‘May Day rally scores government
for new anti- labor legislation

United action for world

peace and defeat of provincial

Main slogans of Vancouver’s May Day parade and rally last

“Mg people and their families lined the para
Ane 45 union, fraternal and political groups,
€monstrations in Vancouver’s history. :

Rey crescing some 6,000 people
: the culminating rally at Brock-
\ °n Point, Harold Pritchett, IWA

istrict president, branded the
anti-labor clauses of Bill 39 as
& step towards fascism” and

eed for “the utmost unity of
€ working people of B.C. to
peer those responsible for this
Niquitous piece of legislation.”
pepautice Rush, LPP provincial
pee warned of the danger
onda military ventures in
nada’s northland. “The Ameri-
Can imperialistic eagle closely re-
Sembles the late German Fascist
eagle,” said Rush.
cr meeting unanimously adop-
ad a resolution to Prime Minister
oe and External Affairs Minis-
er St. Laurent calling for:
® Canadian uranium to be made
Available for human welfare,

e Ported for any other use.
) No U.S. war bases to be allow-
€d on Canadian soil.

methods used in the
Spy’) trials.

Price controls by the federal
Sovernment.

Also addressing the

the

Vancouver Labor Council;

Fishermen and Allied Workers

Pron (TLC); Doris | Hartley,
osesman for the newly formed
+0USewives’ Consumers. Associa-

tion of B.C.; with Fraser Wilson
8S chairman.
kK ok *

‘Winner of the $35 prize for the
men and Allied Workers Union.

tine Workers and Boilermakers’
mee was designed as a coffin
2 bellea Bill 39, bearing a banner
ening: “It won't work, John. So
et’s bury it.”

A large float entered by the

Colorful banner calling for
People’s unity to make Vancou-
ver a city of progress.”

Among unions participating
Were the Metal and Chemical
Workers, IWA locals and Women’s
Auxiliaries, Marine Workers and
Boilermakers, Amalgamated Build-
ing and Construction Workers, all

4, unions. AFL and
Unions included the Painters, the
Street Railwaymen, Building Ser-
vice Employees, Hotel and Rest-
aurant Workers, Canadian Sea-
Men’s Union, International Typo-
8tfaphical Union and the Fisher-
Men’s Union.

_ Fraternal groups in the parade
Mecluded the Federation of Rus-
Slan Canadians, Hungarian Demo-
cratic Circle, Croatian Education-

Home, Finnish Organization,
Chinese Workers Protective Asso-
Ciation, Doukhobors, Housewives

Onsumers Association of B.C.
and the National Federation of
Labor Youth. _ re

The CCF: contributed a float
but declined an invitation to have

_ its members march in the parade
Cr to send a speaker.

4 The parade was led by a group
Se the United Office and Pro-
€ssional Workers Union (CIO),
Carrying the flags of the United
ations. by

with “not an ounce” being ex-

A national Bill of Rights be
Passed to protect civil ltberties
and prevent a recurrence of |.
recent
Immediate re-establishment of
meeting

Were William White, president of

William Rigby, secretary, United

€st float was the United Fisher-

Another float entered by the Ma-

Labor-Progressive Party bore @

anti-labor legislation were the
Sunday. Thousands of work-

de route to watch the 3,000 marchers, repre-
in one of the largest and most colorful

LPP contingent

Here is a section of the Labor-Pro-
gressive Party’s big contingent in
the Vancouver May Day parade as caught by the Pacific
Tribune’s photographer entering Stanley Park.

Europe; the people are too

ence here this week.

In his first public statement
since his return to Canda over
the weekend, Buck said he was
firmly convinced “the Canadian
people could gain tremendous
benefits from establishing normal
trade relation with the new de-
mocracies of Europe.”

Millions’ of hungry ill-clad people
want the products of ou farms
ana factories, he said, ye politi-
cal considerations are allowed to
stand in the way. This policy, he
declared emphatically, can lead
only to international ill-will and

to depression.
“The new democracies of Eur-

CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C.—Stu-
dents here and at Port Alberni
ay scored a point in the drive
© bring down the rising prices.
veral weeks ago, movie admis-

mi were nearly doubled for
Students. : :

Last Saturday, 80 students pic-
keted the local movie house here
and succeeded in crippling busi-
Ness to such a great extent, that
Ww. Bickle, theater owner,
With the picketing students and

FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1947

Sion prices here and at Port Al-

met

' 8greed to cut student admission

Pickets force movie prices down

rate from 75 cents to the original

50 cent price. Bickle also owns
theaters in Courtenay and Cum-
berland, and is publisher of the
Comox Free Press, a newspaper
with marked anti-labor editorial
views.

Port Alberni students held a
mass meeting last! week protest-
ing increase of movie prices by
Famous Players interests from 24
cents to 50 cents for students.
After the meeting, the theater
management agreed to restore the
former price.

Canadian policy leads
to ill-will of Europe

- TIM BUCK

»- TORONTO—‘No one ever mentions the atom bomb in

busy rebuilding their. ravaged

lands,’ Tim Buck, LPP national leader, told a press confer-

ope,” he said, “are not controlled
by the Soviet Union. Good rela-
tions exist because the Russians
respect the sovereignty and inde-
pendence of the newly liberated
states.” He said a similar atti-
tude from the British and Amer-
icans would win similar good re-
lations.

