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From an ~
agitator's notebook

By LESLIE MORRIS
AGITATE: to stir violently; discuss: excite; disturb; keep
constantly before the public. (Websier’s Dictionary).

A fine and respectable democratic word. The political men
in Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army, were Called agitators
They kept constantly before the soldiers the aims of the English
Commonwealth. That is where our present use of the wore
comes from.

% ‘

You don’t need a platform or a newspaper column to be ar
agitator. Some of the best we ever knew were workers who
forceful and patient in conversation, masters
of their subject, captured the imagination o!
their listeners and with telling points made
lasting impressions upon them.

The “secret weapon” of the agitator is
often the apt auotaticn. Here are a few, culled
from random reading. ©

3 a5

Nothing is more powerful than an idea
whose time has come. (Victor Hugo).
ae ae ty

The RCMP, which keeps a watchful eye on

some. of. the overseas contacts of Canadian citizens, detailed
a sergeant recently to visit Charles Edward Findlater, music
_ teacher at Vancouver’s mannerly Crofton House school for girls,
and. find out just what he had seen and done on a visit tc
Moscow last summer. Mr. Findlater was able to explain satis-
factorily that he had been in the Soviet capital to conduct a
choir of school girls (the Elgar Choir—L.M.) in a week-long
engagement arranged with the approval of the Department of
_ External Affairs. The Muscovites liked. them so well that they
have been invited io return for a three-week tour of Russia
~ next year. (Maclean’s, Dec. 2, 1961).
% Ed
It’s much better to name towns and cities after great rivers.
’ mountains and plains. They are part of our life and do not
_have.the failings of human beings. (A delegate to the 22nd
_ Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in a
conversation during an intermission).
Ne x ae

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= Washington resounds to other echoes of the Munich era
today. Dr...Grewe, the German ambassador, was busy then
as legal advisor to Hitler’s foreign minister von Ribbentrop

ST ee

FERMENT SHAKES QUEBEC

Special to the Pacific Tribune

MONTREAL — The conven-
tion of the Quebec Provincial
Section of the Communist
Party, meeting in Maison-
neuve Hal] here recently was
held in the midst of a most
lively province-wide discussion
on the status of French Canada
in the two-nation state.

The convention recognized!
that the major problem con-
fronting the working class and
the demorratic forces of Que-
bec today is the fight for peace
and all-Canadian independ-
ence.

The most pressing democra-
tic task before the people of
Quebec, as of all Canada, the
convention declared, is the
breaking of the grip of United
States monoply on our coun-
try, both economically and
militarily.

It is in contributing to the
achievement of this, the Que-
bec Communists state, that
French Canada will find its
way to complete equality in a
two-nation state.

KEY QUESTION

“What is the relationship be-
tween the inequality of French
Canada and the _ necessary
struggle for workingclass unity
and the struggle against war
and Yankee domination of the

‘and he provided much. of the legal double-talk which justified
the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and the carving up of
Poland. .In September, 1941, he wrote the formal obituary
“of the USSR in yon Ribbentrop’s foreign affairs publication.
This announced that Russia had ceased to exist as a ‘state and
as-a nation, and that’ international law” could no longer be.
applied to it or to its people.

The real purpose of the declaration was to clear the way
for the massacres of prisoners-of-war and civilians. which had
already’ begun, and which were intended ‘to depopulate Euro-
pean Russia as.a preparation for its. colonization by Nordics.
Dr. Grewe was still on Ribbentrop’s staff when that gentleman,
'Gissatisfied by the tempo of the exterminations in the Ukraine,
proposed to foment’an uprising so that the army could be

“brought in to help the SS to massacre all the Jews, Poles and

- cleanse the Warsaw ghetto.
(Anthony West in Saturday

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I In 1958 the test score (ie., number of explosions, of which
» some were very “dirty”. indeed) was:. U.S.—169; USSR—S5;
Britain 21. In March of that year the USSR announced its
_ decision “to discontinue unilaterally tests of any kind of atomic
_or hydrogen»weapons”. The United States and Britain never-
theless carried out the tests they had planned.
 » Soapiee. L955 it has been the West that has rejected all
broposals of immediate steps in disarmament. —
(Kenneth McNaught in’ Saturday Night, No. 2
BS *
Complete eradication of the Soviet system must be our goal
-— our obligation to all free peop'e—our promise of hope to ali
3 Who are-not free... There is no reason to believe that nuclear
- Weapons, no matter how they may increase in numbers and
“ferocity, mark the end of the line in military systems develop
fe Ment... The search for new and advanced systems must have
“a high priority in our military research and development.
«(Policy statement of the American Air Force Association:
September, 1961). ;

Night, Nov. 25, 1961).
: cs

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5, 1961).

Protest Mexican persecutions

; The New Westminsier Regional Committee of the Communist

Party of Canada n:s written Mexican president Lopez Mateos
_Strongly protesting the persecution of Mexican labor leaders
-Gnd progressives.

Charles M. Sivwart, secretary-

Over the signature of
the letter demands the releas?

- organizer for the Committee,
of all victims of injustice.
"it is a black mark
ken patriots should
fought against the

.. The letter to’President Mateos adds that
Of shame that your country’s most outspo
be persecuted because they themselves
‘Persecution of their people. :

Ukrainians in an operation similar to that later arranged to

whole of Canada? This is the
key question around which
our whole democratic struggle

mille Dionne. Quebec provin-
cial leader of the Communist

port to the’ convention.

Analyzing all aspects of the
national democratic ferment in
Quebec today, Dionne showed
that the repatriation of the na-

province out of

' cal equality of French Canada

through which. Quebec can de-

today takes place,” stated Ca-}

Party, in his main political re-)

tural resources and major in- |]

Status of French
discussed at CP convention

the control of foreign, mainly
Anglo-American, control and:
into the hands ot French
Canadians must be through na:|
tionalization of these resources
and industries.

This is a prerequisite, he
pointed out, to the triumph of
the French language and cul-
ture, and the social and politi-

i

within Confederation.

ONENS PATE \2-2.
It is also the only path

cide its own fate on peace and,
war, take a stand against mili-
tary occupation of our - terri-
tory by American forces, ex-
pel missile bases, pursue a
policy of peaceful coexistence
with all nations, and keep -open
the path to final emancipation
of labor and the establishment
of socialism in Quebec.

Calling upon organized labor
to unite ‘its forces and take
the leadership in this national
advance to democracy and
peace, Dionne said.

“Labor should. demand and
actively carapaign for the na-
tionalization of all American
industries and of al) natural
resources and public utilities

in Quebec. Only in this way)

will the French Canadian na-
tion be able to begin to reap
the fruits of the tremendous
wealth of the nation.”

In the constitutional. field,

| priests who have gone into —
politics and. business” under -

riation of the BNA Act in a
way that will give full reeog-
nition to Canada as a two-na-
tion state; in the field of edu-
cation it expresses itself as a
demand for secularization of
our disastrously out-moded

system of education. 2

ROLE OF HIERARCHY

In its report and discussions
the convention recognized and —.
rejected the role of the Cath-.
olic hierarchy and its obedient
priesthood in facilitating the ~ —
triumph. of reaction and~op- —

the growth of democratic and»
secular feeling in Quebec. ~

“The exposure of the tie-up
of the Duplessis tyranny and a
section of the church ‘hierarchy
with alien big business was
demonstrated dramatically in-
the dismissal of Archbishop
Charbonneau from the Mont- -
real See when he espoused the —
cause of the asbestos workers,
the Convention noted. - :

The centre of. the debate >
around the role of the church,
the convention stressed, is not
anti-clerical. but pro-secular; it
is
democracy.

“Jt js not the people who
have occupied areas of social —.
life which belong ‘to. bishops —_
‘and priests, but bishops and

he pointed out, this position
demands the democratic repat-

cover of religion,’
port charged..

’ Dionne’s re-

SEASON’S GREETINGS
Arom 3% ;

DUSTY, BETTY
& FAMILY

to all our comrades - | i
|. -and friends
Mona, Dave & Nigel: AS
|

dustries in the

“The Way
You Like. It
ORPHEUM
BARBERS
611 Smithe

Street

_ (Near

Seymour)

‘| May our efforts for Peace
tbe crowned

PRET aN OTE PENA SE TE

with :.ever

greater success in 1962.

“stp & EDNA SHEARD

SEASON’S GREETINGS | _
TO ALL OUR FRIENDS

N

- TOM, ANNE, JOHN,
-BOYLAN

242 HAST

SEASON'S GREETINGS from.
Mt. Everest Cafe Co. Ltd.

This cafe will close on Christmas Day at 8 p.m.,
re-open following day at 7 am. ee

A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL —
From the Staff and Management — S. Wong, Mer.

HASTINGS

“PATRONIZE |

St. JAMES
‘BARBERS

660. East Hastings”

SPECIALIZING IN-
HAIR CUTTING

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HOLIDAY GREETINGS TO ALL

MILO CAFE LTD.

WE SPECIALIZE IN UKRAINIAN FOOD ©

134 East Hastings St., Vancouver
Phone MU 1-3037.

GREETINGS

from |

-

University *
Billiards
100 Blk. East Hastings

Vancouver 4, Boh

{

‘eumenen

December 15, 1961_PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 11

pressive imperialist. domina-
tion in Quebec, and welcomed —

not anti-church, but ‘pro Fe

BILL & CHARLES §|