GUIDE TO GOOD READING

A brilliant Marxist thy

of American imperialism

VICTOR PERLO’s”. American Imperialism (International Pub- lishers, $2.75) is a masterly refuta- tion of one of the biggest hoaxes perpetrated by the monopolists

though the newspapers, radio and >

all other means of propaganda which they- own. It is the hoax that U.S. capitalism has no inter- est in obtaining control of foreign territories.

A brilliant economist, Perlo piles fact on fact, derived from govern- ment and industry sources to ex- pose this big lie. His book, obtain- able at the People’s Cooperative Bookstore, 337 West Pender, is the first American work which fully traces and lays bare all the prin- cipal means by which Wall Street has amassed a world empire that puts all earlier imperialist powers in the position of rank amateurs.

“Naive Americans,” Perlo writes, “who think that ‘we’ do not have a colonial financial empire in all history, and that the aim of gov- ernment policy is to maintain and extend political domination—e.g. political empire—so as to guaran- tee and permit the expansion of these corporate empires. &

There is not an area of the cap-

italist and colonial world in which the U.S. trusts have not taken over. In distinction from earlier empires, such as the British and the French, Wall Street has not had to build this empire by plant- ing. the U.S. flag over a territory (as it did in the case of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and other areas after the Spanish-American War).

Wall Street did it through the

use of billions of dollars for in- vestment and either bought off native rulers to guarantee the re- turn of super-profits through guar- anteeing substarvation wage Standards, 6r it forced the old col- onial rules to perform the same function for Wall Street.

And the superprofits have been tremendous. Perlo produces fig- ures showing how much greater is the rate of profit from investments Overseas than obtained at home. It ranges from a return of 14 per- cent in Canada, 14.5 percent in the Marshall Plan countries of Europe 17 percent from Latin America to 20 percent from the colonies of Marshall Plan countries and 31.3 percent from the Middle East.

“The varying yields or foreign investments,” he writes, “in differ- ent areas refiect, as in an inverse mirror, the depths of human mis- ery on which the profits are built.*

Of great interest is Perlo’s esti- mate of the superprofits Wall Street obtains from the superex- ploitation of the Negro people, the basis of which is the colonial type of exploitation employed against the Negro nation in the Black Belt. ,

NIDA

CANADA’S FINEST MORTUARY

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He shows that the monopolies obtained an extra profit of $4 bil- lion in 1947 as a direct result of lower payments to Negro farmers and workers than to white. These are superprofits obtained over the entire nation. It might have sharpened up the special aspect of the Negro question in the U.S. had the author dwelt a litle more on the Black Belt itself.

The source of this aggressive drive all over the world are ten of the biggest U.S. monopolies. Perlo traces their penetration in- to nearly all the areas of the

“world. And he shows how a sub- servient administration in Wash- .

ington charts its foreign policy to meet the requirements of these monopolies (including the war in Korea).

* * *

MOST. IMPORTANT. in this foreign policy to increase Wall Street’s swollen profits is the drive to war and war itself. Again Perlo produces the figures to show how much the giant corporations get out of this war drive. Though tremendous, they are little com- pared to what the trusts hope to get gut of war itself. a

Their difficulty, however, is that the peace forces throughout the world have grown and are grow- ing at a tremendous rate. These forces are led by the Soviet Union, and along with that country, New China and the People’s Democra- cies of Eastern Europe. On top of

that there are the powerful col- onial liberation movement ‘as well as the heightened struggles for peace and security by the peo- ples in all other countries.

‘These have halted Wall Street’s war drive up to now and have also stymied its hopes of world empire.

This reviewer feels that Perlo was a little too sweeping in lump- ing virtually all non-productive labor as part of the “parasitic su- perstructure”, of imperialism. Lenin did not do that in his works and. Marx, made clear that because some labor was non-productive it did not mean that it was not ne- cessary or socially useful labor.

The main point, however, is the one Perlo makes, namely, that it is a sign of the decay of capital- ism when more people are involv- ed in epider Woks work than in productive.

The book does not set out to define American imperialism in its full sense, but primarily in respect to its drive to grab off world markets and cheap sources

of raw materials and labor power, ’ It is an important Marxist addi-:

tion to such other works as Anna Rochester’s Rulers of America, Labor Research Association’s Mo- nopoly Today, Harry Haywood’s Negro Liberation and, above all, William Z. Foster’s outstanding work, Outline Political History of the Americas—BERNARD BUR- TON.

‘BIGGEST THIEF IN TOWN’

UJPO Drama Workshop to present Trumbo play

*THE DRAMA WORKSHOP of the United Jewish People’s Order is presenting as its feature pro- duction of ‘the current season The Biggest Thief in Town, by Dalton Trumbo. : :

Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten, was indicted for “contempt” of the notorious House Un-Ameri- can Activities Committee and sen- tenced to a prison term.

The noted screen writer got the idea for the theme of his play when he was a cub reporter in ‘Colorado, and was assigned to the mortuary run. Lee Sabinson agreed to produce the play, and of this Trumbo says, ‘‘We. were all conscious that we had two plays in one — a serious piece and a comedy.” %

The cast of the UJPO Drama Workshop production includes Lory Rosen, Alec Becker, David Pellin, Ethel Shuster, Ed Gofsky, Harry C. Weinstein, Perry Fried- man, Searle Friedman, Nate Wiseman and Soli Jackson.

Director is Sylvia Friedman.

The group will be remembered for its previous productions of

. PENDER

AUDITORIUM

(Marine Workers)

339 West Pender LARGE & SMALL HALLS

FOR RENTALS Phone PA. 9481

Awake and Sing by Clifford Odets, and It’s Hard to be a Jew by Sholem Aleichem.

The Biggest Thief in Town will open at the Everyman Theatre, 2237 Main Street, for a week’s run from June 4 to 9 inclusive.

EE

Czech editions of progressive wrilers _

in Americas. issued

A novel, Our Bread, by the pro- gressive Ecuadorian writer, En- rique Gil Gilbert, has just been issued by the Publishing House of the Czechoslovak Writers at Pra- gue.

Publication of this work in Czechoslovakia is part of a plan to issue a series of books by Ameri- can authors.

.

The series includes works by —

the Braziilan writer Jorge Am- bata. the Chilean poet Pablo Ner- luda, one of the most popular La- tin American authors Alfred Var- ela and the progressive American authors Howard Fast and Albert Maltz, all of whom are being read

with great interest by the Czecho- ¥ v

slovak, public. Recently, Tomorrow Is With Us, the new novel by Dyson Carter,

noted Canadian writer, was pub- ; lished in both the Czech and Slo-

vac languages.

7

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STANTON

& MUNRO.

Barristers, Solicitors, Notaries SUITE 515, FORD BUILDING, 193 E, HASTINGS 8T. (Corner Main & Hastings Sts.) MArine 5746

‘STOOLPIGEON’ ON TOUR

VANCOUVER

aby, on Friday, June 22.

Play goes to Royal City

THEATRE of Action will New Westminster this weekend to present its new play, Steolpigeon, at Tatra Hall, Queensboro, on Sun- day, May 27, 8 p.m. Tickets for the production may be obtained by phoning New Westminster 2282L.

Other performances scheduled for next month in- clude one at the Association of United Ukrainian Can- adians’ hall, 805 Kast Pender, in aid of the Shevchenko memorial fund, tentatively arranged for Friday, June 8, and another at Capitol Hill Community Hall, Burn- '

go to

PREMIERE WELL RECEIVED

Theatre of Action has hit in ‘Stoolpigeon’

LAST SUNDAY saw the prem- ier performance of Stoolpigeon, a three-act play by Hal Griffin pres- ented by the Vancouver Theatre of Action, a drama group devoted to labor and social drama. \

This production is the second presented for Vancouver audi- ences by the Theatre of Action, and marks a milestone of pro- gress and achievement for this group. Hal Griffin, playwright and director, chose a most timely theme and in this play displayed a thoroughgoing understanding of the forces at work in our so- ciety in the labor movement.

The play centers around Charles Trtlawney, played by Stu Ken- nedy, and his social climbing wife, Agnes (Betty Gadd) who because of their weaknesses are easy prey for the misleaders of labor. These eventually lead Trelawney to de- generacy and sell-out of his class.

With the opening of’ the cur- tain on the first act, one was im- mediately struck by the vast im- provement in the stage settings as well as by the performance of the individual actors and the group as a whole. The program did not mention the name of the person or persons who created the sets, but there is no doubt that these deserve special com-

_ mendation,

Stu. Kennedy in the lead role displays an ease on the ‘stage which is a tremendous asset to an amateur actor. While Kennedy attained moments of fine acting, one felt a weakness, particularly in his scene with Gordon Snyde (Phil Gadd) the trade union bur- eaucrat. This was a scene which required of Kennedy a display of emotional conflict and this was negated by the very ease already mentioned.

Phil Gadd, trade union boss, the labor mis- leader, is to be commended for a very fine performance. Rank-

in the role of the -

ing with him are Cecilia Collins (Peggy Kennedy), the “good time girl,” Agnes Trelawney, played by Betty Gadd, James Chandler, play- ed by the author, Hal Griffin, and Mary Osborne, working class mother, played by Betty Griffin. A good supporting cast included Alice Bowker Audrey Brandon, —

Bruce Macdonald, Art Bowker, — Frank MHorsford, Alec Kucker and Fay Curle.

The, characterization of one of

.the two Communists in the play: —

that of Alex Stewart (Art Bow- ker), was a rather forced and stiff

one. For the second time we find

the author portraying an elderly

person as a progressive with 4 © long record in the working class

movement and we could perceive

almost no difference between the progressive in Stoolpigeon and thé

progressive in Griffin’s earlier

play, But Ye Are The People. It

were as though he had stepped

out of one play and into another

without any change of costume:

The danger there is of stereotyP-

ing characters,

One other weakness of the play was the constant change of scenes; the continuity and effec tiveness might have been enhanc- el by blackouts and lighting, rath- er than by change of scenes. it certainly would have improved the pace of the play. ;

All in all, the Vancouver Thea tre of Action as well as the auth- or and director, Hal Griffin, at® to be congratulated for their fine effort and for re-laying the found ations in our province for a lab! theatre.—B. Cc. x

SOD9OSS

_Admittance:

Auspices: May Day Continuations Committee

Free — Collection

OOOO A

“CONCERT & FILM

“at

PENDER AUDITORIUM. 339 West Pender

SUNDAY, MAY 27, 1951 8 p.m.

SSE EESOS SSOSCOSOSSOSS