%& Tim.Buck’s New Year's message to Canadians

WORKING class greetings and
high hopes for the coming
year to readers of the Pacific

Tribune and all progressive Can-
‘adians!
_:The year 1953 promises to be
&@ Momentous one: a year of
Ctises and new tremendous strug-
gles, with many indications of
Continued democratic advance.
he prospect is typified by the
fact that the struggle for peacé
‘Will enter a great new stage in
1953, Unity of peace loving peo-
ple everywhere in active defense
of Peace has prevented the U.S.
Mperialists and their partners and
perute in other capitalist countries
rom launching the world war that
ey are Striving for.
are danger of a third world
ne is not been eliminated, the
cae east instigators of war have
a hee been defeated decisively;
stalin shows in his recently
Published historic work*, the dan-
or of war will persist and will
. “ace humanity until imperialism
18 abolished.
pet immediately, the plans of
iar st instigators of a
i pagal war have been set
Bie. ramatically. Some of them
fon, ven admitting it by their ac-
Bric: Confronted with the im-
aaa threat of economic break-
of th as a result of their betrayal
© national interests of their

cou . ° %

pee in their gamble upon
» Several European govern-

Ments ar ee ase

», “Te now slashing their ex-
Penditures upon NATO.

ae historic achievements of the
it a Peace movement have made
tino en new force in world re-
e eoetins — rightly described as
—— *!xth great power.”

* *
in Sonomic Problems of Socialism
© USSR by J. Stalin.

mene Fee 1953 will be a mo-
faire a One in the domestic af-
sharpie, Canada also. The ever
cing co ueeles that workers are
and era ued to fight for wages
fied b ing conditions, exempli-
tempts’ t Duplessis’ ruthless at-
ers? still Smash the textile work-
Will hos <. 2t. Louiseville, Quebec,
ing © intensified during the com-
They will have to be
with countrywide action
oe of governments and
‘ (0 weaken the labor
een by mass layoffs and the
: as unemployment.
aaa at through. those struggles,
Crime aeyent repetition of the
Ouisevine. was perpetrated at
aes €, ‘Canadian workers will
i San to the present systema-
nion Toachments upon trade
THe eats along with all civil
Tnsteaa ‘Canada.
Offs ag + of accepting mass lay-
€rg yi) «oY Aid in 1929-30, work-
Ures to sist upon practical meas-
Thsteag ®ep everybody at work.
Wage Sw _ 2ccepting sweeping
Years SE Reece as in the crisis
&rs win) ; € early thirties,” work-
ages, 9 Rk upon maintaining
With 4,  icreasing them along
ag ba increase in productivity,
gle . of their organized strug-
Market, €xpand Canada’s home
Alo f
strength eth their spreading and
Ma well oe Mass actions, which
ae pecuide, Stay-in strikes
ers yi ayoffs, Canadian work-
Strike re-establish their right to
tive nd’ to all forms of collec=
pe. ato protect their. jobs
Was rer ue Standards.
foy 19xe winded of the prospects
the Car when I appeared before
December ee of the Senate on
Ment ‘ ae to. submit oral argu-
Bregsive Pport of the Labor-Pro-
tn op ap y’s written submission
Stiminay on to the changes in the
Y th € now being pressed
The federal boven
fedey changes Proposed by tl
Lest Bl BoVvernment + 1 a a
Paes ons y include drastic
Loni sie Syste trade union
Nn rights that. the

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are turning away from
the two old-line parties whch have “enjoyed and abused” a
monopoly of parliament for so long, and a 1953 election “will
likely witness the breakdown” of this monopoly, writes Tim Buck.

trade union movement has always
considered to be absolutely indis-
pensable. Arguing against those
changes, I warned the members of
the committee that setting the law
against the labor movement will
not and cannot stop strikes and
other collective working class
action.

The events of 1953 will prove
the validity of my warning.

I was reminded of the prospects
for 1953 by another fact also.
Right at the time when I was pre-
senting the Labor - Progressive
party’s arguments against the
fascist-type changes in the Crim-
inal Code, a delegation of work-
ers was in the House of Commons
seeking governmental action to
stop the spreading mass layoffs
from Canadian industries.

There are unmistakable signs
that, in Canada as well as in seve-
ral capitalist countries of western:
Europe, economic crisis is going to
be one of the first consequences of
subordinating the national interest
to the aims of United States im-
perialism.

The year 1953 will, in all prob-
ability, be marked in Canada by
an acute market crisis, the im-
mediate cause of which is the fed-
eral government’s deliberate sub-
ordination of Canada’s foreign
trade to United States aims. Ele-
ments of such a crisis are evident
already in agriculture.

But also, the coming year will
witness the rise of strengthening
mass popular demand for return
to Canada’s traditional policy of
trading with all countries.

