. tate tt AM EL th LL ILL LL | en Crisis at HE THREAT of Howe Sound Mining Company of New York foshut down Britannia Mine, throw tight hundted miners and_ their amilies,on the unemployed scrap ap and turn Britannia Beach and OWnsite into a derelict area has highlighted the serious problems acing workers in the base metal Mining industry. An emergency meeting called by Mine-Mill and attended by half the Ps for British Columbia wired time Minister Diefenbaker as fol- OWs: “As there is serious danger of un- *mployment in base metal indus- ttles because of depressed prices the following B.C. members of par- lament urge that the federal gov- _ *tnment be prepared to take emer- 8ency action to keep the base metal Mines operating.” The telegram was signed by J. - Taylor (Vancouver Burrard , Harold Winch (Vancouver East), George McLeod (Okanagan Revel- Stoke), A. MacDonald (Vancouver Ingsway), Tom Irwin (Burnaby Ichmond), George Hahn (New estmister)) H. W. Herridge Sotenay West), Frank Christian Kanagan Boundary), James Sin- clair (Coast Capilano), E. Regier (Burnaby Coquitlam) and E. Foome (Vancouver South). The union’s ‘presentation to the ederal government drives home ‘ome valuable lessons. Most im- Portant of these is the exposure ®t the cold war policies of the late t. Laurent government, now con- nued by the Diefenbaker govern- Ment, of subordinating Canada’s *Conomy and markets to the dic- iki of American monopoly, and abelling the process, “economic in- tegration,” d When the U.S. base metals in- pty began to sag, restrictive tar- 8 were placed against Canadian The metals marketed in the U.S. Ms, together with a drop in the pace of copper and other base : etals, gave Canadian mine owners Be” excuse to threaten wage a $ and production cutbacks. The pete is the rise of new “ghost Wns like Copper Mountain. eee Pacific Tribune Published weekly at Room 6 — 426 Main Street Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone: MArine 5288 A Editor — TOM McEWEN Sociate Editor — HAL GRIFFIN Subscription Rates: One Year: $4.00 Six months: $2.25 coeanadian and Commonwealth onautties (except Australia): $4.00 ang Year. Australia, United States all other countries: $5.00 one year. EDITORIAL PAGE x Britannia In addition, Ottawa’s policy of placing base metals in the category of “strategic materials” has cut off nearly one half of the world’s mar- kets. Now the Howe Sound. Mining Company has decided to turn Brit- annia into a ghost town, and the Diefenbaker government has said in effect that “nothing can be done about it.” As an immediate solution, Mine- Mill has advanced a three-point program which merits the broadest public support. It calls for: re- taliation against higher U.S. tariffs on Canadian base metals by placing taxes and other restrictions on Can- adian exports of nickel, iron ore, asbestos and pulp paper to the U.S.; recovery of former overseas mar- kets and development of new ones; the government to establish floor prices for copper, lead and zinc, and to stockpile these metals to the extent necessary to make these floor prices effective. In short, government ‘responsi- bility to see to it that our hard-rock communities remain thriving centres of industry instead of becoming ghost towns. : Saeene What price sovereignty? N A MOVE tto circumvent the legitimate demand of the Sea- farers International Union for a wage hike for its members on the eight Canadian National steamships on the West Indies run, the com- pany, with the approval of the government, has transferred reg- istry of these ships to Trinidad. Using the plea of “saving the taxpayer” from the necessity of having to pay for the cost of a wage hike to SIU crews, the Dief- enbaker government has scuttled the last remnants of Canada’s mer- chant marine. Nothing now remains but a few freighters and tankers op erated by industrial firms. This change of registry will make the Canadian National bondholders very happy, while the poor Cana- dian taxpayer who is “saved,” if he happens to be a seaman, will be saved the necessity of sailing his “own” ships as a means of earning the wherewithal to live — and pay his taxes! Changing registry of Canada’s ships, whether done by a private ship owner or by a Tory govern- ment, for the purpose of avoiding paying decent wages, is union- busting on a grand scale. It should serve as a healthy stimulous for in- dependent political come next federal election. labor action A resolution passed by the B.C. Federation of Labor convention noted that Conservative members of parliament, while they were the Opposition, consistently advocated the retention and later the building and maintaining of a Canadian mer- chant marine. Now these same members are part of the government, yet they stand silently by while Diefenbaker approves transfer of eight Canadian National ships to Trinidad registry, thus spelling the death of our mer- chant: marine. Tom McEwen N SCORES of ceremonies across this broad land Monday of this week, Canadians observed “Re- membrance Day” in memory of the nation’s 125,000 dead in two world wars. In many homes people remem- bered a loved one, a father, broth- er, son, an old sweetheart, an old friend, who did not return. Perhaps it is the crowning trag- edy of this sacred day of remem- brance, that in many of the of- ficial speeches of remembrance one could detect the old familiar tory tubthumper, utilizing the occasion with a fine flow of ‘‘free world” demagogy — to promote World War Three. “Lest We Forget” cannot be re- peated too often by those who sincerely work for jobs, markets, progress and peace. * x * It happened last year in the city of Tientsin, China. “This will be your home while you are with us,” a Chinese friend told me as he ushered me into the spacious hall of a great rambling house, once the residence of a swagger- ing Prussian Junker. Everything about the place was reminiscent of the goose-stepping heiling Her- renvolk. In the morning before break- fast I strolled through the vast well-kept grounds. Down in a se- cluded corner was a great tomb- stone, built along the lines of a massive Roman coliseum, with a huge granite swastika perched on top of the arched columns. In letters a foot high cut on the swastika was the name “Eck- hardt.” “Why don’t you remove that damn thing from your lovely garden?” I asked my Chinese friend at the breakfast table. With a kindly smile he softly replied: “Tt does no harm now, and helps us not to forget.” “Lest We Forget.” Back in the Hungry Thirties we had a tory prime minister, a CPR corporation lawyer named Richard Bedford Bennett. A blus- tering demagogue, a millionaire (Eddy Match) magnate, endowed with the mentality of a ruthless slave owner. During his regime Bennett won the well-merited title of “Iron Heel’ Bennett. When Canada had done with him he took up his titled abode in England as “Lord Bedford of Calgary.” One of his last acts be- fore he expired in his lordly bath- tub was to chase Canadian sol- diers off his English estate. When ‘Tron Heel” went down the drain the best commercial press journal- ist in Canada was hard put to it to write more than six column inches on his timely and unla- mented passing. Today; twenty years later, Canada has a second “Iron Heel” Bennett in the making. He is Prime Minister John Diefenbak- er, already Bennett’s equal in tory demagogy and, given the needed partisan power in office, a promising equal in all else. “Tron Heel” had a ready solu- tion” for unemployment in his 20-cents-a-day “relief” camps, which the unemployed properly classified as “slave camps.” Up to now Diefenbaker is less dramatic, preferring to treat unemployment as a simple problem of mathema- tics. “Our labor force has grown,” says Diefenbaker, so our present jobless army “is no worse” than before. Such “statistics” are poor substitutes for jobs and pork- chops. Then, in almost the same breath and with hypocritic tory sancti- moniousness, *Diefenbaker closes the door to recognition of and trade relations with the People’s Republic of China “until China changes its evil ways.” Bennett said the same thing with respect to the USSR twenty years ago, with the same “virtuous” tory claptrap! “Lest We Forget.” It is time workers and farmers everywhere compelled Diefenbaker to cut it short‘on tory demagogy — and begin acting on tory promises. November 15, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5