The Western Socialist
Vol. 27 - No. 217
No. 6, 1960
pages 6-7

B.C. ELECTION NOTES

The Canadian Communist Party fielded nineteen candidates in the election and at the opening of their meetings at which the featured speaker was none other than their national leader, Tim Buck, it was observed that the audience stood up to sing "O! Canada." It has been truly said that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." The professedly Marxist Communist Party does not yet understand that the workers have no country.

YES AND NO

At a big meeting in Nanaimo, Premier Douglas of CCF Saskatchewan said that "in Saskatchewan, industry will not be allowed to exploit labor or our resources without giving the people who own them adequate rewards for their use." An "adequate" reward for the exploitation of labor can only mean an "adequate" wage or salary, which is sufficient to keep the working class in the category of the enslaved class. After admitting that "industry" will he allowed to exploit labor. however, he said later in the same address that, "the only freedom a CCF government takes is the freedom of one man to exploit another." (Daily Colonist, Sept. 1, 1960.) Possibly the contradiction lies in Mr. Douglas's apparent misunderstanding of the meaning of exploitation. At another meeting a cabinet minister from the same province said that this government has found "no difficulty whatsoever in borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars for self liquidating projects such as power and telephones." "This is a measure of confidence investors have in a CCF province," he said. It is also a measure of proof that the majority of people of Saskatchewan, the workers, do not own the resources any more than the workers of the rest of the country do. Any proof of ownership is in access. And aside from their producer's allowance, any access to natural resources on the part of workers is restricted to a look at some of them occasionally at vacation time when a few manage to escape from proletarian "prosperity" into the tranquility of the wilderness. And yet the daily press continues to call the CCF a Socialist party.

PLURAL PANACEA

After promising cheaper electrical power to aid B. C. capitalists in their exploitation of the workers by nationalizing the B. C. Electric, the CCF had also promised the workers lower light bills. But helping the majority of capitalists wasn't enough. So M. J. Coldwell, former national leader said (in the Province, Aug. 29) that B. C. Electric shareholders would lose nothing when a CCF government took over the company; they would get government bonds as compensation, and at interest rates to match those now paid by the firm. Everywhere, the CCF speakers emphasized that they would not confiscate from the present owners. Confiscation, so far as these "socialists" is concerned, must continue to be reserved for those who own the means of production and distribution, as the profits continue to roll in from the unpaid labor of those who own nothing but their ability to work.

PAINFUL PLIGHT

Actually the CCF is lucky it didn't win the election. Success at the polls could well mean the beginning of a trend away from popularity as it would attempt to ride two horses going in opposite directions. Preaching phony Socialism and administering private and state capitalism it could find itself on the horns of a greater dilemma in power than it does out. Success at the polls for genuine socialists could also mean the beginning of a trend away from popularity, but for different reasons. With the transfer of the productive apparatus into the hands of society, politics will return to its original form — the conduct of the affairs of society — and cease to be a sordid struggle between groups and classes over opposing interests. The job of the socialist will be done.

TRAVELLING SALESMEN

One of the points that the Communist party pushed in the B. C. election was more markets in China for American and Canadian business men. We know they have the welfare of Chinese capital in mind, but what a wonderful service they attempt to perform for capitalists on this continent in finding places for them to cash in on the surplus values they have exploited from the workers' hides!

J. G. JENKINS