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COMMUNIST PRESS IN
CANADA 40 YEARS OLD

By TOM McEWEN
N marking the 40th ann--
of Versary of the founding
the Communist Party in
eee, the year 1962 also
®cords another historic an-
liversary; that of the
4unching of a press design-
a e a a Marxist-Lenin-
a nterpretation of the is-
“S of the day as they af-
ae! the common people
. factory, farm and com-
Unity, And of equal, if not
eer Importance, a press
ae Would weave into the
ae of Canadian working
a ideology the Marxist-
id Nist science of social
olution,

col ae a few weeks ago a
i eemtinded Grand Jury
ones York demanded to
Orker ta the editor of The
ommunist ond leaders of the
ever aes arty of the USA
ed or determined

feng teal or editorial con-

on Class Paper.

a from being a bare-
n the’ and shameless attack
of the Much-touted “freedom
ieee es: » as well as an

thes, anded attempt by

poly Bar ntoRs of U.S. mon-

Act ne Weave a McCarran

Whick angman’s rope with

to strangle the leader-

Shi

tion a the CPUSA, the ques-

Overtones, Other interesting
ince

rade Communist parties,
wate Unions, socialist organ-
the Gon One sort or other,
Workin NDP and other
stab) &class movements

Dut tone their own press to
Policies ard their own views,
Be ai ete., it follows that
Binge gy otial or political
Dress. all such Papers ex:
ang € thinking, policies

tions lk of the organiza-
i Y represent.
Dregg” &. “freedom of the

Cep ee @ very elastic con-
deeg oe Would be naive in-
Press 4 ~Pect a Communist
Write  ©28age a Tory to
Be. tts editorials, or the
Choose @abor Statesman to
Watch Such a monopoly
Bloeac ce | as MacMillan and

@ NE

a Denies Clyne as its
“Mo :
Workin if not all labor and

a Sclass papers have
Yeap, Into being over the
tion tha, ®cause of the realiza-
daily p, the commercial or
Seryj ta Subsidized by and
tres €xclusively the class
it a ascot monopoly, regard
Part of their function to
digg er edit twist, distort, . slant,
1 me or lie outright on

€s affecting working-
ogres «TuBgle and social

‘Ot,
: Unist newspapers and

di
“ting als, objectively pre-
terpretass arxist-Leninist in-
the Ultim. Of events and

_ Slasg unate aim of working-

t a
Pe iticn of some
Ome asp Socialism,
henge a ecial target for
€n of monopoly
Servile press. For
liaise nes of the pebery

ti yey
bet ae hy Fa
hae? i

then thei Ir

of that fearless work-;

with respect to Communist ac-
tivity or ideology has a two-
pronged meaning; either com-
plete “blackout” or slander-
ous villification and distor-
tion of fact.
PRIDE OF ACHIEVEMENT
It is therefore, a matter of
some pride in the celebration
of 40-years of a Communist
press in Canada; to have been
one of the many thousands in
the creation and building of
this press, to have partici-
pated in its “ups and downs”,
to have enjoyed listening t6
bourgeois politicians working
themselves into a furious
sweat about its existence, and
to have seen it grow from a
courageous but weak “voice
in the wilderness” of 40-years,
ago, into today’s powerful and
influential weapon, an organ-
izer, educator and _ guide,
driving towards the prime
goal of this century; the goal
of Canadian independence,
universal disarmament and

‘peace, Socialism.

For over thirty years, off
and on, this writer has been
associated in an editorial cap-
acity in the building of a Com-
munist press serving workers
and farmers. On the first
Communist paper in Canada
The Worker (Toronto), on the
fighting farm paper of the
post - war 20’s, The Furrow,
and for the past fifteen years
on the Pacific Tribune and
its forerunners, with a few
“fly-by-night” sheets such as
The Yukoner in between.

During those 30 years we
have run.the whole editorial
gamut of nightmare  print-
shops, from those held to-
gether by sheer workingclass
devotion and haywire to the
most modern capitalist estab-
lishments guaranteeing the
highest printing costs and the
lowest ‘‘typographical error”
content.

Looking back over some
of our literary efforts in the
cause of workingclass strug-
gle and socialism, we are
sometimes compelled to ask
ourselves, ‘‘good heavens, did
I write that?” But these evi-
dences of our political and
journalistic immaturity are
compensated by a much
greater factor; the unflinch-
ing devotion, loyalty and sac-
rifice of countless thousands
of working men and women,
whose hard earned dimes and
dollars and friendly advice
has been (and still is) the
granite bedrock upon which
a growing and virile Com-
munist press is built — and
building.

UNBROKEN CHAIN :

From the days of the Cari-
boo Sentinel (1860-66) which

fought for the cause of the’

miners of the “Gold Rush”
days down to today, the con-
tinuity of a labor and Com-
munist press is an unbroken
chain. There have been many
such publications down
through the years in British
Columbia, each expressing
the fighting issues of the

times, and each passing on to
its successor a~-priceless heri-
tage and an unfinished job—
to portray and to agitate for
the realization of a human
society in which universal
brotherhood and peace would
be the cornerstones.

From the days of the Cari-
boo Sentinel down to the
present, some thirty labor
and Communists papers
across Canada have “fought
the good fight’ then given
way to a more vigorous suc-
cessor. The inheritors of this
glorious tradition .of fighting
journalism in Canada over
the last three-quarters of a
century are papers like the
Canadian Tribune and the
Pacific Tribune. To them
alone falls the honor of pre-
serving inviolate the beacon
light of Marxism - Leninism
without which the working-
class in Canada or elsewhere,
cannot advance. To them
alone, (as with the Cariboo
Sentinel which fought vali-
antly against those who
would have sold British Co-
lumbia to Yankee imperial-
ism), they are pioneers in the
‘struggle for Canadian inde-
pendence from U.S. monopoly
domination; which is also the
struggle for peace and social-
ism.

From an old copy of the
Western Clarion of 1902 we
found a little box in a corner,
a box giving the names and
donations of half-a-dozen
workers who had sent in 50-
cents or a dollar to ‘‘keep our

paper going.” Today that half-
dozen have become countless
thousands, and who through
the years have donated many
hundreds of thousands of
dollars to “keep their paper
going’. For this _ sacrifice
many have lost the right of
citizenship in Canada, but
never their honor as true
Canadians.

And ‘their paper’”’ has been
above and beyond all else a
Communist paper, dedicated
to the task of giving voice to
their hopes and dreams of a
better world. They may never
have heard of the slogan
“From a Spark comes a
Flame” on the masthead of
Lenin’s little paper, The Iskra
(Spark), but they can see and.
compare the brilliance and
warmth of that Socialist
“flame” in other lands, and
seek it for their own in the
pages of their “own press,”
now passing its 40th mile-
stone on the road to victory;
to peace, and Socialism.

AMERICAN WAY
U.S. troops stationed in
South Korea chalked up new
records for the “American
way of life’ between Febru-
ary 22nd and March 18. This
included 39 Koreans killed
or injured by U.S. army cars,
three Koreans “accidently”
shot, bayonetted or bitten by
U.S. police dogs, three Kor-
ean women raped, while
“common assault” is report-

ed have hit a new high.

THE CANADIAN TRIBUNE

A Journal 2, Democratic Opinion

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1940.

ME § CENTS

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TORONTO, THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1947

| ii 28

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VOL. 12, NO. 666

TORONTO, ONT., MAY 1, 1950

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