Hate debate

*Y Shepard is a leader in the Student Non- Coordinating Committee in Toronto. Last Was the editor of the University of Toronto’s He does not speak on behalf of SNCC: “This Pic on which there is considerable disagree- ieee, People in SNCC. I'will have to speak as al. ' I think that would be comparable to advoc- 5 the overthrow of the government by force. ther hand, if any group, say the. Sons of ’ SOmetimes describes measures designed to B€ assimilation as “genocide”, I would not Y Object to those measures being advocated,

“21 I would probably disagree with them in Cases,

THINK not. Broadening the legal definition of

nder Could perhaps lead to a vague situation

eae involve a restriction on people’s civil meon t0 discuss things intelligently. Far instance,

“any ight wish to observe that immigrants from night Such a country hold certain political views. e be an intelligent statement and of certain te nbPOse that if the legal definition of slander ut ana nobody would get into any trouble & kin ie a statement; on the other hand that is ym. °! area I'd be concerned about.

ty COULD depend on how these. people proposed vil ; Press civil rights and to some extent what Vocate they proposed to suppress. A person who th ng S Stringent and careless methods for dealing : 8m, as some people do, would suppress civil

lowes", I disagree with him I think he should g y ‘tg to function freely. On the other hand, if tws» “YS “I think we ought to wipe out all the Motion el I think he should not be allowed to muni If a man advocated outlawing the ang St Party, which I think would be wrong to uly : Suppression of civil rights, I still think he nist $e allowed to-go around saying the Com- y,. “ty should be outlawed.

»T think that is quite possible.

is probably a fairly basic psychological 1 of people who are different from oneself. C be enough to produce a few eccentrics fasoign have around now. But I think the roots a, wt would be something like a serious pro- theme 2ly economic, such as in pre-war Germany Ve a °yment and that sort of thing. Or you could Us "facial situation such as in Africa, or maybe bem “outh. You get a situation with really: drastic Hone 8, Poor people and people without jobs, and ‘bout a ho have very good reason to be frustrated Other © way things are going. For one reason or i and © people would be unable to find mean- ; ae Ys be people who are looking for some ith a _stic- solution and they turn to fascism, dy Some particular point the power structure Ok, xia block as vigorously as it would try to tsety Communism, even though the power struc- ABso 1S probably neither one. ~SOLUTELy,

eRe ig SPicio

thnic leader

. i COWan is the President of the United Jewish th, Order and a former president of the B’nai

Yrs,

T

thoy NK that is a grave danger. Experience has Mtrieg 2 the United States and perhaps other been that legislation introduced against fascism Amerion@ against liberal and other forces. The

Activities Committee is an outstand-

Useful solutions to their problems. There.

There are a variety of opinions among Canadian anti-fascists on how to cope with the problem. The Tribune asked a number of people the six questions be- low and publishes their repliés.

1. Do you think the preaching of genocide should be outlawed?

2. Do you think the legal definition of slander should be broadened to include races? f

3. Do you think those who would suppress civil rights should be allowed to function freely in society? |

4. Is it possible, in your estimation, that

’ legislation invoked against nazism, would ‘be

used against other political formations? 5. What do you think are the roots of fascism?

6. Do you think opposing fascism by re- strictive legislation might obscure these roots?

ing example. It, if I remember, was enacted ‘to sup- ~

press or investigate fascist organizations. It did very little in that field. It devoted its efforts to trade unions, civil rights people and other elements in the community.

5 THE ROOTS of fascism are economic. It is used

internally, and externally, when and if a crisis develops. Under normal conditions a certain amount of. freedom is permitted; but. when a crisis deepens, more direct methods are used by the state and these express themselves in fascist methods.

NO. I think the fight against fascist activities

would be strengthened by proper: legislation. If there were legislation on the books many decent folk who are opposed to racist and fascist manifestations would be more vocal in their opposition.

Political leaders

Stephen Lewis, New Democratic Party member in the Ontario Legislative Assembly, was asked to contribute his point of view. Before he heard the questions he answered as follows:

“No, I don’t think we would care to reply, thank’ you very much.”

