Se Dhaai fA ed SS” FY

Resignations Hout

~

STRIKE POSSIBLE

convention, says LPP. ‘Looks like scrap’

TORONTO

Resignation of four former national leaders of the Labor-
Progressive party was characterized in an LPP national execu-
tive statement ifsued here this week as an attempt to set indi-
vidual views above the collective decisions of the recent LPP

national convention.

“Failing to get their way
within the party, failing to dis-
rupt it and break it up from
within, they demonstratively
and immodestly resigned from
the party in the hope that they
could take members with
them,” the statement said of
the four, J. B. Salsberg, Stew-
art Smith, Harry Binder and
Sam Lipshitz.

Salsberg, former member of
the Ontario legislature, ap-
peared on a CBC television
program last week, giving as
the reasons for his -resigna-
tion charges of “subservience”
to the Soviet Communist party
which the LPP national con-
vention last month rejected by
an overwhelming majority
vote. :

Full text of the LPP national
executive statement follows:

The announcement in the
Toronto Globe and Mail of the
resignations from the Labor-
Progressive party of J. B. Sals-
berg, Stewart Smith, Harry
Binder and Sam Lipshitz was
the first news that the national
executive committee and mem-
bers of the LPP had of this
matter.

They did not see fit to teil
the party of their decision be-
fore giving it to the press and
appearing, in J. B. Salsberg’s
case, on television.

This is a measure of the
motives behind their decision.
Onlyi a few days prior to this
announcement, the national
executive committee had _ is-
sued a statement deploring
J. B. Salsberg’s interview in
the Globe and Mail on party
matters; and a few days later
the secretariat of the national
executive committee had inter-
viewed Salsberg to urge him
to desist from activities which
were outside the normal and
constitutional boundaries of
party discussions.

While he did not agree to
this, but only to consider. it,
he gave no intimation that he
was preparing, with his col-
leagues, to use the capitalist
press, radio and television as
a vehicle for announcing the
resignations.

This action is another stage
in the effort of this: group to
disrupt our party by flouting
the decisions of the 6th na-
tional convention and doing
everything to hinder the unity
of our party.

In effect, they, who claim
to fight against the “cult of
the individual,” set themselves
as individuals above the col-
lective will and opinions of
the majority of our members.

ra

‘

Our membership rejects the
actions of this group and their
charges that the LPP does not
provide a medium for debate.

All of the four concerned
took ample advantage of their
democratic right over the past
year to voice their views —
although they gave little sign
of listening to others’ opinion.
In .pre - convention articles,
committee meetings, club
meetings and at the national
convention, they freely and
fully stated their position and
were patiently listened to.

The. convention rejected
their views, which would have
dissolved the LPP and under
the thin disguise of “combat-
ting Stalinism” would have re-
vised and repudiated the fun-
damental principles of our
party — the Leninist concepts
of a Communist party, working
class rule and working class
internationalism.

Instead of accepting the
majority decision they set their
own views above the party and
refused to accept the ‘continu-
ing ample opportunity for the
expression of their minority
opinions within the party,
simultaneously carrying out
the decisions of the party as
decided upon by majority vote.

Failing to get their way
within the party, failing to dis-
rupt it and break it up from
within, they demonstratively
and immodestly resigned from
the party in the hope that they
could take members with them.

This they will not do. Our
membership is outraged by the
actions of this group, and their
reply will be to rally. more
unitedly than ever around the
party, and the decisions of the
convention. :

The four who have resigned
are flying false flags of “dem-
ocracy” and “anti-Stalinism.”
What they really have raised
is the banner of the revision
and distortion of Marxism-
Leninism.

Were they truly interested
in the cerrection of error and
the enrichment of Marxism in
Canada, as might be expected
after their long years of party
membership, they would have
stayed in the party. That is
the acid test, for Marxism can-
not exist as a force for pro-
gressive social change without
a Marxist party.

