A special anniversary program
published by the CPC in May 1996
to mark the 75th anniversary of its formation in 1921

Part Two
THE "HUNGRY THIRTIES"
AND THE FIGHTBACK

The onset of the Great Depression inflicted tremendous suffering and hardship on working people. Factories closed, mass unemployment swept the country, farmers were evicted, and poverty conditions affected the lives of all toilers – in the cities and countryside alike. There was no unemployment insurance, and "relief" was doled out as charity under the most humiliating conditions.

The Communist Party took the lead in fighting back. One of the most important early initiatives was the founding of the Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) and later, the Worker's Unity League (WUL) to lead the struggles for industrial unionism across Canada, and to organize the unorganized.

When the right-wing trade union leaders gave up all pretence of fighting for their members, the Party and the Worker's Unity League took the initiative, leading 90 per cent of the strikes during the "Hungry Thirties." Communists played a leading role in organizing most of the industrial unions across the country during these years – in the steel mills, auto plants, rubber and chemical factories, and in Canada's forests and fisheries.

Hoping to stem the growing militancy, the Canadian state resorted to repression, starting with the bloody RCMP attack on striking miners in Estavan, Saskatchewan in 1931 which left three workers dead, and 13 others wounded.

This wave of repression was met with the formation of the Canadian Labour Defense League (CLDL), which played a vital role in organizing legal defense for jailed strikers and support for their families. Not least, the CLDL mobilized mass public opposition to the arrest and imprisonment of leaders and militants of the Communist Party itself, including Tim Buck and seven other leaders of the CPC incarcerated in 1931, under the notoriously anti-democratic Section 98 of the Criminal Code.

The CPC also helped organize the unemployed to fight for "work and wages," and it began a country-wide movement for the establishment of unemployment insurance. The organization of the Relief Camp Workers Union in B.C., and the undertaking of the historic "On-to-Ottawa" Trek in 1935, swung public opinion in support of the plight of the unemployed, helped to defeat the Conservative government of "Iron Heel" Bennett, and laid the foundation for the achievement of our present Unemployment Insurance Program years later.

At the same time the class struggle was intensifying in Canada, the menace of fascism was growing in Europe, Asia, and in North America itself. Starting with the Japanese imperialist invasion of Manchuria in 1931, and fascist Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, Canadian Communists were among the first to alert fellow Canadians of the growing danger.

The first major battle against the fascist threat in Europe itself arose in Spain, when Franco's troops, with the direct aid of Mussolini and Hitler, turned on the democratically-elected government and launched the Spanish Civil War. Internationalist assistance to the beleaguered democratic forces in Spain came from around the world, including Canada.

With the assistance of the CPC, 1,200 young Canadians made their way to Spain to form the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion of the International Brigades. Many perished on its blood-soaked battlefields, the first to fall in the struggle against fascism, and for the cause of democracy and freedom. These "pre-mature anti-fascists" – as they were wrongly dubbed by the Canadian establishment – were true selfless heroes whose sacrifices and contribution to Canadian history must never be forgotten.

Dr. Norman Bethune, noted Canadian surgeon, early advocate of medicare, and member of the CPC, was among those who went to Spain. Dr. Bethune organized the first blood-transfusion unit ever established in battlefield conditions.

Later, Dr. Bethune's devotion to the cause of human liberty took him to China to help organize medical services in the Communist-led units fighting the Japanese aggressors. There he died of an infection while operating on wounded soldiers.

The early period of the Second World War – the so-called "phoney war" – was a difficult period for the Party. The CPC believed that Britain, Canada and the other imperialist powers were not mounting a serious resistance to the Nazi onslaught, and were intent rather on turning Hitler's forces against the Soviet Union. The Party therefore opposed Canadian participation, and when the federal government introduced the War Measures Act, hundreds of Party members were rounded up and interned for opposing the war effort. Even after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, when the CPC changed its position and threw its wholehearted support behind the anti-fascist struggle, many Communists remained in detention, while others gave their lives on the battlefields of Europe.

Despite the tense political situation, Communists scored many important electoral gains during this period. Dorise Nielsen was elected in 1940 as the first Communist MP from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, and Fred Rose was later elected MP from Montreal. Many other Communists, running under the new Labour Progressive Party banner, gained provincial and municipal seats both during and immediately following the war.