https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/2d639df4e4f5a27f043f2c8831433716.pdf 086046e4400fc1ebc14b4b05715df53d PDF Text Text C OMMUNIST - 28 F R O NTS IN C ANADA. In discussing C ommunist fronts in C anada, with men who have be en employed in the Special Branch for a number of ye ars it would be rath er senseless to go into gre at d e t a il on the make up of the various orga niz ations and th eir le aders as this is alre ady w ell known to you. I do fe el, though, th at this subject can be discussed with profit by considering the ov erall picture and the long range purpose of these org a niz ations. I think one value of a course such as this is th at we get away from our loc al outlook and view our problems as a p art of the n ation al and intern ation al picture . I think most of us when using the expression C ommunist front think of an org a niz ation formed by the C ommunists to furth er c ertain phases of th eir a ctivity but in such a way th at the general public will not connect it with the P arty. Usually this is done by the use of a hightoned name for the org aniz ation, the cle v er blending of laudable aims with the desired portion of C ommunist propa ganda and the inst a lla tion of some woolly-minded but re s pectable citiz e ns as figurehe ads while ensuring C ommunist control by P arty members and sympathiz ers retaining the few key executive positions. This, with v ariations, is the C ommunist front org aniz ation which takes up so much of our .time these days. I think this is a f a ir picture except th at it does not go quite far enough and thus f a ils to place the front org a niz ation in its proper perspective in the C ommunist scheme of things. T think we should consider the C ommunist front or g a niz ation as a p art of the long range C ommunist strate gy which is to build a United Front for the eventual seizure of power. Apart from its short term use in c arrying out c ertain immediate C ommunist objectiv e s, the front organiz a tion is a us eful me ans of g etting non-C ommunis ts to co-operate and think along the same lin e s as the C ommunists on c ertain sp e cific issues and thus condition them to accept C ommunist le adership at some future time when the issues are politic al. In oth er words, these people are being conditioned to become a segment of the ’’ broad masses" whose support is considered so necessary by the C ommunists in c arrying out th eir United Front t a ctic. I have just mentioned the United Front t a ctic and I think we should go into it in some d e t a il, p articularly as it is what the P arty is following in this country today. T hey are striving to unite with any groups which happen tc be going in the same general politic a l dire ction for the pur* pose ^f building a solid front which can be used as a b atte ring ram against the c a pit alist structure . Should they succe ed in forming such a co alition they would at the same time engage in a process of elimin ation to rid the front of •dissid e nt elcmehts. T his strate gy which I have just described is not new. It is contained in standard C ommunist writings the best known of which is " The United Front Against F ascism and W ar" by the late G eorgi Dimitroff which was origin a lly given in the form of thre e spe eches at the S eventh World C ongress of the C ommunist Intern ation al Dimitroff s aid; 000032 �- 29 " The establishment of unity of action by a ll sections of the working class, irre s pective of th eir party or organiz ational a ffili a tion, is necessary even before the majority of the working class is united in the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the victory of the prole tarian revolution. "Moreover, a powerful united front of the porletariat would exert tremendous influence on a ll other strata of the toiling people, on the pe asantry, on the urban petty bourgeoisie, the intellig e nt sia . A united front would inspire the wavering groups with faith in the strength of the working class." Another document de aling with this problem is "The Road to O ur P eople's D emocracy" by Matyas R akosi which was published la st ye ar after having first be en given as a lecture to the Hungarian Worker's P arty at an Indoctrination C ourse. This lecture is quite lengthy but it is worth re ad ing. R akosi describes how the P arty took part in a co alition government, divided or neutralised th eir opponents, kept incre asing th eir demands for the n ationalis ation of banks and industry, manoeuvred to obtain the key positions in the G overnment and, fin a lly, eliminated th eir opponents through " S alami T actics" which R akosi described as "cutting out in slices re action hiding in the Smallholder's P arty". The most recent document de aling with the United Front, and the most important for C anadians, is the booklet e ntitled " C anadian Independence and P eople's D emocracy" which contains