VICTORIA LETTER

By MAURICE RUSH

Labor’s legislative demands

jeopardised by TLC witch-hunt

VICTORIA
NE hundred and twenty delegates representing most
B.C. locals of the Trades and Labor Congress met in

Victoria for three days last week to consider labor’s -

legislative demands. So great was the interest in the
conference, one of the largest ever held in this province
by the TLC, that it had to move to larger quarters to
accomodate the unexpectedly large number of delegates.

With more than 80 resolutions from local unions be-
fore the conference, it obviously would have been in the
best interests of the labor movement if the delegates had
been allowed to give their undivided attention to the
problem of winning their legislative demands. Unfortun-
ately, it became clear on the first. day that the B.C: execu-
tive had spent far more time preparing its case _undoubt-
edly with the help of stoolpigeon “evidence” provided by

the RCMP) for barring certain delegates than it had in ©

preparing its demands upon the government. The execu

tive, headed by chairman R. K. Gervin and vice-presi- |

dent Birt Showler, sought to turn the conference into a
witch-hunt and prevent several widely-respected union
leaders from taking part.

The actions of Gervin, Showler and other executive
members were shocking. Their arbitrary denial of a
union's right to elect delegates of its own choosing dem-
onstrated how far right-wing burocrats have gone in
their efforts to inject “thought control” into the labor
movement in B.C. :

On the opening morning of the conference, Homer
Stevens, secretary-treasurer of the United Fishermen
and Allied Workers Union, the largest TLC union in the
province, representing more than 6,000 organized fisher-
‘men, was barred. This prevented Stevens from. partici-

pating in discussion on important resolutions introduced .-

by his own union.

The reason given by the executive for keeping
Stevens out was flimsy: they thought his ideas were not
what they thought his ideas should be! So they invoked
the recent sweeping amendment to the TLC constitu-
tion which bans communists, “sympathizers” and those
who follow the “communist line.” Completely brushed
aside was the fact that Stevens had been seated as a
delegate at the convention which passed the cbnoxious
amendment! Z

When the action of the executive was. reported to the
conference, the resentment was immediately evident, and
delegates from many important unions demanded that
Stevens be seated. Chairman Gervin intervened in the
heated discussion on at least three occasions, warning

delegates that if the executive’s ruling was upset the
eonference would be broken up.” Despite this intimida-
tion, the executive barely carried the ‘day by a 15-vote
majority when a show of hands was finally called for.
Real feeling of the rank-and-file and many honest trade
union leaders was expressed in debate and in the strong
- opposition vote. ;

: On the second day another unprecedented action was
taken by the executive. Elgin Neish, president of the
Victoria local of the UFAWU, was barred on the grounds
that he had signed the Ban the Bomb petition and was a
member of the Victoria Peace Council!

Gervin attempted to justify this action by telling the
delegates that Ban the Bomb petitions and peace councils
had been pronounced “subversive” by the executive. This,
despite the fact that the very council of which Gervin
is secretary, Vancouver Trades and Labor Council, not
long ago passed a resolution similar in content to the
Ban the Bomb petition.

How far reaching the TLC exceutive’s action is, can
be understood when one realizes that more than 300,000
“Canadians, including 40,000 British Columbians, have
signed to ban the bomb. Among those who signed were
dozens of prominent trade union leaders and thousands
of union members. \

The TLC conference provides a glaring example of

the manner in which Gervin and other right-wing union

Peking papers, please copy

HE Communists may have.won China but “
T the Communist-run Mine, Mill and Smel-
ter Union is having all kinds of trouble win-
ning certification at two Sudbury Chinese
restaurants. . . . The Chinese objectives of
‘the Reds in Sudbury were the Radio Lunch,
and Maple Leaf Cafe. ..-. Rae

— “Labor expert” Ronald Williams in
The Financial Post, November 18, 1950.

heads are adopting U.S. methods of red-baiting and
witch-hunting. If Gervin and Showler have their way
(which they won’t because every honest worker will
condemn their actions) no union member will be allowed
to think or act in favor of peace without incurring the
wrath of the TLC coupled with disciplinary action. This
is thought control at its worst.

