2h Ea NRE a RT WALTER WIGGINS Party lowers its banner... The Central Executive Com- mittee of the Communist Party of Canada paid the following moving tribute to Walter Wig- gins — “beloved and talented farm leader and a devoted Com- munist through almost five dec- ades” — who died in Vancouver — last week: “From the misery of the trenches of the First World War, Walter Wiggins became a pio- neer of the Saskatchewan park- land country, soon to learn how callously the bright promises to the Soldier Settlers were to be betrayed and forgotten. “In the early 1920’s he be- came a member of the first rural branch organized by the Com- munist movement in North America — at Sturgis, Saskat- chewan. Members of the organ- ized farm movement of that day across the prairies were soon to know him as a militant and in- corruptible spokesman for their needs. “When the existing farm movement retreated before the desperately urgent struggles made necessary by the onset of world depression and devas- tating drought, Walter Wiggins came forward as the Secretary of the Farmers’ Unity League. Under the slogan: ‘Don’t be starved out, don’t be frozen out, - «, Pacific Tribune don’t be sold out — fight!’ he helped to inspire hundreds of successful actions to stop sher- iff’s sales and evictions. “Later he served for many years as the respected chairman of the Labor-Progressive Party in Saskatchewan. “Throughout his life, both in Saskatchewan and later in Van- couver, he was a consistent con- tributor to the Open Forum of The Western Producer. His let- ters on the deep-going problems of Canadian agriculture, and on the great issues of peace and war, always trenchant and thor- oughly researched, won him the respect of friend and opponent alike. - “He was a gentle man who cared deeply about the welfare of people, whose acts of per- sonal kindness are the cherished memories of all who knew him. He combined these qualities with an unwavering partisan- ship in the cause of a socialist Canada in a world at peace. His work is an inseparable part of all that is best in the history of our country.” The committee expresses deepest sympathy to Margaret, | “who so courageously shared all the hardships of his life,” and to his daughters and their fami- lies. Editor— MAURICE RUSH Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288. : 2 Circulation Manager, ERNIE CRIST Subscription Rate: Canada, $5.00 one year; $2.75 for six months. North and South America and Commonwealth countries, $6.00 one year. All other countries, $7.00 one year a WHAT A CARD! Ban the stormtroopers Democratic rights don’t apply to nazis, to fascist thugs. Free speech, freedom to express opinion, freedom of association, these are the rights of the people, not of those who destroy them. _ That was the lesson of history when the forces of democracy smashed the hideous war machine of nazism and ‘the Nuremburg trials condemned for- ever its monstrous philosophy. Last Sunday in Toronto, members of the Edmund Burke Society were thrown out of a public meeting called in support of Quebec political prison- ers, but not before they had brutally attacked members of the audience with a blinding spray, with stink bombs and iron bars in their vain attempt to break up the peaceful meeting. These are the tactics the nazis and fascists used in the 20’s and 30’s to crush democracy in Germany and Italy. There must be no place for them in Canada. Especially today, when democ- racy in our country is already under grave attack by the Trudeau govern- ment itself. Busy in its preparations, falsely in the name of democracy, of permanent anti-democratic legislation to replace the repressive Public Order Act, the federal government does nothing to prevent fascist violence in our country. It did nothing to prevent the head of the U.S. nazi party from crossing the border, his swastika badge in his lapel, to speak at a meeting in Vancouver early this month, or the Zionist storm- troop leader Kahane from doing the same in Toronto. . It does nothing to ban the fascist activities of John Beattie and his nazi group in London, Ontario. By its seeming indifference, the Tru- © deau government in fact is giving en- couragement to the vile, anti-democra- tic thugs of the Edmund Burke Society. Repeal the Public Order Act now! Stop the federal government’s plans for permanent anti-democratic legislation! Ban the Edmund Burke Society! For a policy of unity at the NDP convention The contest for leadership will no doubt tend to dominate the April 21-24 convention of the New Democratic Party. With a federal election coming up this year or the next, the choice of a new NDP leader takes on increased importance. Add to this the publicity glare that will focus on the leadership race during the convention, and the possibility looms that personalities, rather than matters of policy, may occupy most of the attention of the pat Such a development would serve only too well the purposes of the present z right-wing leadership of the! in the Ontario NDP conve fall, so now for this national tion the right wing plans to @ campaign to obscure the mail The Waffle group, howevé with other left forces in the N this time succeeded in pushil tions of policy to the foref# before the convention opens; around the Quebec crisis, the the right to national self- tion, and Canadian independem It is to be hoped the convell continue this emphasis on pol It takes place at a time W Canadian people are involved veloping crisis, brought on by™ and the policies of the Trudeal ment, that now confronts ¥ convention with the overria™ of our country’s independen! F tionalization, jobs, peace alt racy. , The urgency of these issues a policy of unity, directed operation of all the forces % including the Communists, * constitute a challenge to t parties. eid Trade union delegates in P* can play a decisive role at a tion in uniting the progress around policies aimed agali oly. The positive positions 0 dian Labor Congress should © to NDP policy decisions. _ In its last national con Winnipeg the NDP itself Canada’s withdrawal from NORAD and denounced Bae against Vietnam. To these. stands for peace, which this 0 will nrObanTy reassert, the can add the positions of the oppose the sale of arms er with Canada’s consequent in aggression against the “ Indochina; that oppose ou an participation in the U.S.-U" fense sharing program. — End Canada’s comp” p() Dow Chemical has polity Erie with its mercury wast? give a damn for the fish 1 il The Ontario government 15° Dow Chemical has for ¥ manufacturing napalm 1n V" For the children, the Ww? nocent victims in Indochi? been agonizingly burned 4 horribly maimed by its Dow Chemical cares nothi? fitable. a The Canadian governme™ ag ing it. On the contrary, oe i the sale of arms — over $3 them a year—to the Unite use in its war in Indochin® | We must make Trudeau ? Canadians in their overW jority have for years opP?, against the heroic people Now, when the peoples of #7, are dealing mighty blows 4 aggressors, we must me? ai than ever demand that CaP its complicity in this dirty So nS = TES S.