B wo: largest railway
ftwo ATRF unions rep-
pceent of organized rail-

3

mg Communists, Ra-
‘aupta, founder of the
= Writers’ Association of
mPhani Chakravarty, a
fe been murdered by
mists in» Dacca.

gs, committed in July,
ga with a renewed out-
-jitation by the Fifth
": Congress Socialist
'e Trotskyites, who are
pitate a new wave of
(| disorders.

# gainst yielding to any
| tion-are being issued
mit Congressmen and

pient -of the Rangpur
Egress Committee of
sivi Mohiuddin, who
} from jail last month,
'n appeal to all Con-
tsteer clear of any ac-

Formation of the new federation

of rank-and-file unions is likely
to lead to rapid organization of
India’s 700,000 railway ‘workers.

olumenists Murder Communists

tion which can be exploited by the
fifth column. - nei

The task, he urges, is firstly to
secure the release of Congress
leaders from jail and, secondly, to
build a unity of all parties for de-
fence against the Japanese inyad-
ers, to reeognize the right of self-
determination, to solve the food
problem and fight the fifth Col-
umn.

A similar appeal has been issued
by Srivastava, former parliamen-
tary secretary of the United Proy-
inces Congress government. -

The Communist paper, People’s
War, prints an appeal from an
Indian escaped from Malaya like-
Wise urging patriotic Indians not
to be taken in by Bose and the
fifth column army that he is said
to be building in Malaya with the
help of a number of duped Indians
there. :

Free France

=o in Strasburg have
Wodi, general secre-
#Alsace-Lorraine Rail-
© Union and member
mu Committee of the
Enunist Party, for re-
)2rman Oppression, ac-

Shoot Union

2 Leader
~ cording to L’Humanite, the party's
organ.

He is the tenth member of the
French Communist Party’s Central
Committee to be executed by the
senemy for active participation in
French resistance. ~

United States

5 novement throughout
@ is feeling the reper-
Hie conference on po-
held in Birmingham
[an committee of the
= 1 discussions in local
# central bodies have
‘gh point, and while
“me who do not yet
B ortance of a political
sor, the majority of
de unionists, — both
/ and leaders — are

nbrowiski, secretary
erm Conference for
te and editor of the
ict, points to the in-
’ of industrial work
ial force in changing

is Tipe for a political
She. “It will happen
new army of indus-
_ realizes the vyast
fits reach. ... Today
‘ax districts there are
21 workers than the
of votes cast in the

i elections.”

boday is in many im-
ets different from the
or even five years
ae South of today is
#sricultural, industry
at an unprecedented
Sinto the class of in-

igns Army
jt between the US
the International

'S and Warehouse-
NGIO) ander which

! provide workers to”
My warehouse work,
d today by the ILWU
S. If is the first such
== Signed in the US.
vaS Having consider-
Y in handling the
1 Of some of its local

union declared. “It

anging South

dustrial workers millions of small
farmers and occasional laborers
from the small towns and rural
districts.

Many of these newcomers to in-
dustry are still unorganized, but
in every industrial center there are
traditions of unionism and almost
always some organized core of
either the CIO or the AFL.

This trade union groundwork
must be strengthened and extend-
ed, and there are indications both
the organized workers and> the
union movement is ready for this
perspective.

In North Carolina, workers point
to the spectacular victory of the
CIO’s United Cannery, Agricultur-
al and Packinghouse Workers,
which recently won elections in the
big Camel cigarette plant at Wins-
ton Salim and the American To-
baceo pliant in Charleston, cover-
ing about 15,000 workers.

“This is a time for snow-balling,”
Said a yeteran textile organizer in
Georgia. “Organization builds and
builds on itself. If we just had
more organizers we would soon
have the South’s half-million tex-
tile workers in the unon.”

And so it goes, not only in to-
baeco and textile, but in those oth-
er Southern industries which em-
ploy the vast majority of Southern
workers, lumber, furniture, agri-
culture.

