Review

eae NDP and CLC trade
union burocrats who presume
to “lead” labor never tire of an-
nouncing that they are “the best
fighters against Communism.” At
the recent CLC convention in Van-
couver President Claude Jodoin
took time out to chide the Cana-
dian Chamber of Commerce on the
stupidities of its “Operation Free-
dom” anti-Communist campaign,
and to remind the C-of-C that
“we” of the CLC are the “best
fighters against Communism.”

The poisonous smoke-screen of
anti-Communism is used by reac-
tion everywhere including its
agents in the ranks of labor, to
obscure the real issues affecting
the people, and their own bank-
ruptcy in facing up to those is-
sues.

It is therefore no surprise to
find Diefenbaker publicly accus-
ing Liberal bigwigs “Mike” Pear-
son and Paul Martin (former Lib-
eral health minister), of being
“soft on Communism”; of failing
during all their years'in the Unit-
ed Nations (as representatives of
a Liberal government), to do some-
thing “on behalf of the people in
the Soviet satellite nations.”

This bogey of “Soviet colonial-

ism” cooked up by the U.S. State
Department and the British Col-
onial office to hide their own col-
onial oppression, is now peddled by
Dief on the hustings, accompanied
by a new “pledge” to move a reso-
lution in the UN (if re-elected)
“on the subject of Russian colon-
ialism.”

Not to be outtlone on this “red
bogey” vote catcher, Pearson vows
he “has fought communism all his
adult life’, and, as a consequence,
lost the post of UN secretary-gen-
eral on two occasions because of
Communist “vetoes”. As the. early
Liberal echo of John Foster Dulles
in Canada, we can almost hear
“Mike” emitting a heart-rending
sob at such a loss?

All of which reminds us of the
prophetic clarity of Marx and En-
gels in the Communist Manifesto
of 114-years ago;—

“Where is the party in opposi-
tion that has not been decried as
communistic by its opponents in
power? Where the Opposition that
has not hurled back the branding
reproach of Communism against
the more advanced opposition par-
ties, as well as against its reaction-
ary adversaries?”

Where indeed?

Editorial comment. .

The “Oily Bird” organ of the Oil
and Chemical Workers Union re-
ports two phases of the economy
shooting skywards; the high cost
of living and oil company profits.

Imperial Oil, Standard and Shell
are all doing well. In the first quar-
ter of 1962 Shell netted over $3814-
million profit, with the others bat-
ting a close average.

And while Dief was orating
somewhere in Canada about the
Tories having “reduced living
costs”, Dominion Bureau of Statis-
tics was reporting a near-record
jump in April from 128.7 to 103.3:
— and that was before Dief clip-
ped the dollar down to 92'4-cents.

* * oo

When CLC’s William “Bill” Ma-
honey announced at the recent con-
vention of that body that “strikes
were obsolete”, but suggested
nothing in the way of a substitute,
we detected a familiar Chamber-
of-Commerce odor. :

Now it has all been cleared
away. NDP national leader Tommy
Douglas also speaks out “against
strikes”, but provides a solution.

Pacific Tribune

' Editor — TOM McEWEN
Aésociate Editor—MAURICE RUSH
Business Mgr..-OXANA BIGELOW

Published weekly at:
Room 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouer 4, B.C. ,
Phone MUtual 5-5288

Subscription Rates:
One Year: $4:00—Six Months: $2.25
Canadian and Commonwealth coun-
tries (except Australia): $4:00 one
year. Australia, United States and
afl other countries: $5.00 one year.

‘Authorized as second class mail by
the Post-Office Department, Ottawa,
and for payment of postage in cash.

(See “The Democrat” April edi-
tion). “Get out and vote for a
really democratic party with a
planned economy program that
will increase production in Can-
ada.”

What happens to the worker’s
pay envelope meantime (if he has
one), Tommy didn’t say?

x — EDITORIAL PAGE
‘The best fighters’ | Voters get ‘slate’

: a lauditory editorial this week
the Vancouver Sun “suggests
two who should be returned to Ot-
tawa’” in this election; Tory How-
ard Green and NDP Harold Winch.

Gratutiously, the electors are
given a thumbnail sketch on the
“dedication and honesty” of these
two political stalwarts.

Howard Green we are told “has

resolutely stuck to the central is-

sue — survival”, while “socialist”

‘Harold Winch has at long last

“discovered that the basic inter-
ests of capital and labor are not
antagonistic but complimentary.”
In short. that the class struggle is
non-existent?

“Both.” says the Sun, “have in
exceptionally large degree the
aualities of dedication and hon-
esty.” We recall that Mark An-
‘hony said something similar
shout the “honourable men” who
knifed Caesar in the back in the
Roman Senate some years ago.

True, Mr. Green as tory minis-
ter of external affairs has made,
and is still making some very fine
speeches about peace, survival,
disarmament, banning ~the H-
bomb and so forth. But in the Un-
ited Nations, the NATO councils
and other international bodies
where the vital issues of peace and
war are debated, Mr. Green invar-
iably stands, as does the Tory. gov-
ernment he represents, with ag-
gressive U.S. H-bomb imperialism.

