111 - Memorial University of Newfoundlandcollections.mun.ca › PDFs › radical › ThePeopleMustActNow.pdf · of the war. Stalin'sforthright statement reflects the ... Oliver Lyttelton,

ON October 13th a National Unity rally took placein the 1I1apie Leaf Gardens, Toronto. This great

gathering of 12,000 citizens was addressed by H on.Mitchell Hepburn, Prime IHinister of Ontario, Hon.Leopold 111acaulay, prominent' Conservative partyleader, Jl.fr. Jack Tanner, delegate of the BritishTrade Union Congress to the American Federation ofLabor convention, Jl.lr.. Leslie Roberts, well-knownCanadian author and 1I1r. Tim Buck, Canadian Com­munist leader. This pamphlet contains the text of Mr.

Tim Buck's speech.

Published byDominion Communist-Labor Total War Committee

73 Adelaide St. W., Toronto, Onto

Printed by Eveready Printers Ltd., 78 Wellington st. W., Toronto

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The People MustAct Nowl

FELLOW CANADIANS:On behalf of myself, and all those anti-fascist

Canadians who have recently gained freedom to par­ticipate in the struggle for victory, let me thank allthose public spirited men and women and organizationswhose democratic pressure upon the government wassuch a powerful factor in bringing about our release.

We wanted to be free to take part publicly in thewar effort. This month of October has become themost critical month of the war. In the whole courseof this terrible struggle no days have been so decisivefor mankind as the days that we are living throughnow. Our freedom as a people, our very survival asa nation, depends upon our ability to defeat Hitler inthis the fourth year of the war. On behalf of all myassociates I thank all Canadians who helped to makeit possible for us to take an open and public part inthis struggle.

A few weeks ago vice-President Wallace of theUnited States held up the ideal to all people, of makingthis century the century of the achievement of securityand comfort for the great masses of the people. Weall welcomed the expression of such sentiments by agreat representative of the American people. Weknow that after victory is won there will be oppor­tunity for far-reaching democratic progress. Thegreat mass of our people, not only Canadians but allthe peoples joined in the United Nations Alliance, aredetermined that such democratic progress shall beachieved. We will not go back to the conditions ofthe 1930's. Canadians, along with the peoples of all

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the democratic nations, are determined to win thiswar precisely because we are determined to maintainthe possibility for democratic progress in the peace,because we are determined to defeat all attempts todestroy our freedom as a nation.

It must be emphasized, however, that fierce battlesmust be fought before that ideal can be achieved.This century will be "the century of the commonman" only if we succeed in preventing Axis victory.WE MUST DEFEAT THE AXISl-everything elsedepends upon that. We have only one chance. Weshall get no second chance if we fail to defeat Hitlernow. The Axis powers grant no freedom to thenations they conquer. The United Nations must winthe war, or we lose everything.

It must be admitted that until now we are notwinning the war. Our potential forces are tremen<'rims-far greater than those of the Axis-but, until now,the Hitlerite Axis has consistently held the militaryadvantage. The only way we can change this and puta stop to Nazi advances, is to begin seriously to fighton the scale and in the manner that will match andsurpass the scale and technique of the Nazi armies.Whether we have the qualities of victors or whetherwe shall be defeated without even having challengedour enemies' might, all this will be determined in thecoming months and the people must make their voicesheard in a determined demand for the action that willbring victory.

The Fight for Canada's NationalExistence

THE purpose of this meeting is to give expression tothe great public demand for the lifting of the bian

from the Communist Party.The occupants of this platform demonstrate the

breadth of that public demand. They illustrate the

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tremendous change that has taken place in the prob­lems confronting the people of Canada, and the in­fluence of those problems upon our political life.Remember, the issue of the legality of the CommunistParty is part and parcel of the issue of NationalUnity to win the war. The public men and womenwho are demonstrating a courage which is all too rarein Canada. today, by addressing this meeting, are notonly fighting for the civil right of Communists, theyare pressing the fight for national unity for total war-and that, my friends, is the fight for Canada'snational existence.

Since our release, I have been asked by scores ofpeople, "What will you Communists do now that youare free?" Our answer to that question is simple: weare going to devote all our energy to helping to winthe war.

Fighting against Hitlerism and all other brands offascism is no new experience for us. Communists,not only in Canada but all over the world have beenfighting fascism consistently since it first emerged asa menace to democracy. We are proud of the factthat twelve hundred Canadian Communists went asvolunteers to help the heroic people of Spain to defendtheir constitutionally elected republican governmentand we treasure the memory and the names of nearlyseven hundred Canadian Communists who laid downtheir lives in that struggle. They fought and dieddefending democracy in Spain, when that was thecentral and decisive issue in this long drawn outstruggle to determine whether democracy or fascismshall survive.

