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By FRANK ARNOLD

Dismissal of Montreal archbishop engineered by Duplessis, U.S. .

PREMIER Duplessis’ drive to wipe out every center that might impede his program of selling French

Canada to U.S. monopolies and into the furnace of a ' third worla war, has been successful in forcing the ' “resignation” of one of the highest church officials in Quebec, the Most Rev.' Joseph Charbonneau, Archbishop of Montreal.

But the barefaced power tactics used by Duplessis has already created a storm of anger and resentment in Catholic Quebec that can lead to a decisive political defeat for his police regime.

The announcement that Msgr. Charbonneau _has “resigned” for reasons of “health” came from the Vati- can, but informed Catholic opinion here generally believe the ouster was the result of political intrigue hatched in Premier Duplessis’ office. The threadbare “health” Teason for the Archbishop’s resignation was quickly Knocked on the head by Msgr. Charbonneau himself, Who told a-local reporter, “I am perfectly well, I have never felt better.”

Coupled with this unprecedented resignation came the report that Bishop Philippe Desranleau of Sher- brooke might resign for some other unspecified reason. Bishop Desranleau quickly killed the rumor and _ indi- _ cated he would fight to preserve his position. ‘“‘There iS no question of my resignation,” he said. “This news Was prepared, but not by Rome, I am not going to re- Sign and that is final.” He it was who had spoken Sharply against warmongering.

': The ouster of the Archbishop of Montreal, and re-

Ports that Bishop Desranleau was next in line, were ©

Coupled with the statement, officially inspired by the Duplessis government, that both men were under fire because of “anti-capitalist tendencies.” ® :

:

' For those familiar with politics in Quebec, the rea- Sens behind the ousting of the Bishop of Montreal are not hard to find, The'fact is that Msgr. Charbonneau “nd Bishop Desranleau have not been toeing the Du- Plessis line, which cast French-Canadian workers in the “Ole of “hewers ot wood and drawers of water” for

American and Canadian trusts, and which is, under, the —

Suise of

into a defense of “autonomy,” preparing to sell them

& Yankee-made war.

Faced with the growing resistance of French-Cana-

ieee

_ Maybe they should make Emily Post a general FRANKFURT, Germany (BUP) — The

U.S. Army told GI’s today to spruce up their table manners. It said two enlisted men already have been court-martialed for refusing to pass the Ketchup to a sergeant. :

Cpl. Edgar L. Arthur, a native of McGill, Nevada, hy Pfc. Salvatore Giordano of Roch- ester, N.Y., were demoted to the grade of recruit for their breach of etiquette at the dinner table. They were also restricted to their company area for 30 days and fined $50 each, the army said. Sgt. Howard F, Lovell had asked Arthur and iordano to pass the ketchup in the mess hall.

Witnesses testified that the two enlisted men used

at st then told Lovell to ‘come and get it him- se f »”

Said the army: so _ “Increased respect for senior non-commission- ed officers, along with a keener awareness of correct - ‘| table manners, is expected of all GI's as a result of the trial.” Vancouver Sun, February 17, 1950, — ; o . All the U.S, Army needs to do now is to ‘ssue a medal for correct table manners. We sug- 8est a ketchup bottle couchant with crossed knife and fork against a table napkin background.

—\ casas

AURA

Charbonneau was ‘retired’

By PIERRE GELINAS sce Joseph Charbonneau did not resign as Arch- bishop of Montreal—he was “‘retired’’ by Pope Pius XII on the joint request of Premier Duplessis and the U.S. state department. :

There is reliable information that officials from the U.S. state department confered with the Pope on this question together with Antonio Barrette and Albiny Pa- quette, ministers in the Duplessis cabinet, last December in Rome. Duplessis had previous talks with representa- tives of the U.S. government.

It is reported that the U.S. state department ob- tained the Pope’s agreement that the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Quebec would ‘“‘go along”? with the U.S. policies m the province, as carried out by Duplessis. Protection of U.S. capital in Quebec and approval of. the war policy were at issue. : .

. This does not end the “shake-up.” An official of the Catholic Syndicates told this reporter that new chap- lains are to be appointed to the Catholic Syndicates with orders to promote a policy of: “understanding” with the Duplessis government,

dian workers to these policies, plus the fact that this increasing militancy is inevitably leading the working class leftwards, a trend has developed in recent years in church circles whose aim is to head off the revolt into “safe” channels by making some concessions to labor’s, demands. That trend which the “Dictator” of Quebec is now trying to thwart has bfought sections of the Catholic hierarchy in Quebec into direct opposition to Duplessis, ;

Best illustration of the “social Christian” approach

to labor espoused by Msgr. Charbonneau and Bishop —

Desranleau was seen in the recent Asbestos strike. There 5,000 French-Canadian miners working in death-laden dust at sub-standard wages struck against the oppres- sion of the American bosses. Duplessis threw all his resources into a violent attempt to smash the miners’ strike.

But, for the first time in Quebec history, following the “new line,” the Catholic hierarchy ranged itself on the workers’ side. Both Archbishop Charbonneau and Archbishop Roy of Quebec authorized collections for the strikers every Sunday in all Quebec’s churches. Msgr. Charbonneau also supported the striking Catholic school teachers.

\ Msgr. Charbonneau, in addition, is known as the power behind the editorial throne of Le Devoir, which ‘has been an outspoken critic of Duplessis’ Policies and is antiwar.