In the case of Harold Winch
there are many similarities. Like

the Tories he is also an ardent ad-
vocate of NATO, if albeit, on a

slightly different octave. And the
class struggle remains whether

Comment

Winch denies its existence or n
It’s highest expression, as sé
from the “Free West” vanta
point where the Sun has now €
vated Winch, is precisely the N
TO he and his NDP leadership 1
sist Canada remain tied to.

Harold Winch, of. course, is né
the only “socialist” of this ef@
who has found it convenient, f0
opportunist reasons, to deny th
class struggle, or at other times,
when occasion appeared opportuneé
(and necessary) to harrangue the
proletariat with extremé “left?
phraseology, on the urgency 0
“storming the citadels of capital
ism.”

Hugh Gaitskell of Britain and
Ramsay MacDonald before him
also denied (and deny) the class
struggle in the interests of British &
monopoly, but managed upon 0% —
casion, and still do, to mak
speeches which make Nikita
Khrushchev’s oratory look tam
by comparison. If this is what thé
Sun defines as “honesty” we’
have to acquire a new dictionary
on moral values? :

Similarly with Howard Greet
His numerous speeches on al
about peace and disarmament may
appear to the unsophisticated t
be at variance with Tory-U.S. cold
war policies, but his votes ane
ready support for such policies a!
what makes survival for Canad?
— and the world — uncertail.
That is what makes him valuabl
— to the Tories.

The Sun’s early projected
“slate” on who to vote for Wi
serve to add to the general com
fusion of deliberately obscured 15
sues — nothing more.

—_—"

Tom |
McEwen.’

commission of architects en-

gaged by Vancouver City
Council to do a survey of City Hall
layout and decor, has now sub-
mitted its ‘‘blueprint’’, designed “‘to
create the qualities of both dig-
nity and beauty.”

Just how much this extra “‘dig-
nity” will clip the already over-
loaded taxpayer is still as much
of a secret as the ‘“how-come”’ of
of a $10,000 plus “bonus” for ex-
police chief George Archer, which
somebody neatly tucked away in.
the last civic budget in such a way
that it could slip through unnot-

iced.
Anyhow while the taxpayers
sweat it out in their high-taxes

the decor. The construction of “a
ceremonial plaza”, with ‘‘perhaps’”
a fountain, some potted palms and
“appealing seating’ to rest the

dogs.
Then there appears to be much
too much ‘mahogany’ and red

(horrors) carpets around our Hotel
de Ville, so “raus mit.’ And the
sad state of Mayor Alsbury’s office,
dear, dear; bum furniture, bum
lighting, bum carpets, bum drapes.
Even the mayorality ashtrays are
unsuited for a dignified flick of

steam bath, the architects lay out >

the index finger, so again “raus
mit.” The whole kit and caboodle
utterly “unsuitable for the chief
executive.”

Next it is suggested the NPA
aldermanics be put two in a bed,
er, room, with the main aldermanic
chamber so situated as to have “an
excellent view of the city.” That
should be helpful to a number of
those NPA lads who scarcely ever
see the city — except at election:
time. :

On the lighter side of things the
architects propose some facilities
for ‘light refreshments,” nothing
“elaborate” you. know. Full meals
should be available in the base-
ment, or in more decorous lingo,
in the “sub-ground”’ floor.

It is also recommended that a
“shower” be installed since, in the
commission’s opinion “the mayor —
ought to have a shower for use
when he changes clothes and
robes.”’ This is not to suggest that
mayors per se stand in constant
need of the cleansing qualities of
soap and water, but the benefits
of such a shower following a heat-
ed session on how to hold-the-line
on wages, or up the tax mill rate,
or how a trifling item of a $10,-
000. “bonus” got okayed without
anyone knowing who okayed it,
just cannot be over-emphasized.
Just think of the benefits of a cool
mayorality “shower” in the sultry
days of ex-police chief Walter Mul-
ligan. It might have saved the
taxpayer thousands of dollars Mul-
ligan got away with?

ora of “explaining” the how and |

’ to some length ‘explaining’ how

All in all the architects have
done a bang-up job on how to re-
furbish City Hall. There’s just one
flaw in the “blueprint”; it doesn’t
eliminate the NPA, but does make
a ‘fine stab towards eliminating
the harassed taxpayer with
more taxes? :

* * *

And coming back to that “mys-
terious” item of $10,000 or more
which was slipped into the civic
budgetary estimates as an intend- —
ed “bonus” for ex-police chief Ar-
cher. How it got there in the first
place, and by whom? Also why
should the taxpayers be clipped
that amount on top of a very hand-—
some annual salary to a police —
executive whose six years on the
civic force doesn’t even rate a pen-
sion? !

Already there has been a pleth-

wherefore of this “mysterious”
$10,000. Mayor Alsbury has gone

it all happened. But what no one
has as yet explained is why a very
substantial sum of the taxpayer’s
money had to be “discovered”
rather than openly itemized in
civic financing, And why an in-
tended maganimous $10,000 ‘‘bon-
us” to one civic employee, and @
long haggle over 3'4-cents-an-hour ~
increase in the pay envelope of
another?

Perhaps Mayor Alsbury, draw-
ing upon his old “‘socialist”” back-
ground, will “explain” that dis-
crepancy.

May 18

1962—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—P