Get Busy !

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

Zi don’t know whether I am
Sticking my neck out or not,
or whether your paper cares to
eriticize any of the AFL lead-
ers who have high-tailed it for

_ the cellar during the ITU strike,

and left the fighting for trade
wnion rightS and privileges to
others; but this is how I see it.

Once the ITU had decided to
strike the Southam newspaper
chain, they should have for-
gotten their antiquated legfalis-
tic concepts of trade unionism,
and realized that in a strike
yictories arێ won on the picket
line and not at home or in the
courts. But they didn’t. As soon
as the Southam eang got a
judge to issue an injunction
restraining the union from
picketing (because that is
what all its legal jargon and

Wht

‘restrictions

amount to) they
became very “lawful” and hit

if for home.

di the injunction only affect-

ed the ITU that would be all.

right—the ITU men could go
home and stay there. But un-
fortunately it affects all labor
and can only be effectively
Squashed by a united labor
movement on the picket line.

I don’t Know whether the ITU

and the pressmen see it this
way, but whether they do or
not, that is just how it stacks
up. S

The Communists are getting
the blame for continuing the
Strike at the Province. From x=
red-baiting coterie in the AF,
leadership down to Delbridge

and Spencer of the News-Her-
ald and Province respectively,
a steady barrage of anti-com-
munist bile emerges. Well, that
also did not originate with them,

wrecking policies,

WENT

at You Pleate.

but they have readily taken
up this putrid weapon of Hit-

ler and turned it to their own

use; the one to justify union-
the other v¥o
cover moral cowardice. Even
old Sam Gomphers was a rebel
compared to some of our AERL
leaders. His advice on injunc-
tions was to ignore them and
Carry on the fight. Theirs is
to respect injunctions and Tlet
others do their fighting
them, while they knife them
in the back. Good AFT union-
ists are no more in support of
those kind of policies than are
the so-called communists. But it
is more than time that they
took action to have their al-
leged leaders “get busy” and do
their share to help the men

who provide their meal ticket.
AFL UNIONIST.

Vancouver, B.C.

Sritish workers want

real nationalization

N° one who remembers the joy

which swept through the
rank of the workers when the
general election results became
known can fail to be impressed
by the contrast between the
enthusiasti¢ confidence then
and the cynicism which is more
and more being expressed in the
workshops.

The great majority of the
organized workers, who voted
for a Labor Goyernment did so
with 2 sober, realistic under-
Standing of the complexity of
the problems that would face
that government, and in the full
Knowledge that the successful
and speedy carrying out of
Labor's program would require
from them the fullest backing
and co-operation, in the fac-
tories, mines and workshops.

WORKERS CO-CPERATED

WiESE workers looked  for-
ward, not to immediate leis-

ure and abundance, not to im-
mediate socialism, but to the
eportunity, at long last, to put
their brains, their skill, their
energy, their initiative and or-
Sanizing ability to the task of
rebuilding their country and

carrying it forward a further

step on the road to socialism.
Neyer did any

governmeny i0 &

this country
have such a res-
ervoir of good-
will to draw

upon. Never was
any government
in this country
able so com-
pletely to rely on
the enthusiastic
cooperation o fz
the workers in
cartying out its Harry Pollitt
program.

Some three months ago Mr.
Attlee launched what was in-
tended to be the greatest pro-
auction drive in SBritain’s his-
tory. He spoke eloquently and
sincerely on the radio.

His appeal was followed by
Similar speeches and articles
from ministers and trade union
leaders.

At great expense, a confer-
ence of trade union executives
Was held in London and in

Cight large industrial centres
throughout the country. Cabinet
ministers explained the need for
more goods of every kind, and,

By HARRY POLLITT

we have no reason to doubt
either their eloquence or the
sincerity of the trade union ex-
ecutives’ pledge of support.

And it is precisely because
so far as the workers can see,
they have no more say in the
running of the nationalized in-
dustry under a Labor Govern-
_ment than they had under Tory
rule, that they are not making
any response to the increased

production campaign.

Buying brains in present con-
ditions, and especially when the
phrase is mouthed by a minister
whose attitude te the wages of
the workers has already caused
much cynical comment, can
mean only one thing — leaving
the running of industry still in
the hands of the capitalist class.

