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securing

HE. defeat of the Labor par-

ty in the Australian general
tions on December 10 was the
logical outcome of the reformist
policy it pursued. From 1941, for
a matter of eight years, the feder-
al Labor government was in of-
fice. At the general elections in
1943, the Labor party was re-
turned with
majority. It was dominant in the
Senate as well as in the House of
Representatives. In every state

an overwhelming

parliament, excepting South Aus-
tralia, Labor governments occu-
pied the treasury benches. In the
post-war period the Australian
economy underwent rapid expan-
sion and there was no unemploy-
ment.

Surely these were the most fa-
vorable conditions the Labor par-
ty could wish for in which to
implement its’policy and consoli-
date its position! Nevertheless it
only succeeded in confusing and
dividing the workers and in pro-
isolating the labor
movement from the. masses of
the farmers and middle class peo-
ple who supported the Labor par-
ty in 1945. :

gressively

4

3 1
Oneman’s
of the early thirties. illustrate
more than labor defence activit-
ies,» it illustrated the anti-work-
ing-class arrogance which is the
source of the necessity for or-
ganized labor defence.

His description of the numer-
cus “nip and tuck” experiences
of himself and Becky Buhay in
information, defence,
bail, etc., for victims of capitalist
justice, are literally a course in
the basic importance of labor de-
fence and in the art of mobiliz-
ing support.

His descriptions of outstanding

political trials, of the back-
ground of those trials, of the
great mass campaigns in which
the CLDL gathered 465,000 sig-
natures demanding the repeal of

Section 98, and his description of

his own trial on the charge of
sedition, are all first-class histor-
ical records of those events as
well as thrilling reminders of

the path that the Canadian
working class movement has
trod.

Comrade Becky Buhay, and to
a somewhat lesser extent Bill
Dekker, are the only two people
who _— participated continuously
and intimately with A.B. in the
activities of the CLDL during
the Hungry Thirties. © Reading
this book will give both these

- comrades a real thrill.

For those whose participation
in the labor movement started
during the past fifteen years this
book is _. absolutely necessary
reading. Once started on it they
will, no less than I did, find it
hard to lay A.E.’s book down.
It’s the great story of a great
life.

@ All My Life, by A. E. Smith
(Progress Books). : Obtainable
at the People’s
Bookstore, 337 West

| Street, Vancouver. Paper-
bound; 65 cents.

Cooperative |
Pender

With its program of reforms .

quickly exhausted, because of
capitalism’s inability to grant
further substantial concessions,

the Labor government had noth-
ing to offer the working people.
At the elections Prime Minister
J. B. Chifley made no promises,
had no new proposals to deal
with the problems pressing 50
heavily on the working class. The
Labor said,
would stand or fall on its rec-

ord of work. The bankruptcy of
reformism could not be more
clearly demonstrated.

government, he

Liberal and Country party lead-
ers attacked the Labor party on
the grounds that it was “social-
ist.” A working class party. with
a genuine socialist policy would
have taken measures that would
have sealed the fate of capital-
ism and created enthusiasm and
unity in the working class move-
ment.

The Labor party leaders went
to great lengths to explain that
they were not socialists. Nation-
alisation of the banks, said Dr.
Evatt, was a dead issue; Chifley
explained what the Labor gov-
ernment had done. to-strengthen
capitalism. :

What was there “socialist” in

the measures of the Labor gov-
ernment to break the coal strike,
in freezing union funds,’ jailing
union leaders, using the military?
Or in the jailing of the leader
of the Communist party, L. L.
Sharkey, because of his opposi-
tion to their war plans, or their
attacks on the liberties of the
trade unions?

The Labor party rejects social-
ism; in the words of Lenin, it
is a “bourgeois Labor party.” The
Labor party leaders are enemies
of socialism and working class
unity. Their policy in the federal
government strengthened capital-
ism and weakened the working
class.

