Young people of Vancouver
will have an opportunity to add
their voices fo those of democratic
youth throughout the world itm

Protesting colonial oppression al %*

rally sponsored by the Federation
of Vancouver Youth. The rally
will be held this coming Sunday,
February 26, 8 p.m., in the Uk-

tainian Labor Temple here.
. }

HERE. is war in Viet Nam.
There are wars raging in
Malaya, Indonesia, Burma and
India. Despite the desire of the
common people everywhere for
peace, these wars of colonial op-
Pression continue. They continue
because the monopolists of Brit-
ain, France and Holland, backed
up by American imperialists,
want to keep the super profits
they extract from these countries
®f Southeast Asia, which are fab-
ulously rich in tin, rubber, oil,
rice and other raw materials.
The inhuman brutality and at-
_ Tocities of these wars are almost
unbelievable. From the bulletin
of the World Federation of
Democratic Youth comes this ex-
perience of Jacques Chegaray,

Who wrote in the Christian Wit-
Ness: :

“In a small outpost in Cholon,
Viet Nam, the adjutant was jolly
«nd pleasant and told the story
°f a skull: ‘What? This skull!
Of course Vl tell you about it.
It was a dirty Viet, you know.
{ cut his head off myself. He
streamed — you ought to have
heard him! See, I use it as a
Paper weight. But what a job to
Set the flesh off! I boiled it for
four hours and then I got it off
With my knife... .’”

The limitless cynicism of the
Colonialists is shown by this
hews item published in the Sai-
§0n Journal (Indochina), Cor-
Poral-Chief Guerin, who wanted
to rape a 10-year-old girl, shot
her grandmother with a machine-
'$Un. Arrested and placed on
trial, he was given suspended
sentence. The grandmother, opin-
fd the court, would soon have
ied in any case.

And the general conditions. of
life of colonial youth are no less
harsh, In Malaya the rubber
Plantation workers get 50 cents
a day, yet in one year alone, the |
British Rubber took out $129,000,-

worth of rubber.

: Every year around February
21, democratic youth the world
over are called into special strug-
Sle against colonialism by the
_ 80 million-strong World Federa-
' tion of Democratic Youth. Feb-
tuary 21 was chosen for the |
World-wide demonstrations be-
Cause on that day in 1946 there
took place the great mutiny of
Indian naval ratings in protest
asainst the 100 years of colonial
robbery to which India had been
Subjected by British imperialism.

Does this struggle of colonial
Peoples concern Canadian youth? _
Is Canada an imperialist country
and does she have any colonies |
which she exploits? Has Canada
€ver participated in colonial
Wars? ' :

To answer the last question
first, we need only recall the
Military aid given the Dutch in
Indonesia and Chiang Kai-shek's
crumbled Kuomintang regime in
China to answer, “Yes”.

_ On the point of colonial ex-
ploitation we can move closer to
home—to Latin America and the
West Indies. Canadian imperial-
‘Sm in Latin America is less dir-—
®ctly political and military in
form, than is the case of imper-
ialism' in Asia and Africa, but ~
_ ®xploitation resulting from econ-
omic penetration is just as real.
The government’s publication,

td

“Canadian Balance of Interna-
tional. Payments’ shows that in
1947 Canadian investments
abroad, outside Britain and the
US., totalled $2.2 billion.

The Royal Bank of Canada is
the largest banking house in
Cuba. Out of 133 Canadian char-
tered banks abroad, 125 are in
Latin America. A Canadian com-
pany, with head offices in Mont-

real, not only controls the elec-

tricity and gas of two of Brazil's
largest cities, but also runs the
street cars and buses in Rio de
Janiero.

While Brazilian and Columbian
workers make 18 cents a day
in Canadian-owned oil wells and
copper mines, in 1948 a Canadian
company, the Brazilian Traction,
Light and Power Company, reap-
é€d a net income of $28 million.

Workers in Mexico earn 75

cents a day. Mexican children
suffer malnutrition — 80 percent
go to school in the morning with-
cut breakfast, and 7 million out
of a population of 20 million
were illiterate in 1939, In Mexico
City, a Canadian company also
takes millions of dollars of prof-
it a year through ownership. of
the electric and transportation
system.

These are only a few of the

The attack on the Film Board

prepared by Jack Chisholm of
Associated Screen News, the
CPR ‘group, has been sent back
for revision. It is to be presented
during final hearings of the Mas-
sey Commission in April. The or-
iginal draft is top secret and its
contents are unavailable to the
general public.

6 ‘

\ What is involved in the Na-
tional Film Board issue is not
only the sacrificing of an inde-
pendent native Canadian cultural
development to the demands of
Hollywood, and not only the
warping of this cultural medium,
at the behest of monopolistic
Canadian interests in full accord
with the Washington - Ottawa
cold war policy; also are the

democratic rights of Canadian

citizens.

