f

_ Maclnnis proves Cameron's point

HATEVER the difference between a ‘‘Lib-

eral-in-a-hurry”” and a “‘slow-motion socialist,”
top CCF brain-truster Angus MacInnis would seem
to be it. Angus is a very careful lad, so careful
indeed that he can write a-lengthy reply to CCFer
Colin Cameron’s recent comments on the elections,
and never once mention what happened to CCF
“socialism” in taking the count.

Cameron certainly didn’t cover all the ground
in his searches for the cause of the staggering CCF
defeat in the recent elections, but as Leslie Morris
says elsewhere in this paper, it was “‘. . . the near-
est approach to concrete self critical examination

that has been made by any member of the leadership _

of the CCF so far.”

Obviously it was much too critical for Mac-
Tnnis as the July 20 issue of the CCF News clearly
indicates. As. a starter, MacInnis raps Cameron for
not sticking to “. . . the accepted method of con-
sultation and discussion before rushing into print.”
Maclnnis doesn’t elaborate on the workings of
_ this “accepted method,” but judging from the ex-
pulsions of Manitoba ‘CCF MLAs Richards and
Doneleyko, and the resignation of their provincial
president Fred Tipping, because they couldn't fit
themselves into the “accepted method” politics of
the CCF Coldwell-Maclnnis hierarchy, it would ap-
_bear to be a pretty snug-fitting political strait-jachet.

According to’ MacInnis, opposition in CCF
ranks to the Atlantic war pact “cost us,many votes
- .. and in my opinion, deservedly so.” Here we
have a “socialist” who blatantly advocates support
of an obviously reactionary imperialist war pact as
a cure for what ails his “socialism.”

In his tirade on Cameron, MacInnis does a
bit of rapid calculation with previous election re-
tums to “prove” that the CCF is “. .. not...
im a state of demoralization,” and that Cameron’s
main criticisms are “‘silly and untrue.’ But while

_ Angus dwells at length on the gains of the CCF

in 1945, and on the Ontario and B.C by-elections
in 1948, he also does some fine figure skating to
keep clear of the basic political reasons for the

OME twenty years ago or more, Vancouver
Trades and Labor Council was actively engaged

in the job of organizing workers on the CPR boats.
The task wasn’t an easy one, but on the whole the

work was progressing favorably. Wage and work-—

ing condition proposals had been put forward, and
_ TLC ‘representatives were in the midst of negotia-
_ tons with the company. Everything pointed to a
satisfactory settlement.

Suddenly, unheralded, without the knowledge of
the TLC or the workers concerned, a gentleman
from the East appeared ... via the back-door
route. He signed a contract with the company and
got “‘recognition” for his union—and none of the

‘things the TLC had been seeking for the workers.

. We are informed that this form of “back door”
__ Regotiations brought a healthy storm of protest and
opposition from theeTLC at that time, which saw

in such methods a real threat to trade union organ-

- Wation and collective bargaining.

All that, of course; was a long time bas But

“ninety thousand railroaders who could have got a
wage increase of 25 cents an hour jin 1948, but
were “settled” for 17 cents, would have little diffi-

culty paming the lad who demonstrated his prowess

at “back door” double-crossing 20 odd years be-
fore. His “saving” the CPR from “communism’”

.

fF: IS interesting to note that top-splitter CIO
Secretary-Treasurer James B. Carey, reporting on
_ the setting up of a “new international” trade union
center in opposition to the World Federation of
Trade Unions, declares that only “free” trade unions
will be admitted. Significantly enough, C/O News
also puts the “free” in quotes.

resorts to an old moth-eaten gag to
. In Soviet Russia trade unions are
dominated* by their government, and out-

\s S
eS

_ Bnitish TUC Deakins and the AFL Greens.
theless, and despite the ‘‘new international” of Wall

smashing defeat sustained by the CCF in 1949.