The Central IssueOf The War

THE central issue of the war today is the issue of asecond front, in Western Europe. Premier Stalin,

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in his reply to an enquiry from the Associated P;resscorrespondent, placed this issue of the openin-g of asecond front in its proper place as the central issueof the war. Stalin's forthright statement reflects theconsidered opinion of the most experienced and success­ful military leadership of the United Nations. PremierChurchill has informed them of the men and materialsat the disposal of the allied powers, and they, on thebasis of their experience in fighting and killing Nazis,declare that it is enough for an invasion of Europe.Stalin's reply reflected not only the proud confidenceof the Soviet people in their ability to defend theirhomeland, but their justified and growing impatience-the impatience of a heroic, self-sacrificing peopleand their military and political leaders-at the slow­ness of their powerful allies in getting into large-scaleaction in this historic hour. I declare without hesita­tion, that in expressing that impatience, Stalin spokenot only for the people of the U.S.S.R. but for thegreat mass of democratic people of all the UnitedNations.

The need for a second front has been acknowledgedby all the United Nations governments. It was em­phasized by the Roosevelt-Churchill-Molotov agree­ment last June, upon the urgent task of establishing asecond front in Europe in 1942. Two months ago Mr.Oliver Lyttelton, a member of the inner war cabinet,assured the people of Britain that the next eightydays would be decisive; that if the Russians couldhold on for a few weeks the gathering forces of thegreatest alliance the world has even seen would giveus the first evidence of victory. Mr. Wendell Willkie,has urged the immediate opening of a second front.Mr. Sumner Welles, United States Under Secretary ofState, spoke last Friday in favor of the creation of anew theatre of operations against Hitler. PremierChurchill said yesterday that "the Allies have reacheda stern and sombre moment," President Roosevelt

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announced yesterday that "new offensives" will bestarted against Germany and Japan.

Sinister Influences OpposeA Second Front

Yes, many assurances have been given and all theseassurances are good. But the people are becomingimpatient with assurances. They realize that theopening of a second front is necessary for the safetyof Britain, of Canaaa, of the United States, andassurances of our growing superiority are no substi­tute for action. They see vast accummulations ofweapons and equipment and millions of soldiers idle,and their minds become filled with doubt andscepticism.

The Canadian people know that the sinister inter­ests which brought about the betrayal of Munich arestill powerful. They see by King's recent speechesthat the King government is under pressure frompowerful forces which are connected with or stronglyinfluenced by the underground international campaignnow being prosecuted in favor of a negotiated peace.They see the representatives of the Vichy governmentoperating freely with the protection of diplomaticstatus. They know that the Vichy government is aninstrument of Hitler's and they suspect that appease­ment forces and Munich tendencies are playing a bigpart in delaying a second front.

This has got to be changed. The only way to de­feat Hitler is to fight. Canada must fight with all herstrength all appeasers. The agents of Vichy and theirfriends must be thrust aside.

The decisive military problem of the United Nationstoday is to take the initiative away from Hitler; tobring our tremendous mobilized forces into action; tocome to grips with Hitler's armies on the scale and inthe manner which engages all his forces and strain:>

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his resources to the breaking point. To kill Nazis.To smash Nazi military formations. To arouse, in­spire and arm, the fighting millions in Europe. Tofight, fight, with everything we've got, until the Nazimilitary machine cracks and the soldiers of the UnitedNations march into Berlin. That is the task. Thetime to start it is now. The people of the UnitedNations cannot afford not to open a second front.The exact place and time are military matters butthe question of whether or not to strike is a questionfor all the people. This is a war not only of govern­ments but of entire peoples. The future of humanity isbeing decided and the people in their millions mustmake their voices heard and insist upon the strategythat will bring victory. In this, the fourth year ofthe war, we can preserve the possibility of crushingHitler's armies between mighty offensives of the RedArmy from the East and the Allied Armies from theWest only if we invade Europe now.

To make Canada's contribution to a second frontfully effective we need National Unity. The futu.re ofall Canadians is at stake. Canadians of French, Eng­lish and other origins, workers, farmers, professionaland other middle-class people, and yes, capitalists, ofall religious faiths and political opinions, must joinhands in an all-out effort to keep our country free.

National Unity The KeyTo Victory

National unity is growing. The platform of thismeeting is evidence of that. The speakers and thechairman on this platform represent the great majorityof political opinions in Ontario, and Canada, and Mr.Tanner represents the wartime unity of the over­whelming majority of the people of the British Isles.