More and more Canadians are

demanding that the St. Laurent
government undertake that Can-
ada will buy a dollar’s worth of
products from some part of the
sterling area in return for every
dollar’s worth of products pur-
chased from Canada by any part
of the sterling area. Millions of
Canadians will be supporting that
demand before the end of 1953.

‘With the growth of that demand
there will grow also recognition
of the fact that Canada’s national
interests require the development
of unrestricted trade with the third
of mankind in the socialist sector
of the world. The socialist sector
of the world is potentially the
greatest market ever to have ex-
isted until now.
Canadian capitalists as well as mil-
lions of workers and farmers are
going to realize that the pros-
perity and national independence
of our country can be assured only
by return to the policy of trade
with all countries that want to
trade with us.

@

The above is typical of many
facts which show that 1958 can be
made a year of broad democratic
advance in Canada. The great
possibilities for such an advance
emphasize the significance of the
growing demand that St: Laurent’s
“Made in the U.S.” policy be dis-
carded and replaced by a truly
Canadian “Made in Canada” na-
tional policy.

If the St. Laurent government
calls a federal general election

during 1953 as now seems very
probable, that year will likely wit-

/

Some sections of.

nes the breakdown of the monop-
oly of- parliament that has been
enjoyed and abused by the two
old parties of the capitalist class
for so long.

Millions of Canadians are dis-
illusioned with the two old parties.
Hundreds of thousands are turn-
ing away from them.

The scandal of thievery, graft
and wholesale corruption in mili-
tary establishments, in circum-
stances which indicated something
wrong, to use the words of the of-
ficial investigator, “at or near the
top,” and. the fact that the in-
vestigator’s report was changed,

apparently by officials of the very -

department of the government it
criticized, before it was submitted
to parliament, might provide the
isue which will enable the Tories

_ to distinguish themselves from the

St. Laurent government without
repudiating their own consistent
support of all the decisive features
of its policies.

In fact, however, for the Tories
to criticize the Liberals about
such matters is like the pot calling
the kettle black.

The Conservatives are the party
whose name will be forever stain-
ed with the blood of Canadians
who died in Flanders because Tory
political grafters and unscrupulous
Tory: business tycoons sent them
there with faulty weapons.

It is the party characterized by
enormous royalties paid to the
secretary of the minister of na-
tional defense by manufacturers
of shovels who received fat con-
tracts. It is remembered by the
scandal of putrifying food shipped
to soldiers overseas, by the scandal
of spavined horses purchased at
fancy prices for ,active service
Overseas, by the scandal of enorm-
ous expenditures supposedly for
medical supplies which were not
on hand when the soldiers in
France needed them, and by the
scandal of the juggling of the
soldiers’. vote.

That party may make cynical
use of the scandal of widespread
corruption illustrated by the thefts
at Petawawa, but it will not abol-
ish the conditions of which those
thefts are a part — it would wors-
en them if it got a chance. The

Make 1953 a year
of democratic advanc

°

democratic peace-loving people of
Canada are not going to be fooled
by Tory demagogy again.

The masses of democratic Cana-
dians are going to reject the dema-
gogy of George Drew equally as
they will reject the “Made-in-
U.S.” policy of Louis St. Laurent.
Instead of turning from Liberals
back to the Tories, millions are
turning away from them both.

Gropingly, hindered by. confu-
sion, lack of unity and the right-
wing policies of the Coldwell CCF
leadership, but with growing de-
termination, patriotic Canadians
are seeking the path to a genuine-
ly Canadian national policy which:
expresses Canada’s needs and the
real interests of her people. The
coming federal elections will be an
important stage in the crystaliza-
tion of mass support for that aim.

The Labor- Progressive party,
with 70 to 80 candidates in the
field, will be a vital force in the
crusade to unite all democratic,
peace-loving Canadians and their
organizations in a broad People’s
Coalition to elect a majority to the
House of Commons and introduce
a People’s National Policy. I am
already in the field, as LPP can-
didate for Trinity-Toronto. I am
confident that we shall achieve
tremendous progress in this cam-
paign.
€

Such are the prospects for the
coming year. It will be a year
of struggles, some of them bitter.

‘On a world scale, the great new
era opened up by the 19th con-
gress of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union will become in-
creasingly evident — an inspira-
tion and a beckoning promise to
shundreds of millions of people.

Progressive Canadians will play
their worthy part in the world
wide struggle for peace and demo-
cratic ‘progress by broadening the
strugglé for a people’s coalition to
restore: Canadian Independence, to
free Canada from the U.S. domi-
nated imperialist war camp, to
achieve Canadian People’s Demo-
cracy and through People’s Demo-
cracy, Socialism.

A new national \policy for Canada, to open up world
markets for Canadian products, will become a major issue in
the next federal election. LPP proposals to cut away trade re-
strictions imposed by the St. Laurent government are winning

wide support,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 9, 1953 — PAGE 9