A blow for peace

T he recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court declaring

“unconstitutional” that section of the Landrum-Grif-

fin Act which made it a crime for a member of the Com-

munist Party of the U.S.A. to accept or hold any elective

office in a trade union, has a very special interest to Cana-
dian labor also.

This important decision stemming from the case of
Archie Brown, a member of Local 10 of the International
Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU), San
Francisco, who was sentenced to six months imprisonment
for accepting an elected office in his union, thereby “viol-
ating” the provisions of the McCarthyite Landrum-Griffin
Act.

In the U.S. Gus Hall, national leader of the Commun-
ist Party declared this Supreme Court ruling “goes a long
way in restoring the basic democratic rights of union mem-
bers to elect their own leaders. It wipes out a reactionary
McCarthyite attack upon trade unions...”

The growing rank-and-file challenge to a reactionary
right-wing leadership in many AFL-CIO unions, who have
managed to entrench themselves by the aid of such legisla-
tion, will now be immeasureably strengthened. The cold-
war “‘trusteeships” set up by these union-busting high-sal-
aried burocrats under the pretext of “saving” the unions
from Communism, (and spilling over into Canada), can
now be happily ended; and the right of the union mem-
bers to democratically elect the officers of their choice,
Communist or non-Communist, once again restored.

In line with this important Supreme Court ruling, not
a few AFL-CIO international constitutions will require
amending to eliminate the Landrum-Griffin anti-Commun-
ist bilge from their provisions.

In the struggles of Canadian international unions for
greater autonomy in the determination of their own af-
fairs, organizational and political, this ruling will also have
a highly beneficial effect. It may not halt AFL-CIO presi-
dent George Meany and those coldwar warriors who echo
him in their strident howls of “Communism”, but it wil’
undoubtedly curb their powers to penalize trade unionists
for their political beliefs.

This important victory for democratic and civil liber-
ties coupled with a previous U.S. Supreme Court ruling
ending the censorship and intimidation by U.S. postal auth-
orities as to what American readers may, or may not read,
represents a truly “silver lining” in the darkening atmos-
phere of U.S. aggression and war. It is indicative of a ris-

Tom
McEWEN

critical” observation we can
make at the moment is that
there’s still room for improve-
ment, Our “sectarianism” still
shows anda “dictionary” wouldn’t
help,

Many years ago, some bright
U.S, wit of the “Browder era”
conceived the idea of a booklet
chock full of quotations from
the voluminous works of Karl
Marx; a sort of Marxian “Fa-
miliar Quotations” guide to better

n a recent letter to the PT,

| a correspondent proposes we
begin something in the nature of
a “dictionary” or a “glossary”
column, explaining the meaning of
terms frequently used in Com-
-munist oratory and literature,
“Heavens to Betsy,” we
muttered to ourselves, “is our
jargon that bad?” Then we re-
called that over the years (the
, 30th for the PT) we’ve had
periodic similar requests from
This booklet

other readers urging we do some-
thing about our semantics so
Canadians would know what we’re
talking about,

Well after nearly fifty yearsof
“rationalizing,” “orientating,”
outlining “perspectives,” stick-
ing in the odd “per se” where
it wasn’t needed but sounded
«intellectual,” and being more
“concrete” than the nation’s big-
gest cement monopoly, we have
managed “collectively,” (no,
that’s got nothing to do with
passing the hat) to’ take off the
rough edges in getting our ideas

across, Perhaps the most*self- —

phrasemongering,
contained no end of pithy quotes
from the world’s greatest social:
architect, and provided a real
shortcut for anyone desiring to
become a “Marxist” ina hurry,

The end result was a plethora
of “Marxists” who could “quote”
Marx at the drop of a hat, but
without. having the faintest notion
of the full scientific context from
which the “quote” had been ex-
tracted, But it did help to pro-
vide an oratorial or literary
vacuum with a semblance of
“profundity.”

Language isanintriguing topic; -.teeny-weeny example of what

‘changing world, and its great

.of ideas is continuously being

-all sounding phonetically the

Deutsche Folkzeitung (Dusseldorf)

NEWS ITEM: In the South Vietnam army there are more and more frequent signs
of anti-American feelings.

in’s ‘Munich’
Martin’s ‘Munich’
ast week External Affairs Minister Paul Martin elabor-
ated upon his government’s “policy” of covert support

to Washington’s war of aggression on the peoples of Viet-
nam.

s

With shameless double-talk Martin warned against
creating another “Munich” by “appeasing the Reds”.
With this colossal distortion of history, Martin put Can-
ada right into the camp of the U.S. warhawks, and sought
to pin the responsibility for Washington’s murderous inter-
vention and aggression upon Hanoi, Moscow, Peking, etc.,
rather than upon the real Pentagon instigators.

Martin’s “explanations” and his far-fetched “Munich”
comparison ignores the facts of history, but does clear up
one disturbing point, viz; that his government has now
moved forward from a hitherto silent and supine acquis-
ence of U.S. aggression, to that of an open advocate, not
above distorting history in his advocasy.

After Martin’s “Munich”, Canadians had better be
alert to the next possibility — a “token” Canadian armed
force to aid U.S. aggression in Vietnam.

ing struggle for the restoration of democratic civil liberties

and rights, and as such highly benefical to the all-compell-

ing cause of peace.

The more McCarthyite and neo-fascist laws are wiped
off the U.S. statute books, the stronger decocracy and the
forces of peace becomes, in the U.S. and elsewhere.

we’d run into if we got into the
Political-terms “dictionar yz
business,

a central prop in human culture,
It changes of course with a

storehouse for the transmission As we have said, language is

an intriguing topic, and at times
added to, And particularly in

this age of scientific and tech-
nological advance, new words,
new terms, come into being,

the following. illustration will
show,

At a United Mine Workers
convention many years ago, the
then president John L, Lewis
was giving a scathing run-down on
coal operators’ profits, In the
course of his address, John L,
had been adding “plus” so-and-
so and “plus” so-and-so,

The delegate from Nova Scotia

Even in politics, (andthe Com-
munists are not “exclusive” in
this regard,)every political party
or ‘rump’ grouping has its own
peculiar special ‘jargon’ be it
‘left,’ ‘right,? or dead ‘centre,’

Today we can “escalate” wars,
living costs, monopoly press
bunkum, In fact most anything,
We can even get an “escalating
clause” into a wage agreement,
too often forgetful that the damn
“escalator” goes down as well

B

can become a bit confusing as’

4 zai] iia nee el

Worth
Quoting

in a speech at the Catholic Uni
sity of America, President Johnson”
used a biblical phrase in a passag”
directed at the Soviet Union and othel”
Socialist countries.

“Come let us reason together.” He
did not, however, continue witht fs
quotation from the Book of the Prophe

‘Isaiah.

“If ye be willing and obedient, Ye
shall eat the good of the land; but™
ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be
voured with the sword.” :

—British DAILY WORKER,
June 7, '65.

*

The bloke was giving a grouP of
tourists a ‘demo’ with a stock-whiP:
First he split a leaf in half. Then he.
killed a fly in a nearby tree. One ©
the tourists suggested that he demon
strate the strength of the whip by,
cutting a protuberance off the same
tree.

“Not likely,’’ was the reply, hee
leaf is a leaf. That fly is an individu®
fly, but in that there protuberanct
as you call it, are wasps—and they
organized.”

—PEOPLE’S VOICE, New
Zealand, April 21, '65-

*

We know from our own experienc?
what happens in a situation whe!
the cold war turns hot. The prope
ganda machines take over and be
long reason is drowned out in
thunder of invective. Then follows y
escalation of epithets from muddle
headed, to circus, to drivel, to travesty
and before long to obstruction, 0 sv
version, and then fo treason. | say is
know this by the experience in this
union.

—ILWU Secretary-Treasurer
—Lovis Goldblatt inthe =
/DISPATCHER, May 28, 165. i

*

When completed the Quebec-Cartie”
Mining Company plant in North
Quebec will produce 5,000-tons y
steel pellets per shift, with one me
per shift employed; an amount off
proximately equal to the total Cane
dian steel production. ;

—STANLEY RYERSON, Editor,
Marxist Quarterly in recen
lecture at the University ¢
Women’s Club, Vancouver Bc

the

was literally entranced withJom
L’s use of the term “plus” 3%
decided to try it out himself
his “report-back” to the miners
The only hitch was that the delet
gate’s pronunciation of “plus
sounded very much like «plush. ;

After half-a-dozen or more of
“plush” this and. “plush” that
a miner in the union meetill
interjected: “Brother Chairma”
what's all this “plush” Brothel
G. ... .is throwing aroun
He’s used up enough “plush”
upholster the goddam place. éd
I want to know is, what happe?
at the miners’ convention?”

as up!
In the magnificent English
language we have many words

same, but with vastly different
meaning, We can have a “tale”
which we often have from Soc-
redia’s political pundits; we
can have a “tail” which could
mean an extension to our vert-
ebrae or an RCMP sleuth
at our heels, Or we could have
a “tael,” which, most of the
time we’re generally short of;
in brief, legal tender,

The foregoing is only one

Vancouver 4, B.C. °

of postage in cash.

Editor — TOM McEWEN
Associate Editor — MAURICE RUSH F
Circulation Manager — JERRY SHACK
Published weekly at
Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E.. Hastings St.

Subscription Rates: ap
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Phone MUtual 5-5288 |

All other

——

June 18, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pag®

4