May Das 1934 —Labor battles recalled

Harvey Murphy joined the
ymaaunist Party in 1922, the
ed it was formed. In the 1930's,
y an organizer for the Worker’s

nity League and Mine Work-

forked in Western Canada for

Uni re-establishment of trade
= in the British Columbia
S.

In 1941 he was arrested and

‘pent a year in an internment

‘amp in Hull, Quebec, because

petship. Following his release
erhy returned West and re-
*Umed organizing for the Inter-
“National Union of Mine, Mill
| ‘tush Smelter Workers and even-
‘tha, Y became vice-president of
| at union.

By ALF DEWHURST

Voters in Ontario and Saskat-
meen are expected to go to
€ polls this year to elect their
Provincial legislatures. The only
: Wnanswered question at the mo-
Ment in both cases is whether
‘Nese elections will take place
rat late spring or early fall. Both
—“lections if held this year will
as a result of the two govern-
€nts involved — one (Ontario)
€ing true-blue Tory, the other
€w Democratic Party — seek-
& to extend their unexpired
dates, :

thiberta voters have just come
Tough a provincial election
Called for the same reason as
Biven above by a Conservative
8vernment previously - elected
With a good solid majority.

An. election this year in Brit-

© cards according to the ru-
“Mors going the rounds in that
beevince. In this case it would
a an NDP government seeking
- extend its unexpired man-
ate,
x Federally, there was an élec-
ae last year called by the Lib-
*tal minority government elect-
“d only a year previously seek-
mg a
Which it achieved.
“What’s up?” is the question
Which immediately comes to
aa as a result of all this out-
_ I-season election activity, elec-
tion talk and rumors. What else
 ©€n it mean other than political
noeuvring by the big corpo-

®s Union of Canada, Murphy -

‘Sf his Communist Party mem-.

‘Sh Columbia could also be in.

majority government.

By HARVEY MURPHY

May Day is the one day set
apart from all other days, estab-
lished as it was out of the direct
confrontation between the work-
ing class and the boss ‘on this
continent in the struggle for the
rights of working men and
women.

Tt is a day when we take time
from work without the employer
or his government’s consent; he
is not consulted for this one day

in 365. It is a day that trade .

unions in Europe and elsewhere
demonstrate as a trade union
day of solidarity. On this day
set aside by workers, May 1, the

right-wingers have countered |

with the day the bosses set up
— Labor Day — where they say
“nice things” about us as em:
ployees.

In the 1930’s I can recall that
I never had to prepare a speech
for May Day because I and my
fellow workers did not get to
speak. It was a day of confron-
tation with the police who
always worked .on May Day.

THE DAY WORKERS CHOSE

What distinguishes May Day
from all others? It is the day the
the workers themselves set —
and take. The one holiday celeb-
rated in all socialist and pro-
gressive lands in the name of
the international working class.

The holiday was developed in
Chicago arising out of attempts
by workers to organize unions.
Although Gompers and the AF
of L leaders sought to hide this
fact, it was taken up by the
official united trade unions in

What's at stake in ef

rations seeking to push politics
to the right, and to secure the
election of “stable” govern-
ments at all levels to better pro-
tect the interests of monopoly
capital in these times of increas-
ing social unrest?

THE DEEPENING ECONOMIC
CRISIS

- “Canada, like all other capital-
ist countries, is in the grip of a
deepening economic crisis in
which rising unemployment and,
inflation stalk the land together.
This deepening crisis has
brought economic stagnation
and decline. It has brought long-
er and longer lines of jobless
workers. It has brought lower
living standards not only for the
almost one million jobless but
for those: who are still working.

Inflation is cruelly used by
monopoly to impose wage cuts
on workers. Spiralling inflation
means spiralling rents and hous-
ing costs, spiralling prices for
foodstuffs and other consumer
commodities. It has meant high-
er prices for gas and oil, with
both the federal and provincial
governments conspiring with the
giant oil corporations to inflict
yet another price hike on con-
sumers.

Prices are at an all time high!
And so are the profits of the
multi-nationals and of all mono-
poly concerns!

BATTLE LINES ARE SHAPED UP

Events have proved how cor-
rect the Communist Party was

Europe and proclaimed as the
day of world solidarity of labor.
The establishment of Labor Day
was and is an effort in Canada
and the USA to separate labor
on this continent from workers’
celebrations internationally.

Because May Day is a day of
outdoor demonstration and
marches, Bob Ellis, the great
left-wing cartoonist sketched a
boss and his wife kneeling in
prayer for rain on May 1. This
day was principally not a day
for speeches. In Toronto during
the 1930’s,.chief of police Dra-
per made certain. there would be
no speeches delivered. His Red
Squad would break up our meet-
ings organized just behind the
legislature building at Queen’s
Park. I was scheduled to speak
many times, but didn’t even pre-
pare my notes.

