Published Weekly ai

ROOM 104, SHELLY BUILDING
119 West Pender Street
Vancouver, B.C.

by the

PEOPLE’S PUBLISHING CO.
MArine 5288

28 ASUSESOUREEDESCRESESEREGREEUESSAESESSSLSESSECEEEEICSSESAESUL08R9201003)

eS
TOM McEWEN -

Bete age ae Editor

IVAN BIRCHARD zi Manager
EDITORIAL BOARD

Nigel Morgan Maurice Rush Minerva Cooper Al Parkin

Subseription Rates: 1 Year, $2.00; 6 Months, $1.00
Printed by East End Printers, 2303 East Hastings Street, Wancouver, B.C.
Authorized as second-class mail by the post-office dept., Ortawa

The Real ‘Fifth Column’

{= you read carefully the article featured in the Pacific

Tribune “extra” last week, entitled, “Atomic Imperialism
Endangers Peace of the World,” by Tim Buck, National
Leader of the Labor-Progressive Party, you will find some-
thing that up until now has been akin to a State secret. The
information, that in 1942 arid later when the British and
Canadian High Commands were in search of trusted Cana-
dians to parachute into enemy territory, for the purpose of
establishing behind-the-lines communication with the anti-
fascist resistance movement with the British and American
forces, they came to the Communist movement in Canada
for such men. Not to the tory Drews, or the Social Credit
fascist Lows, or to the Coldwells, but to the Communists
- . . to the Bucks, Carrs, Carons and Morgans.

They wanted men whose devotion to the war against
fascism and to Canada, was equalled by their willingness to
give their lives if necessary in a common cause. They found
those men among the ranks of the Canadian communists.
And they found them after they had experimented with
other elements, recommended by such as the Drews, et al,
who promptly went over to the side of the enemy forces.

Thus when the anti-Soviet propagandists in government
circles, and in the commercial press and radio, scream to
high heaven of a “Russian Fifth Column” Gn which they
include by inference and implication) the Labor-Progressives
and others who may express, or have expressed friendliness
towards the USSR and its social system, they know that
they are lying to provide a cover-up of their own rotten
system of exploitation.

The real “fifth column” are the reactionaries in the seats
of political power, and the monopolists, who see in every
anti-Soviet campaign a possibility of serving their own narrow
class interests, by gouging into the wage and living standards
of labor and the people. Those who endanger the UNO and
“Big Three” unity, by inventing provocations against the
USSR, and becoming the custodians of Hitler’s defunct “anti-
Communist Axis,” are the real “Fifth Column.” It is- they
who raise the lie against progressive labor to hide their
own infamy against democracy and progress.

4h iy |
Pressure 7
HEN the Labor Lobby was in Victoria a few weeks
ago presenting a joint AFILL-CCL brief of needed labor

legislation, the daily press, speaking for Big Business, set
up a lament about “pressure politics.’’ The “Province” edi-
torialized on the subject, and bemoaned the fact that labor
saw fit to invade the Capital in numbers, thus eXercising
undue pressure to gain its ends. Actions like that, chided the
Province, are unnecessary in a democracy, etc., and so forth.

in bringing its demands before the governments and the
public, the Labor Lobby performed a major public service to
the well-being of every B.C. community. That fact is con-
firmed by the endorsation of the Lobby brief by the business
men of innumerable centres.

There is another “lobby” in Victoria . . . which doesn’t®
work publicly, but does work to keep British Columbia and
its people under the thumb of Big Business. Look around the
Legislature galleries any day and you will see the high-priced
attorneys and representatives of the big monopolies. The
representatives of the Canadian Manufacturers Association
(CMA) the CPR; the Interior Lumber Operators; the Brit-
ish Columbia Electric Co.: the B.C. Loggers Association, et
al. High-priced legal and pressure ‘‘experts” . watching
the proceedings of the House like so many vultures; button-
holing MILA’s and warning them of the “danger” of the
40-hour week—of minimum wage legislation——of the neces-
sity of keeping the compensation laws “‘as they are.’ Lobby-
ing by pressure, with a capital ““P,’’ because they are the
representatives of the boys who “pay the shot’’ and the de-
fenders of their time-honored right of “calling the tune.” It
is not surprising of course that the ‘‘Province” or other sub-
sidized press have not editorialized on this brand of “pressure.