The immediate purpose that brings us here is todemand the lifting of the ban from the Communist

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Party. But the driving force which unites us inthat demand is the growing realization that Canadiansof all classes and creeds must unite in defense of ourcountry and our way of life. I regret extremely thatthe CCF did not join in the effort to make this meetingrepresentative of all political opinions, the more sobecause the national leadership of the CCF participatedin the effort to secure our release, and I am confidentthat the majority of both leaders and membership ofthe CCF agree with the need for National Unity towin the war.

For their efforts to develop the Canadian unitywhich is now so vital to victory, I want to thank thePremier, Mr. Hepburn. I want to thank Mr. Macaulayand I want to thank Mr. Drummond Wren. What theyare doing is only incidentally for me and the Com­munist Party; it is above all for Canada and forvictory. For his efforts in the cause of unity of theUnited Nations, not only here but in the A. F. of L.Convention, I want to thank our brother Jack Tanner,secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union ofBritain.

The Trade Union's In The StruggleFor Victory

THE trade union movement in all the United Nationshas demonstrated its will to help establish national

unity and its will to subordinate its immediate intereststo the winning of the war. One of the most inspiringsections of the splendid address delivered by JackTanner to the A. F. of L. Convention was that part inwhich he described the efforts by which the workersof Britain defied Hitler's bombers and stepped up warproduction in the midst of the blitz to unprecedentedlevels-levels which are still going up.

Canadian trade unionists are also stepping up pro­duction. Day by day new production records are being

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established. At a Vancouver shipyard one workerdrove 2048 rivets in eight hours. This record wasstill being marvelled at when a French-Canadian work­er in Quebec set out to beat it and succeeded indriving 2100 rivets in eight hours-262 rivets everyhour of the day. In airplane production, tank pro­duction, gun and small arms production, the samethings are being done. The trade unionists of Canadaare in this fight to win!

Canadian workers are ardently supporting the effortsto bring about unity of the two great trade unioncentres in North America. We know that a unitedlabor movement will be a more effective force in thestruggle for national unity, and we know that tradeunion unity in North America will strengthen thetrend toward unity with the workers of Latin America,Britain and the USSR. We join our voices to thevoice of Jack Tanner in declaring that we are proudto be associated in the struggle for freedom with theheroic trade unionists of the U.S.S.R. We salute theworkers of Coventry, of London, of Bristol and othercities in the Old Country, who are contributing somuch to the struggle for victory. We salute theworkers of Stalingrad, Moscow, Leningrad, Rostov,Odessa and dozens of other Soviet cities. The workerswho labor with rifle or machine gun beside theirmachines and when necessary quit their machinestemporarily to help to expel the invaders. Theirs isthe highest expression of a people's war for nationalfreedom. Canadian workers join their voices to thevoice of Jack Tanner in declaring that they would beproud to join with the trade unionists of Britain andthe U S.S.R. in fraternal international cooperation.

No Room For NarrowPartisan Interests

T KNOW I speak for the left wing of the Labor move­ment when I urge all trade unionists, the CCF, the

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Social Credit movement and all labor and farmer pro­gressives to join hands in the struggle for total warunity.

There is no room in Canada's national life today fornarrow partisanship or special interests. There is noroom in our country today for any issue except theissue of winning the war. To win the war we musthave national unity at home and International unityin the United Nations Alliance.

National unity requires that all political parties andspokesmen recognize that the Nation's war effort mustbe headed by the Dominion government of the day andit requires of the Dominion government that it pursuespolicies of a truly national, total war, character. Thepeople of Canada will support such policies. Theyhave given wholehearted support to every step takenby the King government towards such policies. Itmust be admitted, however, that the policies of theKing government are not as yet the policies neededfor national unity and total war.

The gravest weaknesses in the policies of the Kinggovernment are directly traceable to the influence ofinterests which oppose National Unity for Total War.These interests are the main umbrella under whichthe agents of Vichy continue to operate in Canada,and these interests are still represented in the cabinet,by opponents of national unity whose names are asso­ciated with the forces that are opposing total war.

That is not the worst. The Prime Minister allowshis name to be used in anti-conscription propaganda.Only last Friday Premier Godbout of Quebec, who isthe leader of the King Liberals in that province, assur­ed the Liberal Women's Association in Quebec Citythat: "you will not have conscription so long as youhave King at the head of the government."

Such statements from a man with Premier God­bout's relationship to Mackenzie King, are contrary tothe national interests of Canada. They are an affront

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to the growing total war forces in the province ofQuebec and they are bound to fill the minds of Cana­dians allover the country with misgivings as to Mac­kenzie King's willingness to lead a total war effort.It would be a fatal blow to the morale of our people,if the idea should become current that Premier Kingis simply clinging to power as long as compulsion foroverseas service can be avoided-with the intention ofresigning when it becomes unavoidable.

