ovum /71
CANADIAN TRIBUNE

;
Canadians of both our na-
rise to the challenge of

1970’s to win genuine inde-

ence and set our country’s

On the road to people’s rule,

Shadows of the battles wag-

in both Canadas in 1837-38

th with us.

' Quebec the flag of. the

tes flies in the workers’

Onstrations. And in Ontario

Nervous Tories of all party

es — from NDP card-holder

Or Dennison of Toronto

ugh the Liberals (who trace

* genealogy from George

and not William Lyon

‘kenzie) up to the Conserva-

*diehards — last week tried

t damndest to lay the ghost

the revolutionaries who,

gh defeated at Montgome-

Tavern, yet had raised high
flag of an independent

Mada 134 years ago.

is a matter of pride to us

‘ Mackenzie, the first mayor

Oronto, was a democratic

lutionary. He became one

N all appeals for redress of

Ngs and for democratic re-

fell on deaf ears in Lon-

' which was interested only

*xploiting the British colo-

» when the “Family Com-

” of merchant, financial,

§lican Church and land-job-

8 monopolists refused demo-

C rights to the people, and

N this intolerable situation

‘maintained by foreign

Ps, led by Governor Bond
who declared his task to

© been “to contend on the

of America with Demo-

y, and that if I did not over-

er it; it would overpower

The fat burghers of Toronto
0 “re-enacted” the scene at
tgomery’s Tavern last week
© mockery of history and

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Spirit of 1837 lives...

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of the good people of Upper
Canada (Ontario). They made
Bond Head, this bloodthirsty re-
presentative of a ruthless colo-
nial regime, into a “hero” who
dares to say that Mackenzie
should have used parliamentary
institutions to achieve redress—
this’ about~ Mackenzie, _ whose
printshop was smashed and the
type dropped into the lake by
the Edmund Burkers of the
1830’s, whose Reformers were
outrageously prevented from
electing a majority to the As-
sembly (which had only consul-
tative powers, mind you) by the
direct intervention of Bond
Head—it, was like Thieu’s ‘‘vic-
tory” in/the recent South Viet-
nam election — and then were
angled into an armed resistance
that was defeated by troops
from overseas!

And these same apologists

for the British colonialists and :

“Family Compact” monopolists
of 134 years ago (as they are
for the U.S. imperialists and the
capitalist monopolists of today)
“speculate” that Mackenzie
would have annexed Canada to
the U.S.!

Yes, the revolutionaries of
1837 stood for unity with genu-
ine democrats in the U.S., Bri-
ain, France, just as we do today,
but against imperialists. They
fought shoulder to shoulder,
English and French Canadian, in
1837 just as we must and will
in the 1970’s. They marched to-
gether, the yeoman and mecha-
nick, then as worker and farmer
do today. :

They fought for democracy
and Canadian independence.
They lost — and our country
suffered much in consequence.
But they are fighting again with
us in the 1970’s, and we'll win—
for keeps. (J. W.)

ESERIES

Editor—MAURICE RUSH ‘ :
Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St.,
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> Circulation Manager, ERNIE CRIST
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-undertook to explain why his

Quebec labor's
‘common front

By its history-making decision to
form a common front of all Quebec
organized workers in their future
struggles, the convention of the Que-
bec Federation of Labor has streng-
thened the growing unity in action of
organized labor in all Canada.

With the declared support of the
presidents of both the Confederation

of National Trade Unions and the Que-

bec Teachers Corporation, organized
labor’s common front in Quebec can
place mighty curbs on rampaging mon-
opoly. .

In their daily and long-range battles
the workers need and constantly ac-

_ quire allies from among the great

masses of the people who are also ex-
ploited by monopoly.

Clearly. recognizing this fact, the
Quebec Federation of Labor conven-
tion decided that Quebec labor’s com-
mont front must work together with
farmers and students.