Gervin and Showler have set themselves up as
specialists on what thoughts workers should have and
what organizations they shall belong to. At Victoria the
executive became a tribunal, an inquisition before which
every delegate could have been called to have his mind
probed for “subversive’ ideas by the “thought special-
ists.” ,

There can be little doubt that when delegates report
back to their memberships the resentment felt by all
honest delegates will reflect itself in rank-and-file
resolutions condemning Gervin, Showler and those other
executive members who are attempting to destroy the
democratic structure generations of trade unionists have
labored to erect.

U.S. ELECTIONS

Vote heartens
ALP, progressives

PIGHTANG. a. tarec-ariy gangup against him Vito Mar-

cantonio, people’s peace champion, New York’s 18th
Congresional district, polled the strongest vote in the
district’s history in recent elections,

In a post-election statement Marcantonio said:
“While I could not overcome the combined vote of the
Republican-Democratic Liberal parties in my district,
the fact is that my vote was 42 percent of the total. My
vote was larger than the Republican vote by 15 000,
larger than the Democratic party vote by about 11,000,
and larger than the so-called Liberal party vote by more
than 30,000. What is more, my vote represents a 16
percent increase over 1948. 4

“More important than the figures is the fact than an
increasing number of people in my district as well as
throughout the nation have become fully aware of the
tremendous significance of the issues of peace. I made
it a point to emphasize and re-emphasize throughout the
campaign that the main isue before the American people
was peace or war with the Chinese people.”

The ALP leading state candidate, John T. McManus
and Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, for.governor and senate res-
pectively received something over 200,000 votes — an

‘overall drop of ALP votes from previous years.

In New York City, the ALP’s mayoralty candidate,
Paul Ross, was recorded unofficially as having received

149,182 votes.

The big labor vote in Marcantonio’s district elected |
Bianchi ran as |

William Bianchi to the state senate.
Republican and ALP nominie. He received some 20,000
of his 35,000 vote total on the ALP line and may take
his seat in New York State Senate as a Laborite though
formally a Republican. é
Asked, “What about the future, Marc?” in a post-
election interview Marcantonio stated: “First, we have
to build the American Labor party, but really build it.
We've got to have a party that is out there fighting 365
days a year on every front in every community not just
before election. In my district, we are starting right
now. Election district by election district, precinct by
precinct, we're going to be with the people day and night.”
On the national scene, Marcantonio thinks the Pro-
gresive party must have the same perspectives. Question-
ed about his published advocacy of Elmer Benson, Pro-
gresive party national chairman, as the party’s presi-

- dential candidate in 1952 Marcantonio answered: “I’m

for Benson for president. I haven’t asked him. It’s
purely my own feeling. .

“We have to start campaigning for a president quick-
ly, not wait until 1952. We should have someone around
whom to rally the people. And I can’t think of anyone
better than Benson, a former U. S. senator, a governor,
leader of the Farmer-Labor party in its heyday. The
people are beginning to move, election results notwith-
standing. I feel the Progressive party is the only: politic-
al apparatus to mobilize them in the right direction.
And I’m for laying the 1952 groundwork in a hurry.”

The Progressive party scored its greatest gains
in California where 13 Independent Progressive paTty
candidates rolled up a total of votes exceeding the
New York figure by more than 100,000 far more than
needed to maintain its place on the state ballot.

4

LABOR FOCUS

W age movement
must be extended.

HE wage movement is growing but it has not yet moved
into high gear. It must, however, be extended and in-
tensified if working-class families are to be protected
from the rampaging profiteering monopolies and the
taxation thrusts of the war government,

By J. B. SALSBERG

The big business and government squeeze on the
wage and Salary earners is proceeding relentlessly and
their spokesmen publicly proclaim their plans to inten-
sify the squeeze.