Fexistence of a secret blacklist
supplied by the RCMP to Craw-
Films has already been men-

le
Fiat Just before Irwin’s ap-
 pointment, some half-dozen on

the list were politely told to pack
their bags. Irwin, an editor of

Maclean’s Magazine, intimately
tied to the Financial Post, a Mac-
lean-Hunter publication and chief
organ of Canadian big business,
was selected to do the job of
mass screening, according to re-
ports, firing of all progressive
film workers, and generally act
to break up the board from
within. |

The advance “requested resig-
nations” from a_ half-dozen of
the latest purge victims selected
has resulted in wide protests.
Even before Irwin left his Tor-
onto desk, delegations were
voicing their protests at his of-
fice.

Winters also has been subject-
ed to a series of representations.
Among those protesting are the
Ontario Association of Film
Councils, Canadian Congress of
Labor, Canadian Citizenship
Council, a representative of the
United Church, Canadian Adult
Education Association, Associa-
tion of Civil Liberties. So strong
has been the protest that Irwin
has temporarily stayed the exe-

cution order.

The film industry in Canada
and the Hollywood plotters are
distinctly uneasy about the pub-
licity given their moves. Their
uneasiness is furthered by the
country-wide support given the
Film Board in submissions made
to the Massey inquiry.

Whether the Canadian people
will allow the NFB to be destroy-
ed from within, preparing the
ground for a similar attack on
the CBC, will depend: on how
organized a protest can be de-
veloped in the coming period.

This is equally an issue that
concerns the trade union move-
ment, both independently and
through membership on the var-
ious film council bodies. '

Finally, film board workers
themselves must begin to fight
back against the insane red-
baiting, establishing their unity
with the great film audiences of
the NEB in this struggle to save
a vital cultural medium from de-
struction.

facts that show how Canadian
monopolists have extended their
holdings to exploit workers of
other lands. In proportion as the
conditions of Latin American
workers are miserable and wages
low, so profits for Canadian cap-
italists are high. In addition to
scant educational opportunity,
what political liberties there are
have been dearly won and trade
unions operate under conditions
of constant repression,

That is why all democratic
youth in Canada should express
their ‘solidarity with youth in
Latin America seeking to end
exploitation and to achieve real
national independence in their
countries. We as Canadians can
never achieve real freedom so
long as we are accomplices, how-
ever unwittingly, in exploiting
and denying freedom to others.

But February 21 does not only
mean solidarity with youth in
other lands. That would miss the
main point for Canadian youth.
Colonialism breeds war. Colonial-
ism was established by war and
continues to be imposed by war.
It is the youth of the oppressing
countries who are recruited to
fight these wars. Opposition to
colonialism is a matter of life
and death for Canadian youth.

External. Affairs Minister Les-,
ter Pearson was one of the men
who attended the recent confer-
ence at Colombo, Ceylon. This
conference was called to find
ways to stop the colonial libera-
tion movement; to keep the
super-profits from Asia rolling
into Western countries. Every
people’s movement for national
liberation in Asia is being de-
nounced as “Communist” and
military measures to crush it are
justified in the name of halting
“Russian expansionism.” What
cynicism, when the real purpose
is to hold the rich resources and
continue exploiting the people.
But every one of these “dirty
wars” poses a threat to world
peace, the threat of a third world
conflict which will send thous-
ands of Canadian youth to war.

These same monopolists and
their brasshat aides who grow
rich out of colonial misery, are
those who today offer Canadian
youth, tens of thousands of
whom are unemployed and desti-
tute, a future in the army, a
future of war. If the youth will
not go into the army, the gov-
ernment will not provide jobs
ot wages; adequate employment
insurance and educational oppor-
tunity are denied. The youth are
offered only the prospect of soup
kitchens, police clubs and jail.

The enemies of colonial youth
are also the enemies of a better
life for Canadian youth, That is
the meaning of February 21.

But February 21 is also import-
ant because it enables us to see
clearly the strength of the demo-
cratic youth and the successes
in the struggle against war and
colonialism. ;

The youth of China are at last
free from war and exploitation.
And we demand that the Canad-
ian government recognize China, —
and establish trade relations. In
France the youth refuse to be
drafted to fight in Viet Nam and
strike to prevent the shipment of ©
armaments. Over a year ago in
Vancouver,
Canadian youth picketted arms
shipments to China.

In Canada, as elsewhere, the ©
unity of the youth is built in

the fight around the slogan of _
. the WFDY: :

“Youth Unite! Forward for a
lasting peace, democracy, the
national independence of the
people and a better future!”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 3%, 1950—PAGE 5 vs.

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