KARL MARX PARK

I take this occasion to write
about how we celebrated May
Day in the coalfields of Alberta
— particularly in the Crow’s
Nest Pass. We had been work-
ing for some time to bring the
miners into the Mineworkers
Union of Canada and away
from the company union which
was forced on them by the
bosses. The mines of Fernie,
Michel and Corbin are on the
B.C. side of the B.C.-Alberta
border. On the Alberta side, in
Blairmore, Coleman and Belle-
vue, the miners were organized
into the Mineworkers Union of
Canada. d

For May Day. 1934 we called a
strike in Michel and Fernie and

when it predicted a-year ago at
its 22nd Convention that Can-
ada was “entering a time of a
growing monopoly offensive on
the standards, jobs and rights
of working people in conditions
of sharpening struggle between
‘labor and capital.”

The outstanding feature of the
fight-back against monopoly po-
licies is the strike movement
which is broad and deep, en-
compassing a wide spectrum of
blue and white collar workers.
While naturally centred on wage
and salary demands, trade
union struggles are increasingly
bringing to the fore social issues
aimed at changing the status of
workers in production and seek-
ing democratic solutions for a
whole range of social problems
facing various ‘sections of the
population.

LEFT POLITICS OR RIGHT
POLITICS?

On the other hand monopoly
and government are intensifying
their pressure all along the line
with the aim of imposing a wage
freeze and to establish an in-

comes policy, regulate the trade’
unions, limit strikes and to in-—

troduce compulsory arbitration.
All of which is geared to the

goal of fastening the burden Ofe

the crisis and the evils of the

capitalist system. — their sys-

tem — onto the backs of the

working people. ;
The spokesmen for  state-

monopoly capitalism are work-

Na eT RM GI

Organizing the miners union

Harvey Murphy was organizing miners in the area when, in 1933,
main street of Blairmore, Alberta was renamed Tim Buck Boulevard

by a left-wing civic administration

arranged for. a special meeting
and demonstration at a dairy
farm near Michel. A piece of
the farm was set aside to be

‘called Karl Marx Park and we

agreed to dedicate it on May
Day by calling in the miners
from Lethbridge, Coalhurst, Bel-
levue, Blairmore and Coleman.
We booked a special train from
Lethbridge to travel through
and pick up the miners and their
families in the unionized Crow’s
Nest Pass and bring them‘to Mi-
chel. The miners on the B.C.
side would take the day off also
for the picnic and demonstra-
tion.

A HUGE SUCCESS

Needless to say, Michel was
loaded with B.C. provincial pol-
ice heavily armed to intimidate
the workers. When the train

ing with might and main, utiliz-
ing every trick in their bag, to
shift politics to the right in Can-
ada in order to swing govern-
mental power: at all levels be-
hind their program and policies
in this period of deepening eco-
nomic crisis. Monopoly wants
governments sufficiently ‘strong’
and ‘stable’ to be able to keep
the working people in their
‘place.’

The organized working class
movement and all democratic
forces taken together need also
to work with might and main to
shift politics to the left in Can-
ada, with the immediate aim to
change the balance of forces in
the seats of government and
pewer in favor of the working
class and democratic movement.
Essentially, this is what the
‘struggle for economic and so-
cial justice is all about. .

’ The struggles of the people,
with ‘the working class at the
centre, around their economic,
social and political needs and
aspirations is the decisive fac-
ter in changing the balance of
political forces in the form of a
democratic © anti-monopoly _ alli-
ance, and in determining the
course of social development.

A democratic anti-monopoly
alliance would be a political al-
liance. Such a political alliance
would need to be based on the
‘working class, the national and
democratic forces in~ French
Canada, the farmers, the middle

Ction battles

swept in by the miners.

pulled up, we were met by the
B.C. miners from Michel, Fernie
and Corbin — and we marched
1,000 strong to Karl Marx Park. .
The police dared not fire, the
picnic and demonstration were
a huge success and the park was
dedicated.

The town was filled with
thousands of United Minework-
ers of Canada men and women.
Lethbridge, Coalhurst and the
Crow’s Nest were united in one
union for the first time since
1925. We celebrated May Day
as it should be celebrated — and
the union of the miners was
brought to the Eastern part of
B.C. in defiance of the mine
operators.

Needless to say, by the time
the special train headed back to
Alberta, the town ran out of
beer.

strata, the non-monopolist capi-
talists, all those affected by mo-
nopoly policies. To be genuinely
effective it would have to in-
clude the Communist Party, the
New Democratic Party, the trade
unions, farm organizations,
youth and student organizations,
associations of intellectuals and
professionals, wamen’s organi-
zations and cooperatives.

DEFEAT MONOPOLY’S
DEPRESSION PROGRAM

Such a political alliance will
be able to turn back the drive
from the right and shift politics
to the left, making possible the
defeat of monopoly’s depression
program and policies. The con-
tinuing struggle led by an anti-
monopoly alliance will open the
door for the eventual election of
democratic anti-monopoly gov-
ernments on the federal, provin-
cial and local levels.

The Communist Party works
day in and day out for the build-
ing of such a new political alli-
ance. It campaigned in the re-
cent federal and provincial elec-
tions around slogans which ex-
pressed these aims: Shift Poli-
tics to the Left! Defeat the Drive
to the Right! Elect a Progres-
sive Majority! Vote Communist!

The Communist Party will
contest the upcoming provincial
electior’s around these same vi-
tal aims. For this is the road to
move the whole struggle for so-
cial and economic emancipation
ahead.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1975—Page 11

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