When the composition of the
.coal board was announced it
Shocked the miners and in

many coal fields the expression
was current, “if this is nation-
alization it’s only changing one
boss for another.” Yet, we need
more coal, and it is the miners
who will have to be won to
get it, not the coal board.

The workers need to be con-
vinced that nationalization
means the taking of industry
right out of the hands of the
capitalist class, and that, in the
nationalized industries, miners,
railhwaymen, aircraft workers,
steel workers, are going to oc-
cupy leading positions, to have
real control.

FORGOTTEN PROMISE
GURTHER, the Labor Govern-

ment needs to remember, and
to convince the workers that
they have remembered, that the
aim of nationalization is not
only to improve output but to
hasten the development toward
the Socialist goal of which
every workers dreams.

There must be an end to the
position where nationalization
means merely the swapping of
one boss for another, an end
to compensation terms which
threaten to become a strangle-
hold on industry.

Finally, the immediate bene-
fits of nationalization must be
shown in better conditions of
work and higher rates of pay
for the workers. The workers

“will solve the production and
nationalization problems much

EFACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 5

more quickly when they see
profits going down and wages
going up, when they see a real
policy of price control.

“Tanks for Joe” had the ap-
peal it did because it touched
the class instincts of the work-
ers, because the tanks were
produced for a Socialist coun-
try and people.

When the government makes
its appeal te the workers in
such a’ way that the workers
feel they are being asked to as-
sist in weakening the capitalist
class and strengthening: the
position of a working class, then
we will see an end’ to apathy
and a great upsurge of en-
thusiasm, such as we see today
in Czechoslovakia.

DISPARITY WITH U.S.
Stee the productive capacity
of America in coal, textiles,
oil, steel, food, to mention only
the basic goods, and compare it
with our own. The disparity
will come as a profound shock.

That disparity can and must
be lessened. It can be, by call-
ing’ upon the vast experience of
the workers at the point of
production. They know what

the machine can do, what the
plough can furrow, what the
coal-cutter or, pick can get;
they know the power of the

hammer and the capacity of
the weaving-loom and spinning-
mule to produce. THey know
where the real bottlenecks are.

It is a profound mistake to
believe that this is a problem
which must be left only to the
Trades Union Congress.

The drive to strengthen the
whole basis of Britain’s econ-
omy by nationalization, re-or-
ganization, increased produc-
tion and higher wages and bet-
ter working conditions is a po-
litical question, one that de-
mands the utmest unity in the
labor movement.” 3

The sooner the leaders of
the Labor Party grasp the fact
that by their present concep-
tion of natioualization, their at-
tacks on the Communist Party,
and their refusal to make their
contribution toward  establish-
ing unity, they are making it
more difficult to solve Britain’s
economic problems, the better
for the nation.

for

Shor t J abs by Of? Bill

‘Whose ox is gored ?

THe technique of the war-mongers does not change much. From
age to age it remains more or less constant. Machiavelli, the first
theoretical writer on the art of modern war, wrote in the 15th century
about an Italian general, Gastracani, whom he admired, that “if he
was able to win by fraud he never attempted te win by force.”

Machiavelli taught the militarists that they should be busy in
concocting new devices, employing new ruses—like spreading false
Tumors. They learned that lesson well, so well in fact that they
not only use it against the enemy but against their own people also.
@ if a couple of Red army soldiers are arrested for some reason,
or for no reason at all, in the American zone in Germany, we are
informed by the military headquarters that they are spies. But if
a couple of Americans go AWOL, a great cry is launched that they
went into the Russian zone “to see a man about a dog” and have
been clapped in the cooler by the unreasonable Soviet forces.

Thus the basis is laid amongst the gullible civil population,
whose ‘honor’ has been sullied, for what the war-mongers desire—
another war. >

Tt seems that these anti-social forces, bent on maintaining
their own class interests, haye reversed the dictum of Clausewitz,
that, “War is the continuation of state policy by other means,” so
that it now reads, “Peace is the continuation of war by the same
means’’—lying and fraud.

Gouging the Canadian people

[N the recent move of the government in altering the exchange
rate of the Canadian dollar in relation to the United States dollar,

the air and the press was filled with comment on the meaning of the

move and its effect on Canadian business, but one angle of the ques-

tion was never mentioned by the economists.

