aes

B.C. people's story evokes pride
in pioneers of labor movement

3 CAN ae DIANS generally
Columbians i

never been

and British

embarrassed by not knowing
too much the history of

country and province, we

can attribute this remarkable

score. When,

appearance or

necessary ior
storian to
the result-
ia, distorted

official 7
after a nine
proceeds to

te shelves,
and unread.
ost hearten-
ome capable
st this norm
writers are

progressive 1 honest and as

en they write

yeople they

existence, their

describe—th
struggles, hopes and fears.
Such is content of British
Columbia: The People’s Early
ored by Hal Grif-

sing editor of the

Story,
fin, ma
Pacific Tribune. Griffin is
eminently qualified for this
task. He brings to it a long

labor and

people’s struggles, formalised
with a career as a journalist
and author.
n x X
In the beginning, there were
the Native Indians, our earliest

“ns, whose origin and

coming have been shrouded

puted in the mirk of the
past. But they were here a
long time, sufficiently
fact to develop a varied

1]

e as well as an indomit-

tenacity for endurance
E nst the ravag of the
white man, whose je sig-

naled the customary race sup-
pression, hallmark of western
civilisatic

2
unite to impose heik rule upon
I the very nature of

Nae surpers could

contradictions
‘mm to war among
ves. It takes no imagin-

most

autiful emerald Eden of the
cific, later t be British
]

Columbia, would excite the

vetous among the exploiters
from very far away.

ibund Spain was more

in >» From the

Tsarism was

the coast

ailors and navigators

were cruising along the coast,

HAL GRIFFIN

seeking to wrap up the world
in one cosmic Pax Britannica.

Not least, nor less vocal,
were some brash cousins to the
south. They seemingly were
discarding such exalting
phrases as “Life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness” and
substituting them with more
aggressive noises lke “Mani-
fest Destiny” and “Fifty-four,
forty or fight.”

The outcome of this not too
gentle business of dog eat dog
was that Britain won the right
to pick up the bone. The most
important and _ far-reaching
event, however, in this period
was the discovery of gold on
the Fraser river. The resultant
rush to the gold fields brought
the adventurous, the rebellious
and the hopeful, an amalgam
which was to be the beginning
of modern British Columbia.

The future province was
now the crown colonies of
Vancouver Island and British
Columbia and because class
relations existed, a state struc-
ture was inevitable. Colorful
figures of men appeared, cast
in the role of the class
represented.

Sensitive of his mulatto
origin and rigidly formal in his
loyalty to his pocket book,
class and queen, Sir James
Douglas, the first governor,
was a political hellion of the
first water. With a career as a
Hudson’s Bay factor behind
him, he was admirably suited
to oppose with ruthlessness
any suggestion of responsible
government for the people.

But if hell hath its inmates,
heaven also has its votaries.

‘From the ranks of the people

appeared a champion of for-
midable strength, moulded in
the frame of a
de Cosmos, as _ his

Jefferson, Amor
assumed
name implied, was a man with

a vision and also the will to
implement it.

The battle for responsible
government was joined and
although at times the result
was in doubt, victory finally
came and British Columbia
entered the Canadian federa-
tion with the democratic stamp
of the people’s struggles upon
it.

$e: mt ot

During this lusty political
period, a significant economic
event was ushering in a new
epoch of industrial change.
Commercially available coal
had been found and extensive
mining was getting under way.

Quite soon, on the sweat and
tears of immigrants, the first
of the great pirate fortunes
was built. The name of Duns-
muir will be ever associated
with this period of ruthless in-
dustrial capitalism.

With the further develop-
ment of coal mining, a quasi-
industrial economy was being
built and as is always the case,
a modern working class came
into being.

The present day labor move-
ment of the province owes
much to the dauntless struggle
of the miners, Some of the
most shocking clashes of labor
and capital took place in the
development of the first trade
unions. Savage persecutions,
blacklists, court and state con-
spiracy, imprisonment © and
murder, these were the calling
cards of the 19th century
rising capitalist class of British
Columbia.

Class militancy has always.

been an attribute of the wor-
kers in this province. Armed
with the experienced knowl-
edge that their opposites in
industry constitute one of the
most aggressive exploiting
classes in history, the workers,
very early, found out how
necessary it was to have
unions and other organizations
to protect them and advance
their cause.

Into this picture also enters
the make-up of settlers and
immigrant workers who came
here. Not only were the ad-
venturous and rootless among
them. They also included a
strong leavening. of class con-
scious militant workers seek-
ing freedom in the new land
from the oppression of the old.
They brought with them pro-
grsssive and advanced ideas.

It was not accidental that
some of the earliest socialist
thinking on this continent took
firm root here on the Pacific
coast.

And ‘it is on the note of

secialism, that we must con-
clude this review.

The story of mankind has
ever been a dual struggle, on
the one hand, to wrest from
Nature her bounty and to con-
vert it into the things that we
use and enjoy.. But, on the
other hand, this long battle has
been accompanied by another
conflict, the struggle of the
common man to unburden
himself of the class parasite,
who at all times has appro-
priated the product of the
common man’s toil. »*

This beautiful British
Columbia was not wrested
from wilderness and converted
into the civilised community
that we know, without some
tears being shed in the process.

We live at a time in which,
if we are intelligent and ac-
tive, our working class can
build a great alliance of the
ordinary people, forge unity of

Leading role in The Cranes Are Flying, which ope!
couver’s Park Theatre this Friday, is played by 4 new
actress, Tatyana Samoilova (above).

Soviet pictures fir
example of film 4)

HE ARTISTICALLY success-
ful First Vancouver Inter-
national Film Festival also
proved to be a financial suc-
cess. Capacity crowds were
frequent and the average gate
totalled half again as much as
anticipated. This should be an
object lesson to local film dis-
tributors on the potential
market here for fine films.

The first indication-of com-
mercial extension of the festi-
val is seen in Odeon’s booking
of The Cranes Are Flying, be-
ginning in Vancouver’s Park
Theatre this Friday, August 22
Winner of the 1958 Award at
the Cannes Film Festival and
judged one of the best entries
in Vancouver, this fine film is
enormously exciting in sheer
cinematic terms.

August 22, 1958 —

“purpose between.

unions, the Cooperal
monwealth Federatiol
Labor-Progressive P
thus lead the peop
threshold of that new
“the struggle without

But to visualise the ft
we must know someélill
the past. This all too brief
tory of our early yeal®
evoke in usa tremendol®
in the men and womell
laid the foundations i!
build upon. That is #8
merit, that out of ee
past, it points inevitably ®
socialist future.

British Columbity
People’s Early Story
able either at the People
op Bookstore, 307 West
Street, or directly fm
Tribune Publishing : ot
Ltd., Room 6, 426 Main i
Vancouver. The prit®
paper cover or $2 hard ©
LIONEL EDW

sat
i

5
In Urusevsky’s a
camera is a thing aliv iy
moment dwelling sem
Tatyana Samoilova >
beauty, at another see
down the steps of ® 4 i
the midst of @ jail!
single take with 4 is Fil
motion that one
be impossible.

p)

The Cranes ~ Be oh
marks a full retur? nt
trating social commer jet
the contemporary pif’)
(after the post-™ sail)
They are neither os
make fun of thems? ind”
point to unpleasan* 4 ie

they always press ch? %
found range he of |
development that *
ey ~jneme fl
of the Soviet © N g5
aciie ve