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E don’t know what the Financial Post pays - Ronald Williams. its “expert” on Communism, but ig it is in excess of fifty cents a day the big : boys of St. James and Bay streets are being SWamied out of some easy money. © As a good customer for communist and pro- Stessive literature, Ronald is one of the biggest, although anything but the best. He buys up €Verythinge published by the Labor-Progressive Party, the CCF and the militant section of the trade union movement. Like a hungry rat on the loose in a well-stocked pantry, Ronald goes through such literature with glittering eyes, ex- _ acting whatever he can in or out of context. his he cooks up in a weekly thriller for the pot- bellieg coupon clippers, who hire him to write what they like to read! Long practice at the business of distortion has enabled Ronald to pro- _ sce a “high” quality of anti-Communistic and Nti-labor pablum for his ulcerated Chamber-of- Ommerce readers. . , During recent times Ronald has been quite busy on the LPP Draft Program, adopted at the Sbruary session of the LPP national committee. What Ronald may ultimately achieve with this historic document is anybody’s guess... What he S Managed to date (winning fulsome praise by “16 Vancouver Sun) is to reassure the fat boys thigh finance that independence for Canada from ‘S. domination, the growing desire for disarm- *ment and lasting peace, and the idea of trade “th an nations; is just a new turn in the Com- MUnist “line,” designed to “weaken” Canada and Make it easy for the Red Army to march in. tr Believe it or not, this infantile fantasy gets ao} °nt-page prominence in Canada’s leading busi- ‘Ress journal, on Those. who feed on Ronald’s brand of ‘‘jour- alese” are never too finicky about the obvious

:

per.» ttuths insist on breaking through the “ex- tal are put to work to explain them away as

*mMmunist propaganda.”

: th, § Those who have read the.serialized blurbs of ; a8 aR World renowned woman journalist and novel- a Rebecca West, in the Vancouver Sun, alleged al © the “intriguing story of Tsar Stalin,” must oha have readily observed that such scribblers » -Ve little respect for truths or reality. Rebecca

ie & bang-up job of literary prostitution, but ittle else, t

dae Bis ik only prove the old adage. that a class bith by history to extinction writes its own No Mary in falsehood, and in its selection of “re- 4 ged” writers, often gets short-changed on © duality of goods delivered,

“i ae Owing section of the Canadian people — the _pooPle far outside the ranks of labor, that ug, Uzting call for Canadian independence from ac Monopoly domination and war conspiracy, ex-

ing) What they are already thinking and say

‘the They can see the rights of parliament and

See being abrogated at the dictates of

aig. © imperialism.

takin, “Ud abetted by its Canadian counterpart,

Pekin Over vast chunks of their country’s natural

Nels Tees. They can see Canada’s peace-time chan- ~* 8f trade being dammed up by U.S.-imposed

_Tuths of history, economics or society, Whenever

The Financial Post “expert” crystal gazer_

[t is already becoming crystal clear to an

They can see U.S. monopoly, |

As We See It by TOM McEWEN |

SUPE Wr nen TM ETE ET CLT rR MLM TD

elie Sige

obstructions. the hand of the U.S. state department and the FBI reaching into and determining the internal affairs of their own unions. Canadian farmers can see their own crops, produce and herds rotting, while U.S. farm products glut numerous domestic mar- kets. Canadian teachers can see, and are protest- ing the infiltration of Yankee ‘“‘cold war” propa- ganda, sex, and gangster “kultur” in text books

imposed upon Canadian schools.

These sinister developments, and more, can- not be wished away by the scribblers of the Financial Post and similar sheets, by periodic spates of ‘“anti-Communist’’ sewer journalism. The issue of Canadian independence and the demo- cratic rights of the Canadian people, demanding freedom from U.S, monopoly domination and war intrigues, is becoming a household -concern in Canada, and cannot be waved away by the fevered word-pictures of professional ‘‘red bogey” scrib- blers. ‘

We commend to the Financial Post, its ‘‘ex- perts” and its readers. as well as to all workers in Canada whether in factory or on farm, a read- ing of Tim Buck’s 30 Years: ‘The Story Of The Communist Movément In Canada, together with a study of the LPP Draft Program for Canadian Independence and People’s Democracy, Both have a powerful moral for working men and women

.. and a message for the coupon-clippers that g “expert”? Ronald is sure to muff, Both present a vivid picture of a prosperous and happy Canada —-with the U.S. and Canadian monopolists strip- ped of their power to do evil, and put to useful work, And, it may be added, there is nothing the fat boys (who have sat on top of the pile so long) fear so much as good wholesome honest work, That’s why they hire such ‘experts’ to

“allay their fears, ‘ :

e ’ The total of this column to date in tributes

to Ol Bill stands at $353.95. The five and ten — dollar. donations came in from old stalwarts, cronies of Ol’ Bill’s, who are the ‘‘gold reserve” of the struggle to keep papers like the Pacific Tribtme going. “I hope we will make the grade,” writes one of these old timers from Prince George (with $10 enclosed in his letter), “because papers like the Pacific Tribune are the only cure for the germ-carriers of capitalism, Keep up the good work.” : : We are in the last week of the campaign and so far only a little over half way to the objective of $17,500. That means that all press clubs, friends, supporters, readers and other guardian

angels of the PT will have to pull up a lot of

slack during the next 10 days, |

This column is quite confident the goal will ~

be reached—but don’t hang onto that contribution a day longer than is absolutely necessary. As OV Bill would remind us, in the business of keep- ing ‘a fighting paper going, the “bird in the hand js worth two in the bush.” Some time ago the Financal Post “expert” Ronald Williams wrote a touching story of the growing difficulties of papers like the PT to ‘‘keep going.”

You can write a sequel to Ronald’s Chamber

‘of Commerce blurb with the balance needed to

“go over the top.’’, Put the PT on your letter- writing list—TODAY!

. Act, and a handful of union raiders and sellout artists, are stalling

Canadian trade unionists can see

' the time to begin looking over this and hundreds of similar Van-

Unity can win higher wages

peo not less than 70,000 British Columbia trade unionists — are involved in the annual negotiations for new union contracts, including wage increases ranging all the way from 25 to 50 cents at an hour. * ; In many cases the empolyers. encouraged by the collective will of employers’ organizations, and cumbersome machinery of the ICA

and dragging out negotiations, undoubtedly with the idea that after a protracted period of such tactics, the unions will give up ‘the effort to win wages commensurate with living costs and settle for the old wage rate—or less.

The old argument that “high wages create high living costs” is being raised again, despite the fact that it is as phoney as a pro- fessional politician’s pre-election promises, in an effort to head off wage increases. The story is also being peddled around in the daily press that living costs in Canada are on the “downgrade,” hence workers should make “sacrifices” to hasten the trend. To cap that one, the bosses and their press are also trying to take advantage of growing unemployment to lever down wage standards, by arguing that workers should be “‘reasonable” in their wage demands in order to help the bosses provide more jobs.

With industrial profits at an alltime high in B.C., the argument that industry ‘“‘cannot afford” substantial wage increases in 1952 is low-grade bunk. Nor can the “shortage” of markets for Canadian products be used as an excuse for lowered trade union standards. Those who are pocketing the highest profits are also the people who are primarily responsible for restriction of Canada’s markets.

A closer unity and determination to win their wage demands — would immeasurably strengthen trade union ranks at this time, It would also have the effect of compelling the bosses and their press to talk business, instead of talking nonsense designed to sidetrack and abstract wage increases.

* This is election year and now is a good time to write into new union contracts (expressed in substantial increases in the workers’ pay envelopes) something of the “prosperity” the political Charley’ McCarthys of the trust will soon be spouting on the hustings. Stronger labor unity and action can decide the issue in favor of the workers,

Inspect these firetraps

| eerie a of people stood tensely watching a Kitsilano tenement _

house fire on Monday this week. Such houses are referred in | polite language as “apartments.” The correct term should be death traps. A mother of 26 years and her seven-year-old daughter dieq in this death trap.

Outside a fire-fighting, life-saving array of vehicles worth prob- ably half a million dollars was available to firefighters who were helpless to the appeal of a distractéd husband: “My wife and child are in there. Can’t you try and get them out?” Vancouver’s fire- men did their best, but the smoking death trap foiled their efforts _ to save the lives of a young mother and daughter. =

This Kitsilano tenement fire points up the need at Vancouver City Hall to begin assessing responsibility. It is reported than an _ “investigation” is now under way. May we respectfully submit that

couver death traps is before they are transformed from “homes” into human incinerators! e : i

If, instead of acting as full-time yes-men for the BCElectric or riding after the hounds with “Labor” Alderman R. K. Gervin (to clip citizens for an extra dog tax), the city fathers were to dedicate a reasonable portion of their time to looking over some of Vancou- ver’s slums—and doing something constructive about them—work- ing people like Mrs. Carol Muir and -her little daughter Sharon might have a 50-50 chance of beating the hazards of their “home.”

j

The tragic incident of this Kitsilano fire demands a rigid in- spection of slum “apartments” and such dwellings. It also places this responsibility where it properly belongs—on the Non-Partisan — council table. SES Nes

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_ Authorized as second class mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa _ : PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 25, 1952 — PAGE 5