la “Central Relief Restaurant” . ngshoremen and seamen was blished on Powell Street. ae Spirit of solidarity steeled i Strikers to their cause. A embership meeting June 26 in os Moose Hall recorded ~ tin, of 576 for and 66 against re the strike. A similar ting in New Westminster voted ® for 50 against remaining solid - | With Vancouver dockers. Ind July began, the Seafarer’s ah ustrial Union in Victoria went ai M sympathy. Dockers in ria, Port Alberni, Chemainus ig wel River likewise left their nemetican longshoremen, a ers of the International shoremen’s Association, in nd, Seattle, San Francisco acoma voted to declare B.C. 0 unfair. Y the end of the first week in Y, the Shipping Federation had Mpleted the first phase of its n — a coastwide strike. The ur'se of events was well planned. bloody battle of Ballantyne Rive provocation needed to i. the full powers of the em- Aes and their state machine. Car Salonen, writing in the Workers News August 9, ted the employer’s plot back to fh and the victory of American iquoremen in the bitter strike ae Seized every port on the a le coast of the U.S. Under the Y leadership of Harry Bridges, pe I had in one fell swoop ; red union recognition, the °n hiring hall, and a six-hour n Re Salonen related, this jc ipitated a conference of ae magnates in early 1935 yw the hiring of @ Mr. Hall who .S Commissioned to prepare a et “upon when the crushing on Could be made upon 8Shoremen” and in so doing, th- * t any similar development Sieg Canadian workers. A few es later Hall was elevated to Regent of the Shipping | “€ration at a salary of $10,000 , wee Year. His plan had been ap- f *OVved, f as longshoremen, though, had f ;, “DS of their own. The example set i? ae ILA was for the Canadian be te a glimpse of what could cry Ne grim memories of their a awe defeat in the strike of 1923 “the years of company lonism since strengthened their Solve. aqonically, it was the ILA which led the 1923 strike and lost. It a in ruin for the 1007 ILA —mbers as 625 were blacklisted B Never to work the waterfront in i ae again. 1924, the employers tablished a company union H.°wn as the ‘Vancouver and ae ear na ee \) lon. For 10 long years the Yowwa was but a shell of an y fornnization doing little or nothing “7 8 members. A 1930 dues book Ee the company union obligated —. member ‘‘to be faithful to Ployers.”” Wages in 1931 were f under the leadership of the ‘‘red trade union centre.”’ Shortly after ‘the formation of the WUL, a decision was made, in conjunction with the Communist Party, to transform the VDWWA into a militant, fighting organization. Patient, consistent work bore results. Communist Party members on the waterfront set to work organizing rank and file groups. A left wing newsletter - called the Heavy Lift appeared on the docks. The WUL program called for the amalgamation of the four separate groups of longshoremen in Van- couver into a single union struc- ture. By 1933 this was achieved. A communist, Oscar Salonen, was elected business agent. In October of 1934 the VDWWA suffered a setback. Intimidated into signing a_ three-year agreement with the Shipping Federation, the new contract accepted a cutin pay — back to the 1923 level. Union membership was to be frozen at 940 and no new members were to be allowed without the permission of the employers. The election of a new leadership headed by Ivan Emery, George Brown and W. Mitchell was the expression of the men’s dissatisfaction and militant spirit that had been developed. The new leadership’s first task — as Emery said, ‘“‘to raise our organization out of the status of an employer-dominated union’? — was energetically undertaken. By the end of 1934, the Longshoremen and Water Transport Workers of Canada had been formed, a federation which united dockers, seamen, loggers and other maritime workers. Emery was made president. Faced with the terms of a regressive collective agreement the new leadership projected a program of job action to win concessions not in the agreement. Hand in hand with job action was a program. to .. organize. the unorganized. Together with the Seafarers’ Industrial Union, the Grain Handlers Union and the Log Export Workers Union, the LWTW was made into a_ powerful federation encompassing a majority of maritime workers. ‘““Communists,’’ screamed McGeer, the Shipping Federation and the Citizens’ League. Full page ads in the Vancouver Sun offered phoney charts of the communist chain of command, from Moscow to the Canadian Communist Party, to the Workers Unity League and finally to the VDWWA and the LWTW. Communists they were and the role of the Communist Party was decisive in the dramatic shift to the left that so alarmed the bosses. Ivan Emery and George Brown were members of the Party’s provincial committee. Oscar Salonen, Alex Will and a host of other leaders and activists were party members. In spite of the many mistakes to be made history would find a special place for these men who rose to the needs of their time. : t By January, 1935 they too had completed the first phase of their plan. A strong and militant union had been created. The job action program was put into effect. In January the union requested that the Shipping Federation turn the dispatch hall over to the union. The answer was no. The union asked for an increase in membership. Again, no. On March 12 the union notified the employers that they had accepted 13 new members. April 29, the union declared a one-hour work stoppage in solidarity with Relief Camp workers and two days later, ~ on May Day, declared a full day’s holiday to participate in the mass rally at Stanley Park. On May 27 the union informed the companies that they would be taking over the dispatching regardless of the wishes of the Shipping Federation. The matter was coming to a LULL Ll) head. The Shipping Federation bided its time while it prepared the surprise attack. Skilfully, they chose Powell River, small and remote, to lay the trap. Only 51 casuals were involved in the dispute at Powell River — locked out when they attempted to organize. The smug Shipping Federation uttered not a word when Vancouver longshoremen refused to unload hot cargo from Powell River on two occasions, May 18 and again May 22. When the SS Anten, carrying scab newsprint from Powell River, docked in Vancouver on June 13, the men once again refused to touch it. The next morning 27 scabs were boated from English Bay to Pier A. As they arrived af the dock, 150 RCMP officers arrived by land. Two hours later, at 1:00 p.m., the Shipping Federation repudiated the agreement. The strike was on. Hall’s plan went into operation. A company union had already been granted a charter by the provincial government in Victoria: The CPR provided two ferries, the Princess Patricia and the Empress of Japan, as floating hotels for scabs, removing the fear of crossing picket lines. The infamous Citizens Committee lent their offices as a hiring hall for scabs. McGeer ‘carried out his end of the deal, hired 150 extra policemen, and stationed them along. the water- front. In the wake of Ballantyne and the arrest of Emery the mayor and the media pounded away with warnings of communism. The strike itself, according to McGeer was “‘straight communist ac- tivity.’ Emery, Brown and Salonen were singled out in the hate campaign. The slander became so intense that a special issue of the Strike Bulletin, released on June 14, devoted itself to the defense of th union leaders. , The B.C. Workers News was prompted to editorialize in its issue of June 28, 1935 in an item titled. “Reds and the Unions’: ‘The claims that the unions are con- trolled by the communists is as false as it is vicious. Communists © would not control unions even if they were a majority, which they are not.” ; 3 As the weeks wore on the unions went to the defensive. The B.C. Workers News and the Com- monwealth — whose editor, Bill Pritchard, toured Vancouver Island with George Brown — were not a match for the big business media. — i Unable to control entry on to the docks, the scab force grew. They were imported from as far away as Saskatoon, many of them desperate people caught up in the misery of depression. The Shipping Federation claimed 650 scabs working on June 28, but the B.C. Workers News challenged the statement, saying less than 200 were working. The strike was about to enter the fourth month when . negotiations finally began. But the employers stalled, knowing that yet another ace would be dealt to their hand — the Davis Inquiry. - Justice H. Davis was appointed by the federal department of labor to make a “probe” into the waterfront strike. The inquiry was to make a report with no binding powers — it was in effect a gim- mick. to: help. manipulate public ‘opinion. Davis’ report, filed and made publicin October of 1935, was astoundingly pro-employer. It made no mention of the violence at Ballantyne and condemned the unions for ‘‘breach of contract.” According to Davis, the lockout had never happened. ‘ The Davis report completed the array of forces behind the Shipping Federation’s plan. United with the employers were the police, McGeer and city council, the provincial government and now the federal government. Five months the strike had battled on in October of 1935. A report in the B.C. Workers News of October 18 outlined the diluted ‘demands of the union. They asked merely for one hiring hall, recognition of the VDWWA as the sole union and _ for no discrimination. The Shipping Federation refused. The long road to disaster ended six weeks later‘on December 6. A -statement released that day deleared their intention to ‘of- ficially end the strike on Monday, - December 9 at 8 a.m.”’ It was lost. The only condition granted was_ recognition of the union of the men’s choice. ° Company unions and _ splinter groups were quickly formed. Division once again prevailed among longshoremen. Many were blacklisted and would never work again. Others would find their way back to work only after the Second World War. It would be 23 years before longshoremen would be united in one union. The Shipping Federation could be pleased. Twice in 15 years they had smashed organized labor. But this time the lessons were learned. It would never happen. again. Even today the lessons of 1935 produce a lively debate. Refor- ‘mists are quick to point to the supposed sanctity of legality and the collective agreement. The mistake, they say, was to violate the contract of 1934. But even then union men regarded legality as a tactical question. And was it not the bosses who chose illegality and for added measure the crime of Ballantyne Pier? Was it a mistake to allow the conflict to begin at Powell River where the issue was small and affecting few? Certainly it was the. employers who chose the time and place. The balance of class force was definitely weighted against the longshoremen. If there was a mistake, it was to fight the enemy on its terms. There is evidence to indicate that a settlement could have been reached much earlier, which while not-a victory would have included some favorable terms. Perhaps the greatest lesson is the need for a sober and accurate assessment of what can be won. In retrospect it is easy to criticize. But let’s not throw the considerations of 40 years hind- sight onto the backs of the fighters of 1935. The strike was lost but ideas were won. The militancy that grew from a sordid little company union has continued to this day. Viewed in the militancy of their days they were and remain heroes. Ballantyne Pier still reaches out. into the port of Vancouver. The old dirt road is gone, but the tracks still parallel Alexander St. The heritage of the men and women of today’s International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union is etched in blood along that waterfront. It will not be forgotten. _ HAL GRIFFIN Cont'd. from Pg. 3 Supplement was approaching the station and just before the handle gave way, she grabbed the bag, thanked the policeman breathlessly and ran to catch it. From one location after another, the Vancouver Clarion continued to appear until, on October 14, 1942, the first issue of a new paper, The People, was published to campaign openly for a policy of a total war for the total defeat of fascism, the very policy pursued by the illegal publication. These are the fighting traditions the Pacific Tribune has carried forward throughout the postwar. years of struggle for peace and democratic advance. Two daily papers have come and gone in Vancouver in the 40 years it has been publishing, but the Pacific Tribune lives and grows because, - in fighting for those issues of im- mediate concern to working people, it aspirations for a socialist future. _ PACIFIC TRIBUNE SUPPLEMENT—FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1975—Page 7 represents their