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Irvine's account of Soviet visit

impassioned plea for coexistence

N THE SUMMER of 1956

William Irvine with four
companions spent three weeks
in the Soviet Union. None of
them, he says, “ever was or is
likely to be, a Communist. We
applied for visas and having
got them we went as tourists
and had no obligation to any-
one. Among us were minor of-
ficials of the CCF. But we
neither asked to represent the
CCF nor did we ever assume
that we were doing so. The
CCF movement neither of Al-
berta nor of Canada was res-
ponsible for our going, nor is
either responsible for any
statement made by any of us
while we were in Russia nor
since our return.”

With this plainspoken intro-
duction, typical of Irvine's
habit of speech as any who
know him will agree, the vet-
eran CCF leader, who sat for
almost two decades in the
House of Commons and has
devoted his life to laboring for
socialism, launches into a
closely - argued, richly docu-
mented, well-written and im-
passioned plea for peaceful co-
existence between the capital-
ist states and the USSR in his
book Live or Die with Russia,
obtainable here at the People’s
Co-op Bookstore, 307 West
Pender Street, price $1.00.

Indeed, his final paragraph
is the theme for his book:

“In the face of nuclear
Weapons and intercontinental
missiles, military blocs and
armament races are not going
to be tolerated muuch longer
by the common people of the
world. The cry for an end to
nuclear tests, for the renuncia-
tion of war and for coexistence
is growing and will have to be
respected. Woe to those who
Stand in the way of an arous-
ed people with a will to sur-
vive.”

x xt xt

It is a happy thing indeed
to read this book by a man re-
Spected far and wide. My
ownh memory goes back to
1921, when Bill Irvine had just
won his seat as a United
Farmers of Alberta MP in the
Same election which returned
J. S. Woodsworth and a large
number of Progressive MPs.

That election, which defeat-
ed the Tories, was shortly
after the end of the war and
the Winnipeg General Strike of
1919, and I think Bill Irvine
will agree that just as in his
book he rightly attributes to
the Russian Revolution much
of the social progress made in
the world today, so his own
election was a part of that
popular upsurge which has

never ceased since the tsar’s
Winter Palace in Petrograd
fell to the revolutionary
workers.

My first personal memory
of Bill Irvine is of a a lecture
he gave in the Labor Church
on a Sunday evening in Win-
nipeg. He described for an
audience of several hundreds
of working people the function
of the big banks and how
they operated to squeeze the
workers and farmers and
shared in their exploitation,

In later yearg we, a Commu-
nist and a CCFer, spoke to-
gether to farmers’ meetings
in Alberta in the Hungry
Thirties, frankly stating our
disagreements on theory but
agreeing on action to meet
urgent needs of the day.

Theoretical disagree-
ments persist, and if we met
now we should have a spirited
exchange on such questions,
Some of them having to do
with the Soviet Union, and he
delivering many a doughty
thrust, for he is a fine debater.
But always there is an area of
common ground: faith in the
people, a dedication to social
progress, a hatred of capitalist
exploitation.

These qualities shine in his
book. Now in his seventies, his
optimism and verve are those
of a young man, for he is truly
young in spirit and filled, with
confidence.

ot 8o3 $9

In the opening pages Bill
Irvine says something which
“fairweather friends” and
“summer soldiers” might pon-
der:

“It is true that I did not go
to the USSR to look for bad
things. It is also true that I did
not see them. Le it be as-
sumed. however, that they
exist. Let it be assumed that
there are evils in the Soviet
Union as bad or even worse
than can be found under capi-
talism. Thoreau once said, ‘It
is not worth while to go
round the world to count the
cats in Zanzibar.’ There have
been many cat counters who
have visited Moscow. There
are many great and good
things and not the bad which
will determine the survival of
any politico - economic sys-
tem.”

What does Bill Irvine mean
by “good?” He says:

“By ‘good’ I mean that which
feeds, clothes and shelters the
human body; that which re-
cognizes the equality of race,
color and creed; that which
provides for the development
of individual mind and per-
sonality; that which enriches

life with the beauty of art
and music; that which opens
the doors to the exploring, in-
quisitive and expanding mind
of man.

