THE PEOPLE

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The Ontario Elections

IN THE outcome of the Ontario provincial elections the peo-
ple of every province will see a bright portent for the
future. The Liberal party, which dominated the province for
nine years and in the words of A. A. Macleod, the successful
Labor candidate for Toronto-Bellwoods, “turned Ontario's
parliament into a cheap political shambles,” has been decisively
repudiated. It was largely the widespread dissatisfaction with
the Liberal government which enabled the Progressive-Con-
servative party, with new makeup on the old familiar face, to
double its representation in the legislature and emerge as the
largest group. In some constituencies, particularly in the
country, the people turned away from the Liberals and looked
backward to the’ Progressive-Conservatives rather than for-
ward to the CCF. Greater unity among the labor and progres-
sive forces might have had a stronger influence upon these
sections of the people and enabled the CCF to form a govern-
ment instead of placing it, as seems probable, in opposition
to some form of coalition government.

This does not alter the fact that the people have won a great
victory. Ontario, for the first time, has a strong group of CCF
and Labor candidates pledged to fight for the people’s inter-
ests. It is a development which will inevitably have its reper-
cussions at Ottawa and in every provincial capital and the King
government will be well advised to recognize the indirect ex-
pression of dissatisfaction with its own domestic policies, par-
ticularly its labor policies, implied in the vote. That vote
speaks for the working people and first of all for organized
labor.

e

pee trade unions actively participated in the election cam-
paign on an unprecedented scale. They endorsed candi-
dates and campaigned to elect them. Leading trade unionists
stood as candidates and in most instances were elected with
big majorities. Unquestionably the active participation of the
trade unions was a strong factor in unifying the labor vote.
It is demonstrated in the fact that the CCF rolled up its biggest
vote in the great industrial centers where its candidates had
trade union endorsation and support.

The election results are a confirmation of the trend to the
left, The people are turning away from the old-line parties
in their efforts to achieve greater social progress and place
Canada in the forefront of the new world they hope to see
emerge from the war. They are turning increasingly to the
labor and progressive forces as their hope for the future. But,
as the victories of J. B. Salsberg in Toronto-St. Andrew and
A. A. Macleod in Toronto-Bellwoods show, they do not ac-
cept the CCF’s claim to be the only working class party. On
the contrary, where the CCF insisted upon running candidates
in opposition to these two Labor candidates despite their trade
union support and popular backing, the CCF candidates were
at the bottom of the poll, while J. B. Salsberg was given an
over-all majority. Those CCF leaders in British Columbia
who also insist on opposing Labor candidates against the wishes
of the trade unions should observe that they only defeat their
own ends by their narrow stand.

©
es Tim Buck spoke in Vancouver recently, he ob-
iserved:

“In Canada today there is the almost universal opinion
among democratic people that the country must go forward
when this war is over; there is an almost universal opinion
that the war has demonstrated the possibility for tremendous
improvement in the standards of living. . . . If we don’t have
the sort of government interested in social progress at home,
we will not have the sort of government to fight for things
abroad. A government which fights for things abroad will be
a government of social progress at home. Believe it or not,
there are forces in Canada today to do such things.”

The Ontario elections have shown the strength of these
forces and what they are capable of accomplishing. They have
also shown the need for cooperation among them—cooperation
in the interests of the people and not that “cooperation” where-
by the CCF would take everything and concede nothing ir-
respective of the wishes of the people—to enable them to exert
their maximum strength in sHaping the course of things to
come.

The Bankruptcy Of

Italian Fascism ,

From an Editorial in Izvestia, Moscow

HITLER'S Italian partner has gone bankrupt in the course
of the second world war. This could have been both ex-
pected and foreseen in the light of the situation to which
Italy and the Italian people were brought by their evil genius
—the Fascist Duce. Mussolini’s resignation merely confirms

the depth of the crisis in the fascist camp, the extent to which

Hitler’s closest allies already
Tealize the approaching defeat
of the Axis powers in the second
world war unleashed by them.