There’s a great day coming—if
the labor movement really grasps
the possibilities and takes the
necessary organizational steps.

Agreement

Was using enlisted (army) men and
Was unable to get experienced
warehouse workers. We made an
agreement under which we furn-
ish the men to do the work: we
pay them and Jook after the em-
ployee’s end. The army reimburses
the union for the expense. The
whole plan is operated without
profit. If it works out we are to
make the same arrangement for
the other army warehouses as they
are opened.”

Labor- Progressives
and the CCF

HEN the Labor-Progressive Part

By Leslie Morris

y decided at its first national convention to approach

the CCF with an application to affiliate to the CCF, it did so realizing that the appli-
cation was part and parcel of the larger question of the unity of Canadian labor. But more

than that. The changing scene in Canada and the world

is of such drastic proportions that.

unity is no longer something devoutly to be wished, but an urgent — the most urgent —
practical necessity of this very moment.

Why this is so, is obvious to
every thinking Canadian. Not a
single question of the war or post-
war but eries aloud for unity on
the immediate issues which con-
front us. Whether it be the mass
departure of Canadians from the
eld-line parties, the military-
strategic issues of the war which
boil up now in the world for a
second front. or the schemes for
a post-war Canada which will
push forward our economie and
social progress—ali these crucial
matters become mere abstrac-
tions unless labor enters the lists
im a united fashion.

Consequently, the refusal of the
CCE National Council to accept
the application of the Labor-Pro-
gressive Party, and the terms in
which that refusal is couched,
has set pack the hopes. of many
thousands of politically conscious
workers. No one can read the
statement of the National Coun-
cil without getting the impres-
Sion that the Council missed
the point, for no amount of repe-
tition of past differences can
possibly wipe out the urgent pres-
ent necessity for labor unity. ~

Equally, the refusal of the Na-
tional Council will not remove
this issue from Ganadian labor
politics. It is there, and there
it will remain, not as a party
matter between Coldwell and
Buck, but as something which
arises from the heart of pres-
ent day politics, and will not be
Zainsaid.

Tf the CCF is wise, even from
the standpoint of its own political
welfare, it will not try to ignore
the deep-seated urge for unity
among the people, but will act
in harmony with that urge.

4p CCF statement not only

fails fo deal with the urgent
practial problems of the war and
post-war raised in the Labor-Pro-
gressive Party’s letter, but it as-
sumes far too much in the way
of present-day support for the
CCF. It is wrong to say, as the
CCF does, that it is the only me-
dium of working class political
expression. True, it is the major
avenue of such support, but it
still has to enroll the trade union
movement, the farmers’ organiza-
tions, the co-operatives and all
Canadian Socialists into its ranks.

In order to develop and become
the vehicle of labor-farmer poli-
tical action, it must broaden its
ranks and its vision, and include
all organized groups who are moy-
ing leftwards. It is not only a
matter of including the Labor-
Progressive Party in its ranks,
but of including all progressive
Canadian organizations. That is
ihe point the reply to Tim Buck’s
letter misses completely.

The CCF was born as a Federa-
tion—that is, a central, united
organization of all groups who
agree with the need for a social
change. In that sense, it is the
Same, politically, as the British

Labor Party. This does not deny.
the need for CCE individual
membership clubs. The Labor
Party has a simlar form of or-
ganization. But, as a Federation,
il can, as its- constitution says,

take in all labor and socialist
groups who stand on the general
principles of the Regina Mani-
festo — which, after all, was a
statement of general principles.
So there can be no talk of any
change of policy in the GCF or
usurpation of leadership, if the
Labor-Progressive Party is ac-
cepted.

What would happen in such an
instance would be that the Labor-
Progressive Party would put for-
Ward its viewpoint the same way
as any other section, and abide
by the majority decision. Is that
the negation of democratic pro-
cedure that the CCF talks about?
Nonsense.