Long experience of the labor
movement with such groups or
sects shows that whatever
they now decide to do—to issue
a paper or to form an anti-
Marxist political party under
the guise of a “movement” —
the content of their action will
be a disservice to the working
class. They have an alterna-
tive: it is to recognize their
errors and ask to ‘return to the
party.

“It looks like we're going into a scrap this year, so we suggest you buckle on

your armor and get ready to help us,’ International Woodworkers of America district
secretary George Mitchell told delegates at. Vancouver Labor Council on Tuesday

this week

Reporting on the current situation, Mitchell said. the

operators had presented their
cases to the conciliation board
during the past week, and re-

buttals would be heard this
week.

“Employers want to add
words to contract clauses
which -would make them
worthless — so weak they
couldn’t stand up,” charged
- Mitchell.

“We hope,strike action won't
be necessary; but we must be
prepared. If we move out —
and it looks like a scrap is
coming — it will affect the
whole economy of this coun-
tr ye:

Delegates applauded Mitch-
ell’s fighting report, as earlier
they had applauded a touch
of tart humor in the report
on Office Workers Local 15
negotiations with IWA made

by delegate Mrs. E. MacDon-

ald.

“At the
negotiations with coast lumber
operators I was thrilled by
Stuart Hodgson’s
which he predicted this would
be the year the IWA would
make great wage gains,” said
Mrs. MacDonald. “Yet the IWA
attitude to its own office em-
ployees is a flat offer of 10
cents an hour and not a cent

opening of the

report in

more.”
Delegates chuckled and ap-
plauded.

~Mrs. MacDonald also report-

ed that the Teamsters local
had turned thumbs down on
conciliation board recommen-
dations for office workers’
wage hikes in their offices.

Talks break down
in U.S. Northwest

SEATTLE

With employers giving union
negotiators the poor mouth as
in neighboring British Colum-
bia, bargaining talks on behalf
of 100,000 lumber workers in
the U.S. Northwest have bog-
ged down both in Portland and
Spokane.

Unions involved are the In-
ternational Woodworkers and
the Lumber and Sawmill

Workers, who equally divide

jurisdiction in logging camps,
sawmills, plywood and other
fabricating plants. Each union
is going it alone, against
united employer opposition to
any increaSe in labor costs.
The unions are seeking wage
increases of 15 cents an hour
and other contract improve-
ments that employers claim
add up to another 15 cents. In
the Spokane negotiations with

IWA

Timber Products Manufactur-
ing Association, the IWA is also
seeking a liberalized “mobile”
pension program.

In the weeks of talks, em-
ployers haven’t budged from
their original position. They
claim the industry in the U.S.
is “depressed,” with produc-
tion off 10 percent this year
and inventories at an abnorm-
ally high level.

and codst

Non-salmon rivers
first, say Fishermen

PRINCE RUPERT, B.C.

Acting on a request by United Fishermen and Allied Work-
ers Union, Prince Rupert Labor Council has gone on record
urging the provincial government to leave salmon streams alone
until all other power resources have been tapped.

“Certain power interests in Canada and the United States

have requested water rights

on important salmon-rivers in
British Columbia, particularly
on the Fraser and Nass rivers,”
the resolution charged.

“Trained biologists have
stated that high dams or mul-
tiple dams may well mean an
end of our salmon runs.

“We urge the provincial gov-
ernment to refuse permits for
the construction of hydro dams
on any _ salmon - producing
stream until such time as all
other potential hydro resources
have been exploited and ther-
mal and nuclear power poten-
tials developed.”

HELP the L.P.P.
FIGHTING FUND

Donate To Help Take The L.P.P. Election
Program To The People And Strengthen
The Fight For Labor-Farmer And

ae Labor Unity

e SEND YOUR DONATION TO 6

LABOR-PROGRESSIVE PARTY

503 Ford Bldg., Vancouver, B.C.

MAY 24, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE-—PAGE 8