms. If the new
party were organized against
Big Business and had a fight-
ing labor ‘and farm program, it
could set itself the aim of
winning a parliamentary ma-
jority in the next federal
election.

Will the new party be what
the Winnipeg Convention said
it should be: a genuine mass
political party of labor and
the farmers, joined by all dem-
ocratic and progressive people
who- want new policies for
Canada?

Or will it be the CCF by
another name, controlled from
the top by CCF’ers?

In other words, will it be a
real people’s party, or an elec-
tion machine for the CCF?

Unfortunately, the _ signs
point to the latter — to a nar-
row . political machine. The
leadership of the Canadian

‘Labor Congress. who are CCF-

minded show by their actions
that they oppose a genuine,

‘all-inclusive party such as the

1958 Winnipeg Resolution des-
cribed.

By doing this they have en-
couraged the right-wing ele-
ments who are opposed alto-
gether to the entrance of the
unions into labor political
action.

In fact, the parties of Big
Business, who at first were
very concerned at the pos-
sibility of a real challenge to
their political domination, are
not ‘so concerned now, because
in all the conferences they
have called, the CCF-CLC top
leaders have made it clear that
they want to keep political con-
trol in their own hands, and to
exclude all those including the
communists, who want a genu-
ine mass movement controlled
by the » rank-and-file... This
would deliver the unions into
the hands of the CCF leaders,
some of whom now openly op-

The scenic Taishan Country yields both good paddy rice
and tasty fresh-water fish. The Takiang People’s Com-
- mune which comprises a considerable number of overseas
Chinese families, breed fish not only in ponds and reser-
voirs but also in rivers and streams blocked off by
~ embankments. Photo shows commune members spreading
fish nets in a river enclosed with embankment.

pose a militant labor-farmer
party, and champion capital-
ist “free enterprise.”

Unless the trade unions
make their wishes known to
the CLC convention in Moni-
real in April, and send resolu-
tions and delegates to the CLC
convention in support of the
Winnipeg Resolution for a
genuine people’s party, the
hope aroused by the Winnipeg
Resolution can be destroyed.
All that would come oui of
the Monireal convention would
be the CCF with another name,
and with trade union money
at its disposal.

The Montreal convention of
the Canadian Labor Congress
should. reaffirm the all-inclu-
sive, popular nature of the
new party. It should declare
that it is open to all those who
support a program of labor
and farmer demands.

The Montreal convention
should issue a call for a great
founding convention of the
new party, to which all could
come who support the general
aim of a new people’s, labor-
farmer, political party.

That way, such a new party
could come into being with
great enthusiasm and wide
public support, and democratic
majority decisions could gov-
ern its activities from the very
start. Farm groups would re-
spond to such qa popular call.
Professional people, small bus-
iness people, would see in it
a promise of a political voice
for themselves.

There is still time to do this,
men and women of the trade
union movement...

It is up to you to voice your
opinion, by your resolutions
and selection of © delegates
pledged to independent labor-
farmer political action.

The Canadian Labor Con-
gress convention in Montreal
should issue a call for a found-
ing convention of the new
party!

All who support democratic
policies of peace, prosperity,
higher purchasing power for
the workers and farmers, and
action to curb the big mon-
opolies, should be welcome in
the new party!

When you have read this
copy of the Pacific Tribune
please pass it on to a friend.

. Bert Whyte ‘2

he Olympic Games pag-
T eant is the oldest sports
show on earth. From :1200 B.C.
down through history men
have sweated and strained to
win laurel wreaths and med-
als in some 311 recorded
Olympiads.

The sprint race of about 200
yards was the big feature of
the first Games in which re-
cords were filed for posterity.
That was in 776 B.C. At the
15th Games the marathon ap-
peared. Wrestling was added
at the 18th Games and boxing
began at the 23rd.

The Games _§ started in
Greece. but soon athletes from
many countries began to take
part, and_ spectators flocked
from communities along the
Mediterranean — France,
Spain, Africa, Italy, Sicily.

Olympia, where the Games
were held, was quite a place.
It’s stadium seated 60,000 and
iis hippidrome, where chariot
and mounted races were run
off, was larger than the larg-
est racetrack in the U.S. today.

Although the athletes were
basically “amateurs” ‘they had
their expenses covered by
their communities and “pay-
ola” was not unknown. Win-
ners often received gifts of
considerable value from rich
patrons, and there is no case
on record of an athlete turn-
ing down such favors.

The athletes ate and drank

Six pounds of meat per man
per dinner was average, and
there is a story that Milo and
Theagenes. the wrestler and
boxer, each ate a boiled ox at
one sitting.

The Games were supposed

peaceful competition, and for
many years served that pur-
pose. As the payola got bigger
and the gamblers moved in,

the Games deteriorated and in

heavily to build their strength.

to bring peoples together in.

This Hsinhua News Agency photo shows Chinese women
workers of the Jenfeng Textile Printing and Dyeing Mill
in Tsinan doing physical exercises.

SPORTLIGHT

394 A.D. were abandoned. Bar-
barians from the north sacked
Olympia; later an earthquake
destroyed the city, and diver-

sion of two rivers buried it
under 25 feet of sand.
ee ee 0 Re

The Olympic Games were
revived by Baron Pierre de
Coubertin, after a couple of
unsuccessful attempts by a
Greek named Zappas in 1859
and 1870.

Coubertin made his bid to
the French government in
1892:

“Let us export oarsmen,erun-
ners, fencers; there is the free
trade of the future —and on
the day when ii shall take @
place among the customs of
Europe, the cause of peace will
have received a new and pow-
erful support.”

The Athens 1896 Olympics
were successful and Coubertin
had made his point to the
world. His words are today
known to everyone: .

“The important thing in the
Olympic games is not to win, _
but to take part, the import- ~
ant thing in life is not the tri«
umph but the struggle, the es-
sential thing is not to have
conquered but to have fought
well.

“To spread these precepts is
to build up a stronger and
more valiant and above all
more scrupulous and more
generous humanity.”

. pen age.

“Oh, what a funny cow.”
said the young thing from the
city to the farmer. “But why
doesn’t it have any horns?”

“There are many reasons,”
the farmer replied, “why a
cow does not have horns. Some
do not have them until laie in
life. Others are dehorned while
other breeds are not supposed
fo have horns. This cow does
not have horns because it is
a horse.”

January 15, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7