Labor should take warning from the. continued presence
of these gentlemen in the legislative gallery, and keep
Labor's men on the job until its demands have been met.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 4

ff Se en en ae Ne peg re tes TS

- not condemning,

GROPPER’S
ALMANAC

Where Stands The CCF?

By LESLIQX MORRIS
EvEN the briefest scan of the
CCF press and the most cur-

sory examinations of the public
statements of CCF leaders in the
past month, will serve to reveal
the utter bankruptcy of their
political line. The national coun-
cil of the CCF is now meeting in
Ottawa. The CCE group in the
Ontario legislature is confronted

with the Drew attack on all la- ~

bor via his unscrupulous speech
against the LPP, and the Que—
bee CCF lines in the province
where the Padlock Law may be
enforced at any time.

In a number of provinces the
CCE is the official opposition;
Saskatchewan it is the govern-
ment. In other words, it is in a
position to take a stand on the
present anti-Soviet, red-baiting
campaign which has been un-
leashed as if by the pressing of
a button, j

With some exceptions, the
CCF leaders have gone along
with the government. True. there
have been words of criticism
here and there (“the duty of an
opposition is to oppose’) but in
the main, the CCF leadership
shows every sign not only of
but even of
welcoming the attack upon the
LPP. Mr. Coldwell’s statement
about the spy probe was every-
thing that could have been de-
sired by anyone interested in
dividing the labor movement on
the polities of that case. No
one asks Mr. Coldwell to defend
espionage. Tim Buck in his very
first statement made it clear
that the LPP does not defend it
either. But while Tim Buck cor-
rectly pointed to the political
motivations and effects of the
spy probe, Mr. Coldwell, follow-
ed by Clairie Gillis, M.P., rushed
to convict the people held in-
communicado by branding them
as “quislings” before their trials.

This unseemly haste indicates
perhaps more than anything
else what the CCF leadership
hopes to gain out of the present
campaign.

Y apparently feel that any-

thing that will weaken the
LPP must redound to their
party advantage. The disgust-
ing applause and handshaking
that marked the reception by
the CCE group in the Ontario
legislature of the red-baiting
speech of Premier Drew was
clear evidence that the CCF
leaders hope to gain by red-

M. J. COLDWELL

baiting in that they feel they.
will be relieved of criticism of
their policies should Mr. Drew’s
efforts succeed.

True, the CCF leaders try to
cover up by condemning the
method of interrogation and de-
tention of the people held in
Ottawa. But more than that,
they will not say or do—again
with some honorable exceptions.

Premier Drew’s intervention
in the affairs of the trade-union
movement by appealing for a
“cleaning out of the reds” found
the CCE-CCL leaders strangely
silent. But other trade-union
spokesmen who are far removed
from sympathy with the LPP did
not hesitate to condemn Mr.
Drew’s speech as a threat to all
working people. Whatever ac-
tion has been taken by trade-
union locals or central bodies
to answer the “red scare” cer-
tainly was taken in most in-
stances despite the attitude of
the CCE leaders in the unions.

But if the CCF lead ©
gain in their end atz
of the LPP they wi
ceed in their purpos 4
shows—and plenty ¢
here in Canada—that 4
on the Communists f #
aries never stops at
munists; no matter —
more they may suffer 7
people, but inevitab] ©
to inelude all sectic @
working class—perhe
ing that group whict ©
holus-bolus to the a ®
action. This is so be’
baiting is the technic
oppression and warn |
where the left-@ing ¢ —
the real target, act ©
the economic and re
terests of -the worl
are under fire. And #
ests embrace all wo =
out regard for polit |
tion. : 3

Consequently, the
drive against the & .
drive which springs
whole program of a
monopoly capital, ie )

its political drive te
the world progressiy
made in the war
fascist Axis.

In other words, #)|
motivation of the Pl g,
teria and panic-mong)
be found in the dri
against the Soviet Un |
as the drive against |
standards of the peoj |

So that, when the /
cials. lend aid and (5
the government ands},
drive against the LEY
advantage for thems §
are actually aiding f |,
ical campaign of reac &
precedes the full elal $
its domestic and wor &,,

CCE members and &
would do well to ti
things over. They wi
cape the heayy hand 3
if they permit their
repeat in Canada the k
German social dema §

FRIDAY, MARCH 22, J Pic