cot

THE NATION

nion rank-and-file opposition
forces red-baiters to change tactics

ROWING rank-and-file opposition to the cur-
rent witchhunt in Toronto and District Trades.
and Labor Council will result in the Council ex-
ecutive attempting to take the heat off itself by
agreeing that, in the future, international repre-
sentatives will finger “suspected Communists
and accept the responsibility for their expulsion
from the council. : ;
The council executive, from president Bill
Jenovese down, is feeling the pressure. Resent-
merit against the witchhunt erupted at last week's
meeting when a letter from Local 28, Internation-
al Brotherhood of Bookbinders, condemned the
“totalitarian tactics” of expelling Bookbinder dele-
gates from the council. The Bookbinders charged
that the council executive had set itself up as a
“tribunal” and charged that its actions were il-
legal undemocratic.

She Bonet iden emphasized that only the
local’s membership had the right to choose we
would represent the union in council and stresse
that Local 28 would refuse to nommate substitute
delegates to the council.

rie. aoe reported that the TLC bureaucrats
will try a different tactic in the future. In an
effort to take the heat off council executives. top
brass international officers will be pressed into
service in attempts to impose future expulsions

upon the local membership. The feeling is that

tn ne A tH tc ha ct a Al Bi AY a Oa DUI A RA IM 2 SEI ANE Sh

allay

BS
a
aan rj a
f we wet
‘ el Hes . -

By MEL COLBY

The General fiddled
while the Captain burned

In the morning of the 17th of September,
Captain Allioux briefed me to radio the following
message, ““Donghke is being dangerously menaced.
All surrounding posts were taken by the enemy
Jast mght. Our men have sustained serious losses.
Our 105mm. gun is out of-action. Please airdrop
paratroops immediately.” A short time later, we re-
ceived a reply saying, ‘“Today is Sunday, General
Marchand is receiving visitors and there will be a
dancing party tonight. So please wait.” Captain
Allioux who was greatly angered by the shortage
of munitions, lost his temper. “If General Mar-
chand knows how to dance,’’ he yelled, “I too know
how to quit this damned post.”’

‘ —A French prisoner. of war, quoted by the
Voice of Viet-Nam following the capture
of Dongkhe by the Viet-Nam People’s
Army. Se

the legend of democracy is so strong among the
rank-and-file that locals will use their autonomy,
as in the case of the Bookbinders, to defy undemo-
cratic verdicts of an executive of a trades coun-
cil.

’
\

LPP COLUMN

"Guay the

~ UB of steel workers in one of the great
ae centers of Eastern: Canada, @ bot
got under way concerning the quality of political wo: é
Here were Party members of long experience, up
their necks in day-to-day struggle against the ae
nies and their lieutenants, ne Pea seaaten done =
e head of their union. — é
mle company Pnsnen eA ee pare yore
ial-democr:
of ee anienee had taken a few resounding kngels
of late. :

Yet the work of our own mem-
bers lacked something — 2 fact
reflected clearest of all in the dif- 3
ficulty in recruiting of new mem- |
bers to the club.

The “something” that was lack-
ing maybe had something to do
with the weakness of club educa-
tion. The pressures of practice
had been allowed to run wild, and, |
study had gone by the board. ort
theoretical work lagged, was ut-
terly insufficient.

: em-
It is interesting to note that when Sten ae
bers and executive began to come to grip: sei bi re
problem, there was ready agreement pp ane Race
"what this particular club and its aor ie PR Ae
was some organized reading, study, disct 5
damen . ‘
6 eee est be got at?
alternatives were “ebs. ie
viene hike particular Cischn ats ra are)
and development of the membership, Sige geet
of the work, the decision was 1n tbh aa,
of individual reading and periodic collective

of one of the great classics: as va
the Soviet Union (Boishev
Se ane tendons be predicted that this decision

‘ Slane Ii
will — if fought for properly — work abe ae
the life and activity of the comrades

i that
What is it in this history of the ary ee a
workers in Canadian steel mills (among

io om?
earn trom ene ee Ho a Se world: that it is

important fact Ry
‘acadible ee wating people to take soe eae
their own hands, and replace the 3 ae
pany and the bosses by the kingdom ©: 4

is being done.
That it has been done Sew must be a party

of Communists to lead in th
Leninist party.

~ meaning of its truths, the lessons of its great exper-

; there and then to a quite different one now and here.

In what way could thls Sreonsidered. Finally, in

the History of the Com™

the worldwide working class movement.

That to transform sein struggle: @ Marxist- workers in struggle for peace, democracy and social-

By STANLEY RYERSON

Bolsheviks

The History of the CPSU tells why it was that
the Bolsheviks were able to rally and organize the
masses of workers, in day to day struggle and in the_
creation of a new world. }

This book has sold in forty million copies.

The St. Laurent government has banned its im-
portation into Canada. : ‘

This great work of J. V. Stalin gives us a vivid,
living picture of the way in which ,the uniting of
socialism with the labor movement led to the founding
of a party of a new type — a Communist party — and
of the way in which the leadership of struggle by the
party brought the working class to power, ended the
rule of the bosses and land-owners, created for the
first time in history a working people’s state.

