"Make the Rich Pay" -- J.B. Salsberg Button, 1938 -- Daily LIFT #141

"Make the Rich Pay" -- J.B. Salsberg Button, 1938 -- Daily LIFT #141

Salsberg's campaign button when he first won municipal office in Toronto, 1938. He would become an MPP in Ontario for the Labor-Progressive Party (as the Communist Party was known at the time) in the Toronto St. Andrew riding from 1943 to 1955.

Petition for Peace Poster, Labor Progressive Party, 1950 -- Daily LIFT #31

Petition for Peace Poster, Labor Progressive Party, 1950 -- Daily LIFT #31 

A poster in support of an anti-nuclear, pro-disarmament petition drive in 1950 by the LPP as Canada's Communist Party was known at the time.

(The Daily LIFT - Leftist Image for Today - is a new The Left Chapter feature posting a daily photo, cartoon, artwork or other image related to leftist history or contemporary realty.)

Duplessis Must Go! The LPP's Call to Action, May 1959

Duplessis Must Go! The LPP's Call to Action, May 1959

Leftist Leaflet Project 

An interesting leaflet from the Communist Party (known as the Labor Progressive Party at the time) in the lead up to the historic Quebec election in 1960 that actually did see the defeat of Maurice Duplessis'  Union Nationale and the beginnings of the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. This came in the wake of his death in 1959.

Notable quotes include:

The LPP is the only political party in Canada which forthrightly recognizes the existence of French Canada as a nation within a bi-national state, and demands for it full economic and political equality, the right to self-determination, which Marxists see as the basic right of all nations. 

and the tragically relevant:

Whom, then, does anti-communism serve?
It has always been used to cloak the manoeuvers of warmongers and fascists.   

 (Click on scans to enlarge)

 When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets  (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

Working Class Unity...Our Cardinal Task, Robert Laxer, LPP 1951

Peace Poster USSR c. 1985

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

Leaflet: Working Class Unity...Our Cardinal Task, Robert Laxer, LPP 1951

"The connection between the economic and the peace issues is...deep going. In making this connection in our popular agitation to workers such as "You can't have butter and guns" we are preparing them for the events which will ever more clarify the link between the peace fight and the battle for bread and butter."

This article from the January, 1951 issue of National Affairs Monthly -- a publication of the Labor Progressive Party as the Canadian Communist Party was known at the time -- is interesting in the historical context of trying to build a peace movement with the rise of McCarthyism, the Cold War and government and media fostered anti-Communist hysteria.

This anti-Communism, as the article touches on, had also taken hold within the leadership of much of the Canadian labour movement as well as in the CCF (the predecessor to the NDP) making the task of building a peace movement that much harder. The article outlines some ideas for how to deal with this that would be discussed and dealt with at the party's upcoming convention.

The article is also of interest to me as it was written by my grandfather, Robert Laxer, who was a lifelong political activist -- first as a Communist then as a socialist and nationalist -- and writer. He left the party in 1956.

I have touched on this family history of Communist activism in the time of McCarthy before in the posts Till the World is Bright (In Memory of the Rosenbergs) - A Poem by Edna May Quentin Laxer and Win With J.B. Salsberg...and Robert Laxer!

(Click on scans to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets  (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

Constitution of the Labor-Progressive Party, 1951

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: Constitution of the Labor-Progressive Party, 1951

A few days ago we looked at the Constitution of the Communist Party of the United States of America, 1983. Today we are looking at the 1951 constitution of the Labor-Progressive Party (LPP) as the Communist Party of Canada was known at the time. 

Again of interest as an historical/organizational document the LPP constitution reflects many of the priorities of the party at the time, just when the Cold War and McCarthyism were dawning. 

Notable parts, especially for the era, include:

The Labor-Progressive Party conducts a consistent and many sided struggle for full national equality for French Canada -- a struggle to eliminate the economic and social inequalities from which the people of French Canada suffer. The Labor-Progressive Party upholds fully the democratic right of French Canada to national self-determination. 

and:

It shall be the obligation of all Party members to struggle against all forms of national oppression and discrimination, and against all ideological influences and practices of racial intolerance and discrimination.

Later in the document it states that members will be expelled for "The practice or advocacy of any form of racial, national or religious discrimination."

(Click on scans to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

Tim Buck on the Suicide Pact, Labor Progressive Party 1949

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: Tim Buck on the Suicide Pact, Labor Progressive Party 1949

A Labor Progressive Party (Communist Party) of Canada leaflet opposing the formation of NATO and the emergence of the Cold War. Written by the party's leader, Tim Buck.

(Click on scans to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource.

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).


If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com