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------·------I I I BY LESLIE MORRIS : Sc I I
• ' \ Leslie Morris is the national leader of the Communist Party. InformatJion and literature about the P!lrty can be ob tained by writing: Communist Party, 24 Ceoil Street, Toronto 2B, Ont.
PUBLISHED FOR THE COMMUNIST PARTY BY
PROGRESS BOOKS, 44 STAFFORD ST., TORONTO 3, ONT.
SEPTEMBER, 1962.
Bundle rates on application. - The federal election of June 18 left the country in a political stalemate. No problems were solved. The situation 1has become ev·en wo,rse. The Tory government in effect was rejected by the people. The· Liberals w·ere not given a mandate to govern. The Social ·Credit Party gained 30 seats on a vague program of promises which it cannot carry out. The New Democratic Party elected 19 M.P.'s but failed to live up to its oppo·rtunity as the new party of the workers and farmers. * This ·pamphlet offers ·the ·Communist Party's point of view and suggests a progressive way out of the stalemate. The S·hameful Re·co·rd of ltihe Tories and Liberals The tawdry record·s of the Tories and Lib·erals since the end of the war in 1945 can be summarized as fallows: , -T·he promise of lasting peac·e has ·been broken. Instead of peace, Tories ·and Lib·erals have br9ught our country to the brink of thermonuclear war, sadd1led us with the costly arms race, and made Canada an ·expendable satellite of the U.S. military. -They have pushed the cost of living to th~ highest level in Canadian history. -They have created a permanent army of half a million unemployed. • 3 -Th·ey have lost old foreign markets, rejected new ones, and put almost all of our market eggs in Uncle Sam's ·basket. -T1he To,ries, with the Liberals backing them, have fastened an ''austerity ·progriam'' on Canadian work ers and farmers, chea,pened our dollar and are driving living standards down. -Since the end of the war, our economy in creasingly is ·b·eing placed in the hands of U.S. investor·s. We are no longer masters in our own hous·e. In short, Canada is in deep crisis: in foreign affairs, in economic matters, in respect to our sovereign independe·nce. We can no longer call our soul o·ur own. ' The Issue Is Survival During the summer election campaign the Com munist candidates campaigned under the slogan: ''The Issue Is S,urvival. Put Cana,da First!'' What do we mean by that? We mean that the ·supreme question ·before Cana dians, and before all humanity, is whether we can before• it is too late save ourselves from the H-Bomb . Unless we have .disarmament, we shall Perish. - We mean that the very existence of ·Canada- 4 French Canada and English Canada together is at stake. Shall we maintain our identity as a country, 01· shall we be swallowed. u·p com·pletely by the U.S.A.? We mean that the economic lives of our people are a.t stake: shall we take steps to make the economy work for th·e 1people, or shall we be at the mercy of µnemployment, the loss of foreign markets to the European ·Common Market, automation and the re placement of men by machines and higher and higher ~ taxes and living costs? - Canadians must face u·p to these realities, and shed their iillusions. New national policies at home, new policies of making p·eace in the world, to take us out of this m·ess and to put the interests of ·Canada first before those of the U.S.A., and the needs of our workers and farmers ahead o·f the monopolistic ,profiteers-this is what facing up to realities demands of us. ' ·
Tories and Liberals Are Bankru.pt The Tories and Liberals have no answer to these new problems of survival exce·pt the ''mixture· as before," t·he same old useless ·medicine of selling out Canada in the interests of the great U.S.-Canadian corporations who have a dollar for a soul and a profit margin for a conscience. 5 Diefenbaker and Pearson are sold to the bankrupt policy .of the cold war. )'hey have no faith in Can ada's independent d,evelopment. · I They are the men who led their parties into the hopeless mess o·f ''austerity," into the rotten sham bles of ''integration with the U.S.A.'' They are tied ·hand and foot to big business. Their guide in any national emerg·ency is not what is goo!d for the people, but what is good for the big corpora tions. An example of that is the appointment of Wallace Mccutcheon to the Senate and to the Tory ca·binet. Mccutcheon is one of the biggest millionaires in Canada. He is the chief figure in the Argus 1C·orp,ora tion, whic'h is a ·huge financial empire of Canadian and U.S. money for the exploitation of Canada. There is no do·ubt that Mccutcheon was the bankers' choice for the Diefenbaker cabinet. He is the ''supervisor'' of the ''austerity ·program." You will remember that part of the ''austerity pro gram'' announced by John Diefenbaker right after the Tories were rejected was . a billion-dollar loan.
Most of that mo·ney was American. .. Who pays the piper calls the tune. The bankers paid t'he piper, and the ·banker·s call the tune. Wallace Mc·Cutcheon is the chief caller. We have a big ·bankers' government now. If the Liberals are elected as the government in a 6 ( new election, Mc,Cutcheon will still be in the Senate (senators are a·ppointed for life!) and he will still call the tune ·for himself and his friends. It r·eally makes njo difference to the financial tycoons · whether the Tories or Liberals are in office. They both · ; carry out thepwishes of the big co·rp·orations.
Onfy the Working People Can Save Cana1da Only the working people, in the factories and offices and 011 the land, can save Canada. If they would only realize that they are the ''public'' abot1t which we hear so much from the old line party ,politicians, that they are the majority of voters, that they have the potential strength to run t'his country, they could do it, and nGr one could say them nay. But the fact is that, as of yet, the majority of . working people vote for the old-line, ~·partie· s. This ·is completely illogical. What has an industrial worker, an office employee, or a farmer, in common with Wallace Mccutcheon so far as economic interests are concerned? Mccutcheon wants lower wages, higher output, lower social services, ''austerity''; he wants his money and ii1terest guaranteed, cost what it may in human misery. _ · But the workers and farmers want higher ·pay, better social services, and pros,perity, not austerity. 7 They are on the op·posite sid·es 0 1f the fe·nce. Yes, so hypocritical is our present political system that it is made to ap·pear that Mccutcheon and John Worker and Bill Farmer are all friends together; and that it is up to_the workers and farmers to ''vote for their ·bett·ers," to vote for men who have ''made good." They must realize that the ·bankers and indus trialists ''make, good'' not because they work for the good -0f society and produce the things that peo·ple need, but because they own t·he means of life, and can co1npel workers and farmers to work for them because the~ are the owners. A \Vorker would not put the boss on the bargaining committee. A farmer would not elect the head of a milling company to his co-o:p board of directors. Why should they elect them to the main committee in the country, Parliament? That is the biggest lesson in politics that the work ers and farmers have to learn. T·hey have not yet learned it in sufficient numbers, ·but they will, in the University of Life. It is a hard school, ·but a thorough one.
Some Lessons from the Past The New Democratic Party was created by the workers and farmers of Canada. They did it in re- 8 sponse to the need f o,r independent political action- independ·ent, that is, of Big Money. , It was found necessary, after ye.ars of p·utting trust in the spokesmen of business, to form a party that \vould not be tied to the mo.neyed interests, but would exptess the economic and social needs of the workers who work for wages, and the farmers who till the soil. ~ It was a long time a-coming, the N.D.P. Time and again efforts were made to fo,rm a 1labor-farmer party, and all of them failed to make the grade. It was. tried after the first world war, and almost succeeded. It was tried again in the Great Depression of the 1930' s, and almost succeeded. When the Hitlerite armies were smashed, and a new and ·better world· seemed wit1hin the 1people's grasp, it was tried again. . Each time, disunity and weakness of the leaders spoiled the opportunity. ,Conditions were there for it, but the political wisdom and stre·ngth wer·e not. · The main shortcoming, every time, was a readiness on ,the part of t·he leaders of these movements to water down their fight, to trim their sails, to· under estimate the strength o~f the ·enemy, and to play down / the necessity for the participation in the new party of masses of people, day jn and day out. Things were to be ''left to the leaders." But if things are ''left to 9 . the leaders," the leaders end up by being left to themselves. Also, the movements that failed, like the C.·C.F., fell victims of red-baiting, to anti-communism, and at times their leaders acted as if it \Vas communism that became the main enemy, and not the Big Busi ness system which rides roughshod over the workers a.nd farmers. Every time the labor movement was qivided and weakened by these bad practices, the enemy gained a batt;le. When the progressive movement after the first world war seemed able to defeat the Tories and Liberals, the Liberal Party, under t·he leadership of the Wily Willy King, swa.Uowed the Progressive Party. When the C.C.F. was formed in 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, its leader rejected all-in unity and a policy of struggle, and the Liberals ·be came the ''champions'' of the people against the Tories. When at the end of the second world war the C.C.F. elected 34 members to the Ontario Legislature, and seemed within art ace of getting a C.. C.F. govern ment in British Co1lumbia and Manitoba, its leaders became C'hampions of the cold war and the arma ments race .(the C.C.F. M.P.'s voted for the huge 10 ''defense'' budgets) and the party went into a sharp decline. . When the Tories won the election of 1957, labor was shocked, and the trade union movement decided the time had come to organize a new political :party based on labor and the farmers. So the New Democratic Party came into being. But right from the start, the N.D.P. leaders, refus ing to learn from ·past mistakes, ·began to follow the same policy as the C.C.F. leaders: they refused to make a clear break with the cold war; they hedged on Canada's· me·mbe·rship in the North Atlantic Treaty O·rganization (NATO) which is the Yankee military alliance; they pussyfooted on the American co.ntrol of Canada's economy; they were silent on the need for new policies of ,Canadian independence and neutrality; they~ co·ntinued to rival the Liberals and Tories in anti-communism and red-·baiting. In ·short, they did not make a clean break with all the evi1l policies of the ·past, they ·did not beco~e crusaders for a new kind of Canada and a n·ew kind of peaceful world of disarmament and ·peaceful co existence, they did not speak and fight for t·he nation, for Canada, for survival. Some of their candidates, it must ~ be said, went a long way towards such a fresh, new, progressive policy, but Tommy Douglas and the main leaders of the N.D.P. did no,t meet the challenge of the times, the 11 crux of the crisis in which our country and people now find themselves, in a way to get the maximum sup1Jort. The vote the N.D.P. candidates received wa~ encouraged by their stand against such t·hings as the H-Bomb on Canadian territory. This proves how much greater this support. co·uld have been had the N.D.P. leaders rea·lly waged a ·battle on the issue of survival. No doubt more N.D.P. M.P.'s would have been elected than the 19 who were, the Social Credit fantasies would not have received so much support, especially in Queb·ec, and the Liberals would not have been able to pose as the ''only alternative'' to the Tories. In fo.ct, the N.D.P. could, with such a fighting policy, have challenged the old-line ·parties for the government.· At the very ·least, it could have held the ''balance of power'' in Parliament between the Liberals and Tories, instead of the Social Credit Party. Where Do We Go From Here? As we started out ·by saying, none of the pro·blems of Canada were solved by the June 18 election. The eco11omic situatio.n has become more acute. , Working people are being told to ''tig·hten their belts," while corporation profits are at record high levels. 12 The cost of living is the highest in our history. Real wages· are coming down. Despite the boasts of the Tories that they have '
The N.D.'P. 's Golden Opportunity In the June election the N.D.P. got over a million votes. That was a good s1howing, but it is only a part of wh.at the situation promises for it if it goes all out to challenge the old-line parties, and to win the Social ·Credit voters for labor. The two-thirds of the ·people that cast their ballots for the old-line parties cannot all be dismissed as inveterate anti-la·bor voters. M·ost of t·hem are work ers, farmers, professionals and small businessmen. In fact, many of them are mem·bers of the same trade unio·ns as are affiliat·ed to the New .Democratic Party but who have not yet been won for that party's progra·m. The ·peo·ple who voted Social Credit are also in the main people who are in poor economic condi- 14 tions, fed up witl1 the promises of the Liberals and Tories, and prey to ·the slogan, ''What have you got to los·e? Vote Social Credit!'' True, mo·st of them have nothing to lose but their poverty. But Thompson and ·Caouette will not rid them of poverty, for a:Il their talk about the bankers. Proof is seen in Alberta and B.C., where _Social ;Credit governments are indistinguishable from t·he· Tory and Liberal gov·ernments which hold -office in ot·her prov- inces.• In fact, these two go·v·ernments are notoriously anti-labor. The danger o·f the ultra-Right is very strong in the Social Credit leadership. The people who voted for their candidates can ·be won for. a really progressive labo·r-·farmer program by the N.D.P. if. it goes after their sup,port, and if the trade unions, es·pecially in Quebec, get into political action on their o·wn and in a big way. The ·potential vo-te for the N.D.P. is, very great; it is strong enoug·h now to elect not a handful, but a large gro·up of M.:P.'s to Ottawa; and it could, in the next few years, win a m~jority in Parliament, and f or·m a labo,r-·f armer government. That would be a big step forward for Canada. It would be the first march along the road to democracy in Canada, to reducing the power of the big monopo lies, to ·health insurance on a natio·nal scale, to the beginnings of the nationalization of the U.S.-owned 15 industries, to the repatriation of alienated natural re sources, to proper labo·r laws, to peace, disarmament, and world trade. It would ·be a victory over Big Business and the Wallace McCutcheons over the state monopoly capi talist system whiGh now controls affairs at Ottawa. It would begin to restore Parliament to the people, to bring in a new made-in-Canada constitution, to a new pact of Co·n·f ederation between French ·Canada and Englis'h Canada based on the complete national rights of French Canada. True, this would no·t be socialism, although many N.D.P. members and supporters want a socialist solution to Canada's p·roblem, that is, the· expro·pria tion of the ca·pitalists, an ·end to the profit system and the productio·n of goods f o·r use instead of for private profit. . But it is a dev·elopment which all socialist-minded Canadians should work for, because anything that weakens the strength of the ·big monopolies, and in creases the political strength and organization of the peo·ple, is som·et·hing that every socialist should wel come. In fact, these preliminary ste1ps in the direction of strengthening eco.no1mic and social democracy must be taken if ·socialism is ever to ·become popular among the people, and eventually win their support.
16 Can It Be Done? Can this be done? Can the Tories be further weakened? Can the Liberals be he·aded off? Can the old two·-p·arty political gamble whereby political power is shared between the Lib·erals and Tories year in and year o,ut, ·be replaced by a genuine political alternative and the coniing into being of a ·powerful third party O·f the working people o·f ha·nd and brain? Actually, there is no other C'hoice. The alternatives are only two: either the continuing rule of Big Busi ness through the Liberals ·Or To,ries, or a coalitio·n of the two, or the beginnings of the rule of the working people also in a coalition _a grouping together of the trade unions, the ·farmer·s' organizations, the. women and youth group·s, the cooperative societies. Such a grouping to·get·her of all the ·people W'ho want peace and a new economic deal, could best be - done through the New Democratic Party, but only if it becomes that ''·new alignment of all i}iberal progres sive p·eo·ple'' which it was intended to be in the first place. To become the effective leader of the Canadian people, the N.D.P. must in the first place be a lively and democratic organization, com·posed of people of many points of vie,v, but 'vho are united for the immediat·e goal of achieving political power. It must welcome debate and discussion, and operi its door·s to all ·Canadians who stand against mono- 17 poly, for the rule of the people, for peace and against war, for Canadian independence and against the domi nation of Canada by the United States, for peaceful coexistence between t·he capitalist and socialist coun tries a·nd an ·end to the cold war and the arms race, for better wages, housing,_health and social legisla tion, for a curb on the monop·oly profiteers and lower prices and taxes for the working people. It c.an be done if there i~ an end put tc anti communism as a dominating ·philosophy if the Com munists and their ·point ·of view are not treated as some sort of 1political lepro1sy, ·but as a legitimate trend in the labor and people's movem·ent, to ·be judged on its merits, and to b·e estimated according to the actions .of the C·ommunists, and not by what the pro,paganda ·organs of Big Business ·say. In fact, the ·Communist Party S'hould be a part of th·e N.D.P., an affiliate· of it just the same as a trade union, bo·und by jointly-agree~d-on discipline and rules, just the same as any other affiliate. To conduct heresy-hunts inside the N.D.P., search ing out ''Co,mmunists," and striving by this means to become acceptable to the ·powers-that-be, is just the kind o·f mistake that Jed to the· decline of the C.!C.F. and the failures of the past. The N.D.P. must be a democratic organization, in short; one wihich brings toget·her all sorts of people and all sorts of philosophies into· one great labor~ 18 farm coalition movement, for the uniting of the lapor and farmer votes and the defeat of the old-line parties. Once t~at is don·e, there will be plenty of time and op·portunity t·O· ,debate diff ere·nt philosophies of social development, to test different points of view as to the long-t·erm s1olution o,f ·p·roblems, to argue over capitalism or socialism and to find ·O·ut the way in which society can be permanently rid of war, poverty, sickness and insecurity. There Is Not Much Time· Things are ·moving so fast t·hat there is really not muc'h time to make the·se great decisions and to act on them. ~ The forces makin·g ·for wo·rld nuclear war are strong and ruthless. The dang·ers of fascism in North America are 1·ightly worrying millions of people. . The whole world is g·oing through a revolution: the revolutio·n against the ·oppression, war, exip·loita tion and poverty caused by half a century of capitalist~imp · e ·rialist rule. Our country is inevitably, and rightly, caug.ht up in the world-wide change. We are part of it; it is part o·f our history. We cannot ho·pe to be missed ·by it, :or to miss it. In one way or anot·her it is aff e·cting even now the lives and the future of every Canadian man, woman and child. 19 The rising new generation of young 1people is be coming quite aware of these great changes. In th·eir own way, they are meeting the,m, and welcoming them. In 1967 Canada will celebrate the Centenary of Confederation. The next five yea.rs will se·e this world-wide revolution unfold even mo,re rapidly. In the next five years we shall have to, decide the great issue of world atomic destruction, or world salvation from this horrendous threat. In t·he next · five years, we shall have to make big decisions about the independ·ence of our country. That is why every thinking Canadian should ponder seriously over the immediate future of Canadian p·oli tics, and resolve to work might and main for the defeat of the old-line parties of national betrayal, and the coming into being as so·o·n as possible of a labor farmer gov~rnment. The New Democratic Party ·is that ·political instru ment that the ywo,rking people have fashioned. It can, if its memb·ers so decide, avoid the mistakes of the past, and ·become really the voice of ·Canada, the party of the nation, o,f the working people, of peace and in.dependenc·e. The Communist Party sees the future of our country in ·socialist terms. It sees the path to the socialist future as one which will be cleared by the actions of the majority of Canadians, of the working 20 people of our country. It is strongly of the opinion that the first great ob·stacle to be cleared from this path is the domination of Parliament by th·e Tory and Liberal parties, the mono,p,oly of Parliament by these parties in the name of a U.S.-Canadian Big Business Oligarchy. The clearing away of this obstacle and opening the path of progress means the defeat of the Tories and Liberals, winning the 1najo·rity of the vo·ters for a program of basic demo·cratic reform for which la·b·or is the f O·remost champion. This -is the great problem, the challenge, the re sponsibility, of the New Democratic Party. It can win. If it fails as did its predec·essors, O·thers will do the job. But t·he time is short. Lab·or needs no more set backs; it now needs political victo1ries. Such victories can tra-nsform the situation, can chan~e the direction of our country from war to p·eace, fro·m austerity to prosperity, from enslave ment to the U.S. to independe·nce. The Communist Party is a working-class party. Its point of view com.es out of Canadian conditions, studied in the light of the socialist ideal. Co·mmunists fight for their ·policies among the ·people; they do not co·nceal their views. The debate ·of the Commun ist p·oint of view is necessary, and will not be pushed 21 aside ,by red-baiting and anti-communist campaig.ns which only help t·he monop·olies. 1ln this pamphlet we have given the Communist attitude to the· next round of parliamentary struggle. An election may ·be on when you read this. Or the Tories may be hanging on for a time. Be that as it may, the issue of ·survival of our peo·ple, o·ur country, O·ur economy cannot be gain said. It is the issue ·of our times. The time is ~hort, but the goal is greatly to be prized.
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22 A 10-POINT PROG1RAM The Communist Party offers this I 0-point program to meet the im mediate crisis and long-term interests of Canada. Communists will take this program to the people. and fight for it. I. Stop the rise in prices of the necessities of life. by instituting laws prohibiting any further increases being imposed by the profiteering monopolies who control production and the market. 2. Establish export-import controls to reduce o.ur dependence on the U.S.A. for manufactures, stimulate Canadian manufacturing and provide iobs for Canadians by processing more of our raw materials at home. 3. Ban the export or withdrawal ·of capital, Canadian or foreign. Mobilize Canadian capital for investment in nation-building proiects, under the control of a public investment board. 4. Send trade missions to all countries to conclude independent, mu tually beneficia I agreements. 5. Support a World Economic Conference to end the cold war in world trade and replace reactionary trade blocs such as the European Common Market. 6. Impose higher taxes on the monopolies, tax capital gains and reduce income taxes on working people. 7. Resume the public works program which Diefenbaker intends to cancel. Reiect the U.S.-Canada draft treaty on the Columbia River power proiect and develop Columbia power as part of a national power grid. 8. Reduce the military budget by 50 percent and go all out on the world arena for disarmament. 9. Introduce a 30-hour 5-day working week, with pay increases to maintain and increase present wage scales, and a iob training program for young people. IO. Adopt a national .Medicare Plan-sponsored by Ottawa with the agreement of the provinces-to protect the people's health and to defeat the reactionary attack, exemplified in Saskatchewan. ' 23 • ': ' • - .. - '=- • - -
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