Drawing lessons from bitter ex-
periences in battles on the economic
front that ran smack into the brutal,
combined opposition of bosses, govern-
ments and courts, the delegates to this
convention representing 250,000 organ-
ized workers took another great step
forward. They called for massive parti-
cipation of labor in political action
“and, if necessary, the creation of a
new political party.” To back up their
eall for political action, the delegates
endorsed the principle of a general
strike.

With unemployment continually in-
creasing, with democratic and trade
union rights trampled under the heel
of police-state laws, with daily new as-
saults by “the financial powers” on the
already low living standards, the deci-
sions of the QFL provide the working
people and democratic forces with the
weapon of unity in action.

Adopted the day before: the QFL
convention began, the policy resolution
of the 21st Convention of the Commun-
ist Party of Canada called for the
building of a democratic, anti-mono-
poly, anti-imperialist alliance. It de-

clared that “without the active partici-

pation of the trade unions no effective
struggle can be waged against mono-
poly and its government. They are the
decisive factor.”

How true this is the QFL convention
has demonstrated, as by its decisions it
has given new strength to the emerg-
ing anti-monopoly coalition in Quebec
and all Canada.

For Serna.
independence

A scant two weeks before his visit
to the White House, whence the dark
policies of U.S. imperialism are imple-
mented, Prime Minister Trudeau on a
CBC-TV “Nation’s Business” program
overn-
ment has been extending Canada’s in-
ternational relationships.

First of the reasons he gave was “for
an independent Canada.”

“Tf Canada is to be a free and inde-
pendent nation,” he asserted, “it must
deal on its own terms with all the coun-
tries of the world.”

With this we agree, as we do also
with his two additional reasons, “for
domestic prosperity” and “for a peace-
ful world,” even though the sequence
in which he gave the reasons might well
be reversed.

Nixon, too, heard Trudeau. Filtered
news reports of their Washington con-
versations report the U.S. president’s
imperiously impudent response: that
“in the long run the U.S. would honor
Canada’s wish for a measure of eco-
nomic independence.”

The antagonistic partnership of Can-
adian monopoly with U.S. imperialism
promises nothing for the Canadian
working people but spare dry crumbs
from their banquet table.

The struggle for genuine Canadian
independence, and that’s the issue that
will be at the heart of the next federal
elections, can’t be waged by Canadian
monopoly.

As the Communist Party maintains,
“The historic task of achieving genu-
ine independence rests on the shoulders
of the working class and its democratic
allies. Unless the working class be-
comes its leading force, the struggle
for independence will be misdirected
towards strengthening Canadian mono-
poly at the expense of the real interest
of the Canadian people.”

Do NOT pay it!

The gouge put on Canada by the U.S.
imperialists is so blatant that even
some of the Yankee imperialists’ best
Canadian friends are roused to indig-
nation and protest. When Treasury
Board President Charles Drury some-
what shamefacedly (have those people
any shame?) made it known that Can-
ada was obligated to “honor” a 1963
“oral agreement” with the U.S. that
there should be a “rough balance” in
military trade between the two coun-
tries, the Toronto Globe & Mail blew
up.

In a forthright editorial titled
“Phony bill for foul profits” on Dee. 2
it tore the argument to pieces, showed
that even the “oral agreement” was
for mutual defense purposes, not for
U.S. war in Vietnam, and concluded:

“The bill which the United States is
now presenting is a phony bill. We will
probably have to pay it, because they
are bigger and stronger than we and

. have a thousand clubs to use to bring

us into line. But Mr. Drury is disgust-
ing when he says that we are bound to
honor a 1963 agreement that was never
made.

“And there was no honor in that $500
million we piled up; only dishonor.” —

Oh no, we don’t have to give in to
Nixon no matter how many clubs he
has, and cowardice is just as disgust-
ing when you do it openly as when you
cover it up the way Drury does.

There was only dishonor for Canada
in providing arms t6 the U.S. for its
dirty war in Vietnam. There would
be only dishonor if we compounded the
crime by subsidizing the U.S. for it to
boot out of our treasury.

Don’t pay any phony bills!

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1971—PAGE 3