THE NATION

ia a poll were taken among local unions across Canada
& it would reveal a growing demand for a wage moye-

‘nent to help offset the skyrocketing cost of living. :
_ With all major contracts for 1950 concluded, the
Workers find that gains won are already wiped out. The
Cost of living index is now at a record high: 167.5 against
1a year ago, 156.9 at July, 1948, and 135.9 at
"July, 1947. From August, 1938, to July, 1950, the
‘Mureases” in the cost-of-living index was 66.2 percent.
Actually, as labor staticians have empnasized, it is much
‘Righer due to the fact that the government index is not
“4 true reflection of the reali rise in living costs.

Faced with this onslaught against their living stand-

ards, and with the fact that working people’s taxes are
'o be sharply increased to pay the costs of a war of ag-
Stession, the sentiment for a wage drive is growing.
. This is reflecting itself at top levels where the leader-
Ship of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada and
‘the Canadian Congress.of Labor have illogically demand-
“d price controls instead of a curb on profits and a hike
| wages. The demand for price controls reflects the
Pressure from below, but provides an “‘out” on the wage
_ ‘sue, and plays into the hands of the war profiteers.

Pushed upwards, the profiteers will agree to controls when
_ Prices reach the breaking point, but will also demand taat
Wages be frozen. > aa

0 Such a catastrophe will be readily understood by
~Shawa General Motors workers who are tied to a five

year,

and by S
Nts an hour in 1951 and a wage cut this year.

ge sAa8 the demand for a wagé movement crystallizes so
rol the demand for the curbing of the profiteers, for the
ie ng back of prices, not controls. These are issues that
“ust be tackled at both Congress conventions; they are
tq Wtich the rank-and-file must See are not smothered

‘ran avalanche of top brass speeches about controls
& nk Neg which are already beyond the reach of the

ee aha

With prices at an all time high, and being steadily

Year Contract, the Nova Scotia coal miners who had a .
no wage increase settlement forced upon them, —
telco workers whose contract provides only five

"By MEL COLBY

q W age: movement, not phony —
controls, is needed by workers

LONDON LETTER By PHYLLIS ROSNER
Un-American Britons
persecuted for views

: LONDON
‘TH Un-American Activities Committee type of per-
secution of individuals for their political views, pre-
viously little known in this country, is finding an inereas-
ing number of imitators in Britain. _

Within the single weekend of August 12-13, a clerk
was fired from her job in a margarine firm because she
was secretary of a peace committee, a boy was expelled
from his Boy Scout troop for collecting signatures for the
Stockholm peace appeal, a housewife was kept off a
television broadcast because of a charge that she had
Communist sympathies and the music of a composer has
»been barred from an orchestral program as “Communist
propaganda.” 5 ;

The clerk was was fired is Miss Nora Edwards, secre-
tary of the Merseyside Peace Committee. She is not a
Communist.

‘The expelled Boy Scout. is Jeffrey Honkinson of

Birmingham. He said he would appeal to the chief scout
against the decision.

The housewife, Mrs. Diana Purcell, was excluded
from her pre-arranged part in a television forum after the
-reactionary Housewives’ Association of Nottingham
wired the BBC, charging her with being pro-Communist.

' Mrs. Purcell, wife of a miner and membership secretary

of Nottingham Cooperative Society for. the past four —

years, commented: “The logical outcome is to ask all

artists their political views before they are allowed to

broadcast.” ‘

Branding of a piece of music as “Communist” occur-
red when Austrian-born Rudolph Schwarts, conductor
of the ‘Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, announced he
would decline to perform: any works of the Russian com-
poser Dmitri Shostakovich, Bournemouth is one of the
biggest holiday resorts in Britain.

_ LPP COLUMN

| Rake is the novel—by a writer in the Western
countries, at least—in which’ Communists are

1° ving writers have fallen into one or other of two er-
°rs: either the Communist is presented mechanically

: set0n, With éonflicts and development, then this sub-
| ang ity becomes the center of things, and the party,
; With it the sense of the party, is lost sight of.
_In the last few days I’ve had the chance to read

ave it in English: it’s a political education

Period September 1939 to March 1940, in terms of
Ain: ‘understanding of the “phony war,” and of
and (raining of people under conditions of illegality

ascist repression, is superb, :

.

w

ee indicate something of the feeling of the book.
Of tf ‘nd Barbentane, 20 years in the party, a veteran
in he First World War, is a lieutenant in the army,
™ September, 1939....0° |

e Pris upside down. Twice in three days. —
ont. tie completely alone, and yet responsible not
— SNly fox!

Party,

| tnunist pat tae knows in his heart t
, the sa ’ ? = st before
the ,_° S2me—there’s the article he wrote ju g

he Paper was closed down, It’s as though he had
tees the last to speak. He was the last to speak. He's
Wil)

and everything to them. It was tough enough
"we had the paper, but now that we have none!

