ge ae opine a Tsien

| Corner 9

—_enen Ter

$1 Lanett on ti tenth ott

IM BUCK at 77, is the same
now as he has been known
to several generations of

Canadians. The firm handshake
and brisk step; the easy loqua-
Clous yet precise tongue are
More than superficial character-
Istics for they reflect the elan
and confidence of the man.

_Ina rather wide ranging inter-
view, two of his characteristics
quickly emerged: his thoughts
are in the present and the fu-

ae and he sees this as a vindi-
ation of Marxism-Leninism and
€ Movement he has so long
Personified in Canada.
F 1m speaks best for himself,
© as part of saying Happy Birth-
’y, we would like to print, in
Part at least, his answers to two
duestions we posed to him.

iT; @
ee heard about socialism al-
at > the first day I started work
im years of age. But the first
fee I understood Socialism in a
. S sense was in 1908. It was

Nuary of that year, I believe,
€n I was elected by miy union

branch to go to Norwich to hear
ler Hardie.

like pemember it was a little bit
bas Se first time one sees Nia-

i alls. You say ‘Is this all’?
iif: he was, on a bare little
Ar Tm, quite a little man with
relat y beard, but he talked. He

me €d the building of the Labor
foes to the building of Social-
aba Ss quite true that his ideas
Pisa Socialism were reformist

= He didn’t understand
Fee but he understood the

488 struggle and he knew that
ee ee

ae ad hoc committee of
: ontonians concerned
‘ Out the sale of Canadian
Soc, use in Vietnam
Gnned a protest
ot the Reddauitsrters of
Owker-Sidley.
5 This is scheduled to take
weroualt the building
ath ich the company’s
Ice is located at the
f King and Yonge

itteets on Wednesday,

nua
AO aan 10 at 12 noon.

the workers had to be united if
they were going to defeat the
capitalist class and establish So-
cialism in Britain. He was confi-
dent it would be done.

“After the meeting, hundreds
of the workers who were. there,
lined up to have a chance to
shake hands with him. I lined
up with the other members of
our delegation. When it came
my turn to shake hands, my

. knees were trembling and I

found it very hard to say what
I wanted, but I finally got it out:
‘Brother Hardie, did you really
mean what you said, that if we
only unite we will have Social-
ism here in England?’

“The old fellow looked at me
and his eyes gleamed as he
reached out and got hold of my
shoulder and said: ‘Son, Social-
ism is a-coming just as surely as
the sun will rise tomorrow
morning.’

“Well, you know, it is hard
to believe that this was only 60
years ago. It hasn’t yet come to
England, but it has come, and is
growing and has grown so

"position.

to someone else. : :

down in any way whatever.

: The situation that has de > dD
about a long needed re-appraisal by Ontario Civil
| yants of their own economic and collective bargaining

"Be that as it may, the situation belongs in the rea
of provincial responsibility despite the effort of Reform In-
stitution Minister Allan Grossman's attempt to push it on

The trade union movement of this province should
follow the lead of Toronto CUPE Local 43 (city’s outside —
workers) and make it clear to provincial authorities that |
trade union rights are not to be trifled with or whittled —

-< Ontario Executive Committee oe
The Communist Party of Canada —

strong that nothing can stop its
continued development.”

Thus Tim Buck recalled his
introduction to the Socialist
movement. And while he re-
counted Hardie’s prophesy about
the advent of Socialism, there is
little doubt that they encompass
his feelings.

What motivated Tim to move
beyond Hardie’s concept of So-
cialism was explained in part
by his answer to the question
of what he felt was his impor-
tant experience of his political
life.

“T think perhaps that would
be the October Revolution. I
had been or had assumed I had
been in the Socialist movement
for ten years, as a member of
the Socialist Party of Canada. I
was an active trade unionist and
a militant and considered my-

. self to be highly developed. I

was a little bit conceited about
my knowledge. I had read every-
thing that was available to us
at that time. I had engaged in a
lot of discussions and argu-
ments, but with the October Re-
volution, there was suddenly
opened up an entirely new con-
ception of what the working
people must do to achieve So-
cialism. It suddenly became evi-
dent to us that not only in Len-
in’s writings, but in what the
capitalist class .was_ writing
about Lenin and the Bolshevik
Party, that our conception of
a party dedicated to socialism
was entirely inadaquate, even
wrong.