Tim Buck is chairman of the Communist Party of Canada. Previous to that he was the long-time leader and general secretary of the party.

1 YES. If Canada followed the. spirit and letter of the United Nations Charter and decisions it would be outlawed.

YES. In addition, it is necessary in this day and

age that there should be legislation that specific- ally deals ‘with that problem because slander itself has a tendency to be interpreted in the courts in a loose way. Racism and racist propaganda should be outlawed.

3 NO. Those who would suppress civil rights are

a menace to civilization. The suppression of civil rights for everybody would mean the end of all

democratic participation in the formation of national

policy and would “eventually mean the end of demo- cratic influence upon legislation.

4 YES. I think democratic people tend to overlook the fact that legislation can be useful and effective only to the extent that it expresses. or reflects a mass popular action. We need legislation. But what we need even more is the active participation of the democratic forces in opposition, so that legislation

would be merely the expression of government acquiescence to the demand of a democratic people.

THE ROOTS of fascism are political — the class

struggle. It is no accident that fascism arose and was fostered by monopoly capitalism only after socialism proved itself a viable way of life—a chal- lenge to capitalism. The roots of fascism also include the fact that many people who are frustrated and feel helpless against the domination of _monopoly capitalism, and the extent to which it is preventing a full, democratic development, accept the propa- ganda and the illusions of fascism under the mistaken idea that, “Well, perhaps this will bring about a change.” The roots of fascism are primarily in the

“determination of the reactionary forces to defeat the

democratic strivings of the people; which might lead; to. socialism. But they are also in the inadequacy! and ineffectiveness of the educational work of the! progressive forces among the masses of the people, to concretize: the opposition. to fascism.

RESTRICTION by legislation, if it is separate ™: form and«not a reflection of.the active participa- tion of the democratic masses of the people in the fight against fascism, would obscure the roots. And this. is no argument against the restrictive method... It is only an argument for the absolute necessity of any legal restrictions being but the other, legal side of mass participation in the struggle.

Church leader

The Tribune was unable to obtain an interview with the Rev. J. R. Hord of the United Church of Canada because he was on holiday. Instead, the de- partment of evangelism and social services of the United Church gave us a transcript of a radio broad- cast he made over CFRB in Toronto. Following are extracts relevent to our questions.

] BEFORE any publication was banned.I would

prefer to see it studied by a tribunal, made up not only of a judge and a lawyer, but also a leader

in the field of civil rights, a psychiatrist, and other

community leaders. I would only agree to censorship if the material was extremely pornographic, libellous or seditious, and then only if a tribunal, representa- tive of various viewpoints and sections of the com- munity passed upon it. (Emphasis the author’s).

WE MUST be very careful censoring the views of

minority groups. Today a court could ban hate literature and tomorrow the views of a political group whose views were offensive tq the vast major- ity of our people...

The Canadian Jewish Congress has petitioned the government to revise the criminal code in order that persons who promote hatred or publish material which incites to violence against another group be- cause of their race, color, religion or ethnic origin, should be regarded as guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for up to two years. ,I cannot agree with this position. This is a law that could: boomerang on other minority groups.

B COULD their anger be motivated.-by personal

insecurity? I have often wondered if anti-Semitism is not largely caused by jealousy of Jewish people... Their (the authors of hate literature) system of ideals is so insecure they respond to criticism with attack...

We must also seek to change the social conditions in our society, such as had housing, broken homes, inadequate facilities to guide our young people, which would produce dictators and their henchmen, black- jacketed teen-age gangs and right-wing hatists. Sir Norman Angell, the English writer, traces these fas- cist movements ‘right back to the nature of our - society: “The vested interests can only get the public to act as they wish by manipulating public opinion,

_by playing on the public’s indifference, confusions,

prejudices or fears.” . In a true democracy all our various groups, with

' their widely divergent religious, cultural and poli-

tical views should learn to work together for the common good. When we know our neighbor who is attacked by a hate group we will not “believe” false- hoods directed against him.

August 13, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5