25 years ago...

TRIBUNE SEIZED
BY DUPLESSIS

Quebec premier Duplessis’ ac-
tion in seizing 4,000 copies of
last week’s issue of the Canadian
Tribune was “a flagrant breach
of Canadian and _ United
Nations’ laws governing press
freedom”, editor Leslie Morris
declared in a wire.

Seizure was purportedly
made under the “sedition” sec-
tion of the Padlock Law. The
wire challenged Duplessis “to
produce a single sentence that
can be characterized as disloyal
to Canada or Quebec, or sedi-
tious. The act,” said the wire, “il-
lustrates your desire to silence
any opposition to your
discredited regime.”

Tribune,
April 23, 1951

FLASHBACKS FROM
THE COMMUNIST PRESS

fo

é
_~
Og
-

| COMIMIEINTE

Fightback won’t be beheaded
| by ruling-class propaganda |

JEIDITORUAIL

All the firepower of the bosses is

thumping away these days to convince
working people that their demands are
unreasonable, “the public” is against
them, and the ruling monopolies, their
governments and their media are doing
what they are doing for the workers’ own
good.

Fortunately; the good sense of a large
and growing number of workers rejects
the idea that the “public” does not in-
| clude workers. And so, they are fighting

# back against wage-cutting, attacks on col-
§ lective bargaining, strike-breaking laws,

#@ and cutbacks of earned social benefits.

50 years ago...

NEARLY THREE
MILLION DOLLARS
IS SIBERIA WASTE

OTTAWA — The cost to
Canada of sending Canadian
troops to Siberia in 1918 and
1919 was $2,823,960.
Answering a question from J.S.
Woodsworth (Labour, Winni-
peg North Centre) in the House
of Commons today, the Gov-
ernment said the actual cost of
the Siberian Expeditionary
Force was not known.

Canada’s share represented
pay and allowances, personal
equipment and clothing for the
Canadian personnel in the ex-
pedition. The Imperial Gov-
ernment paid for supplies,
ammunition and transportation.

The Worker,
April 10, 1926

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 23, 1976—Page 4

Workers are demanding wage in-

ma! creases to catch up with the real, out-
! of-control price increases all down the

line of living costs.

The massive 35,000-strong demon-
stration on Parliament Hill, led by the
Canadian Labor Congress; the militant
unity of Quebec workers of the common
front of government workers, plus the
three teachers’ centres, slapping
Bourassa’s insolent anti-strike law with a
march of 10,000 teachers on the Quebec
National Assemly and a one-day work
stoppage — such actions demonstrate
the workers’ mood. While the “Anti-
Inflation Board” brags of slashing 170
wage settlements, and gloats that some
unions have settled for inferior agree-
ments because of a myth of AIB invinci-
bility, resistance is hardening, as in-

dicated by plans for May Day manifesta
tions and the mighty Ontario Federaion
of Labor demonstration on April 28.
Mounting anger from B.C. to thé}
Maritimes, in Quebec, Ontario, and |

across the Prairies is aggravated by con-|
tinued assaults on living standards which |
the ruling monopolies are pushing t0}
their limit. a

As if to amplify class deception,
doctored figures show 713,000 Cana-|
dians without jobs — 6.9%, down one
tenth of one per cent. This outrage 15 |
hailed as a victory along the way to pass |
ing off 4-5% joblessness as “full” em-|
ployment. The truth is that in March |
unemployment rose in six of the 10)
provinces. As a further swindle, polls
with “rigged” questions are used tO}
achieve a grotesque anti-labor response. |

Enough of these phonies, their scrib-
blers and “analysts”, whose job is to stab
the workers in the back! :

May Day is fightback day — a day of
redoubled labor solidarity — a day 0
expose and denounce the splitting, the
lulling, the intimidating attempts by the
workers’ class enemy — state-monopoly
capitalism — and world imperialism to
prostrate the working class.

On May Day strengthen the bonds of | _
working-class unity! Put the programs of
labor into action, and fight to put them
into government! :

A protest that shook Peking |

Age-old traditions of struggle against
oppression are not easily erased, nor are
the cumulative experiences and princi-
ples of the world working class. There
was more than a glimmer of these truths

in recent manifestations in Peking’s Tien —

An Men Square and in other parts of
China.

It is evident that large sections of the
‘Chinese people want out of the Maoist
turmoil and onto the road to building
their own lives and the life of a new Chi-
na, the use of the abilities of people who
have not abandoned the moral and polit-
ical standards held up when China set its
course for socialism.

Yet, if one considers that the more
than $3.5-billion in aid given to China by
the Soviet Union after the 1949 revolu-
tion not only built heavy industry, but
vastly expanded the industrial working
class; and that as British Communist, the
late R. Palme Dutt wrote, Mao consi-

dered this new army an enemy of.

Maoism, then one can see that the late
Premier Chou En-lai’s call in January
1975 for the comprehensive moderniza-
tion of China’s economy, while raising
the hopes of millions, would raise fears
in Mao.
Is China to undertake the develop-
- ment needed to raise the living standards
of its millions, allow its people to be in-
formed of real events in socialist coun-

ne

tries, and unite powerfully with thé)
socialist and developing worlds in an it |
resistible tide of progress? |

Is China again to take its place with the |
growing peace forces of the globe, fot
detente and disarmament, or is it to con”
tinue to preach the “glories” of nucleat
war, and its collaboration with racist, fas- |
cist, and imperialist governments in a0
anti-socialist crusade?

“Maoism has shown itself to be |
dangerous anti-communist, anti-Soviet
and pro-imperialist force, an ally ©
world reaction,” concluded the Central
Committee of the Communist Party 0?
Canada at its meeting in January. “The
fight against Maoism is an integral pat! |
of the struggle against imperialism an
for peace today.”

Events in China shatter what pre |
tence was left of monolithic support fot |
Maoism; slogans in the April upsurg® |
pledging to “carry out the four modern
zations,” urged by Chou, are indicatol |
of desire for new policies.

Pea

The Chinese people will eventually |
decide their own course; but thé
emergence of a China once more sharing
the struggles of the world working clas® |
and progressive mankind against im |
perialism, and for world peace, is he
prospect cherished by millions around |
the world. :