The Dominion Bureau of Statistics announced that
living costs have risen to a new, all-time high of 170.7.

: That's only the official, unreliable index.

Alongside this announcement we
read that the Canadian dividend pay-
ments for November were $10,011,886
as compared with $8,252,952 for Nov-
ember 1949. Total dividend payments
for the first 11 months of 1950 were
$364,667,487 as compared with $345,-
280,309 for the same period in 1949 and
and with $321,165,198 for 1948. The big
corporations are busy handing out
extra dividend bonuses and splitting
up their shares. ‘

On top of this, Graham Towers,
governor of the Bank of ‘Canada,
prophesied at the Toronto Empire Club luncheon on

November 9 that “the fundamental policy clearly must be
the fiscal one of reducing spendable incomes, by increased
taxes, to the extent that the available supply of goods
is being reduced by the demands of the defense pro-
gram.” There you have the clear outline of things to
come. Guns before butter and higher taxes to pay for
the guns the production of which will further increase
dividend payments.

Little wonder, therefore, that the rank and file is
increasing its pressure for wage increases. It is a sub-
stantial rise in pay or a drastic decline in living stand-

ards. Wage increases in varying amounts have already
been won by substantial groups of worker Wage
opener clauses were utilized and where no such “openers”
existed wage demands were also pressed and won. But
the vast majority of wage and salary earners have not
yet won any increase and quite a section of them have not
even launched the wage fight. This lag must be over-
come. It can be overcome only by the effort of ‘the
rank and file.

e :

The essential feature of the present wage movement
is its rank-and-file origin and development. There are
exceptions to this rule, of course. There are quite a
number of progressive-led unions in the country. where
the fight for wages is the collective effort of the leaders
and the members. These unions did, in fact, contribute
greatly towards the launching of the national wage
movement. But with these few and honorable exceptions
the trade union bureaucracy has forsaken the wage
fight. This surrender of the economic interests of the
workers by the right-wing, red-baiting leaders, flows
directly from their surrender to the war program of the
bourgeoisie.

The conventions of both union congresses soft-ped-.
alled the wage question, They rejected all suggestions for
a co-ordinated wage fight. The biggest single wage battle,
that of the close to 200,000 railroaders, was stubbornly
kept out of the conventions. The Millard-dominated :
“Wage and Policy Conference” of, the steel union placed
to the fore the demand for “price controls,” and not
for wages. Before leaving for Europe to attend the
essions of the Marshallized trade union international,

illard said that the union is asking Stelco for a wage

“inerease on “moral grounds.” That was after the rank-

and-file of that plant decided, over the heads of the
leaders, to demand a wage increase now.

In Nova Scotia the coal miners began clamoring for
a wage increase and Freeman Jenkins, with the aid of
Dosco management, came up with a “gift”, a Christmas
bonus to the miners, instead of a badly needed, perm-
anent wage increase. This at a time when the November
issue of Canadian Mineworker, official organ of District
18 UMW, states editorially that “the purchasing power of
coal miners is now $3.20 less (a week) than it was in
1946.” j

The one million unonganized workers are, of course
completely at the mercy of the robber barons. Their
basic earnings are lower’ than those of the organized
workers and their need for wage increases is an urgent
one. 7

From all this it is eyident that only a small fraction
of the working class succeeded in protecting its purchas-
ing power in recent months when the cost of living on
the one hand and profits on the other have been jumping
ever higher and higher. The pressing need of the hour is,
therefore, to give more impetus and swing to the wage
movement. It must be broadened to include all workers
and it must be intensified to assure the maximum results,
This is the supreme task of all workers and it is the basis
for the broadest unity and united action in the Canadian
trade union movement, It is also the propitious moment
for the organization of the unorganized around this basic
struggle.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 24 1950 — PAGE 6
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