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| FLASHBACKS FROM
)| THE COMMUNIST PRESS

| 80 years ago i

TRUTH SOMETIMES
SQUEEZES THROUGH

(Once in a while the truth
iH} Aueezes its way painfully into
on) a Columns of the capitalist
) S by way of letters. Here is
a GI age: published in the Toronto
alt be” of June 23rd which needs
i Comment:

: Here are a few facts gathered

rs oe last 48 hours which are
i, Cult to reconcilliate in this

42 untry of ours:

, {l) Two -men found starving

fh cei? Hon, W. S. Fielding re-
of tum, annuity of $10,000 per an-
3 a A drive to raise $4-million
| a Teligious group is started;
My an Today is another tag day
i dol} We will read of thousands of
of al being collected;

my th €t men are found starving as
Mi ‘men dare. not ask their fellow
| fear Bphithe price of a meal for
Taney , being summoned for vag-

The Worker,
July 11, 1925

25 years ago...

U.S. IS CHARGED
WITH AGGRESSION

Charges of “direct aggression”
of U.S. armed forces against
Korea and China were made. by
Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister

Gromyko who said that the U.S..

is seeking to gain all of Korea as
a strategic bridgehead in the Far
East.

Truman’s order to use the US.
navy to isolate Formosa meant
occupation of “that part of the
territory of China” by U.S. armed
forces. “The U.S. has committed
an act against peace,’ Gromyko
charged.

Truman’s promise of arms aid
to the Philippines was aimed at
“the interference in the internal
affairs of the state and at foment-
ing internal strife.” Similar prom-
ises of aid to Indochina’ showed
the “U.S. was fomenting war
against the Vietnamese people.”

The United States has assumed

the role of gendarme over the

people of Asia fighting for their
liberation.
The Tribune,
July 10, 1950

Profiteer of the week:

months

Thanks to the federal budget, the price
of nautral gas will be up on November 1.
One estimate puts the extra cost to a home-
owner who heats with gas, at $65 a year. |
This is nice to keep in mind’ while reading
that a typical, struggling local supplier —
Consumers’ Gas Co., Toronto — made a
mere $22,717,000 tax-free profit in the six
ended March 31.
oe $2,525,000 better than the same period a
year earlier but it's getting by.

That’s only

*

.

Their own brand of ‘democracy

The reaction of Canada’s big dailies

to recent events in India once again

clearly shows how they fight vigorously
for their own interests. It shows how
they carefully chose those issues around
which to raise their own special brand
of “democracy.”

Indira Gandhi’s actions to stave off a
right wing coup have, for the time
being, prevented the Indian right from
carrying through their program of dis-
ruption. The firm action taken was
needed, in Mrs. Gandhi’s words, “to
safeguard the country’s unity, stability
and integrity.”

“Wrecking democracy .in India”
shouts the Toronto Star editorially. “It
is all a supreme pity,” they continue,
“for in the global contest between com-
munism and democracy .. . India has
been a prime proof that democracy
eould survive. Mrs. Gandhi has now
dealt. that belief a shattering blow.”
Isn’t the Star’s concern touching?

The Toronto Globe and Mail also la-
ments that “India’s democratic tradi-
tions now seem in danger.” This, in
spite of the facts that paper prints
showing the extent of the right wing
onslaught. Jaya Praksah Narayan. an
anti-Gandhi leader, said “a week of de-
monstrations will not make her resign.
We must go further.” He called for
civil disobedience bv soldiers and civil
servants and urged Indians to refuse
to nay taxes. :

These statements are all right. the
Star and Globe say. They, after all, are
the staunch defenders of democracy
evervwhere. Reading their coverage of
the Portuguese events, one can imme-
diately tell this is true. Star columnist

Mark Gayn, in dispatches from Lisbon
recently, slanders the Portuguese peo-
ple and their tremendous achievements
after 52 years of fascism.

The big dailies had little to say
about Portuguese fascism all these
years. They keep quiet about the Span-
ish regime’s almost four decades of re-
pression. Not too much touting of “de-
mocracy” when it comes to news about
Brazil... or Chile . . . or Uruguay,
where thousands are jailed and mur-
dered.

They have a strange way of handling
democratic issues. Or is it so strange?
They fight for their own interests —
those of their advertisers, publishers
and political cronies. They are the some-
times subtle, sometimes brutal weapons
of a capitalism in crisis.

When the War Measures Act fell on
Canada in October 1970 like a hammer
with hundreds of arrests, the banning
of meetings. stikes, and organizations,
the big dailies rushed to support the
measures. The Star especially tried
mightily to convince Canadians that a
coup was imminent in Quebec.

As newspaper people, labor leaders
and others were rounded up. their
homes broken into and searched, these
gnardians of democratic freedoms urg-
ed on the government, the troons and
police to greater efforts. As Quebec

Federation of Labor president Louis

Laberge is today framed and harassed
rv the Bourassa eovernment and its
dangerous and vindictive justice minis-
ter. these papers sit tight.

We should read the big dailies’ “de-
mocratic” appeals with caution. always
remembering who they’re speaking for.

Hate literature law a put-on

In Toronto last week, while handing

out leaflets on a main street condemn-

ing U.S. penetration into Canada, two
members of the Canadian Liberation
Movement (a small, ultra-leftist, ultra-
nationalist group) were arrested and
jailed for distributing hate literature.
Their leaflet bore the title “Yankee
Go Home” and, according to Metro po-

lice, this: constituted. communicating -

statements in a public place which in-
cite hatred against an identifiable

group, incitements likely to lead to a

breach of the peace. The arrests came,
interestingly enough, as the city was
filled to the brim with Shriners (mostly
Americans) “with money to spend,” as
the Globe and Mail puts it.

While holding little brief for this par-
ticular group, the arrests under this
law raises some interesting points:
How is it that one of the first uses of
the law is against a leaflet condemning
U.S. control of Canada’s economic and
political life?

Where were the police, the courts

and the government all these months as
the right wing plastered this city with
hate slogans. handed out racist literat-
ure and leaflets? The fascist Western
Guard even presented a hate-filled brief
to the government hearings on the

‘Green Paper here three weeks ago.

In 1973 the then attorney-general of
Ontario Dalton Bales received letters
on this question from the Communist
Party demanding action against the

Western Guard who were sponsoring
a commemorative meeting for Hitler —
and Mussolini. Samples of the publicity
were enclosed. Other requests were
made for action against the dissemina-
tion of racist propaganda when the
Western Guard ran in a 1973 provincial
by-election under the slogan “Keep
Canada White.”

Here’s part of Bales’ official reply to
these demands:

“(We) are of the opinion that the
‘slogan ‘Keep Canada White’ does not
offend against section 281 of the cri-
minal code in that it does not advo-
cate or promote genocide or inflict
conditions of life calculated to bring
about physical destruction of any
identifiable group and, in fact, no
identifiable group is mentioned . . .”
The sudden use of the hate literature

law against a “Yankee Go Home” leaf-
let sets a dangerous precedent and
shows where the government’s senti-
ments lie. All the more so in the face
of the authorities’ refusal to act against
the fascist ultra right.

= * *

Since this was written, the govern-
ment has announced it will not press
charges against the two for distribut-
ing hate literature. They will instead
be charged with “causing a disturbance
and impeding pedestrians and disturb-
ing the peace.” The basie issues how-
ever, remain valid.