the program adopted by the N ational C ommitte e of the L.P.P. in F ebruary, 1952. This document contains a similar pattern to that outlined by R akosi but dressed up to suit the C anadian scene. I will re ad you a few short paragraphs from it; " What is ne eded is a new politic al align ment, a people's co alition around the na tion al democratic tasks of C anadian inde pendence, the supremacy of P arliament, pe ace and the vit a l intere st of the peo ple ." " The people's co alition takes form from a ll groups who re sist war and national subservience, a ll who are stirred into a ctivity as the imp erialist crisis de ep ens ." "The people's co alition will develop also in the d aily struggles such as strik e s, p etition campaigns, demonstrations, re sistance to p articular acts of warmonge ring and re action, in conferences called for sp e cific purposes. The people of C anada will find th eir own forms of mass action once they seiz e hold of the power ful slogans of independence and pe ace." I think th? Labor-Progressive P arty program for a P eople ’ s D emocracy in C anada could well be summed .up as 000033 �-30followss- (1) Incite n ation alism. (2) Promote a n ational ’’ unite d front ” . (3) The C ommunist P arty should le ad the United Front. (>+) F orm an allia nc e of the working class and the pe asantry le d by the C ommunist P arty. (?) T he C ommunist P arty to take complete control. (6) R emember th at tru e n ation al independence can be achieved only in unity with the Soviet Union. There is no third, middle or n e utral road. This program was contained in the Moscow U niv ersity H erald of D ecember, 1951? in an article on the lessons of C hina for colonial t erritorie s but I think it sums up the L.P.P. program for this country. There was a seventh item in this program which is of interest although I think it a pplie s more to the colonies than C anada? (7) F orm ’’ P eople ’ s Lib eration Armies ” under the C ommunist P arty and id e ntify the mass movement with armed struggle , the chief a ctivity in ’ ’ colonial” n ation al lib era tion movements. The articl e goes on to make the point th at direct a ction is not a g ainst the te achings of the pe ace campaign? these are not intern ation al wars , they are civil wars.- We have spent considerable time discussing the United Front t a ctic but I have done so d elib erately to impress on you th at our C ommunist front orga niz ations are only a p art of the ov erall C ommunist program for a United Front. C ANADIAN P E A C E C O N G RE SS I think it would now be worthwhile to discuss some of the intere sting things we have le arned about the C anadian P e ace C ongress, p articularly as it is the large st and most a ctiv e C ommunist front org aniz ation in this country at the present time and also a p art of the large st intern ation al C ommunist front movement and one of the best mediums for disseminating Soviet foreign policy. The first inkling we had of a C ommunist pe ace offe nsiv e was contained in the C ominform Journal " F or a L a sting P e ace, F or a P eople ’ s D emocracy” of November 1st, 19^+7 which stated that? 000034 �-31" The struggle for a la sting pe ace; for a people's democracy is the paramount task of a ll progressive and democratic forces in the world.... The C ommunist P artie s every where can and must take upoh themselves the role of le ader and organiz er of the popular masses in the struggle for a la sting pe ace.” T he next step was taken at the " World C ongress of Intelle ctu als " at Wroclau, Poland during August, 19'+8 when a re solution was passed c alling for the s etting up of n ation al committe es in defence of pe ace everywhere. At the same time this re solution was being passed A. A. McLeod was touring W estern C anada discussing the formation of a P e ace Movement, something much broader than the C anadian S oviet Friendship C ouncil, to undertake a counter offe nsiv e a g ainst the war propaganda. He described a ccurately at th at time what type of org aniz ation the C anadian P e ace C ongress was la t er to become. This information was obtained through the use of te chnic al aids and I think I should stre ss at this time the value of such menas of obtaining inform ation. When we use te chnic al aids there is no doubt what was a ctu ally said and there is no possibility of misinterpretation by an Agent or C ontact or error due to a lapse of memory. I think we should try to make ’ more and b etter use of te chnic al aids than we have in the p a st. One month la t er, in S eptember, 19^8, the P arty sent a circular dire ctiv e to a ll Provincial C ommitte es and N ational C ommitte e Members which mentioned A. A. McLeod's tour and went on to say th at " The Work of the P arty in the period ahe ad includes the following main objectives? initia ting an inte n sive public campaign by the L.P.P. a g ainst St. Laurent ’ s war