The Sons of Canada Want An EndTo Half Measures

CANADIANS cannot allow equivocation on this ques-tion, beclliuse we know that a selective draft for

overseas service will become unavoidable. We can'tbeat Hitler with one hand tied behind our back.Canada has to go at him with everything we've got.

We shall not be able to do that without a selectivedraft for overseas service. The people of Canada areaccepting the burdens of the war; our sons are goinggladly to fight in defence of our land and the freedomwe cherish, and we demand of Mr. King that his gov­ernment shall stand pledged to back up those boyswith everything that Canada has! Mr. King mustrepudiate the suggestion that was implicit in thestatement of Premier Godbout, and Mr. King mustclear the remaining elements of Munichism out of hisgovernment.

We Communists have supported the war efforts ofthe King government. We have condemned all effortsto exploit the weaknesses of the Government - itshesitation, its concessions to the champions of limitedparticipation - for narrow partisan advantage. Wehave emphasized the fact that the general direction ofKing's policies has been forward-slowly, with manyside-steps and attempts to evade issues, but graduallyforward-towards total war and we have emphasized,

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proudly, the big contribution that Canada has madeand is making to the military strength of the UnitedNations. We shall continue to do these things. Weare offering our services in the present victory loancampaign.

We welcome Mr. King's advocacy of labor-manage­ment cooperation in his address to the A. F. of L.convention, and we shall continue to do everything inour powzr to make labor-management cooperation anincreasing factor in the stepping up of war production.We welcome the appointment of Major-General La­Fleche to the cabinet. It is a step in the right direc­tion because it gives some slight recognition to thestrong and growing total war forces in Quebec, whichuntil now have been literally ignored by the govern­ment. But the appointment of General LaFleche doesnot make the King government a total war govern­ment. The people of Canada want a war governmentwhich is based upon and representative of that greatmajority of Canadians who realize that what mattersnow is winning the war! We Communists shall con­tinue to press for such a government, regardless ofParty labels or special interests, because we are con­vinced that Canada must have a government that willthrust aside every consideration of sectional interest.Canada's government must subordinate everything towinning the war.

Such are the policies that we are fighting far. Theycan be summed up under the following heads:

a. Strengthen the Dominion Government by mak­ing it truly representative of the total war forces inthe country.

b. Back up the boys overseas, with everything thatCanada has, including the selective draft for overseasservice. Press Mackenzie King to repudiate the policyattributed to him by Premier Godbout.

c. Make every machine produce to the limit of itscapacity, twenty-four hours a day and seven days a

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week. Keep the boys overseas supplied with an end­less stream of the finest weapons that science and skillcan produce. Strengthen the struggle to increaseproduction. Make the establishment of labor-manage­ment production councils mandatory. Democratize thegovernment's war labor policy by enforcing the unions'right to collective bargaining.

d. Build up the armed forces; back up the bays whofought at Dieppe, and make sure that their dependantsare adequately provided for. Support the govern­ment's victory loan campaign and all measures tostrengthen the war effort by civilian activities.

e. Build National Unity for total war at home, andinternational unity within the United Nations forcooperation to ensure victory over Hitler today andfor United Nations' collaboration to establish a firmand lasting democratic peace when victory has beenwon.

f. Make this the century of the common man bydefeating Hitler. Invade Europe immediately andestablish a second front. Join our forces in a mightycombined offensive with the Red Army and grindHitler's armies to pieces in the jaws of a two-frontwar.

g. Develop a political offensive in Quebec to winFrench Canada for National Unity and total war.Launch a political campaign in Quebec to show theardent Canadians of French Canada the reasons whythis is their war as much as it is the war of all otherCanadians. Show them that their language rights,their religious freedom, their political rights and theirprovincial autonomy are at stake. If the Axis powersare allowed to win the war, all the rights that theFrench-Canadian people have won by generations ofstruggle will be swept away. Press the Godboutgovernment of Quebec to enact legislation to correctthe evils of inadequate education and social legislationfrom which the French-Canadian people suffer, and

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press the Dominion government to make it possiblefor French-Canadian boys to join French-Canadianmilitary units, officered by French-Canadians witbcommands in their own language.

It is a simple program. Every plank in it growsdirectly out of the interests and needs of Canada.Our future and our children's future depends uponwhether the people of Canada succeed in carrying themain features of such a program through. If youagree with that program, and I think that most ofyou do, you will join in the fight for National Unityin carrying it through. If you are for National Unityfor Total War you will join in the fight to lift the banon the Communist Parly.

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