NLESS the CCF seizes the
present opportunity to unify
the labor movement by becoming

the means of the united exXpres-
sion of the present democratic
upsurge among our people, then
it faces a very troubled future.
It will make a great mistake if
it subsfitutes the “Red bogey” for
those gains which can be made
through unity. It is a comment-
ary on the narrow political think
ing of the CCF leaders that the
cnly arguments they use to deny
the application of the Labor-Pro-
gressive Party are ihe same as
the arguments of reaction: “force
and violence,” “non-belief in de-
mocracy,” “sinister control.”

Nene of these hold water
among thinking people. They are
bankrupt and outworn. But, their
use is still of value to the capital-
ist parties. And apparently they
shill have value as an apology for
justifying the present weakness
and division of the labor move-
ment.

While Canadian labor is Moving
ahead With Seven-league boots,
it has still to produce a skilful
political leadership. It js facing
office in a number of provinces,
and perhaps federally, without a
leadership which Speaks for all
labor and the people.

The leadership of Canadian Ia-
bor is still amateurish and clumsy.
Spontaneous upsurges such as
the Ontario provincial labor vote
cannot replace organization, lead-
ership and skilful working class

- politics. Wartime Strategy and

post-war planning are meaning-
less without leadership, organiz-

E contained
in the movement away from the

Essentially, it is these things
the CCF js rejecting when ot
stands pat on “red-baiting” as its
reply to the appeal for unity. By
doing so, it is endangering the
success of the labor movement
in the war and the after-war. It
IS sacrificing labor’s opportiuni-
ties to’ shibboleths and anti-Com-
munist prejudices. And history
shows that every labor leader
who does that is actually working

against the interests of labor,
whether he knows it or not

QO, the CCF National Council’s
statement and resolution turn-
ing down the Labor-Progressive
Party's request have not -closed
the matter. They don’t measure
up to present-day requirements.
They are out of tune with the
moods of the workers — as is
shown by the resolution of the
Trades and Labor Congress sup-
porting labor political action.
They are of service only to the
reactionaries, who would like
nothing better than to see the
anti-Communist “bogey” kept
alive in the labor movement, for
they still see in it their best
means of keeping themselves in
the saddle during and after the
war. ;
The issue remains: Unity on the
immediate needs of labor and the
farmers, for speedy victory and
for legislative action now to plan
post-war Canada.
Arguments about how to “win

Socialism” and plans for a pros-

perous paest-war Canada are emp-
ty pipe-dreams unless this unity
is achieved. Reaction will see to
that. “Red-baiting” as a form of
political argument after the hor-
rors of the past decade in Ger-
many, Spain and France, and
after the experience of Hitler’s
Anti-Comintern Axis, is of sery-
ice only to the reactionaries, and
stabs the labor movement in the
back The CCF Council seemed
te recognize that when it called
for greater unity in the United
Nations with the Soviet Union.

E are facing harsh tests.

There may be a Dominion
election soon. The old-line parties
can register successes only if
Jabor is divided. The election of
the Drew government in Ontario
is proof of that. Unity is still
the main issue within the labor
movement. It is the central ques-
tion of working class politics, for
without it we cannot guard the
victory and win the peace.

The matter is still before the
CCF and has not been settled
by the statement of the National
Council. A small group at the Na-
tional Council (three percent of
those present) saw that elearly
and did not sugport the council’s
majority attitude.

The question cannot wait for
another six months or a year un-
fil the CCE National Council
meets again. Municipal elections
are on the agenda. The unions
are moving into political action.
Provineial and federal nomina-
ions are being discussed.

The tight for unity must go on
now, in the trade unions and
every locality and constituency.
Time will not wait. Discussions
should be held in all sectors of
the movement, with the aim of
ironing out this matter quickly
and developing unity in action
on all wartime and post-war
questions. The issue of labor
unity must be fought out; the
struggle for unity must continue,

bait