Mussolini’s resignation testifies
primarily that Italian fascism is
bankrupt. The imperialist expan-
sion program of conquests of for-
eign territories and the delirious
dream of reviving the Great Ro-
man Empire on a scope of which
even Julius Caesar never dream-
ed, comprised the very life of
Italian fascism.

Mussolini’s home policy, just as
all his international gambles, was
completely subordinated to this
aim. Mussolini created fascism
as an instrument for this preda-
tory imperialist policy and justly
saw in Hitler his pupil, although
the pupil surpassed the “teacher”
in appetite.

eS

HE Blackshirt Duce has fallen
and this by no means signi-
fies a personal bankruptcy. It is
the bankruptcy of the fascist sys-
tem, the product of 20 years’ ef-
fort—the bankruptcy of the whole
brazen imperialist program of fas-
cism.

Italian fascism sought salvation
in “emergency measures.” When
the spectre of catastrophe loomed
before Italy, Mussolini removed
the leadership of the * Fascist
Party, placing at the head of the
fascist apparatus a “firm man”
the blackshift Gerza, and under-
took to “purge” the fascist ranks
of “wavering” elements, supress-
ing the growing dissatisfaction
with cruel repressions and ruth-
less reprisals in an effort to
save the situation.

This didn’t help, however, and
fascism’s  distintegration was
deepening.

Strikes broke out in war fac-
tories. Peasants hid grain. Agita-
tion spread to the masses of the
Italian people.

e

og plete peculiarity of the situation

in which the downfall of the
Italian Duce occurred consistsin
that Italian fascism’s alliance with
Hitler Germany proved fatal for
Italy. :

But precisely this alliance will
support, for some time to come,
the crumbling edifice of Italian
fascism. For German troops are
on Italian territory, and while
they are there they represent a
certain force supporting fascism
even without Mussolini.

While the alliance binding Italy
with Germany still exists, Hitler
has the possibility of _retaining
his ally within his orbit.

Nothing resembling a demo-
cratic anti-fascist transformation
has as yet occurred in Italy. It is
quite possible that the “vyolun-
tary” resignation of Mussolini

represents an attempt on the part

_of the chieftain of Italian fas-

cism to save fascism by such an
act of “self-abdication.”
2°

pee” is not yet killed nor

smashed, but it has suffered
collapse. The reason for this col-
lapse lies in the military reverses
systematically suffered by Italy
in the course of the last few years,
and which she continues to suf-
fer today.

Allied blows in Sicily, which
have brought military operations
to the territory of Italy proper
were merely the last drop in the
bloody cup of misfortunes which
the Duce forced the Italian people
to drain.

These military reverses hit at
the very heart of Italian fascism
in as much as precisely its inter-
national predatory claims have
become its inner substance.

And since Mussolini’s resigna-
tion doesn’t mean that Italian
fascism is already dead, the coun-
tries of the anti-Hitler coalition
are faced with the direct task
of finishing it.

To bring about the death of
fascism in Italy is possible only
by furthering strong blows of Al-
lied arms, not only at Italy but
also at the Axis chieftain—Hitler
Germany.

@

AEs collapse of Italian fascism
is merely the beginning. The
first link has yielded in the
blood-rusted fascist chain. This
must be and will be followed by
other links in the Hitler block.

Several powerful blows from
the West and the East and this
catastrophe will become a fait
accompli.

But until the routing of the far
more dangerous and frantic en-
emy, Hitlerism, which represents
the most predatory imperialists
in the world, the German imperi-
alists, the sword remains raised
over the world and no one can
be content with the successes
gained.

The crisis in the Hitlerite camp
is sharpening and deepening.
The Red Army’s blows at the
German Army, the liquidation of
the German July offensive, bring
near the hour of fatal catastrophe
for Hitler Germany.

