Tim Buck
Encyclopedia
Timothy "Tim" Buck was a long-time leader of the Communist Party of Canada
(known from the 1940s until the late 1950s as the Labour Progressive Party). Together with Ernst Thälmann
of Germany, Maurice Thorez
of France, Palmiro Togliatti
of Italy, Earl Browder
of the United States, and Harry Pollitt
of Britain, Buck was one of the top leaders of the Joseph Stalin
-era Communist International.
, Buck was born in Beccles
, England
and emigrated to Canada
in 1910 reputedly because it was cheaper to book steamship passage to Canada than to Australia
. He became involved in the labour movement and radical working class politics in Toronto. In 1921, he participated in the founding convention of the Communist Party of Canada. Not initially a leading member of the party, Buck came to prominence as a supporter of Joseph Stalin
, and became General Secretary
in 1929 after the old party leadership had been purged for supporting Trotsky
and others had been removed for supporting Bukharin. Buck remained General Secretary until 1962, and was an unquestioning supporter of the Soviet
line throughout his tenure.
, the Conservative
government of R.B. Bennett became increasingly worried about left wing activity and agitation. On August 11, 1931, the Communist Party offices in Toronto were raided, and Buck and several of his colleagues were arrested and charged with sedition
. Buck was tried in November, convicted of sedition and sentenced to hard labour.
He was imprisoned from 1932 to 1934 in Kingston Penitentiary
where he was the target of an apparent assassination attempt in his cell the night after a prison riot. While Buck was sitting in his cell listening to the mêlée outside, eight shots were fired into his cell via a window, narrowly missing the prisoner. In late 1933, Minister of Justice
Hugh Guthrie
admitted in the Canadian House of Commons
that shots had been deliberately fired into Buck's cell, but "just to frighten him." A widespread civil rights campaign ultimately secured Buck's release. His extensive testimony before the Archambault Commission
contributed to the reform of prisons in Canada. As a result, Buck was hailed a heroic champion of civil liberties
.
The Communist Party was banned in 1941 under the Defence of Canada Regulations
and Buck and other prominent Communist leaders were forced underground and ultimately into exile in the United States
. The political environment changed with the German invasion of the USSR
and the Soviet Union's entry into World War II
on the side of the Allies
. As a result, Canadian Communists ended their opposition to the war and became enthusiastic supporters of the Canadian war effort. The party supported the government's call for conscription
and established Tim Buck Plebiscite Committees
which called for a "Yes" vote in the 1942 national plebiscite on conscription
. The campaigning in support of the war helped change public opinion towards the Communists and resulted in the government's release of Communist leaders being held in detention and the return of Buck and other leaders from exile. While the ban on the party itself was not lifted it was allowed to organize the Labour-Progressive Party
as a legal public face.
in the 1935 federal election
. He lost to Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) candidate Abraham Albert Heaps
. In the 1937 Toronto municipal election
he came within 200 votes of winning a city-wide election to the Toronto Board of Control
. He won 26% of the vote when he ran in the Toronto riding of Trinity in the 1945 election
, and 21% in the 1949 election
, finishing ahead of the CCF on both occasions. In the 1953 election
, he won only 8.7% of the vote and then just 3.7% of the vote when he stood one last time in the 1958 election
.
in 1965. In Yours in the Struggle: Reminiscences of Tim Buck, the former party leader criticized Nikita Khrushchev
and was somewhat defensive of Stalin, although not departing from the international Communist movement's current perspective.
The main concerns of the party was the claim that the publishers were trying to frame Buck in a pro-Maoist manner, in regards to the Sino-Soviet Split
where the party had sided with the Soviet Union
, and that the loose recordings were in a position to be easily misinterpreted. Those within the Central Committee
responsible for its publication were punished for "grave violation of democratic centralism
". Earlier in 1975, Progress Books published Tim Buck — A Conscience for Canada by Oscar Ryan, which is considered to be the party-approved biography. In it, Buck was quoted as saying "for a time I gave the appearance of defending Stalin. I didn't defend what he had done; the fact is, nobody could defend the things that Khrushchev revealed."
Canadian Marxist Ian Angus also criticized Yours in Struggle with regards to accusations that Buck had stated misinformation with regards to the purging of alternate voices during his early rise in the party. He continued this criticism with his 1981 book Canadian Bolsheviks: The Early Years of the Communist Party of Canada, which analyzed the formation and rise of the party, but felt that Tim Buck had betrayed it by promoting himself and a strongly pro-Soviet line.
Communist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...
(known from the 1940s until the late 1950s as the Labour Progressive Party). Together with Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944...
of Germany, Maurice Thorez
Maurice Thorez
thumb|A Soviet stamp depicting Maurice Thorez.Maurice Thorez was a French politician and longtime leader of the French Communist Party from 1930 until his death. He also served as vice premier of France from 1946 to 1947....
of France, Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti was an Italian politician and leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1927 until his death.-Early life:...
of Italy, Earl Browder
Earl Browder
Earl Russell Browder was an American communist and General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1934 to 1945. He was expelled from the party in 1946.- Early years :...
of the United States, and Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt was the head of the trade union department of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the General Secretary of the party for more than 20 years.- Early life :...
of Britain, Buck was one of the top leaders of the Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
-era Communist International.
Early life and career
A machinistMachinist
A machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining. This is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may...
, Buck was born in Beccles
Beccles
Beccles is a market town and civil parish in the Waveney District of the English county of Suffolk. The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 Blythburgh and A12 road, northeast of London as the crow flies, southeast of Norwich, and north northeast of the county town of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and emigrated to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1910 reputedly because it was cheaper to book steamship passage to Canada than to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He became involved in the labour movement and radical working class politics in Toronto. In 1921, he participated in the founding convention of the Communist Party of Canada. Not initially a leading member of the party, Buck came to prominence as a supporter of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, and became General Secretary
General Secretary
The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...
in 1929 after the old party leadership had been purged for supporting Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
and others had been removed for supporting Bukharin. Buck remained General Secretary until 1962, and was an unquestioning supporter of the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
line throughout his tenure.
National figure
With the onset of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the Conservative
Conservative Party of Canada (historical)
The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
government of R.B. Bennett became increasingly worried about left wing activity and agitation. On August 11, 1931, the Communist Party offices in Toronto were raided, and Buck and several of his colleagues were arrested and charged with sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
. Buck was tried in November, convicted of sedition and sentenced to hard labour.
He was imprisoned from 1932 to 1934 in Kingston Penitentiary
Kingston Penitentiary
Kingston Penitentiary is a maximum security prison located in Kingston, Ontario between King Street West and Lake Ontario....
where he was the target of an apparent assassination attempt in his cell the night after a prison riot. While Buck was sitting in his cell listening to the mêlée outside, eight shots were fired into his cell via a window, narrowly missing the prisoner. In late 1933, Minister of Justice
Minister of Justice (Canada)
The Minister of Justice is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for the Department of Justice and is also Attorney General of Canada .This cabinet position is usually reserved for someone with formal legal training...
Hugh Guthrie
Hugh Guthrie
Hugh Guthrie, PC, KC was a Canadian politician and Cabinet minister in the governments of Sir Robert Borden, Arthur Meighen and R. B. Bennett....
admitted in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
that shots had been deliberately fired into Buck's cell, but "just to frighten him." A widespread civil rights campaign ultimately secured Buck's release. His extensive testimony before the Archambault Commission
Archambault report
The Archambault Report was an influential study of the penitentiary system in Canada, published in 1938. The report, the full title of which was the Royal Commission Report on Penal Reform in Canada, was the product of four years of study by the Royal Commission, chaired by Mr. Justice Joseph...
contributed to the reform of prisons in Canada. As a result, Buck was hailed a heroic champion of civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
.
Defence of Canada Regulations
The Defence of Canada Regulations were a set of emergency measures implemented under the War Measures Act a week before Canada's entry into World War II in the fall of 1939....
and Buck and other prominent Communist leaders were forced underground and ultimately into exile in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The political environment changed with the German invasion of the USSR
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
and the Soviet Union's entry into World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
on the side of the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
. As a result, Canadian Communists ended their opposition to the war and became enthusiastic supporters of the Canadian war effort. The party supported the government's call for conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
and established Tim Buck Plebiscite Committees
Dominion Communist-Labor Total War Committee
The Dominion Communist-Labor Total War Committee was a front organization of the then-banned Communist Party of Canada. The Committees originated as the "Tim Buck Plebiscite Committees" which were organized by the party in 1942 to campaign for a "yes" vote in the 1942 referendum on conscription...
which called for a "Yes" vote in the 1942 national plebiscite on conscription
Conscription Crisis of 1944
The Conscription Crisis of 1944 was a political and military crisis following the introduction of forced military service in Canada during World War II. It was similar to the Conscription Crisis of 1917, but was not as politically damaging....
. The campaigning in support of the war helped change public opinion towards the Communists and resulted in the government's release of Communist leaders being held in detention and the return of Buck and other leaders from exile. While the ban on the party itself was not lifted it was allowed to organize the Labour-Progressive Party
Labour-Progressive Party
For the Labour-Progressive Coalition Government in New Zealand see the Fifth Labour Government of New ZealandThe Labor-Progressive Party was the legal political organization of the Communist Party of Canada between 1943 and 1959....
as a legal public face.
Electoral politics
Buck ran for a seat in the House of Commons on six occasions. He won 25% of the vote, placing third, when he ran in Winnipeg NorthWinnipeg North
For information on the historical provincial constituency, see Winnipeg North .Winnipeg North is a federal electoral district that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1917...
in the 1935 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1935
The Canadian federal election of 1935 was held on October 14, 1935 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 18th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of William Lyon Mackenzie King won a majority government, defeating Prime Minister R.B. Bennett's Conservative Party.The central...
. He lost to Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) candidate Abraham Albert Heaps
Abraham Albert Heaps
Abraham Albert Heaps was a Canadian politician and labour leader.Born in Leeds, England, Heaps immigrated to Canada in 1911 and worked in Winnipeg as an upholsterer. He was one of the leaders of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and was a Labor alderman on the Winnipeg City Council from 1917...
. In the 1937 Toronto municipal election
Toronto municipal election, 1937
Municipal elections were held in Toronto, Canada, on December 6, 1937. Ralph Day was elected mayor defeating incumbent William D. Robbins.-Toronto mayor:...
he came within 200 votes of winning a city-wide election to the Toronto Board of Control
Toronto Board of Control
Toronto Board of Control was a part of the municipal government of Toronto, Canada from 1904 until its abolition in 1969 and served as the executive committee of Toronto City Council. It consisted of four councillors elected city wide and was presided over by the mayor. Each voter could vote for up...
. He won 26% of the vote when he ran in the Toronto riding of Trinity in the 1945 election
Canadian federal election, 1945
The Canadian federal election of 1945 was the 20th general election in Canadian history. It was held June 11, 1945 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 20th Parliament of Canada...
, and 21% in the 1949 election
Canadian federal election, 1949
The Canadian federal election of 1949 was held on June 27 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 21st Parliament of Canada. It was the first election in Canada in almost thirty years in which the Liberal Party of Canada was not led by William Lyon Mackenzie King. King had...
, finishing ahead of the CCF on both occasions. In the 1953 election
Canadian federal election, 1953
The Canadian federal election of 1953 was held on August 10 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 22nd Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Louis St...
, he won only 8.7% of the vote and then just 3.7% of the vote when he stood one last time in the 1958 election
Canadian federal election, 1958
The Canadian federal election of 1958 was the 24th general election in Canada's history. It was held to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 24th Parliament of Canada on March 31, 1958, just nine months after the 23rd election...
.
Retirement
Buck retired as general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada in 1962, but remained in the largely ceremonial position of party chairman until his death in 1973. There was controversy within the party when a posthumous version of his memoirs was published in 1977 by NC Press based on interviews conducted for the CBCCanadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
in 1965. In Yours in the Struggle: Reminiscences of Tim Buck, the former party leader criticized Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
and was somewhat defensive of Stalin, although not departing from the international Communist movement's current perspective.
The main concerns of the party was the claim that the publishers were trying to frame Buck in a pro-Maoist manner, in regards to the Sino-Soviet Split
Sino-Soviet split
In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
where the party had sided with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and that the loose recordings were in a position to be easily misinterpreted. Those within the Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
responsible for its publication were punished for "grave violation of democratic centralism
Democratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
". Earlier in 1975, Progress Books published Tim Buck — A Conscience for Canada by Oscar Ryan, which is considered to be the party-approved biography. In it, Buck was quoted as saying "for a time I gave the appearance of defending Stalin. I didn't defend what he had done; the fact is, nobody could defend the things that Khrushchev revealed."
Canadian Marxist Ian Angus also criticized Yours in Struggle with regards to accusations that Buck had stated misinformation with regards to the purging of alternate voices during his early rise in the party. He continued this criticism with his 1981 book Canadian Bolsheviks: The Early Years of the Communist Party of Canada, which analyzed the formation and rise of the party, but felt that Tim Buck had betrayed it by promoting himself and a strongly pro-Soviet line.
External links
- Progress Books Online Contains PDF versions of Put Monopoly Under Control and Canada and the Russian Revolution by Tim Buck
- Tim Buck, Too by Morris Wolfe on Tim Buck's 1931 trial.
- Tim Buck Internet Archive
- "Audacity, audacity, still more audacity": Tim Buck, the Party, and the People, 1932–1939 by John Manley
- Tim Buck: Canada's Communist