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The COMMUNISTS and the NEW PARTY |

By LESLIE MORRIS

We publish below last of three articles by leading members
of the Communist Party dealing with problems related to the
New Party. Other articles will appear in future issues of the

Pacific Tribune.

HE Communist Pariy al-
fi ways has ‘supported the
idea of a mass labor party, a
. united front of the workers
for independent political ac-
, tion. It also has emphasized
that such a party must bring
. in the farmers and the middle-
elass people of the cities and
; towns.
This

is not a matter of

-. words but of long years of

; Communist activity.
, Im 1921 the Canadian Labor
Party was formed at the time
_ of the Winnipeg convention of
the Trades and Labor Con-
gress (AFL). It was a federat-
ed party. When the Commun-
ist Party was formed 40 years
ago now, it supported the CLP.
In his book, Thirty Years, Tim
_ Buck described this effort in
the following words:

CANADIAN LABOR PARTY

“In every locality all un-
ions and other working-class
. organizations affiliated to the
. party (the CLP — L.M.) co-
_ ordinated their parliamentary
activities through a delegate
council.

“Each provincial section
held separate annual conven-
: tions being made up of dele-
_ gates elected in provincial
- conventions. The CLP was
Open to all and any working-
class organizations. The only
conditions were that affiliat-
_ ed organizations should abide
_ by the program and discipline
of the CLP in electoral activ-
ities and should not at any
time engage in anti-working-
class activity. The CLP was a

working class political united }
marked gains |

_ front. Some
" were made during five years in
which its unity was maintain-
ed. There is no doubt what-
ever that its continued devel-
opment would have made the
organized labor movement an
important parliamentary force
in Canada.”

For some time the Commun-
ists were in the Canadian La-
bor Party. One of the reasons
the CLP failed was that for
the right-wingers the issue be-
came, not the workers’ needs,
but “Communism.”

The Communists have advo-
cated a mass labor party all
these years because they are
the strongest fighters for the
working-class united front, of
which independent labor par-
liamentary political action is
one of the most important
parts. It is not the whole of
the united front because la-
bor’s struggles are not only

in the parliamentary arena,
but on the industrial front and
at times in great demonstra-
tive actions outside of parlia-

ment.

WHY THE CLP FAILED

This is not to say that the
Communists have not made
mistakes about the united
front from time to time over
the years. Of course they have
—and they have openly dis-
cussed and admitted them.
But they have made no big
mistakes on unity, because
they have always stuck close
to the basic truth — that the
working-class united front;
and people’s unity against the
monopolies and for peace and
independence, are the funda-
mental questions of present-
day Canada. The mistakes
never .involved these funda-
mental necessities but always
were connected with how to
bring them to life.

One of the earliest political
memories of this writer is the
efforts that were made in Win-

nipeg in the early 1920’s,
shortly after the General
Strike, to reach _ electoral

agreements with the Indepen-
dent Labor Party for a parlia-
mentary united front of the
working-class voters. The
right-wing defeated us.
UNITY WITH THE CCF

During the years of the CCF
the Communists sought to
build electoral unity, and
were as often rejected by the
right-wing leaders and their
“red bogey.’ At times this
struggle for unity reached a
high pitch, as when the Labor
Section of the CCF was expell-
ed for supporting the United
front in Ontario in the mid-
1930’s.

There is no use blinking
one’s eyes to the fact that you
can achieve unity only by
fighting for it. It does not fall
like manna from heaven.

The long and_bitter struggle
to build anti-fascist unity in
the years before World War II
and the mighty movement to
aid the people of Spain pro-
duced big gains and much po-
litical education in those stir-
ring days — but always the
right wing set its face against
mass popular action. The war
broke out, and Franco still is
in power,

The economic crisis of 1929-
32 struck Canadians like a
thunderbolt and millions re-
covered from their initial
shock to enter massive econ-
omic struggles. These never
became concentrated in a
great parliamentary move-
ment of the workers and far-
mers because the adea of poli-
tical unity was not yet strong
enough to defeat
wing leaders of the CCF, who
ran this chance into the

the right--

LESLIE MORRIS

ground.