The strength of the Red Army’s
blows at the German troops pre-
vented Hitler from sending
troops to aid his ally and vassal
Mussolini at the fatal moment
for the latter.

Mussolini's resignation, the
bankruptcy of Italian fascism, im-
plies for countries of the anti-
Hitler coalition, for the Alles,
the necessity to strengthen the
blows at Hitler Germany and her
vassals to hasten the complete
debacle of the enemy.

9100 Joint Committees In U.S.

Four and a half million US
workers are now represented in
2100 labor-management produc-
tion committees, the War Produc-
tion Board reported this week.
At least 75 percent of the em-
ployees in basic war industry
plants where committees have
been established are trade union
members, the largest number be-
ing in the CIO. Nearly a million
shipbuilding workers alone are

now represented by 115 labor-

management committees.
However, CIO president Philip

Murray, speaking as president of
the United Steel Workers, this
week charged that in some cases
they have been used to cover up
mismanagement and inefficiency.
He urged that “they be put into
working clothes” to help turn out
the 2,000,000 extra tons of steel
called for in the next six months.

The CIO suggested this sprig
that the WLB assign “a definite
set of functions to the commit-
tees, and that these be outlined
in a written agreement between
management and labor in the
plant.”

_ defensive invasion of Finlan

SHORT —
JABS)

ereated a peculiar sitt
for the Catholic clergy. Th
no unity of opinion in thej}
nouncements on the si!
Some who have spoken hay a
nounced it, a few have acc |
it as a military measure 7
sary to the winning of the ~
Archbishop Duke “feels q-
and sorrow” about it. He de;
ihe bombing of other great ~
but for Rome, “so closely 2
ated with the beginning
Christianity,” he feels “a dG
note of sorrow.” '
But Rome also is “closel
sociated with the beginnip
fascism.” It is for this re
not because of its Christia
sociations, it is being visited
the same fate that the fa
inflicted on Guernica,
Rotterdam, London, e
Stalingrad, and hundreds of ©
cities and towns, whose pe
who are more important thar
torical associations, are ju:
sensitive to pain and suff}
as the people of Rome. :
if the Pope had made a de
pronouncement on fascism
Nazism, Rome and all these:
cities might have been sf
ihis ultimate measure of hy
misery. But the only de ¥
statement to come out of the
can since the beginning ai
war proper in 1939, was th @
fhe official organ of the } §
the “Osservatore Romano” *
the Soviet government mad }

In part that statement sair

“After twenty years of Bo
vik tyranny it now appears
Communism, which had air
suppressed political liberty,
fled individuality, reduced +
to the status of slavery |
erected violence into a Sys |
has added a new pearl to its
dem ... After hounding mi
now hounds nations.” z

There are Christian peopl
all of the Allied nations whe
proud to admit that the S
Union and its Red Army ©
answered that slander. But |
Red Army is hounding nat
fascist nations. :

Orthodex Chur

OW different is the Orth
ehurech to the Cathe
church in this war! The Orthi '
church has taken an unques
able “position against fase }
The Metropolitan Sergei, whe
ecupies the same place im |
Orthodox church as the F
does in the Catholic church
sued the following message |
his flock at Easter this year |

“We are celebrating the Ea
festival but the sky is still ¢
cast; our country is still suffer
from the barbarous fascist i
Sion. But darkness will not i
quer light although it has t
porarily obscured it. The fase
who have arrogantly substit
their idolatrous swastika for |
cross of Christ will not triumj

Not only in words but in de
does the Orthodox chuch show
which side it aligned. Th
clergymen, in the Soviet Unior
Western Ukraine, in the Bé
States and in Serbia, who do
come out and fight openly
the liberty of their people,
driven into the camp where t
belong—the fascist camp—
pick crumbs from the fas
table.”

There are not many of th
however, for the mass of
Orthodox clergy have been gt
a lead by their spiritual head
they have taken it, If the Ss
kind of lead were given to
Catholic clergy the desruc
of fascism would be made eas