Donning the philosopher’s toga, MacInnis hands
out a few of his “‘research’’ gems. Some of the
CCF defeat might be ascribed to “‘the difficulties
socialist governments are having in organizing their
economies."” Of course MacInnis sees no relation
between these “‘difficulties’” and Yankee dollar im-
perialism,. to which he as a “‘socialist’” has helped
to tie Canada. And again, “. . . Perhaps socialists
have painted too bright a picture of the ease with
which the transition from capitalism to socialism can
be made.”” Perhaps—so let us get. back to the good
old philosophy of “‘gradualism,’’ where capitalism
will be “won over” to CCF “socialism” if the latter
desists in painting too hurried a picturé of how soon
such a “transition” may be achieved.

No omelettes for MacInnis, thank you. He
has just one little socialist pee-wee’s egg himself
which he wants to “‘preserve.”’ On the other hand,
by supporting the Atlantic “‘suicide’” pact, Mac-
Innis is determined that the fellow with the “‘basket-
ful of extra-large” eggs (which we take to mean
the monopolists) must also be ‘“‘preserved.’’ Hence
his antipathy to hurried experiments in “‘socialist’’
omelettes. .

The whole process is to be “changed by chang-
ing economic conditions and social education.’’ Mac-
Innis doesn’t even bother referring to what elemental
forces may effect this “‘change’—but hopes the
“CCF or some other party with similar aims” will
be around to “give hope and help to the under-
privileged” when the change comes. Meantime, he
is hell-bent to hang onto his one little pee-wee “‘so-
cialist”’ egg.

Having neatly side-stepped all the political
issues raised by Colin Cameron—as well as lots
Cameron ommitted to raise—this 18-carat political
quack, whose “‘socialism’”’ has less market value than
the Liberal promises he helped evolve, winds up
where he started. Like Pilate of old, he asks ‘‘What
is truth” . . . and demonstrates in 1,600 words that
as high priest in the CCF hierarchy, he couldn’t
recognize it if he saw it.

Back door artist

cost every railroad worker approximately 10 cents
per hour less in wages,.

Flushed with the “victory” of selling out the
railroaders, and spurred on by the cheers of the
Canadian Manufacturers’ Association, our back-door
artist sought to split the Trades and Labor Congress
of Canada at its Victoria convention a year ago.
Temporarily halted then, he has since managed,
with the aid of AFL President William Green, a
dubious company of “‘roadmen’”’, the U.S. state
department, and various assorted scabs and under-
world characters got together in the “SIU”, to have
the fighting Canadian Seamen’s Union suspended
from the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada,
because the CSU fights for front-door, democratic-
operated trade unionism in Canada.,

Getting set for the coming Calgary convention
of the TLC, it is said that this back-door expert in
union splitting, with the connivance of his roadmen’s

“committee to purge communism”, and with the’

blessings of the Chamber of Commerce and_ the
Shipping Federation, aims to become the future boss
of the TLC. tye Cee
~_ And that would take Canadian trade unionism
further back than 20 years,
Our hope is that the Calgary ‘convention will
kick this gentleman (whom the Financial Post lauds
as “‘a constructive labor leader”). out at the front

door—and board up the back to prevent further

similar entries.

all Street ‘International’

side the Soviet, Communist-dominated unions are.

without real autonomy. They are merely  instru-
ments . . . of the Communist party and that foreign
Carey lies on both counts, but the hired propa-

gandists and stooges of the Manufacturers’ Associa-_

tion couldn’t have done a better job at it.

The regret is that militant British, American
and Canadian trade
disruptive treason spread by the CIO Careys, the
Never-
Street lackies, the WFTU
‘ main—the

unionism,

growing world center of militant trade

. forever.

unions are weakened by the |

TOM McEWEN

As We See I

VERY now and again the thing breaks out like a rash on
body politic of our community. Some time ago, following a
to Vancouver of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, a storm
teacup blew up on the propriety of Sunday concerts. A vocife :
minority, waving the Lord’s Day Act in the faces of the rest of
held that symphony concerts were only another ruse of Old Nick
entice humanity straight to perdition. Some even saw in such goil
on the chief cause of juvenile—and~ adult—delinquency. They
all for having Vancouver citizens garbed in a regu :
lation Sunday “blue law” strait-jacket. Now’
want to shut off the sale of gasoline on Sundays nt
» keep everyone at home to observe their concept
Sabbath day .. . in accordance with their
g cept of “holiness.”

