_ Kootenays*LPP hold first annual convention, plan action program CRANBROOK, B.C.—Delegates f By WM. CARRIE rom Trail, Nelson, Rossland, Creston, Kimberley, Fernie, Michel, Natal and other points gathered in Cranbrook, Feb. 14-15, in the first annual con- vention of the Kootenay Region of the LPP. The convention met in the Cranbrook audi- torium. In welcoming the delegates to the convention Regional Organizer ‘Chuck’ Saunders Pointed out that it was indicative 0f the maturity of. the provincial Rai that his regional conven- °n was being held to formulate &% program and set up the organ- leation that will enable our party Play a more active and leading Tole in the Kootenays. oh In working out the program for ‘the Kootenays, he said, it would be our task to apply the decisions |. of the provincial convention to the “pecific conditions here. He went erat’ Point out that the wage in- HES S wonlast year- through bit- Nae Struggles had already been cut ato by increased cost of living. accep lifting of price controls ike the stibsequent unwarranted pi ae in the prices of basic Modities is a back door method aS Bea ne wages and must be re- BN with every means at our mmand,” he declared. “While aes labor movement is mg for increased wages, this “apie Must be combined in an Cut fight by all the people estore price controls on basic ties.” ’ Dealing with the recent espion- 48e trial of Fred Rose, Saunders Stated, “We protest the treatment Out to our comrade, Fred / We protest the underhand- ts Methods and violation of all Tecepts of democracy used to si- "fe the voice of this ab.e fighter the people. We deplore the Ce of those members of par- ade t, those who label them- ~S Socialist and Liberal, who Ria raising their voices in s when Mackenzie King con- the his conspiracy against democratic rights of the Ca- Will speak on ‘Soviet Ukraine ce returned from a four- h tour ‘of the Soviet Ukraine, betas Prokopchak, national sec- TY of the Association of Unit- Ukrainian Canadians, will ad- rae & mass meeting on Sunday, den 23, 2 p.m., at the Pen- _-* auditorium here. _ Having visi di stricts” ' sited villages in many ana hroughout the Ukraine, oe with workers, educa- thére and community leaders, ee Prokopchuk will be able to conditi, a first-hand account of sing Ons in the Soviet Ukraine ® the end of the war. He will Bive his address in the Ukrainian | Suage, nadian people by removing Fred Rose from the seat in the Federa. House to which the people of Montreaj Cartier elected him. We send greetings from this convent tion to Fred Rose in the St. Vin- cent de Paul penitentiary. We de- ae clare our un- . shaken belief in his innocence. We declare that the whole trial, held in an at- mosphere of ap- \ peals to violent : prejudice and : race hatreds, held after the | issuance of the } infamous Tas- : chereau - Kel- { lock report, is { 3 aaa ake justice. e ca Chas, Saunders = pon all pro- gressives to join us in our de- mand: for a new trial, and for the withdrawal of the Taschereau Te port which brands people as guilty which even our capitalist courts failed to convict.” . In his report to the convention Saunders dealt in great detail with the ravages of monopoly capital in economy of the Kootenays. He pointed out that the CPR and the CM and §, either directly or in- directly had a finger in every pie. “And now,” he said, “the CPR; which draws tribute from every corner of the country is planning another big steal through trying to gouge additional millions from the people with a 30 per cent in- crease in freight rates.” Turning to conditions existing in the Kootenays, he said, that the opening of the second session of B.C’s twenty - first legislature tal to mind the long string ° filled the air at election times. The problems of the area had continued to pile up and there was no guar- antee anything more. than evasion unfulfilleg promises which and buck passing could be expect- ed from the current sessions. One of the foremost questions was roads and highways. It is doubt- ful if there is any place in the province that has been more sys- tematically neglected. The main highway, part of the trans-Canada Highway is all but impassable for the greater part of the year. In many places it is so narrow and in such a state of disrepair that it constitutes a menace to life during the winter months. The stete of the roads was so bad that parents had declined to let their children travel on the school bus, in the Creston area. : ; Saunders stated that one of our main demands must be that the government immediately take measures to repair, widen and straighten the roads and high- ways which are so vital in this