All conception until that time
had been that, the Socialist party
must reflect currents of opinion
among the working people and
the main task we were confron-
ted with was to convince work-
ers that they are exploited when
they work on production and
that if we convince workers that
they are exploited, everything
else will fall into place. We ac-
cepted the thesis that was put
forward in Jack London’s book,
The Iron Heel. That is, the
thesis that the working people
will, bit by bit, become resent-
_ful and become convinced that
they. are going to abolish the
system and they are going to
change it. We thought this
would come almost automatic-
ally. When there is growth, it
will be because conditions have
forced the workers to act spon-

1 to inter- |

g
cu

veloped may help t

taneously. The October Revolu-
tion showed me and many other
people that a party which is
dedicated to the achievement of
Socialism must not be a party
reflecting currents of opinion,
but a party which represents
the will to governmental power.
I’ve had many other experien-
ces since then. For example,

the first time I landed in the .

Soviet Union; the time we. were
engaged in the terrific world-
wide struggle against the errors
propogated by Trotsky and his
followers and I had a very in-
teresting experience when I
was the guest of R. B. Bennett
in Kingston Penitentiary. They
were all part of the revolution-
ary change that took place in
me brought about by the Octo-
ber Revolution.”

Turning to some problems of
the Socialist movement in Can-
ada as it has developed in the
years since the Russian revolu-
tion Tim Buck spoke of the
warning issued by Fredrick Eng-
els to “revolutionaries who were
impatient—that in no country
in the world is it likely that the
working people will turn against
capitalism as long as capital-
ism is still expanding in that
country; as long as the overall
national income is expanding
fast enough so that the stand-
ard of life is rising no matter
how slightly. The very fact that
it is rising will tend to encour-
age the illuson that all the prob-
lems of the workng people can
be solved within the capitalist
system. I see the truth of Eng-
el’s words in the conditions of
today, but more than that I see
a. vindication of Marxism in
that.”

‘Pegers

BIRTHDAY _
_ GREETINGS _

_ Happy Birthday, Com-
Fade TIM! As we enter the
New Year of 1968, we greet

| nate enough to work clacehy

protest

fare increase

A delegation led by the Win-
nipeg Labor Election .Commit-
tee recently appeared before the
Winnipeg Metropolitan Council
to protest the proposed increase
in fares on the city’s transit sys-
tem,

Don Currie spokesman for the
delegation called for an emer-
gency meeting between Metro
and the Provincial government
to demand return of 100 per-
cent of gas and vehicle taxes to
Metro and a substantial hike in
the provincial transit subsidy.
Metro took up the proposal and
postponed any fare hike deci-
sion pending a meeting with
newly appointed provincial pre-
mier Weir. Currie pointed out
that 65 percent of all the motor
vehicles in the province are in
the Metro area and this fact
alone proved the justice of re-
turning all of the gas and ve-
hicle taxes to Metro.

When Finance Commissioner
McInnes told the delegation
that a rapid transit system
would cost much more than
anyone believed he was told by
Currie that the money could
come from the federal govern-
ment reducing arms spending.
To the irritation of the Metro
finance chief Currie linked cur-
rent high interest rates charged
to Canadian municipal borrow-

ers by big U.S. money lenders
to the war ‘in Vietnam and call-
ed upon Metro to speak out
against the war. Metro finance
chairman McInnes claimed the
issue was not relevant but the
delegation disagreed pointing
out that war induced inflation
shows up on the homeowners
tax bills to pay for the exorbi-
tant interest rates. At present
close to 20 percent of Metro’s
budget is taken up with debt
charges.

Also opposing the fare in-
crease was a delegation from
the Association of United
Ukrainian Canadians. Spokes-
man for the organization was
Mike Mokry provincial secre-
tary who pointed out that on
top of the recent 5 percent sales
tax and the 5 percent increase
in income tax plus the growing
unemployment picture a transit
fare increase wonld work a
severe hardship on all working
people and especially pension-
ers and those on fixed and low
incomes.

so JANUARY 12, 11968-=PACIBIC TRIBUNE-Rage 3

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