Tt was clear that Canadian industries selling paper, lumber, the
product of Canadian mines and other commodities which serve 2s
raw Materials for United States factories, were due to lose 10 cents
on the dollar. On the other hand, Canadians who bought the pro- =»
duct off United States factories and paid interest on bonds held in
the States would save 10 per cent.

Since that exchange rate was an arbitrary one and had no rela-
tion to trade balances between Canada and the United States, it means
that Canadians who bought the products of United States factories
and borrowed American money were actually paying 10 percent to the
Big Boys who own the Canadian paper, lumber and mining interests
during the period, about five years, that the arbitrary exchange rate
was in force. Whose side is the government on? : :

These are the patriots who squawk loudest when the workers
whom they exploit (who, by the way, were all on the wrong side in
transactions involving the 10 per cent, discount on the Canadian dol-
lar ask for a little more of the product of their toll.

Dr. Howard James, president of the Mining Association of B.C,.
knowing the hard rock miners would be demanding wage increases,
made the following statement five months ago: “.... labor and
other costs have to be held at a sensible level and more productive
man-hours have to be got from labor.”

And last week, Victor Credon, general manager of the Hedley
Mascot, squawked that to grant the increases the miners ask would
mean an increase in the wage scale of 50144 per cent. That is an ad-
mission that the 2500 hard reck miners on strike earn less than 66
cents an hour. The same paper carried a story about four miners
being buried in a Quebec mine by a slide. : ‘

An industry that cannot do better for its workers than that should
shut up shop.

Relief or racket ?

AFTER the last war, American relief workers descended on Europe
like the locusts that plagued Egypt. They were supposed to be there
to feed the starving populations and rehabilitate the war-torn coun-
tries. But history disclosed their real purpose later—to prevent the
peoples of Europe setting up the kind of governments they wanted
and to act as spies on the Soviet Union.

Today we see a repitition of that same program on a world scale
at least in Hurope and Asia. LaGuardia is getting himself in Dutch
with the wirepullers in Washington because he has denounced the
local relief administrations in China and Greece, declaring that the
bowers in control in these countries are using relief supplies to fur-
ther their own political ends.

Of one record of 300,000 tons of supplies sent to China only 800:
tons found its way to Communist controlled areas, while in Greece
only friends of the Fascist government there get a share of the relies

Besides this there is a justifiable suspicion that .racketeering in
these supplies and other charitable gifts is prevalent. An advertise-
ment in the North China Daily News, published in Shanghai, May 2nd,
announces the sailing from Birkenhead of the steamer Samjack, with
part of her cargo consisting of “half-a-million jackets and trousers,
Suitable for the Far Eastern trade” at the price of four shillings each.

One is compeiled to wonder if these are part of the collections
that have been made from the charitable folks to be given to the
starving and naked peoples of the hard hit countries.

LaGyardia says he has found the situation in Greece to be very
bad since things are in the hands of the politicians. Since there are
only one kind of politician in Greece, that ‘means Fascists.

It is a terrible commentary on modern society that there are in
it prositutes always eager to exploit human misery for their own
ends.

NO RESULTS
UL what has been the result
of all this? The answer is—
nothing! The production drive
has left the workers entirely
unmoved. Why is this the case?
We believe it is because the
Labor Government’s policy on

takings?.... What the joint
stock company does is to go
out into the market and buy
brains. ... the state can do
the same... .”

He unwittingly gave the ex-—
planation, and at the same time
revealed a fundamental miscon-

such basic issues as nationali- ception of the meaning and
zation, reorganization of indus- purpose of nationalization on
try, wages, prices and profits, the part of the Labor Govern-
has not been of the character ment.

that could win the political con- WO VOICE

viction of the workers.

During the debate on the na-
tionalization of steel, Mr. Her-
bert Morrison said:

“What dees 2 limited Hability
company do when it wants to
get people to run its wunder-

T IS not on the acquisition of

“the best brains that money
can buy” that the success of na-
tioualization depends, but on
the degree to which the work-
ers are drawn into the opera-
tion of the government’s plans.

ERIDAY, JULY 26, 1946