part of the country. The regional organizer also laid great stress on the question of housing, “Housing in this area is mostly of old construction and is rapidly deteriorating,” he stat- ed, “while the total of new homes under construction is hopelessly inadequate to meet the demand. We propose the immediate estab- lishment of a provincial housing authority with labor, farmer and veteran representation to coordin- ate the home construction needs of the municipalities with provin- cial and federal aid.” In concluding, Saunders stressed the importance of the gathering: “We are living in momentous times,” he stated, “ when the old order is changing before our eyes, A time when the question of so- cialism is a reality and no loger an academic speculation for the future. Today the rising progres- sive forces are facing the mori- bund’ forces of a dying system. Tremendous struggles and diffi- culties lie before us; but armed with the science of Marxism and united in the party of Lenin, we shall go forward unflinchingly to Roles have and Liberals. ‘ In the days when the liberals hela down the government ben- ches, and the CCF formed “His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition”, it was customary each year for the CCF members to bring forward extensive proposals for expendi- tures on social services, educa- tion, health, roads, and so forth. Then the liberal provincial treas- urer would rise up and point out very weightily that there was no money for such things, that the province would be _ bankrupted, ete., etc. . ; Now the shoe is very much on the other foot. Today it is the liberals who come forward (for purely demagogic purposes, of course) with an extensive pro gram. of reforms — scholarships, rural electrification, gravelling of all main market roads, increases in old age pensions, and assump- tion of 50 percent of the costs of education, by the _ province. And now it falls to the lot of the Hon. C, M. Fines, provincial treasurer, in the CCF govern- ment to “carefully set forth in precise figures the fact that all these liberal proposals would cost the province $20,000,000 more than present expenditures, and that therefore such reforms would con- stitute an impossible burden upon the people. Of course, it never occurs to the honorable gentlemen on either side of the House to consider in what way a struggle may be de- veloped to make the great mon- Sask. but game remains By NELSON CLARK REGINA—This dull session of the Saskatchewan legisla- ture is at least providing a few interesting object lessons in the workings of old line party politics as practiced by the CCF changed in opolies and the King government pay the shot for a far-reaching program of social services and reconstruction for Saskatchewan. It is the great misfortune of the Saskatchewan people that there is not one person who sits within the four walls of their Legislative Assembly who posses- es the political understanding to clearly point the way forward to postwar progress, Therefore, it becomes all the more necessary that the organizations of Sas- katchewan people the trade unions, and the United Farmers, the LPP, and the rank and file CCF members should speak up so loudly on these problems that their voices will penetrate into the Legislature, and into the minds of our “law-makers.” Prodution for peace say British workers LONDON The Engineering and Allied Trades Shop Stewards Council, representing about one rest of the labor movement in pledging support to government efforts to solve the acute coal crisis. To this it added a note of warning: “This crisis makes it clear that Britain can no longer afford to keep 1,500,000 men in the services, with another half million producing weapons for them. CRC revenue proposals win rafepayer support our goal.” : Marxist anni versary conference launches intensive study plans A stimulating conference commemorating the hundredth anniversary of. the teachings -of Karl Marx, founder of scientific Socialism was held on February 15 and 16 at the West End hall here. Fifty-three delegates from key centers throughout British Columbia heard reports on education, drama and music, literature, press and research delivered, with the purpose of advancing Marxist thought in the province during the coming months. ~ Goult’s resignation is _ demanded by union body ‘The resignation of Sak Tesignation of Barry Goult, an official of the pro- ial department of labor, on grounds of “collusion with OFT. ©mployers” was demanded this. week by the executive the Shipyard General Workers’ Federation (CCL). The sore protest arises out .of an ton by Goult in certifying the SES Ae cpetteelase Building and Con- the ction Workers of Canada in with Park Shipyards, Vancouver, SGwr conducting a vote. The fteq F had previously been certi- & at¢ the Park shipyards, and or the official bargaining agent ee bplonss papas G8 ool bay a letter to provincial labor minist George Brown, representative of the ‘WF, noted that four men em- oat by Park Shipyards had n dismissed for refusal to join ® vival union, which has no 4 The jurisdiction in the shipyards. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1947 dismissed men have been em-— ployed by the company for a period of three and a half to five years.) 2. ch gains When the SGWF requested to Goult that’ a vote be taken, the labor department official refused, without giving any plausible rea- son. Brown’s letter to labor min- ister Pearson stated: “We em- phatically protest your depart- ment’s procedure in this .case. We are of the opinion thaat the grant- ing of certification to the Amal- gamated Building and Construc- tion Workers was not done in accordance with facts, but more in accordance with the wishes of the owner of the yard.” Minerva Miller, provincial edu- cational director of the LPP in deliyering the summary of the conference’s de- cisions stressed the need for increased edu- cational activity among the workers. “Tre- mendous things & are-at stake,” s he _ declared. “Only as we grasp the basic theory of Marxism, can we win the people to policies of peace and world security.” Minerva Miller’ Concrete proposals for the es- tablishment of schools throughout the, province, with a permanent school in Vancouver, for the pur- pose of accelerating Socialist edu- cation, were put forward. fick: “We must overcome the tenden- ey to think of education in a narrow, root-bound way,” the LPP educational director stated, point- ing out that “education is the property of the masses.” Twenty: classes on various phases of Socialism will be set up in Vancouver in the next three months, it was decided. Plans for the involvement of large groups of workers in music, drama and art projects were deal with in an extensive report on this cultural topic by John Goss, noted progressive singer and dra- matist, yg “Our conference has recogniz- ed that our work in the field of literature is the sagging sector along the whole theoretical front of our struggle,” Minerva Miller stated, adding, “this is one which must be stiffened with new forces, and above all a responsible, collective, political approach to the circulation of Marxist litera- ture.” : : The important influence of the powerful labor press in British Co- ‘umbia was stressed by Tom Mc- Ewen, editor of the Pacific Tri- bune, in an extensive report. Stressing the value of the peoples’ press in arousing the workers to action on the burning issues of the day, the report stressed the im- portance of the _ pending Pa- cific Tribune financial drive as a political task of the highest order. John ‘Stanton, president of the Civic Reform Committee charged that city council’s proposed $50 million bylaw would be “an intolerable burden on Vancouver householders,” when he addressed a meeting of 100 enthusiastic ratepayers of the South Hill Community Associa- _ tion last week. Opposing Harry Jackson of the Town Planning Commission, Stan- ton noted that “the little man small businessman and househol- der is paying the shot for such ventures.” The Civic Reform leader listed several important facts to prove the high financial burden already existing with Vancouver's tax- payers, These were: Vancouver has the second high- est per capita debt of Canada’s joc cities, and the $50 million 0an would make the debt ada’ highest. Be The mill rate here is up more than 40 per cent since 1936, while Services have hardly increased. ‘ Assessment is up 15 per cent In two years. In comparison with the Edmonton, Vancouver ‘aia the B.C. Electric Company only one- fifth of what should be _ jJevied While the B.C. Telephone Com. pany gets away with only one- eight of Edmonton’s rate. ; Meanwhile Civic Reform Com-— mittee, at its annual meeting, this week opposed the $50 million plebiscite of March 5. The CRC proposed “specific money by-laws, » With grants from senior governments will give Vancouver 3 its improvement program with- _ out adding to its debt.” pee ~The executive elected for the next twelve months is as follows: John Stanton, president; Irwin Schwartz, secretary-treasurer; El- gin Ruddell, Effie Jones, John Turner, Bruce Mickleburgh, Olga Turple, Helen Mathieson, - Tom Parkin and Malcom MacLeod, di- rectors, Sim Sie PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 3 million workers, joined with the © .