Here, in the concise, scientific history of Bolshe-
vism — in twelve chapters — is the distilled essence
of half a century of unceasing struggle against the
people’s enemies in every shape and form.

There are two ways of reading it.

One, simply “as history” — as a collection of
important facts. i

The other, to study it actively, extracting the

ience, for us. This does not mean mechanically, un- —
thinkingly transposing conclusions from one situation

But it does mean actively seeking out the essence
of the teaching, the method and approach of militant
working class thought and action.

Here is brought out the connection between Marx-
ist philosophy and Party activity. Without a staunch,
Communist world outlook, no sound mass work, no
correct and successful leadership of struggle. The
teaching of Marx is above all critical and revolution-
ary. Stated by Engels, this truth gains new depth
and meaning in the light of the rich experience of the
Bolshevik party. <

In the section entitled “Conclusion” are summed
up the main, general truths that are applicable to

It should be read often by us. . : f

In observing the 38rd anniversary of the founding
of the world’s first socialist state, in greetikg with
warm brotherly handclasp the triumphant builders of
the mightiest bastion of peace, Canadian Communists
should combine with their activity in helping spread
the truth about the USSR, a study of the matchless
experience of the Bolsheviks, of how they united the

ism! .

'

LABOR FOCUS

: By J. B. SALSBERG
Third-century of
free unionism

NLY the trade union bureaucrats will burst a blood

vessel when I say that the existence of the Soviet
Union and the flowering of trade unionism in the first
land of socialism has helped the Canadian workers more
than all the trade union bureaucrats put together have
done during the past 33 years.

Furthermore, were it not for the barricrs this bureau-
cracy constitutes, Canadian working men and women
would have denived much: greater be-
nefit from the influence which free
trade unionism in the USSR is exer-.
cising in the world. Their heroic strug-
gles would have won immeasurably
greater fruits, .

This is a fundamental truth which
the high-salaried job-holders are ei-
ther unable or unwilling to under-
stand. But hundreds of millions of
ordinary working people understand

‘it fully.

This profound truth was expressed to me recently
with simplicity by a waitress in a Toronto restaurant.
She asked whether I was the LPP member of the legis-
lature. Told that I was, she spoke freely and explained
how difficult it was for her, a widow with two children,
to live on the inadequate wage she was getting. When
I jokingly warned her that the manager who knew me
might consider her a Communist, this harassed working
class woman replied: “I am nct a Communist, mind you;
in fact I don’t know what I am in politics, but I say thank
God for the Communists, From reading the papers I
have come to the conclusion that if it were not for the
fear of Communism, working people wouldn’t be getting
even the little bits they do get.”

In these plain words this woman gave expression to
what,is undoubtedly the most powerful fact .of our times.

-The establishment of the first socialist state in the world,

was an historic event not only in the lives of the peoples
of Tsarist Russia, but it stepped up the tempo of the
march towards freedom of the exploited and oppressed
peoples of the whole world.

e

One has but to look at the social legislation that
has been won in Canada after hard-fought struggles, to.

_ realize that pitifully inadequate as it is, it owes its origin

and development to the impact of the Soviet Union.

This is now understood by working men and women
everywhere. It is not acknowledged by the puppets of
the bourgeoisie among the leadership of the unions. The
monopolists cry that “only in a free enterprise system
can trade unions be free.” “Free enterprise” smade laws
to declare trade unionism a crime. It prosecuted and
persecuted the early trade unionists and filled the prisons
with them. “Free enterprise” strangles trade unions of
Quebec, issues injunctions, adopts strike-breaking laws
like Bill No. 1 in Canada and Taft-Hartley in the U-S.,
places fines of millions of dollars on the United Mine
Workers, at best only tolerates the unions and is always
ready to stamp them out when its own rule is threatened,

When the labor lackies of big business argue that
you can’t have collective bargaining under socialism —
when the people own the natural resources and the
means of production — then they are like the hypocrites
who argue that the abolition of poverty is contrary to
the will of God because it would deprive the well-to-do
of acts of charity. To them the system of wage slavery :
is pre-ordained and must. not be tampered with, :

e :
The powerful trade union movement of the Soviet

Union stands on this 33rd anniversary of its existence as
a colossal refutation of everything these croaking toads

have said.

: Are they free unions? The answer to that question
is provided by a British workers’ delegation of 19 repre.
senting every political and religious section of the British
working class. They have just returned from the Soviet
Union and have issued their report. This is what they

say about the position and role of the trade unions in
the USSR: f

y There is no doubt whatever that the working
class are the masters of the Soviet Union. The trade
press eee a responsibility and power unknown in
capitalist world . . . Wo enjoy complete equa- _
lity with men .. . there’s no question about it...

“We are told in Britain that the Soviet workers
are ‘driven and that the trade unions, instead of look.
ing after their interests, act as a substitute for the
boss . .*, Our investigations proved that the stories
we are told are lies from beginning to end.”

November 7 is an historic date for all mankind, but
particularly so for the working people of the world.
Canadian trade unions will salute their brothers ‘and
sisters who, in the tens of millions, make up the great,
free trade union movement of the USSR. : 2

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 10, 1950 — PAGE $