. Grauer, _ With : fabulous give-aways, and stead- lly mounting taxes. Almost - Clearly ~-£nd “ Cateq HE B.C. Electric — so it’s Said — has never lost a B.C, election! The results * Could have: been different this time — but there’s no question McMahon, Wenner Gren and MacMillan won| *-88ain. Defeat of Socred: Labor Minister Lyle Wicks and Agri- _, culture Minister Stacey, repre- _ + Sented 4 repudiation of govern- ~ | Ment policiés-in these two im- ~ -Portant: fields. A:sign the Soc- Ted tide has begun to ebb, and: hat a new stage of political fluidity is developing in B.C. Eight years ago B.C. voters turned out the Liberals and Ories because of their anti- labor, big business favoritism. Social Credit since has shown . itself to be even more servile to big business, more anti-labor - With its Bill 43, and more Corrupt. Even the high-power- €d two-million dollar Socred Advertising campaign couldn’t ide the bitter dissatisfaction rising unemployment, two out of every three elec- tors who went to ‘the polls ~ September 12th, voted against € Socred government and its Policies, The majority obviously Wanted a change. ‘This was reflected in the de- Magogic promises which the lberal and Tory parties felt _ “ompelled ¢o bring forward — Public Ownership of power, an to give-aways, Provincial S0vernment assumption of . School costs, pre-paid medical Chemes, plans to combat un- » "ployment, etc. And the fact Should not be ignored, that ae the Socreds won over Tee-fifths of the Legislative _ Seats and the CCF got 32% he popular vote, the Tory “Nd Liberal ballots added to- _ Sether amounted to 28%—al- 0st a third of the B.C. total. _ “1e Tory vote of 70,245 (while from 3% to 7%), reflected he disillusionment with Fede- S0vernment policies indi- in other elections across t € country recently. The fact é at. the Liberals particularly, Suld Muster such a vote after aving elected only two MLAS) (Je last Legislature points} € persisting danger of a Sulta al resurgence, with a re- sup nt Switch of big business! Port, filling any new politi- vacuum in the same way al Credit did (to every- oe amazement) in 19382. It @ppened twice before in Liber Soci One’ B.C.’s recent history. Failure of the CCF to help weld. a real united. front against big business policies and to take sharp. issue with the Socreds on the key ques- tions: of provincial’ politics made it possible for the Soc- reds to get back with a safe majority of 32° of 52° seats. (Chances ‘of “winning were ‘jet- tisoned by. .their evasion of the question -of Canadian neu- trality in the cold ‘war, diver- sion of wasted arms spending to provide tax relief and peo- ples welfare, removal-of U.S. bases, repeal of the: provincial sales tax, action to recover (as well as halt) gigantic give- aways of our natural resources. It was this characteristic weak- ness of Social Democracy — this pandering to the “‘liberal” voter, and trying to convey to the owners of industry that the CCF won’t hurt their feel- ings (let alone their pocket books) that is the main ob- stacle to genuine labor and progressive unity. Undoubtedly the Liberal and Tory vote, like the Communist vote, was considerably reduc: ed by the polarization that took place around the CCF and Social ‘Credit late in the cam- paign, following the frantic interjection by _Grauer and McMahon—a clumsy attempt to intimidate the electors into voting for the Bennett admin- isration. : That over 5,800 votes were cast for the candidates of the GEORGE McMAHON _..he warned B.C. would lose 10,000 jobs if Socreds not returned. We’ve got the Socreds but we haven't the jobs yet. “All-In. Unity Only Way To Win’ Says Nigel Morgan,B.C. Communist Lead €r, inthis analysis of theSeptember 12 election Communist Party (running in 19 of 52 constituencies), and in face of a vicious campaign of lies and slanders, and the usual news blackout, is no~ Small achievement. The ‘Communist Party candidates opened up one of the biggest political de- bates of the campaign — a de- bate that was taken-by means of TV, radio and leaflet into thousands of homes, hundreds of communitiés,. unions and other people’s — organizations. That debate ‘will not only con- tinue; it will grow. Many thousands of British Colum- bians became aware, even if they: didn’t vote for them in this. election, that there is a Communist ‘Party in B.C. and that it is the only party that stands clearly for peace, in- dependent .Canadian develop- ment and socialism. The slightly increased - vote which a number of Communist candidates received, repre- sents a tribute to the fine campaign waged by the mem- bers and supporters of the ‘Communist Party, around the real issues of the election — the struggle for new national policies, based on peace, Cana- dian neutrality in the cold war, ,jobs, tax relief and peo- ple’s welfare. The attempts of the other parties to evade the real issues by substituting the game of out-promising one an- other, has solved nothing. The real issues remain to be tackled. Correctness of the warning of the Communist Party that nothing short of ALL-IN, labor-farmer. and- progressive unity could create a strong enough alternative to ‘topple Social Credit, was certainly borne out’ by the election. Ex- amination of a number. of con- stituencies like Nanaimo- Islands; shows that the narrow, partisan, go-it-alone policies of the CCF leadership, which ex- cluded not only the Commun- ist Party. but some of the big- gest labor organizations in the province cost the CCF seats. So did their raising of the false issue of anti-Communism. Even in industrial’ towns like Kitimat three trade unionists ran against. one another be- cause ‘they. couldn’t accept CCF policy: So Social Credit i-won again.’ Strachan’s ~promises that they would form the next, gov’t., proved as false as his lies ‘and slanders about the Communist Party selling out 8 Photo shows Axel Wenner-Gren, right, SSS with Premier Bennett’s man Friday, Einar. Gunderson, in happy mood. They have just won the B.C. election with the return of the Socred government to power. Wenner-Gren is looking forward to getting everything he wants, but if he takes another look at the vote-he will find that 61 percent of the voters voted against his man Bennett. to Wenner Gren and Bennett. That . the CCF should have gained only 5% in the popu- Iar’ .vote, and. 6 additional seats in the 52-seat Legislat- ure, in . spite .of large scale transfer of funds from trade union treasuries and use of union personnel, proves the bankrupcy -and futility of present policies. Impositions from above won't work, and _ particularly when they aim to leave out important sections of the la- bor movement. The fact that with 130,000 members less than $2,000 was collected from trade union members on the basis of voluntary, one- dollar donations in a period of 11 months, is very revealing Most. of the big donations were voted from union treas- uries by small meetings and by the B.C. Federation of La- bor; Council executives, while the role of the rank and file was limited to one of supply- ing the votes, the funds and live bodies to do the electoral work. Onee the CCF had im- posed itself from above in con- vention, its affiliates had no more rights: than to endorse} CCF candidates and provide money and organizers.- Suc: cess will only be achieved when the rank and file of the labor and farm movements are involved. in .democratically deciding policy and selecting candidates. The big lesson of this must not be lost — that short of a genuine, nothing | ALL-IN |; united action can solve the | immediate problems of working people of B.C.; that nothing short of a real FED- the} ERATION OF LABOR-FAR- MER. forces is going to end the big business. .domination of our province. This lesson should be borne in mind in preparations for the. forth- coming municipal elections. United action by the entire labor, farmer, and progress- ive movement is needed now more than ever before. Unit- ed action can and must be forged by the mass of people who suffer most from its ab- sence today. We can’t wait for another four years on the basis of more vague and un- fulfilled promises that “next time the CCF will win.” We've been hearing that for the last 27 years. Two thirds of the electors have rejected Social Credit policies — a fact Premier Benneit cannot ignore. United we can get action on peace, jobs, tax relief and the peo- ple’s needs. Concessions can be won, and the basis laid-to end big business domination of B.C. To this aim the-Com- munist Party in B.C. will sub- ordinate all other considera- tions, and devote all its re- sources and energy. Castle Jewelers 590 WEST GEORGIA Vancouver, B.C. PHONE MU 5-5014 Watchmaker & Jewelers Special Dis- count fo all Tribune Rea- ders. Bring this ad with you. September 23, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7 hi