With the Labor party’s. pro-
gram of reforms quickly exhaust-
ed. and the crisis of capitalism
developing, the Labor party lead-
ers revealed themselves as de-
fenders of monopoly capital, as
the organizers of the capitalist
offensive against the working
class. ‘They created the conditions
for the defeat of the Labor gov-
ernment, they paved the way for
the Menzies-Fadden government
and for more intensified attacks
against the working class move-
ment.

@

In general the elections indi-

cated a swing to the right in

Australia. This swing is a prod-
.

uct of reformism, which serves
only to strengthen reaction, to

give a new lease of life to the
mortal enemies of the workers.

The defeat of J. T. Lang was
one of the positive results of the
elections. The vote for the Lang
candidates fell drastically in
every constituency contested.
“Langism” is finished. Lang, in
the past parliament, worked hand
in glove with the Liberals, he
acted constantly as a police in-
former, and the workers, accord-
ingly, rejected him.

Although in some ridings the
vote for the Communist party
candidates
in general, there was a decline
in the Communist vote. In view
of: the conditions, the intensified
drive against the party, and the
economic conditions which favor
reaction, this was not unexpect-
ed. It ;
Communist ‘supporters, concern-
ed with the swing to the right
and with the threat of Menzies
to introduce military conscription
and to ban the Communist party,
voted for the Labor party as a
lesser evil, pointing the need for
the Communist party to:strength-
en its ideological campaign
against reformism.

The Menzies-Fadden govern-
ment has been returned on a

increased over 1946,

is also true that many ~

Labor party brought own defeat

By R. DIXON

program of black reaction, of re-
pression of the working class
movement, miltary conscription
in Australia for war, banning of
the Communist party, attacks on
the trade unions, speed-up in in-
dustry and reduced standards of
living. It is certain that the suc-
cess of the Liberals in the elec-~
tions will stimulate big business
and arbitration courts to attack
the wages, conditions and hours
of work of the working class.

Despite its majority the Lib-
eral-Country party government
is an unstable coalition. There
are deep differences on policy
matters between the Liberal and
Country parties and sharp per-
sonal conflicts In the Senate, the
Labor party will continue to com-
mand a majority.

Economic problems are welling
up which capitalism cannot solve,
problems which will sharpen the
divisions between the parties.

Finally, the trade union move-
ment is more strongly organized
than when Menzies was prime
minister in 1939-40, and therefore
much readier to resist the econ-
omic and political offensive of
reaction.

n a letter to Trigvie Lie, sec-

retary-general of the _ United
Nations, the Greek Canadian
Council for a Democratic Greece
has protested atrocities com-
mitted by the Athens govern-
ment. |

“We protest against the exe-
cution without trial by the pres-
ent Greek government of hun-
dreds of Greek patriots.and es-
pecially of many Greek women,

within the past few weeks,” the
letter declared. It was signed
by Constantine Poulos and De-
metrius Georgoudis. ;

(This picture, smuggled out
of Greece, shows the execution
of the Greek women, convicted
of the “crime” of harboring par-
tisans).

The letter to Trigvie Lie, stat-
ed further: “The whole civilized
‘world is horrified at the atro-
city of the crime committed by

Greeks protest fascist murders to UN

the monarcho-fascist goOvern-

ment of Athens against the glor-
ious and courageous democratic
people of Greece who fought
with the Allies to defeat fascism
and naziism during World War
IL.

“We are fully convinced that
your intervention, supported by
the delegates of the United Na-
tions, could save the lives of
thousands of innocent human
beings.” Lie was urged speci-

ally to stop the execution of Mrs.

Katherine Zevgos and the 11 lea-
ders of Greek maritime unions.

Such mass executions as that
pictured here are a daily oc-
currence in Greece, and are out-
raging the conscience of civi-
lized people the world over. The
monarcho-fascist murderers in
Greece are supported by CIO
and AFL top officialdom in the
U.S. and their counterparts in
Camada.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 23, 1919—PAGE 5