policy, together with full support and p articip ation in the building of a unite d pe ace movement." Two months la t er, in November, 19^-8, the ’’ R ed" D e an of C anterbury arriv e d in Winnipeg where he was introduced at a public me eting by Dr. James E ndicott as the man " qu ali fie d to launch a gre at crusade for pe ace ". The pe ace cam paign, having be en launched publicly in C anada, proce eded in high ge ar so th at in a few short months it was in position to hold a N ation al P e ace C ongress in T oronto in May, 19^9. The timing of these events shows us very cle arly just who inspire d the pe ace movement. At the same time the Wroclau C onference was being held McLeod was touring the W est discussing the pe ace movement with trusted P arty members. The P arty here obviously received its instructions w ell in advan ce as they were aware thre e months before the " R ed" D e an arriv e d th at he would be visiting C anada to launch a gre at crusade for pe ace. This, then, is the pe ace movement which, according to the C ommunists, sprang up spontaneously through out the world because of the overwhelming d e sire of the masses for pe ace. You may have gained the impression from my previous remarks th at the L. P . P . , having be en responsible for the formation of the C anadian P e ace C ongress, controls its propaganda lin e . A ctu ally this is not the case. We b elie v e the propaganda lin e comes direct to the C anadian P e ace C ongress from eith er Moscow or the World P e ace C ouncil, and the P arty here merely a ssists in putting it across. One re a son for this b e lief is th at when A. A. McLeod was touring 000035 �-32- W estern C anada la st summer he remarked in a private conversa- tion with a P arty member that Dr. E ndicott's germ warfare charges had be en a gre at mistake and that the N ational E xe cutive of the P arty was well aware it had be en overdone. It is quite obvious th at the P arty here had no say in the matter when we consider McLeod's remarks coupled with the fa ct that Dr. E ndicott first made his germ warfare charges in C hina at a time when he could not be acting under its dire ction. However, once the lin e was received from abroad the P arty he re could do nothing but advance it by assisting the C anadian Peace C ongress even though the N ational E xecutive of the P arty re aliz ed it was being overdone. At the time the Peace C ongress was putting forth such gre at efforts to obtain signatures for the " Stockholm 1’ Pe ace Appe al" and the " B an the Bomb" campaign you may have wondered if so much effort was worthwhile, I think the pe ace movement did gain a gre at de al through these signature cam paigns apart from th eir propaganda appe al. T hey gave the workers in the pe ace movement a fe eling that they were actual ly doing something concrete to help bring about pe ace. This would p articularly apply to the well me aning sympathiz ers of the movement. Also, the supporters of the pe ace movement no doubt honestly viewed the Truman-Attle e discussions of two ye ars ago as a moral victory for them and a dire ct re sult of th eir intensive " B an the Bomb" campaign. You will re c all th at President Truman announced at that me eting that the United States would not use the atomic bomb in Kore a. To show you the C ommunist view of this me eting I'll re ad*you what the C anadian " Tribune " said on December 11, 1950s " President Truman's reckless and cold blooded thre at on Nov. 30 to use the atomic bomb against the Kore an and C hinese people, cre ated a grave crisis. " "The gre at world-wide movement for pe ace, the fiv e hundred million signatures to the Stockholm P etition, the mighty de monstration of the people's ye arning for pe ace at the World Peace C ongress in W arsaw, the horror and revulsion of de cent people everywhere at Truman ’ s thre at to use the A-bomb — a ll this is exerting tremendous pressure on a number of capita list governments." "The pressure of the opposition of the democratic masses to war, and p articu larly to use of the atomic bomb, has compelled the British government publi cly to opoose the policy indicated in Truman ’ s declarations" . The P eople ’ s C ongress for Peace which was held in Vienna during D ecember, 1952 was the most recent large scale me eting of the world pe ace movement. As the World Peace C ouncil appe als more to the emotionally minded and the less politic a lly trained sections of the population, it has succe eded better than the other fronts in attra cting noncommunistic support. Its role has, therefore, become in cre asingly important and it has be en given more tasks to perform but, at the same time, many W estern supporters of the pe ace movement have gradually become disillusion e d and have l e ft its ranks. It was decided, therefore, to "broaden . the front" and to make a special effort to attract more 000036 �-33n e utralist and other non-C ommunist support. World News & Views of O ctober 11 th, 1952 in an article by Prof. B ernal said " The purpose of the forthcoming P eople's C ongress for P e ace is to mobilise and unite the new forces th at are in th eir diff ere nt ways showing th eir re sistanc e to the war driv e. " The C ommunist net was to be cast wider and wider in order to catch new victims fa ster than the old ones were slipping out. The le ading organiz ers of the P eople's C ongress for P e ace promised "fre edom of spe ech to a ll who b elie v e in ne gotiation rath er than forc e " . The C ongress f aile d in this respect because it attempted to do two quite incompatible things; to ke ep the p articip a nts strictly to the " p arty lin e " and at the same time to allow limite d fre edom of discussion to prove to the non-C ommunist world th at ordin ary men and women of various opinions can associate themselves with state ments of policy acceptable to the Soviet Union. The spe eches of the le ading organiz ers were given gre at publicity but any critic a l spe eches were ignored by the C ongress and distorte d and suppressed by the C ommunist ra dio and press. It didn't take long for independent think ers to se e through the fre e dom of spe ech pretence. Mme Z einab al G ha z ali of the Moslem Women's Association of E gypt described her experiences at the C ongress. She attended to find out if the objectiv e s of the P e ace P artisans in E gypt were genuine or just a cloak for C ommunism. At first she was gre atly welcomed, being put on the Pra esidium and given a s e cretary. When she gave some Press intervie ws exposing the fals e appe als of the P e ace P artis a ns, however, her secretary was taken away and re port ers were not allowed to se e her. Also in connection with fre edom of spe ech, it is rath er intere sting to note the way control was maintained over the spe akers at the C ongress. Spe eches had first to be submitted to the C ommunist le aders of the d ele g ation who persuaded the would-be spe aker t<b tone down any obje ction able passages. They were then submitted to the Pra esidium w ell in advance on the grounds the tra nslators ne eded them. If they were still objectiona ble members of the Pra esidium, even Joliot- C urie himself-, trie d to get them suitably amended. If this f aile d, the spe aker was simply not c alle d on the grounds of "la ck of tim e ". O f course, there were a few spe akers at the beginning of the conference allowed to put forth the n e utralist point of view and occ a sionally even to say th at Soviet policy was as much to blame for world tension as America's but these spe eches were eith er distorte d or suppressed in a ll the offici a l re ports, on the C ominform ra dio and the C ommunist press. To conclude my remarks on the pe ace movement I would lik e to re ad you what was said in the C z echoslovak trade union journ al " Prace " on March 28th,1952s- " A strik e in a c a pit a list country is a very effe ctiv e way of fighting for pe ace, since it aims at paralysing war production and the tra nsport of arms. But here it is a question of building up the gre at e st po-ssible stre ngth in the shorte st possible tim e ........ To put the arms of outstanding qu ality which we produce into the hands of our P eople ’ s Army — th at is an a ct of pe ace . " 000037 �-3M-C O N G R E SS OF C ANADIAN The most interesting incid ent C ongress of C anadian Women is, I think, trip to North Kore a in 1951. It is the C ommunist propaganda campaign which was the best re sults and operated at a very WOMEN irt the history of the Mrs. Nora Rodd ’ s story of a successful w ell planned to get high le v el. On A pril 2Uth, 1951, Mrs. Rodd, an elderly Windsor la wy er’ s wife, l e ft for a visit to the Iron C urtain countries with a group of w ell known C anadian communists. She hadrever be en p articularly prominent as a communist and we had no inkling of the re ason for her trip. We next he ard she had arriv e d in North Kore a on May 16th as the C hairman,, of a group of women invite d by the Women's Intern ation al D emocratic F ederation to inv e stigate a trocitie s alleged to have! be en committed by the United N ations forces in Kore a. A ‘'few days la t er, on May 22nd, the first a trocity re ports appe ared in the press and as a re sult a wave of indign ation swept across C anada and demands were made th at Mrs. Rodd be prosecuted on her return. By June h-th Mrs. Rodd and her p arty had returned to Moscow a ft er spending only about two we eks in Kore a to inv e stig ate such a serious m atter. On June 19th Jacob M alik, the U.S.S.R. delegate to the United N ations and President of the S e curity C ouncil for the month of June, wrote a l e tt er to the S e cretariat of the United N ations requesting public a tion of the W.I.D. F . a trocity re port as a United N ations do cument. While a ll this was ta