7) ERGUS McKEAN i so because, arising ithe desire for a se- ace and prosperity, le war, there is a pad and deep-going ht im favor of inde- “labor parliamentary ation. This senti- ~ 7% either be misled tding the democratic "zs to let a govern = backward-looking sto power, or, by ally- | with the great mass | and reform-mind- ters of Mackenzie can ensure the elec- a-coalition govern- vich represents the our people and their ive aspirations. ls izg the. responsible \ labor in this elec- |’ Labor-Progressive VIL nominate 65 or eral candidates. We Et unreservedly for ) of all sections of id for the unity of bith all the Liberal ® otic forces to elect § -Labor government @/l lead the way for- | new Canada of ex- \yroduction, jobs for security and pros- Ve shall come for- a national party, ional policies, with imity as our banner. tans! The old pol- znposts have lost waning; follow the ' national unity, evictory to prosper- asting peace.” \ F) be expected, the most Opposition and wun- (distortion of the policy A fim Buck has eman- ithe spokesmen of the old cries of betrayal we; of plots to defeat “id! of capitulation to big )) again raised by David flonal secretary of the ) DHewis makes no at- 'xplain why it was that faSSa, pro-fascist leader & Populaire in Quebec, Wo the supporters of the e that they vote CCF mcies where no Bloc ere nominated in the €ed a deplorable situ- @ political party which > Tepresent the progres- _ tionary.” - CCE f The CCF ie narrow partisan advantage eds, the CCF is obstructing the ogress in the postwar period. People is officially. endorsed by Canada’s most reactionary, anti- War, semi-fascist, political party, the Bloc Populaire: Bet do the program and policies of the CCF represent the aims and aspirations of the people of Canada? The people of Canada have loyally supported our coun- try’s participation in the present ‘epic struggle to destroy fascism and to rid the world once and for all of wars, tyranny and opres- sion. Nearly one million of Canada’s Sons and daughters are serving in our armed forces, determined to destroy barbaric German fascism, ‘liberate the enslaved millions of Europe and create a democratic world as envisioned in the Atlan- tie Charter and the Teheran declaration. Despite this fact, however, and on the very eve of the invasion of Europe, the June issue of the Ca- nadian Forum, national CCE Jour- nal, declares that “the outstand- ing characteristic of this war is its reactionary character” and further “by contrast, World War One was inspiring and Trevolu- The Canadian Forum goes on to say, “The signs are more and more ominous of what a United Nations victory por- tends.” What is the meaning of such Statements? They are not only anti-war but pro-Hitler and bord- ering on treason. The labor move- ment in Canada is dedicated to victory over fascism in this war and will unhesitatingly repudiate such dastardly pro-Hitler state- ments. But such anti-war declarations are not something new for the leadership. Consider the statement of Dorothy Steeves, CCE MILA, in the May 4 issue of the CCF News. “It is tragic that the imminent _ approach of the zero hour, and the likelihood of great loss of life among the allied forces, is stirring up thoughts of German war guilt and blinding many people to the realities of the situation.” So, it is tragic, according to Dorothy -Steeves, that Canadians Should entertain thoughts of Ger- man war guilt. Perhaps she would have us believe that these Nazi barbarians who have mas- Sacred millions of -men, women and children, are not guilty. To add insult to injury she goes on to say, “fhe greatest obstacle to progress in Germany will not be so much the Nazi spirit but the general feeling of deflation, of hopelessness, which is now known to be a general characteristi cof the German people. The Allies are guilty of promoting this feel- ing by their lack of a real plan for Germany.” : So, according to Dorothy Steeves, it is not Nazism which will ob- struct progress, but defeatism for -which the Allies are guilty. Hitler himself could not do a better job of -whitewashing Nazism and plac- ing the guilt on the shoulders of the United Nations, than that done by Dorothy Steeves in the state- ments I have just quoted. Now it is understandable why the pro-faseist Bloc Populaire endorses the CCF. The Bloc Popu- Jaire is opposed to national unity ons of the Canadianand opposed to the war policies of our governments and So is the CCF. BOUBASSA iS bending all his efforts to defeat the Godbout adminstration in Quebec and to enhtrone the Bloc. and “Padlock Law” Duplessis in its place. And the CCF, frankly proclaiming that it cannot win anything itself, has come out in a campaign to defeat thte Godbout government (which, by the way, has introduced re. forms which the €CF is supposed ao sponser in other parts of Can- ada). In the practical Politics of Que- bec, to have the defeat of God- bout as your aim means to bring the Bloc and Duplessis to power! Bourassa is against the United Nations alliance. The CCE leaders have been loudest in denouncing the “dictatorship of the Big Three.” Bourassa is against the War, against victery over Hitlerism. While paying lip-service to sup- port of the war, the CCF has voted against the war budgets and ad- vaneed policies in the labor move- ment which are injurious to th War effort. : Why shouldn’t Bourassa treat the CCF as an ally? N°: the CCF can no longer pose as spokesman for progressive forces in Canada. It is rapidly becoming a disruptive and reac- tionary foree in the political life of our dominion. It has consist- ently opposed unity of the labor movement and just as consistently opposed national unity for victory in the war and progress in the postwar period. The CCF takes advantage of every opportunity to undermine and discredit governments respon- sible for the conduct of our coun- try’s war effort in order to secure Narrow partisan advantage for it- self regardless of whether it weak- ens our country’s war effort or not. By raising the question _of “socialism now” the CCE divides the people on the false issue of socialism versus private enter- prise and strengthens the position of the reactionaries concentrated in the Progressive Conservative Party who are then able to pose as the defenders of freedom of the individual. e HE lLabor-Progressive Party holds that democratic reforms can be won now that will ensure a large degree of social security for Canadians in the postwar per- iod. The Labor-Progressive Party. further declares that full employ- ment and social progress in the postwar period requires a con- tinuation and strengthening of na- tional unity. National unity requires the co- operation of all sections and class- es of our people but in particular cooperation . between capital and