¥ wer, be) 3) THE PEOPLE Published every Wednesday by The People Publishing Co., Room 104, Shelly Building, 119 West Pender Street, Vancouver, B.C. Telephone: MArine 6929. DSDITOR Gee ee - Har GrRirrin MANAGING EDITOR] 22h noc iiictescasenee Ax PARKIN Business MANAGER -......-...-:--- MINERVA Coorer Six Monrlis—$1.00 One Year—$2.00 Printed at Broadway Printers Limited, 151 East 8th Arenue, Vancouver, B.C. Open The Second Front! HE war-optimists, those peculiar people who complacently > view the course of the anti-fascist fight from the stand- point of their own wish-thinking, have again had the props knocked completely from under them by the German re- capture of Kharkov and the renewed stand taken by the still powerful Wehrmacht in Southern Russia. Ever since the Russian counter-drive got under way last November at Stalingrad, these war-optimists, and the pro- fascist groups who take advantage of this line of reasoning to sabotage the anti-fascist war effort, have been sitting back with complacent expressions, pointing to the Red Army advances as indication that the Soviet Union could defeat Hitler’s armies single-handed. They took no heed of Stalin’s warning to “beware of being carried away by conceit or complacency .. - in the severe struggle against the treacherous, cruel, and as yet strong enemy.” They forgot, too, the views expressed by Churchill and Roosevelt at Casablanca as to the need for united effort by all anti-fascists in the defeat of the Axis allies. Given time, these people might have forgotten there was a war being waged at all. The fact remains that despite the foolish remarks of U.S. Ambassador Standley in Moscow last week, the absence of a second land front in Europe has meant that the Soviet Union is bearing,ein the words of Premier Stalin, “the full brunt of the war.’ Gambling on this fact, Hitler has been able to withdraw fresh divisions from the West and throw them into battle to bolster his weakened armies in Southern Russia. At the same time he is relying on the Nazi political offensive to prevent the opening of a second front, and in this move he is being given strong support by pro-fascist and reactionary circles within the United Nations. IS no coincidence that here in Canada there has been a new wave of anti-Soviet, anti-democratic, anti-labor propa- ganda that has risen to a shrill chorus, all calculated to spread distrust and disunity and weaken the attempts of the really democratic forces to carry through the Casablanca policy of Churchill and Roosevelt, the essence of which is the opening of the European land front. Happily, this small but noisy pro-fascist element has not succeeded in stampeding the pro-war forces. On the contrary, Prime Minister King has given the lead in expressing full sup- port of an offensive policy, has vigorously combatted the defeatism of Cardin and the Vichy followers, and has even attacked the,policy of too much emphasis on post-war prob- lems, unfortunately prevalent even in the CCF. In addition, there is indication that the government is beginning to def- initely turn away from the isolationist elements as seen by the recent speech of Mr. Bienvenue of the Quebec provincial cabinet, who strongly denounces Rene Chaloult, the news- paper Deyvoir and the anti-war League for the Defense of Canada. HAT we need now is an intensified struggle against the optimistic “line” and the defeatist, obstructionist policies of the pro-fascist cliques. Labor will have to rally behind the government in helping to mobilize the greatest pressure for the carrying through of the Casablanca policy. All those elements who have become “panicky” at the pros- pect of a second European land front, who see the possibility of a people’s victory in Europe, and have launched out on an anti-Soviet, anti-labor campaign, must be beaten back, ex- posed, forced into silence by the pressure of the great ma- jority of Canadians who see in the Casablanca policy of a two-front war-the only means of defeating fascism in 1943. Events of the past week in Russia have served to empha- size the extreme need for action. The Nazis have partially recovered from their recent defeats. They again hold the Kharkov-Crimea line, from which they may still launch a Summer campaign against the Caucasus. The Wehrmacht is still a great military force, capable of inflicting severe damage on the Allies, capable still, with the aid of its friends in Canada United States and Britain, of fighting for a stalemate and a negotiated peace, which would lead to disaster for the United Nations. Only one thing can smash Hitler’s hopes and bring victory this year—an Allied attack by land in Western Europe. The decisions of the Casablanca conference must be immediately implemented—for the opening of the second front now ! -vious “power. Cabotaie By The Experts N the last war it was not until April, 1918, that the Allies established complete unity of command. For three years the Allies failed to break through the enemy lines. Six months later, to the surprise of the experts, the war was won. After three years of war Allied fortunes were in a very bad way. The Germans seemed to be un- beatable. British offensives had produced poor results at a high cost, whereas the German March offensive in- 1916 achieved very considerable results. ' > What was wrong? Lloyd George tells us the story in his Memoirs, “The Germans possessed the in- calculable advantage of a United Command. . That was worth more to them than a mere num- erical equality.” Had unity of command been established, “The German col- ~ lapse would have come sooner and the British losses would not have been nearly so heavy.” Why, in the face of such ob- advantages that would have accrued to the Allied cause, was unity of command not estab- lished before the fourth year of the war? : The plain truth is that the plan was opposed by the experts. When Lloyd George and Briand first made the experiment of unity of command in the spring of 1917, “we encountered the re- sistance of two men, Haig an Robertson.” : Robertson was Chief of Staff. Haig was Commander-in-Chief. The brass-hats opposed the poli- ticians. Whereupon the politicians de cided to prod the brass-hats. e CONFERENCE was “called in January 1918, Representatives of the Allied Governments and their military advisers were there. Haig and Robertson were present. It was decided to take steps to establish unity of com- mand. But paper decisions are one thing. To get them carried out is another. “We realized when it was too late,” says Lloyd George, “how little justified we were in trusting ...men who hated an ar- rangement to which they had re-* luctantly agreed. They used every artifice of which the pro- ~ fessional mind is capable to delay and by that means to defeat the project.” Robertson received the backing of political groupings seeking for A political crisis was pro- voked. The military clique stopped at nothing. Colonel Repington, a confidant of the General Staff who used him as a mouthpiece, actu- ally described in a newspaper “the entire plans of the Allies for the year,”’ which were that they “would stand on the defensive in France.” Lloyd George declares, “I know nothing comparable to this be- trayal in the whole of our history.” e EPINGTON’S disclosures “en- abled German divisions to be moved elsewhere from France wihtout any risk,” just as, after the Halifax speech, Hitler im- mediately withdrew 200,000 men from France for the offensive at Smolensk. After weeks of delay, the Gov- ernment finally defeated the Op- position clique and Robertson was removed. But Haig was still to be reckoned with. He assured the government that every ar- rangement had been made to co- ordinate his plans with those of Petain’s, but in fact still refused to carry out the decisions of the Allied Government Conferences on unity of command. How much his arrangements were worth was shown in March, 1918, when the German offensive nearly reached the Channel ports. The brass-hats had “once more defeated the politicians. ... The nation and the poor fighting soldiers of the Fifth and Third Armies had to pay dearly for these brass-hat triumphs.’ Faced with a desperate situa- tion jn which the Commanders- in-Chief appeared to be paralysed by the fruits of their folly. Lloyd George acted with energy and speed. First, he summoned shipping and manpower experts before him. He was told there was enough shipping to transport 8,000 men a day to France. He managed to Conciliation and Arbitration AY ‘ get enough to send 25,000 a day - and later 30,000 a day. Next, he went to France, and called a meeting of Allied repre- sentatives and military advisers. cS IS opening words, at this con- ference, deserve to be shouted from the housetops today. “Speaking on behalf of the Bri- tish public,” he told them. “They were anxious to ensure that di- vided counsels should not end in disaster. . . .” And so just in time, unity of command was established. The result was victory, victory that year. No wonder that Lloyd George wrote: “How these great generals presume on the ignorance of the common man.” Well, there is the story. Those who say “leave it to the experts” are committing the same fatal error that led to so much need- less suffering in the last war. Our brass-hats do not appear to have learned the lessons too well. In the fourth year of this war, there is no unity of command between all the forces of the Allies. There are no co-ordinated and simultaneous blows being struck as part of a unified strat- egy against the enemy. The Second Front agreement between the governments has still not been carried out. The British public, once again, has some pro‘lding to do. and Workers Form Army Brigades EXICO CITY—(ALN).—So that the peoples of Latin America may play their full part in the war against the Axis, the Confederation of Latin American Workers has of- fered to form a Brigade of Latin American Volunteers to fight alongside the armies of the Unit- ed Nations, Lombardo Toledano, CTAL president, announced at a mass meeting in the Fine Arts Theater. Toledano made the offer to the United States government; on behalf of the CTAL, while he was recently in Washington. SHORT | JABS ? by OV Bill SEE Good Signs! HERE must have been q a little fluttering in the di cotes of the CMA over the Pr son amendments to the Indust | The publication of a two-colu’} ‘ splurge in the Province ney paper, written by the busir & editor, C. L. Shaw, rooting for § Gonsolidated’s company union up on the same day that the passed the third reading, mi have been accident, but it + tainly was no accident that a d gation from the same comp; union arrived in Victoria the after the bill was finally di with by the legislature. It was another case of “ little and too late.” Notwithstanding Shaw's eul of the Workmen’s Committee, } the company union is spoken by the Consolidated outfit, angle which is bound to Stt the unregenerate trade unio) is, “where did the money cc from to send the delegation fr Trail to represent the ‘one family’ at Trail, Tadanac ;{ Warfield?” No worker pays ¢ dues or other financial contri tion into the Workmen’s Com tee. So the Consolidated work did not pay the delegation’s penses. Who did, then? Proverb The old proverb says, he ¥ pays the piper calls the tune, we are justified in believing i whoever paid the delegates’ penses also instructed them sing a certain kind of song. F for thought! In any case did this delega’ represent any of the Consolide workers? Did the workers hol meeting, make decisions regi’ ing their attitude to the prope amendments to the act and e the delegates who went to * toria? Personally, I don’t bel they did, because I know of ¢ Workmen’s Committee for least as long as Mr. Shaw. fact, since before it came existence—since Ginger Good and Romeo Albo were houn to their deaths after the i strike, Bedtime Story It was rumored around parliament buildings that workers at Trail had sent ai gram demanding of their M Mr. Herridge, that he fight amendments. Did they? If t didn’t, who did? Mr. Shaw in his bedtime st says, “Real democracy is at w every day at Consolidated.” “That's not the way I heerd to quote a well-known Tr: character. Then along comes Mr. Mac I seem to know that name, According to Mr. Mackin, | forest industries have nothin; fear from the bill” IT agree 4 him there. If they abide by law, they need have no fear. But is that the reason why manufacturers’ lobby, which eluded S. G. Blaylock of the | solidated, Mr. Mackin of Fraser Mills, the biggest tin business in Western Canada, Mr. Humbird of the Weyerha interests, the biggest timber cern in the United States, their best to get the governr at Victoria to ditch the ami ments to the act, The trade union movement use this bill now to go out, organize the whole province!