“These are the sort of things
for which people are athirst
in all lands. If the fear and
hate which find expression
ultimately in destructive war
can be allayed, and if science
and goodwill are permitted to
prevail in both East and West,
the Soviet people will emerge
with great credit to them-
selves and together with the
West, will make a great con-
tribution to the progress of
humanity.”

The group had an interview
with Krushchey. They- visited
Kiev, Yalta, Moscow, Lenin-
grad; they saw the Dnieper
power plant, the first great
hydro - electric station in the
Soviet Union, blown up when
the Nazis were advancing, now
rebuilt; they visited farms,
and Bill Irvine and some com-
panions being practised Prairie
farmers, what they have to say
is of special expert interest to
Canadians.

He writes about education,
the abolition of racial preju-
dice, health services “univer-
Sal and free” and of the vast
natural resources of the USSR,
especially noteworthy for Al-
bertans who come from a
fabuously-endowed area of
our country.

5o3 % %

Bill Irvine makes no bones
about his belief in, democratic
socialism as distinct from com-
munism, and he Says that
“Russia”s one-party system is
difficult for us to swallow.”
He goes on to say:

“We need not do So, nor
need we choke ourselyes on
their assertion that a one-
party system can be as demo-
cratic as a multi-party sys-
tem. It is quite unlikely that
their arguments will convince

%& Mother and daugher, not an uncommon com
among the hundreds of participants in the U
Festival to be held in Exhibition Forum on July
Seen getting ready for relearsal. They are Mr:
Bigelow and her 12-year-old daughter Terry-A”™

us of that, but nevertheless
we owe it as a courtesy to
others and to our own intel-

 lectual integrity to Wear the

reasons they give for convic-
tion in this regard. As a mat-
ter of fact there are many
among ourselves who hold the
view that our two-party sys-
tem is just one party with
two faces. This view is greatly
Strengthened when these two
faces both argue with mouths
in unison that all smaller par-
ties should be abolished and
that if people want justice and
right they must support the
party in power, or the oppo-
sition.” :
Here, incidentally, is one of
the points about which I could
argue with Bill Irvine. There
is an historical background to

AUCKLAND

HEN New Zealand La-
W bor Minister Hackett
fold Auckland Trades Coun-
cil that “we were facing a
world depression,” a dele-

gate challenged this state-
ment.

It was a misnomer to call
it a world depression, said
the delegate. There were
many countries thriving

Not a world crisis

and they would continue to
thrive, he continued, re-
ferring to the socialist
countries.

There was a crisis of
capitalism, he said, and it
was high time that the New
Zealand Labor party, al-
though only tinged with
socialism, should acknowl-
edge these facts and adopt
socialist policies to meet
this crisis.

i

py, #
0:

the development of Be %
party system #  ¥y
through 1918-19, af)
October Revolution, af
not and never has bee? i
of Communist theory i
there must be a sind i
system in the transit! if
communism, The } BI
program envisages th? off
ence of more than O° "¢
in this transition in a
country. Be that as it vie
view is expressed forth if
and invites fruitful
discussion,

i i a ga ia ee ge UE a aa ta atl

The most powerful
of the book, as its # at
plies, is its argument £07)
ful coexistence, It is M® co
best I have read from ® a0” |

{

lt
si
I

dian pen; thoroughly off
mented, with citatiom® gy
curences and quotatio® eo
statements we all 10°
forget.

of
A worthy book, good A , ‘
excellent to pass a? it”,
once a service and 4 , if
to the indestructible yo"
ship with the Soviel i
among CCFers and 0b?" if
Communist progressiv® ff
the cold war and 18 or”
distortions have not d@ )

. Y

I think this book 4 rth t
Irvine a crowning ae
ment in his long years “sf i ‘
ice to labor’s caus® |W
know he had ag much P 1]
in writing it as you
in reading it. :
oN LesLie Mo F

fp
May 16, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE