4
eS

4 We too are to blame

“GOUTH KOREA, Asian outpost

of democracy” has exploded
in the face of its “free world”
imperialist designers.

Blood flows in the streets of
Seoul, Masan and other South

Korean cities; the blood of the_

common people protesting the re-
pressive gangster rule of Syneman

Rhee, stooge of U.S. aggressive

imperialism.

Rhee police and troops, armed
with U.S. tanks and guns and
directed in their murderous activ-
ities by U.S. “advisors,” have
killed and wounded thousands of
South Koreans protesting the re-
cent Rhee fixed “elections,” aimed
at continuing his ruthless oppres-
sion of the people.

Such an “Asian outpost of de-
mocracy” comes high, both in
terms of human life and dollars.

Since the morning of June 25,

1950, when U.S. President Harry
Truman, “Brinkmanship” Dulles
and Syngman Rhee decreed the
“Nsychological moment” had ar-

‘rived to invade North Korea across

the 38th parallel, with the Yalu
River and beyond as their goal,
the U.S. has poured in over $20
billion and the lives of some 30,000:
GI’s to build and maintain the
Rhee dictatorship.

(There are still no less than
40,000 highly-trained U.S. military
personnel in South Korea serving
as a prop to the Rhee tyranny.)

Apologizing for this sanguinary
and brutal suppression in their
“Asian outpost of the free world”
U.S. State Secretary Christian
Herter bemoans it as being “un-
Suited to a free democracy.”
Leading imperialist spokesmen in
other “free world” capitals, faced
with the horror of their own han-
diwork, are also “deploring”’ the
Rhee “excesses.” (Gangsters in
Al Capone’s mob used to do exact-
ly the same thing when one of the
gang’s mobsters got unduly trig-
ger-happy on his own.)

The shame of South Korea is
also Canada’s shame. We, together

Pacific Tribune
Editor -—-- TOM McEWEN

Associate Ediror — MAURICE RUSH
Business Mgr. — OXANA BIGELOW

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with other United Nations mem-
ber countries, pressured into the
South Korean armed aggression
against the North by U.S. im-
perialism, and carried out under
the UN flag, must bear full re-
sponsibility for the crimes of
Syngman Rhee and his military
clique against the Korean people.

Fine Tory apologies or “deplor-
ing Rhee’s excesses” will not wipe
the blood of the common people
from the streets of Seoul, Masan
or other Korean cities. Nor will
casting themselves in the role of a
virtuous Pontius Pilate absolve
the governments of the so-called
“Free West” from the crimes of .
their gangster puppet Rhee.

What the Canadian people can
resolve to do on this May Day is to
express their solidarity with the
peoples of South Korea in their
heroic struggle for democratic
representative government; for
total victory in ousting the entire
Rhee clique of U.S.-sponsored
gangsters; for the immediate
withdrawal of all foreign troops
from South Korea, and the restora-
tion of a united and peaceful

Korea by the Korean people them-
selves.

.. EDITORIAL PAGE

‘A world to win’

AS the historic Summit meeting
of the Big Four heads of
state, scheduled for May 16, draws
near, some events which “cast
their shadow before” are in evid-
ence. These events should be close-
ly heeded by the common people,
as a warning against complacency
or taking anything for granted.

Ever since Soviet Premier Nik-
ita Khrushchev’s historic visit to
the United States in 1959 and his
equally historic proposals for total
world disarmament before the
United Nations Assembly, events
have been moving rapidly.

On the one hand tremendous
enthusiasm and demonstrations by
the people of many lands for peace,
for an end to the suicidal and cost-
ly arms race, and aii end to nuclear
weapon manufacturing and test-
ing. A steadily rising sentiment
for the ways of peace and an end
to coldwar tensions and provoca-
tions.

On the other hand, the heads of
government of the so-called West,
scurrying thither and yon, search-
ing for a “united formula” with
which to counter Soviet proposals
for peace and disarmament. On
the horns of a dilemma, the im-
perialist leaders, because of

mounting public pressure for
peace, cannot openly op pos
Khrushchey’s proposals, so how to
get around them without appear-
ing to oppose them?

A ticklish question indeed, and
one to which -only the people
through their united mass WS
have the answer. To be vigilant,
to take nothing for granted, and to
intensify the pressure on govera=
ments for disarmament and peace
as the one and only sure way 9
achieving success at this first
historic Summit meeting. . _ ,

There is no alternative to this”
— except universal nuclear death
and destruction, a path along
which a small but powerful circle
of imperialist conspirators a?
warmongers still hope to pursue.

Only the will of a united and_
determined people, demanding diS-
armament and peace, can compe
the advocates of nuclear war tO
abandon this disastrous course-

The “magic” of the people, 2S
Nikita Khrushchey described it, 15
the decisive power required to
assure success at the Summit.
There the million-fold compelling
Voice of the people, expresse
through their representatives, C4
win a world at peace. pat

Tom
McEwen

N celebrating May Day of 1960,
the beginning of a new decade
of tremendous events yet to un-
fold, it is good to remember those
who, when they lived marched on
many such days. They too marched
on May Days, confident, courage-
ous, hopeful; sure in the knowl-
edge that a world they would not
live to see would be realized.
Not a dream world, but one in
which international . workingclass

sal peace would be the governing
law of life; where the ‘exploita-
tion of man by man” would be
ended forever.

In New York, London, Mose¢ow,
.. Shanghai, Calcutta, Vancouver, in
thousands of cities, towns, mining
‘camps, the “Ghost” towns and
skid-roads and ghettos of capital-
ism, they marched with hope in
their hearts and heads high. White,
black, yellow and brown, the life-
giving inspiration of May Day
welded them together as one, to
face the struggles of the day, and
the months ahead. s_—*

They marched with us those

solidarity, brotherhood and univer- |

courageous ones, from Cape Breton

Island to the coal town of Cumber-’

land on Vancouver Island. Some-

times they were met with the

sneers of the ignorant, sometimes

with the tear-gas and clubs of

hostile police. But they marched

on May Day because all Labor

had (and has) a rendezous with

destiny; to build a new Socialist

world, in which—

“Poverty and wealth, the thirst of
fame,

The fear of infamy, disease and
woe,

War with its million horrors, and
fierce hell

Shall live but in the memory of
Time,

Who, like a_ penitent libertine,
shall start,

Look back, and shudder at his.
younger years.” —

They marched with us on many
May Days. Men like OV Bill Ben-
nett, the Socialist journalist who
used his sharp pen to prod his
fellow workers into the line of
march. Men like the longshoreman
George Brown whose memory will
live as long as the Vancouver
waterfront. Shipbuilders like Mal-
colm McLeod and Ed. Leary, who
would have thought it easier to
die than miss marching with inter-
national labor on May Day. The
Reverend A. E. Smith and Art
“Slim” Evans, names synonomous
with the great unemployment
struggles of the Hungry Thirties;
names to inspire a million jobless
onto the path of unity, struggle

-another gap in the marcher’s ranks

_on this May Day. Viola Bianco,

—

and action against hunger in the
60’s.

Slavic workers, men and women
who brought with them to their
adopted land the revolutionary in-
Spiration of their poets; of Taras
Schevchenko, Ivan Franco, of
Pushkin and others, to enrich the
labor and cultural fabric of their
Canada. They too marched proud-
ly, to honour the liberating
struggles of their class and the
pioneering role of their Socialist
homelands.

‘(Just two weeks ago death made

in the passing of ‘Nick’ Covale.
A gap hard to fill because in his
passing the circulation of this
paper went down approximately
350 copies per month, his average
sales). .

It is just ten years ago on May
Day since a young and courageous
Communist women marched in a
Toronto May Day parade, and in
the evening gave her final hours
of life to organizing the first Cana-
dian Peace Congress. Then her
march ended and the banner for
Peace and Socialism she carried
so proudly and well, was passed
to stronger hands. In-this memory
of my daughter Isobel others who
marched with her are not forgotten

Kay Griffin, Beckie Buhay, their
honoured names are legion in the
sacred cause of working class free
dom and emancipation. ‘

All out on May Day for Peace
and Socialism.

April 29,

1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 4