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in British foreign policy. This is the héaviest blow that Bevinism has suffered

A S a result of the vote in the House of Commons we are at a great turning point

York ‘to explain himself.’

= and it is not unlikely that Bevin may find it necessary to hurry back from New
Labor back-benchers ask what else can happen when a man

and his policy have to be saved in the Commons with the aid.of Opposition (in this
case Tory) votes? Attlee and Bevin will put the best face on it they can. But the Ameri-

eans with whom Bevin is ne-
gotiating will not be deceived.

*
, Bhey know as well as any
back-beneher that Bevin is, te
put it bluntly, on the skids.

i have talked, since the great
delegate, with M.P.’s representing
most of the very varied tenden=-
cies represented in the ‘silent
vote’ of the abstentionists against
Bevinism and Toryism.

Their variations hit you in the
eye. So does the solidarity of
their conviction that Bevin and
Bevinism are no good.

Bevin thought he could laugh
off his critics by talking of
‘cry pto-Communism.’

He used the Atlantic telephone
to tell poor Attlee that this was

the way to deal with them.
Attlee was on the spot in
every sense of the term. He

Knew better. He tried to warn
Bevin across all those miles of
Atlantic.

His reward was a general pro-
paganda from Bevin sources to
suggest that “if only Bevin had
been in the House” instead of
Attlee things would have been
different. - ;

E story of just how this

great and extraordinarily ya-
rious mass of M.P.’s has come
together to make an end of a
disastrous foreign policy is fas-
cinating.

Here are the facts about it:

For at least six weeks before
the affair began to break into
the open, there had been a sig-
nificant series ef moves by: what
i may call the Right-Wing reb- .
els against Bevinism.

These included Richard Cross-
man and Michael Foot. I call
them the Right-Wing rebels be-
cause they took the line that
what was wrong with Bevinism
was that it was not a good

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE i2

enough weapon with which to
beat Communism.

They believed you could have
a surge forward of Social De-
mocracy, not with but against
Communism. @

They supposed,
they had some support
cabinet.

rightly, that
in the

They wrote articles, they lob-
bied, they prepared. And, on the
whole, members of this group
though it necessary to ‘play
things slow.’

7HEN, toward the end of Oc-

tober, Major Donald Bruce
moved into the picture, at the
head of a somewhat different—
though overlapping — group of
Tabor M.P.’s.

They took a franker position.
They were frankly alarmed by
the - obvious fact that Bevin-
ism was taking us to war, and
taking us there at the hind-end
of American imperialism.

They included people who
were at least sufficiently aware
of what Bevinism had done to
Greece to be prepared to scale
down their anti-Communist pre-
judice.

They, too, rightly believed
they had support in the cabinet.

It was they who launched the
now famous letter to Attlee of
October 29.

it was an action which slight-
ly embarrassed Crossman, who
had seen himself as leader and
nucleus- of a slowly gathering
Sroup of more or less cautious
politicos who would ultimately
have—at the least—great nuis-
ance value.

There were some lengthy dis-
cussions,

Then the Crossman group
seems to have grasped that they

had better adopt the old Am-
erican political principle — “if
you can’t beat ’em join *em.’”

They joined.

And in doing so they, rightly,
Supposed they had encourage-
ment from within the cabinet.

. At first, both these groups had
the idea they could exclude the
‘notorious’ progressives of the
Labor “back benches people
who months before had foreseen
and denounced the catastrophe
of Bevinism and anti-Sovietism.

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In the end, both realized they
could de nothing of the kind.

The doors burst open—and a2
united attack burst through
them.

Who are the cabinet members
who, for differing reasons, found

themselves in support of the
great revolt?

And why?

Here are their names:

Herbert Morrison. *

He detests Bevin. He’ thinks
that if Bevin were out then
Attlee’s position would be weak-
ened, and Morrison’s path to
premiership would be open.

He was prepared to back, at

the outset at
man group.
Hugh Dalton. He believes that
he would succed Bevin at the
Foreign Office job. After all,

least, the Cross-

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he was offered it at the very
beginning of this government.
Hmanuel Shinwell. As 4 ‘man
of the Left,” it has much eni-
barrassed him to have to defend
Bevinism on platforms.
Aneurin Bevan. Ge has been
Saying for months past that if
only he could get time off from
home affairs he could help to

‘attend’ to Bevin.
Bevan, like Shinwell, has a
‘Left reputation te take care

of.

Bevan is an intimate of Foot.

These are some of the person-
alities and reason which account
for the confidence and deter-
mination of at least one group
of the ‘rebels——men not 6rdin-
arily associated with dangerous
or crusading activities.

And they are some of the rea-
sons why Bevin may fairly: soon
be on his way iJondonwards.

Se eee icin nnn

The union looks after the job

(Continued from Page 9)
offered the chance to see them-
selves as a united instrument
for the betterment of their con-
ditions.

VISIT to the hall during dis-

patching of a new crew to
One of the many vessels which
have to be supplied is an ex-
perience. The hall is crowded
With many Seamen, waiting for
placement as crew members. AS

vacancies are called out, union
men step forward to fill the
jobs.

The whole process is carried
through with rapid, and smooth
etficiency. There is no discrim-
ination against any man, and
@ paid-up union card is the only
requisite of employment. To
both seamen and union the sys-
tem means the surest method
ef “keeping tab’ on the employ-
ment picture in the industry.
And to both seamen and union
the system means that the old-
time method of hiring, with its
blacklists and on-the-cuff pay-
offs, is thrown into the ashcan.

The picture in Wancouver is

veflected through the country.
Hiring halls have been establish-
ed in Halifax, St. John, and
Montreal as well as in Van-
couver. This in itself has given
the union on a national basis
a very high degree of Security
in the industry, and it has given
the seamen a’ degree of union
security never before possible.
@
Hib} general sentiment of sea-
men toward the victory rep-
vesented by the establishment of
a union hiring hall is stated by
James ‘Jimmy’ Thompson, Pa-
ficic Coast vice-president of the
Canadian Seamen’s Union. Jim-
my for years sailed the seas
himself as a merchant seamen
and during the war as a mem-
ber of the Royal Canadian Navy-
“The opening of this hiring
hall,” Jimmy said to me, gestur-
ing toward the crowded hall, “is
just about the best thing that
has happened for the merchant
Seamen in this town, and on a
national basis, in Canada.
“When we opened this place
it meant that the old systems

or rotten discrimination went for
good. Hiring now is the responsi-
bility of the Canadian Seamen's
Union, and ours is one of the
cnly industries @in Canada in
which supplying of men is in
the hands of the union.

“We've got a membership of
2,000 in the CSU here, and the
opening of the hall means that
our union is going to grow, and
to consolidate its positien in the
industry. Right now we've got
all of the coastwise and deep-
sea shipping companies, and all
of the major tug companies
under agreement. And we have
kopes of signing the whole in-
dustry up in the future. ;

“The hiring hall is a victory,
that’s certainly true. But we've
still got the problem of con-
centrating on education, and or-
fanization. Labor has a big job
ahead, and we all know it. Hs-
tablishment of the halls is £02
ing to *help the Canadian Sea=-
men’s Union to make a big, con-
tribution in the workers’ fight
for security, of the union as
well as on the job.”

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1946