king place abroad the C anadian P arliament was passing an amendment to the Crimin al Code to cover the a ctions of C anadians abroad who a ssist any enemy at war with C anada or against whom the C anadian forces are fighting even though a state of war has not be en declared. This amendment to S ection 7^(3) of the Crimin al Code was passed in the House on June 25th and became law on June 30th. Mrs. Rodd returned to C anada shortly a ft er and although this le gisla tion was passed too late to cover her a trocity statements made while abroad it obviously could be used if she continued making such statements on her return to C anada. Mrs. Rodd did make such statements on her return home, in fa ct she .toured the country spre ading her vicious porpaganda, but unfortunately she only repe ated what was a l re ady published in a United N ations document. O bviously it would have be en difficult and embarrassing for the C anadian G overnment to prosecute her succ e ssfully under such circum stances. She got away with it. I think you will agre e there was good timing in this a ff a ir. Mrs. Rodd and her d ele g ation made the Kore an trip just at the time Jacob M alik would become President of the S e curity C ouncil when he would be in a position to arrange for the public ation of the a trocity re port as a United N ations document. T his was an id e al way of disseminating C ommunist propaganda on a world wide scale under the prote ctiv e cloak of the United N ations. Although it could not be forese en th at the C anadian P arliament would pass le gislation of the type it did, Mrs. Rodd c ertainly made good use of the U.N. document in her spe eches across C anada w ell knowing th at quoting from it would prote ct her from prosecution. O TH E R F R O NT G R O T TPS The Le ague for D emocratic Rights is the third major C ommunist front in C anada at the present time. It was formed, 000038 �-35of course, because it appe ared very lik e ly th at the LaborProgressive P arty would be declared an ill e g a l org a niz ation or th at amendments to the C rimin al Code would curb its ac tiviti e s. It has be en directing a lot of atte ntion to the trade unions, trying to convince them th at the proposed amendments to the C rimin al Code will have dire effe cts on the right to strik e . T he C anadian Soviet Friendship Society is another w ell known front org aniz ation. It has be en putting out some highly effe ctiv e propaganda since Dyson C arter commenced pu blishing "N ews F acts" which is a w ell set-up littl e pamphlet designedto give a convincing, pro-Soviet sla nt on curre nt news items. We also have the mass language cultural groups which are strictly spe aking C ommunist front org aniz ations but I will not be discussing them as they will be the subje ct of a separate le cture . C O N CLUSIO N It is g e n erally accepted th at the C ominform journ al " F or a Lasting P e ace, for a P eople ’ s D emocracy" is one of the me ans used by Russia to give instructions and the P arty lin e to C ommunists everywhere. To arriv e at the me aning of these instructions it is necessary to penetrate the smoke scre en of jargon. Words are ofte n used in a sense diff ere nt from th eir diction ary me aning. When the C ominform journ al says th at c ertain things are ta king place we should re ad it as me aning those things should take place through the efforts of the loc al C ommunist P arties. With this in mind I suggest you interpret the article which I sh all now re ad as being curre nt instructions for C ommunist front org aniz ations as it was only printe d in the C ominform journal la st May l?th under the he ading " Struggle for U nity of Working C lass - V it a l T ask of C ommunist and Worker's P artie s" ’’ U nity of the working class and the ra lly ing of the democratic forces in general are being developed on an intern ation al scale as w ell. Such larg e mass organisa tion as the World F ederation of Trade Unions, the Women's Intern ation al Demo cratic F ederation and the World F ederation of D emocratic Youth are pla ying a vit a l role in rallying the working people in the struggle for th eir vit a l intere sts, in defence of P e ace. A p articularly vit a l role in the struggle for pe ace is played by the indomitable movement of our time, the pe ace movement." 000039 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CDIG00191 Title A name given to the resource CDIG00191 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Library and Archives Canada, RG146, volume 5873, Part 1, "Brief - Talks deliveryed to Special Branch Class 1953-07-13 to 1953-07-22," Wallet 1 (A-2013-00622) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource RCMP Special Branch Subject The topic of the resource Counterintelligence Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Canada Declassified Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource en