Now a CCF'er says it

N the CCF News of July 6 Colin Cameron, CCF
provincial vice-president analyzes the recent elec-
tion results. Despite a number of basic shortcomings
in Cameron’s presentation, it is the most down-to-earth
survey to come out of top CCF circles for a good

many moons.

Cameron looks in the night place for the dis-
astrous failures of the CCF in the 1949 elections.
Not Coalition, Liberal or Tory promises of still
greater “prosperity”, but the chronic urge of top-
level CCF politicos to “. . . defend the CCF against
the charge of -being a socialist party with socialist
aims.” An admission that the socialist objectives of
the CCF as laid down in its Program and principles
Were tossed” out of the window in the interests
of “practicality.”

That sort of criticism advanced by a top-level
CCF leader, if carried down for a full and frank
discussion within the entire organization,
as a springboard to reestablish the degree of labor
unity needed in Canada to meet the -growing crisis.
And it must be added, a unity which in large mea-
sure, has been destroyed by CCF ““go-it-alone” pol-
icies dictated from the top.

Speaking of the work of the CCF parliamen-
tary group in Ottawa in past years, Cameron ob-
serves that “there has been a notable absence of
any effective and concerted presentation of positive
socialist ideas. Instead there has been a growing ten-
dency to make common cause with the Liberals, un-
til by the time the election rolled around both Lib-
erals and Conservatives were in the happy position
of being able to dismiss the CCF as mere Liberals-
in-a-hurry.””

Had Cameron probed deeper into the effects of
this official CCF bid for “respectability” he would

— have found that CCF support of the North Atlantic
war pact flowed directly from such association. He
would ‘also have found that the
Red Flag in Vancouver was simply another social-
democratic by-product of the “piecemeal abandon-
ment of socialist principles.”

Nowhere in his refreshingly frank appraisal does
Cameron make reference to CCF labor policy—to

the willy-nilly hog-tying of CCL unions to a super-
imposed CCF “political

trade union label defeated the sit-
No analysis of CCF failure to win the sup-

Fine hand

_"TSHE recent union elections in the Trail local of
T the ‘Mine-Mill are being hailed by the Trail

Times as a great victory for those “who oppose the
Moscow line.” Perhaps it was Just a coincidence,
but the “

"* of nominees circulated by the “‘vic-'

tors” and their supporters—tall neatly typed out

on little pieces of paper—and the “‘slate” supported

__ by the Trail Times were similar in every respect.

There were 42 candidates covering all union
- offices 20 to be elected. The Trail Times, posing
as a friend of the worker, but in reality doing one
of its customary chores for the CMS. wrote a spe-
cial editorial on how to detect who were Commun-
ists and communist sympathizers among the nominees
_ for union office. This was a flagrant piece of im-
pudent and arrogant interference in the internal af-
fairs of a union. In real. Gouzenko style, the
Trail Times coached its dupes on how to detect
whose politics are what! :

can: serve

incident of The

port of the electors in 1949 can be complete with-
out an honest and frank examination (and reversal)
of CCF, “labor” policies.
this does not cancel out the obvious truth that red-
baiting contests with the Liberals and Tories did
not—and cannot—win votes for the CCF. Jobs, pay-
envelopes and socialist Perspectives are more
esting to workers than red bogeys and
ability.”

inter-
“respect-

On one point in his article’ Cameron succumbs

t6 the disease he seeks to diagnose. Attempting to

disprove Liberal and Tory assertions that Opposi-
tion within the CCF to the Atlantic war pact, is
a manifestation of CCF “alignment with the Com-
munists”, Cameron refers his readers to the federal
seat of Burnaby-Richmond, where ty os thes EPP
deliberately defeated Mrs. Steeves . . . (who) ...
is well known for her Position in opposition to the
North Atlantic pact.”

\ This is decidedly not in accordance with the
facts. At the recent CCF provincial convention,

Dorothy Steeves moved the motion to support the
defeated by a vote of

pact—a motion that was :

54-46. Anyone who thinks that Mrs. Steeves “‘just
moved the motion to sound out CCF sentiment’, but
was herself dpposed to the pact, is ‘suffering from
illusions. Dorothy Steeves made her support of the
war pact quite clear to the electorate of Burnaby-
Richmond—and painfully clear to numerous CCF
rank-and-file members, who were already feeling
the effects of the slow anti-socialist political paraly-
sis which Cameron now freely admits.

Had Mrs. Steeves taken a stand as befits a
socialist against this suicide pact, she would have
today been the MP for Bumaby-Richmond. Of
that we are quite certain. But Mrs. Steeves chose
to remain “respectable” -by defending the war ‘pact
with the Tory-Liberal
throwing a working class constituency to the party
of the warmongers. ee

Cameron’s conclusions touch the hard rock
of reality: “The set-back in 1949 may yet prove a
blessing in disguise if it results in discrediting those
influences in the CCF which for some years have
been gently pushing us down the Primrose path of
respectability and caution.” To proceed further down
this path, with its socialism watered down to suit
the palates of a St. Laurent or Drew, is, according
to Cameron, to invite “complete oblivion” for the

CGr,

We are sure countless scores of trade union-
ists, CCF’ers, LPP’ers and others will welcome
Cameron’s admissions hoping they may serve to open
the door to the unity needed to beat back the rav-

ages of capitalist crisis—a united ‘struggle which

is essential to the attainment of socialism,

of CMS

This anti-union mouthpiece of the CMS even
went to the point of telling union members:

“A trip to your union office might be an eye-
opener. There, there should be people in the know
from whom the information could be obtained.”
Long years in the service of the CM & Shas
obviously given the Trail Times an inside ‘track on
union snooping and disruption. . . plus an effontery
that would be hard to equal anywhere.

We wish the new officers every success in carry-

ing through their difficult duties in these trying

times, but we nevertheless think the Trail Times -

instructions contained in’ its editorial, “Aim at the
Heart,” should be repudiated by Local 480. It may
be a splendid arrangement for the CMS, but it is
not healthy for a trade union and its officers when
a bosses’ organ publicly boasts that details of its
labor front type instructions can be found ine a
union office. — ihe 3

Cameron’s omission of

“kept press.

weapon of red-baiting, thus.

posi

TOM McEWEN

As We See lt q

BOUT two years ago the British Labor government set up
A royal commission to investigate the political ramifications of.
British ‘press. The voluminous report of that commission is
available. Although we haven't seen the whole document, sufficie
has been published to justify our conclusion that a great job
white-washing has been done.

According to this report, subsidies from big advertis
“rarity”, political bias almost non-existent,
this fairy tale, Labor S almost an equal voic®
(and space) with Capital in the columns of the
fourth estate,
Naturally the kept press in our own countty
is crowing about this great “vindication of a i
press”—and under .a Labor government, mind you
Comment by the scab-produced Daily Province was
typical: “Any fair-minded British Columbian wh?
has read a Communist rag masquerading as a news”
paper will be more than ever thankful for the high
standards maintained by Canadian papers.” :
Now isn’t that just too sweet. What this cal
italist smear shee :
is actually asking
nm whitewash, is tha
monopoly,
bias and

The antics of our “free press” during the recent elections P
vided a striking commentary on the politica] “neutrality” of
Even Coldwell’s allegiance to the Atlantic war
CF less newspaper space than the connubial tro The
of American wives in the U.S. zone of occupied Germany. ”
“unbiased” Liberals and Tories got all the space in their “unbiased
press,

But we will admit that the Bevin-Attlee commission did pee
whitewash job—and, among other things, it adds to the x
troubles of social democracy in its search for Utopia. :

Tom Clark promised the
court docket will allow.”
desired, Richard M. Nixon
House Un-American Activiti

=

of a judge whose prejudices will sho

proper respect for the objective desired, a lot of American pra
are beginning to wonder just who is eligible under the constitutio®
to “investigate the Un-American “investigators,” itor

Star witness in the Hiss trial is Whittaker Chambers, enchi i
of Time Magazine, whose long training in producing fabricated be :
has earned him the title of “a moral leper” by the Hiss defens
attorneys. : °
oe

, nal
Vancouver locals of AFT, international unions and Trades oe A
gress affiliates are electing their delegates to attend the forthco fot
TLC convention in Calgary. Over-riding all other issues is pas
puC-eutenomy; the right to. sun dts own aeffaics without Aisa
interference. That is the issue which supersedes al] others. the
the suspension of the striking Canadian Seamen's Union ph mes
on the demand of Green and his paid henchmen (sometit |
called “roadmen”) indicates that the TLE executive has ab: He
its fine stand taken at Victoria last year and is ready to g00
to orders from Washington. *

e
sharp this fight will be is seen in a comparison tte a
©f Some of the unions on the CSU and autonomy i sues
Some unions have k-and-file discussion on these fie
to the convention with the full back jan3

for autonomy and the right of Can '
their own unions, ,

How
tion

to govern

: put |
There are other unions which have elected their delegates,
ruled

delegates fF ns”
make the decision rather
“uninformed” . . .
our hands tied,”

a gentle hint

to

: gates
necessity arise for the dele:

“stand up and a

they had better “stand.” ae i
is precisely what Bill Green and his oop
in convention—to stand and be coum cts of
rming the trade unions into adj nd
dominant Yankee i ism ..... or be branded as a “red”, *,

Singled out individ and collectively for the banaue! jon
That is the Green-con led “roadman's” concept of we a
: eran

“ . ” ,
‘democracy. * ‘ule Gree
convention can clip ‘the claws 0 ates

A united delegate
union wreckers, sid

0
a!

ll
ili
Publisheq Weekly at 650 Howe Street :
By THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.
Telephones: Editorial, ma. 5857; Business, MA. sess
Tom McEwen : . Editor
1 Year, $2.50; 6 Months, , $1.35.

er,
Ltd., 650 Howe Street, Vancouver -
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 15, 1949 —

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