labor. The labor movement in Canada has come of age. The trade unions have proven their qualities of statesmanship as a result of their contribution to Canada’s war effort and are here to Stay. That is why the Labor-Progres- sive party maintains that labor should have genuine representa- tion in the next government of Canada, that progressive liberal elements and labor must cooper- ate in the interests of the Cana- dian people as a whole. That is our policy and we shall fight to carry out that policy. We shall call on the workers, farmers and middle class people of B.C. to unite in support of the candi- dates of our party in the coming elections on a realistic program of national unity and democratic progress. SORT JABS by OV Bill Social Democracy I HAVE just finished reading a book I wish every member of the CCF in Canada could read and profit from. I don’t agree with some of the author’s conclusions, but the facts he musters throughout the pages of his book are a terrible lesson for any socialist, leader or follower of the political school Known as Social-Demoeracy in pre-Hitler Ger- many and other European countries and finding its expression through the CCF in Ganada. : _ _ Was book is A People’s History of Germany. The author is a Spanish journalist, A. Ramos Oliveira. He spent many years in Germany as corre- Spondent for Spanish labor and liberal papers. Of the period known as the Weimar Republic, he writes as one who has lived through it. Reading this part of the book I felt as if I had written it myself. Although I only watched the Weimar tragedy from a distance, the ~ Story that unfolds in this book stirred up memories of historical events and political figures that absorbed all my interest at one time. I knew them’ as readers of the press today know the battles of the present war and the men who play the leading part in it. But gathered together, correlated and placed in proper perspective, they struck me with ee force than when I saw them being enacted on the political Stage. The outstanding lesson of this book is the glaringly apparent function of the Social Democratic Party of Germany which was to prevent the workers from establishing socialism. The leaders were revolutionists “by. word of mouth’—their actions were opposed to revolution, were, in fact, determined by fear of the revolutionary instincts of the workers. They proved this on every occasion when the German workers offered any threat t6 the continued rule of Capitalism. The Rights and Centrists used all the machinery of the party to divert all efforts of the Left to lead the workers in a revolutionary direction and when this failed, handed them over to the reactionar ; Junker military caste to be mur- dered, as happened in the case of Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Leo Jogisches. And they had some party machine, too! In 1932, it was made up of 33 provincial federations, 9,544 local organizations, 1,021,777 mem- bers, 218,335 of whom were women. It had a further 5.449373 members ‘in the Social Democratic trades unions. it had 16,816 functionaries holding publie offices including 121 Reichstag deputies, 947 mayors and 1,109 deputy mayors. Over one million people depended on it far their livelihood including the dependents of those on the payroll. The party published 200 papers of which two-thirds were dailies, which, with their printing presses and buildings were valued at $10,000,- 000. The property and funds of the Social Democratic trades unions, which also were controlled and used by the party, gave them the use of another 250 million dollars. All this ‘elephantine apparatus was designed to prevent the establish- ment of socialism. When the sailors and workers chased Kaiser Wilhelm out of Berlin, the Social Democratic leader, Philip Scheideman, spoke from the Reichstag baleony to them. “I therefore beg of you,” he asked, “to see that there is no change in the present order.” And to maintain order, another party leader, the butcher Noske, was appointed governor-general of Berlin, with civil and military power. He accepted, saying, “Someone has to be bloodthirsty. I do not refuse the responsibility.” History tells only too well how he did his “blood- thirsty” task. And Hts Lessons d Wee and destitution made things easy for Hitler. The harder times were for the German people, the more votes the Nazis got in the elections. Oliveira writes: “National Socialist returns in 1930 were symbolic. When there were just over one million unemployed, - the Nazis received less than a million votes. When there were six miil- liens of unemployed, Hitler received over six million votes.” This perspective of increased unemployment is the one the CCE leaders have for us in Canada. They will undoubtedly deal with that situation, if it comes, just as their ideological forerunners did in Ger- many. Oliveira tells us: “With no desire to implant socialism, the So- cialist leaders saw in the Communists a peril as great, if not greater than, the Nazis.” It is plain to see, this historic role of the Social Democratic Party in the period leading up to: and during the Weimar Republic—the Saving of capitalism. It began with the revision of Marx and ended when the Social Democratic Party was no longer useful and Hitler took over. That is the reason why. Oliveira, who is not a Communist, could write about the funeral of Herman Muller, the party leader, in 1931: “From one of the windows of the building (Vorwarts office) I watched the ceremony of homage, which was attended by all the outstanding figures of Social Democracy. Before it began, an old man, paralyzed from the waist downwards, was carried in to a seat in the front. As he was borne past the waiting crowds, all heads were uncovered. That mummified figure was Eduard Bernstein. Shortly afterwards he died— like Dr. David, at an advanced age. Had they both lived a few months ionger they might have been buried side by side with Social Democracy itself.” The CCF leaders (Coldwell, Lewis, J oliffe, Winch and MacInnis)— the Social Democratic leaders of our day, are by their own anti-Teheran, anti-Soviet, anti-unity policies prepared to bury themselves and us too, if we let them, in the ruin to which their policies must bring them. As ex-Ald. Stewart Smith of Toronto points out in the June issue of National Affairs Monthly: “. . . Going forward to a.consistent social- ist position . . . above all demands that socialism shall not be counter- posed at every given stage of the struggle to the real social economic and political interests of labor and the people at large. The crux of the problem is the chief lesson of our day which history is thundering in our ears, namely, that fascism can only be defeated and’ the road of democratic advance kept open by anti-fascist unity.”