The Asbestos strike did “not result in the clear-cut ‘victory that was possible in the given situation because the Catholic Syndicate officials and the church circles

backed away from giving the kind of real militant leadership that could ‘have won. Today the miners are paying for that failure, their leaders being tried in court on criminal charges, and the arbitration board which

was agreed upon to settle the strike awarding the miners °

precisely nothing they hadn't already achieved.

; The attack Duplessis has launched against the people of Quebec to establish himself as one-man dic- tator of the province, has a logic-of its own. First, the attack upon the Communists by means of the Pad- lock Law to remove or weaken the strongest center of resistance to his policies of crisis and war. ‘Then, in quick succession, the attack is directed against the labor movement, people’s organizations like the United Jewish People’s Order, or religious sects like’ the Witnesses of

_ Jehovah, men of peace like Father Duffy, and now any

voice in the Roman Catholic Church which doesn’t echo Duplessis’ fascist-like program. .S

LABOR FOCUS By J. B. SALSBERG

Red-baiters head

to fascist camp

HIEF labor red-baiters in the North American trade union movement are travelling with break-neck Speed

to the camp of fascism. They are unashamedly preparing to sell the trade unions to the bloody ‘fascist Francos of all countries. Shocking? Yes, but true.

That the wild red-baiting of the right-wing labor clique leads to the front of fascism was demonstrated in the pre-war period in many countries, It made it easier for the enemy to conquer and destroy labor and demo- cracy. Many red-baiting labor fakers actually found their way to the foul nests of the Nazis and fascists. The trade union movements of Italy, Germany, France and lgium Saw not a few of their top right-wing leaders in the service of Mussolini, Hitler and the quisling governments. Now we are beginning to witness the same criminal dev- elopment in American and Canadian trade unions.

Yes, it can and is beginning to happen here.

The Yankee imperialist warmakers are reviving the Nazi and fascist forces in Europe and Japan. U.S. mili- tary and political forces are bolstering Franco in Spain and paving the way for an open war alliance with that criminal offspring of Hitler and Mussolini. It is also well known that the top leadership of the AFL, the CIO and their counterparts in Canada are among the most active supporters of the Wall Street foreign policy. They are serving as agents for the U.S. state department in the trade union movement of North America and throughout the world. In fact, Dr. Pat Conroy boasted a few years ago that he and his CCF-CCL top clique were ahead of the Canadian ruling class and its governments in advo- cating the present war policies, i

So it is inevitable that with the stepping up of war kreparations of Wall Street, with the Hell-bomb frenzy, the labor agents of imperialism should carry the latest open, pro-fascist policies of Washington into the ranks of labor. This they have begun to do with a brazenness which should shock every honest worker,

The delegates who attended the 1950 convention of the Ontario Federation of the CCL (February 3 and 4) were shocked to hear one of Charlie Millard’s Stee] dele- gates, a certain Roy Baldassi, declare: “I think a fascist is a hell of a lot better than a Communist.”

“Cries of ‘shame’,” the Pacific Tribune report tells us, “swept the hall.” But the red-baiting clique which runs

“the federation, and which expelled Mine-Mill and the

United Electrical Workers, sat undisturbed on the plat- form, They evidently saw nothing wrong with the pro- fascist outburst. After all, isn’t it in line with the Wall Street - St. Laurent - Drew foreign policy which they support?

Baldassi wasn’t original. He was only repeating what his chief red-baiting leaders had already said before him. Of all the maddened, red-baiting, union-wrecking labor chiefs on this continent, James B. Carey, secretary of the : CIO and head ef the company union known as the IUE, is the worst. This character spoke for the CIO at an “anti-Communist” conference in New York at which the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Cham- bers of Commerce and pro-fascist, anti-Semitic organiza- tions were the ringleaders. Before that evil crowd Carey said the following, as reported in the New York Herald Tribune of January 29, 1950: “In the last war we joined

with the Communists to fight the fascists; in another

war we will join with the fascists to defeat the Com- munists .. .”

Yes, Carey and his like are ready to join with Franco and the beastly heirs of Hitler who destroyed the labor movement, ‘murdered hundreds of thousands of trade union, socialist and Communist leaders; extinguished every flicker of freedom and democracy; fiendishly ex- terminated entire peoples and who threw the world into the bloodiest of wars. The Careys are ready to become fascist labor gauleiters. The Careys are ready and willing to deliver labor to the fascist front.

Lest any of your fellow workers should ask how this is possible I want to give the following quotation from George Morris’ column “World of Labor” in the New York Daily Worker. ‘

“Carey himself, in a report he submitted to the CIO On an executive board meeting of the World Federation of Trade Unions in Rome in April, 1948, indicated who pulls the string. Carey’s report begins: ‘Carey and Read Chis secretary and ACTU founder) arrived in Rome at 6 a.m. At 3 p.m. Carey and Read went to the U.S. embassy where they talked with labor attache Tom Lane, first secretary Ed Page and finally with Ambassador James Dunn, who conferred with them for nearly an hour.’ Under the heading ‘Friday, April 29,’ the report goes on, ‘at 8 p.m. that evening Carey, Ross, Kissane and had dinner with Msgr. Walter Carrol, American of Pope Pius XII and his staff at their residence,’ Carey

and associates were then ready to enter the meeting of

the WFTU executive board the next day.”

That’s the source of red-baiting, union splitting, pro- |

war and pro-fascist policies in the North American labor movement. And thé Careys in the U.S. and Canada are

the agents who carry that disastrous anti-working class,

anti-democratic, war-menacing policy into the ranks of —

labor, ‘

A merciless battle to clean them out of the labor movement should be the answer of every trade unionist | regardless of political belief and affiliation.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 24, 1950—PAGE 9

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