Now Canadians, living in a
world which is being trans-
formed daily before our eyes,
when we are menaced by the
20 megaton H-bombs that
Prof. Linus Pauling described
in Toronto last Sunday —
bombs that can wipe cities off
the map in the twinkling of
an eye; and when the idea of
Canadian independence is
gathering ground and another
economic crisis is mounting
against us to bring Canadian
national policy into its deep-
est crisis yet — now we have
a new chance — as we had in
the 1920’s and 1930’s — to
forge that instrument of mass
political action which is so
urgently required.

NOW, A NEW CHANCE

Will the new chance be
muffed, again? Or will it suc-
ceed this time? That is the
question.

As far as the Communists
are concerned they have made
their views on the New Party
known, directly and plainly,
for they are plainspoken peo-
ple, not given to double-talk

and double-thinking.

They support the New Party
welcome its appearance and
see in it a chance of success in
defeating the old-line capital-
ist parties; so much so that
the Communist Party raises
the possibility of electing a
government of the New Party
in the coming federal election.

This can be done, say ‘the
Communists, if the New Party
learns the lesson of the past:

that unity — working-class,
labor-farmer, all-in  people’s
unity — must be the heart

and soul, the backbone, of the
New Party if it is to fulfill the
hopes many thousands are
placing in it.

It can be done if the New
Party is the party of Canad-
ian independence, disarma-
ment, peace, and new eccnom-
ic policies to put the country
to work for its people instead
of for the giant U.S.-Canadian
monopolies.

A WINNING PROGRAM

Such a program would im-
mediately win mass support
and would roll up further
backing as it got rolling in a
great crusade.

The Communist Party pro-
gram. The Road to Socialism
in Canada, puts it this way:

“Independent labor-farmer
political action can be the
means of winning away mass-
es of workers and farmers
from their traditional support
for the capitalist parties and
setting them on to the path of
political independence. The
Communist Party works for
the election to parliament of
a labor-farmer government.
The formation of a labor-far-
mer government would be a
defeat for the monopoly cap-

italists, instilling political
confidence among the work-
ers and farmers .. . The Com-

munist Party believes that the

Photo above shows a recent mass meeting in New York
City called to express Support for the just struggle of the
Cuban people. During the last few weeks mass demonstra-
tions of solidarity with Cuba have taken place throughout
South America.

road of a united, all-inclusive

labor-farmer political. party is = q

the most, advantageous way to
bring about the parliamentary
defeat of monopoly capital
and its parties, and to unite
all democratic, freedom-lov-
ing forces among the Canad-
ian people to achieve indepen-
dence, peace and social pro-
gress.”

ONE SOCIALIST PARTY

In its attitude to the New
Party, the Communist Party is
faithfully carrying out its pro- |
gram.

It does not ascribe to the
New Party a socialist aim, as
John Diefenbaker did at the
Tory clambake in Ottawa the
other day, in an obvious ef-
fort to make socialism, false-
ly, the issue in Canada today,
and so to try to scare away
potential supporters of the New
Party who want new policies
short of socialism, and by
means of this trick to cover up
his own sins in connection
with nuclear armaments and
unemployment.

There is only one party in ~
Canada which is the party of -
socialism, the party of the
working class, and that is the
Communist Party. The Com-
munist Party, as its program
says, regards a mass_labor-
farmer party as a part of the
long struggle towards political
maturity gained out of experi-
ence. It stands on the socialist
principal that to build a social-
ist Canada we shall have to
have a working-class dictator-
ship, a new kind of state led
by the working class, possess-
ing a traditional Canadian par-
liamentary form but with a
new class content—a working-
class state.

Naturally, such a principle
could not be the foundation of
the New Party. and the Com-
munists are the first to say SO. —
That is why we speak of the
New Party as a party of re-
form. But reforms, and the
fight for them, can help the
working class gain strength
and experience for the final
historic socialist goal.

If unity is, built and main-
tained around the fight for re-
forms, which will have to be
very deep-going to meet the
needs of Canada today, then
we can foresee the New Party
becoming a movement that will
do what has been so sorely
needed for these many years—
taking millions of workers and
farmers away from the habit
of voting for the bosses and
voting for -themselves for a
change.

This is the attitude of of the
Communist Party to the New
Party. ‘

Trade unions, farmers’ Or
ganizations, New Party clubs
and all kinds of popular
groups should send hundreds

_ April 14, 1961—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 6

See MORRIS, peg. 7