This “Holy Willie” ‘approach to Sunday observan
is not confined to Vancouver. Every so often
highly placed nit-wit lets loose an ignorant bla

+ on juvenile delinquency, opining that this and
other social ills result from our failure to keep
Sabbath day holy. :

When young people take to the mountain trails
with their skis to ‘spend a few hours among
silent peaks, to admire the vastness and grandé

of nature, to list€n to the symphony of a mountain torrent or @
wind playing an unwritten song among the stately firs, or when th
or their elders seek the enjoyment of man’s own symphonic cr
tions, they are in the highest sensé observing the Lord’s Day. —

But that does not satisfy the lunatic fringe who would curb evé
human appreciation and_ expression of nature in the name of 42
outworn statute dating from medieval times. These are best describ-
ed in a satire by “Holy Angus” in a Sydney, Nova Scotia, newspap®
replying to another official Holy Willie’s blast against people bent on

_ living their own lives.

*Says Holy Angus: “Wherever you look these days you can clearly
see signs that our young people are heading straight for the tot
ments of hell, It was not so when I was a boy. :

‘How fondly do I recall sitting in the corner of our log cabit
listening to my God-fearing parents reading 16 chapters of Jer
Lamentation on a sunny Sabbath morning, while outside the sun was
beaming, the flowers blooming, the birds sjnging, and the bees ht .
ming, and all nature gay with fun and frolic—calling me to join
them...But, with superhuman effort, I obeyd the warnings of that
thin small voice, conscience, and resisted the temptation to sin.

“Those were the good old days. Alas, they seem to have passed

_ “As a result of the growing depravity of these latter days, OU"
wayward youth seem to have sunk down to the level of the sul,
birds, the bees and the flowers. All of whom are utterly devoid

a presbyterian conscience, a bible, or a catholic catechism.
sequently they recognize no Christian ethics—no Sabbath day.

“The sun stops not in its course, except
command of Joshua, .

“The birds sing their love lullabies and indulge in sinful matin’
on Sunday as on Monday.

“The bees rest not on the Sabbath, but continue sucking hone’
from every flower.

“The flowers keep right on delighting the carnal eye with theif
beauty and ‘wasting sweetness on the desert air’ in open defiianc?
of the Lord’s Day. '

“What a glaring contrast as between these non-Sabbath-observiNt

inanimate objects and old Rory MacLeod, the presbyterian elder
St. Ann’s. ;

once, long ago, at bes

. “Holy Rory, as he was called, was’ so strict in the
Sabbath observance that every Saturday evening without fail, —

“holding family worship, he would go over to the barn and lock —

rooster under a barrel, where that. bird would be kept in dv
vile and prevented from.doing anything worse than crowing
protest against his confinement until Monday morning. There |
aman of God for you! : be

“Of course, it was common gossip that Holy Rory did not pract’
the same measure of sexual restraint—of ‘crucifying the flesh’ ™
self, as he insisted on in the case of the rooster. But that could
explained away by the notorious predilection of all non:
observing sinners’ enmity towards all good presbyterian elders.

Those who see in every symphony, whether played by natu
man, a breach of Sunday observance, who would deprive their ft that
men, young and old, of the finest spiritual inspiration, belong t® th
era of Calvinistic bigotry which the modern “Holy Willies” of |
Lord’s Day Act would impose upon us as “religion”. - from

They are the same tribe who want to stop Vancouverites
buying a gallon of gas on Sunday. Their mentality withers W'
it touches, ¢ ; me jee wae

io

A
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EXCUN

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vineravennrediUl UU Dbay:-scoveath

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Published Weekly at 650 Howe Street hs
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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 29, 1949—PAG