‘Les Communistes’

Portra f the best left- -
eh PUCCHERN fevveD -sprar (gt {is ‘a provocation against the party. You must watch

4S an abstract “type”; and hence lifeless; or, if a live _

- those who are true to principle. ... Any man’s cow-

OONN of Aragon’s new novel: Les Communistes. ‘I hope |

a Nae
} ao as an inspiring experience. The treatment of

pg OS At the city office where he’d been to return some ma-
7 : ety
try There is one passage that I'd like to quote, to”

“They had once again gone through his kit, turned cola:

the feeling of being at one and the
eaele but’ foc. all the others: the whole ~ Communist and as a Frenchman.’ He reddened at the —
¥ yer exch pola (s

St be in the same position as he. But he,.

fa le for all,... The ones on the other side.
thing ¥ '© Put words in their mouths, attribute any-
Whe

By STANLEY RYERSON

~ One is there, as on a front—the front of possible, or- —
ganized provocation. t e

“Bach Communist can be the starting point of

yourself, because each Communist can become the-
starting point of a provocation. ... Watch yourself.
.. . Anything that could be interpreted as a surrender
of principle would by that very ‘fact work against

ardice becomes a trap for others. Armand is possessed
of this need to be exemplary, to counterpose his silent
. denial to the false image thatrthose around him must
have of us... . No, silent isn’t the word. . .. There
are different ways of speaking, and one of them

is to be just that which the enemy tries to prove we }

are not. % ; ie
- “August 30, he saw Maurice. Almost by chance.

terial he needed for an article. Then, as Thorez shook
his hand ‘Going? You're called up?’ he had asked, a
bit awkwardly, were there’ any special directives for
those in the army? ...He was always in awe of
Maurice, was Armand. Probably something physical, —
‘a matter of height. But not only that. Thorez had

“‘Nothing special. Be the best, everywhere. Do
as your conscience tells you—your conscience as a

lesson. Because Armand Barbentane was ever one

to bawl out people who can’t lift their little finger

without knowing what the secretariat thinks about

it—people who\ don’t think for themselves. One has -
a head, what the hell! One has only to use it. And
here it had been he who asked that stupid question

‘of Maurice! What else could Maurice have answered?

His conscience as a Communist and a Frenchman

w+» Of Course. +. .”

_and to press their leaders for an opening of

—:

Trades council suspended
for hearing Greek appeal

RITISH right-wing trade union leaders
B are rapidly dropping all pretense of free-
dom of speech and other traditional liberties.

The general council of the Scottish
Trades Union Congress has suspended from
office the chairman and secretary of Dundee
Trades Council for the sole reason that they
allowed Betty Ambatielos to speak to the
council on the terror conducted by the Greek
fascists against the Greek trade union move-
ment. : - :

At the same time, Betty Ambatielos ap-
pealed for help to save the life of her hus-
band, Tony Ambatielos, secretary of the
Greek Seamen's Union, in prison for the past
two anda half years and under sentence of
death since November, 1948.

Nor did the Scottish Trades Union Con-
gress stop at that. It decided to punish the
entire trades council for the “crime” of hav-
ing listened to Betty Ambatielos,-and sus-

~ pended council meetings for a fortnight.

Profits go up -
what about wages

VER since Yankee imperialism attacked the Korean
people, big business has begun to profit in the most
shameless fashion. Profits are reaching dizzy heights.
Special dividend bonuses to shareholders are becoming
quite common. War and war preparations prove to be

By J. B. SALSBERG

two months living costs have spiralled
in an alarming fashion. Bread, meat
and all other foodstuffs have risen in
proportion, contributing to the steady
undermining of working class living
standards. It is not an exaggeration [aaa a
to say that very important sections of f

the working class are already experiencing serious hard-

ship as a result,

Fea OF Hystsalids atk. weskehe ave: topunctied ster de
mand a revision of the wage structure in their, industry
clauses in existing contracts. This is particularly true of

many well organized industries where the rightwing leaders

foisted upon their members totally unsatisfactory settle-
ments in recent months. ==

. Under Freeman Jenkins, the Nova Scotia coal min-
ers, for instance, whose wage rate is low, had a contract
forced upon them without any wage increase for a period of
two years. In basi.. steel, Charles Millard, despite power-
ful rank and file opposition, signed a contract which re-
duced take-home pay this year and provides for only a_
5c an hour increase in 1951. In vital sections of the
auto industry similar no-wage-increase contracts were sign-

edn 1950. The same holds true in the needle and many

.

of months.

_ workers and

other industries and occupations.
It is obvious that the coal miners, steel workers,

garment workers, and others are compelled, in the face
of a sharp increase in the cost of living, to secure sub-

stantial wage increases if their living canditions are not to

‘suffer and if their declining standards are to be, at least,

restored to their former position. Be =:
can it be allowed.to remain dormant for too long. The

_ basic interests of the working class demand the opening of

the wage issue in every industry where no substantial

wage increases have been gained during the last couple .
Furthermore, the trade union movement must edge :

nize that we are confronted with a national problem that

demands a national approach and a national policy,

Aside from what each union will do, the coming conven-

tions of the two Congresses must give a lead for a nation- __

wide wage movement that will protect the welfare of the e
their dependents. a

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 25, 1950—PAGE 9 __