All they want,” stated Buck —
and he singled_out Yugoslavia and
‘Czechoslovakia as examples — is
our friendship and trade. They
want no strings attached to any
agreements proposed by Britain
and the U.S. ;

“The new national coalitions of
Europe represent something new
in parliamentary governments,”
he said. “They represent a unifi-
cation of all political parties
around a program of national re-
construction.” ;

The war, the German occupa-
tion, the fight for liberation, the
leadership of the Communists —
each of these, he explained, have
served to convince millions of
Europeans from France to Bulgaria
that they no longer need depend on
the- West. When, therefore, Britain,
the “U.S. or Canada with-
hold trade relations as a form of
political pressure on the new gov-
ernments, the people prefer pull-
ing in their belts to surrendering
their new rights.

Last week, H. N. MacCorkin-
dale, Vancouver superintendent of
schools, issued a letter to city
school teachers and principals de-
nouncing a proposed mass picket
line of students, scheduled for last
Saturday, as ‘unlawful’ and warn-
ing students not to participate.

Several teachers are reported to
have told their students that they
might get hurt if they took part
in any demonstration.

But their intimidation had
little effect. Over 30 youngsters,
ranging in age from five to 18
years, and armed with colorful
placards, staged a mass picket
of downtown Vancouver streets
last Saturday afternoon, Many
of their signs were directed to
adults, one reading: ‘Adults co-
operate. Don’t scab by buying
8-cent bars.’

ee Ce ae

The picket was Organized by
the ‘Nickel Bar Committee’ of the
National Federation ‘of Labor
Youth. Glyn Thomas, NFLY city
chairman, told the Pacific Tri-
bune this week that “the strike
is absolutely solid. Very few kids
are buying bars and most adults
are supporting them.”

Referring to efforts to discour-
age the young ‘strikers, Thomas
stated: “Some city teachers, who
should know better because they
are union members themselves,
are trying to upset the campaign
by telling fantastic tales of tear
gas and clubs from police if they
take -part. Our Saturday ‘picket
line was perfectly orderly and
lawful. It was not an actual

-parade, only a mass picket, and |

as such, no permit was needed
to carry it out. :

“The kids will not be fooled by
such tales,” Thomas _ continued,
“They are determined to keep up
the fight until, candy bars are
brought down five cents. They
know where they are going.”

This .coming Saturday, at 1.30
p.m., the NFLY is holding a pub-
lic meeting in Central School
grounds, Cambie and Pender, for
which permission has been given
by Vancouver School Board and
Police Chief Walter Mulligan.

* * *

Meanwhile, the campaign has
spread throughout the country,
with mass student demonstrations
being held last week in Toronto,
Montreal, Winnipeg, Regina and
other cities. Some 800 youngsters
paraded in Regina last week, un-

wives’ Consumers League.

A Toronto candy shop proprie-
tor declared: “Hight cents for a
chocolate bar is ridiculous! We're
almost ashamed to accept the
money when some poor fool does
ask for one!” :

Powell River children hung
signs throughout the town last

Chocolate bar boycott :
gets response from stores

By JIM BULLER

Despite organized efforts to smash the eight-cent candy
bar boycott in Vancouver, the Pacific Tribune learned this
week that the buyers’ strike action of the youngsters is
nearly 100 percent effective. Scores of Vancouver retailers
have concelled orders for the high-priced candy bars. Some
places, such as Empire Cafe and Hallett’s, in the, Grandview
district, were ‘selling bars at five cents, taking a small loss
but aiding the youngsters’ battle for the nickel bar, and other
stores had reduced their price to six cents.

der the sponsorship of the House-

week, urging citizens to boycott
the eight cent bars. They won the
support of the AFL Pulp and Sul-
phite union local there, the larg-
est labor body in the district.

Merchants at Chemainus, the
starting point of the strike have
cancelled orders for chocolate
bars. ¢ :

Alberni. District Teen Town
voted unanimously last Tuesday
to support the strike, declaring
that the new bar’s price was
“too much for too little.”

Kamloops teen-agers were ac-
tive’ last week, picketing stores
selling the eight-cent bars, as
were youngsters at Sidney, Van-
couver Island. :

The most revealing admission
of the effectiveness of the candy
bear boycott came from the
Rowntree Chocolate Company in
Toronto, which. resorted to large
advertisements.in local daily pa-
pers.. The Rowntree ads pleaded
‘increased costs’ as the reason for
the increase in price, but made
no-mention of profits.

Strikers win
yard issue

VICTORIA, B.C. — The 19-day
strike of CCL Marine Workers,
Machinists and Boilermakers at
Yarrows shipyard here ended
Thursday last week when the 80
striking CCL workers agreed to
return to work on the under-
standing that the company would
join with the union in an appeal
to’ Labor Minister George Pear-
son to negotiate their differenc
with the company. Re

Despite efforts by some AFL
officials to split the striking CCL
men all returned under CCL jur-
isdiction. Question of the eight
CCL steel checkers who refused
to join the AFL union and were —
subsequently fired will be settled
by negotiations with the provin-
cial labor department. The eight
men are now without work.

Meanwhile in Vancouver, the
union has lifted sanctions on the
Burrard Drydock Company, which
owns the Yarrows shipyards. CCL
shipyard workers at Burrard re-
fused to work gqvertime or do
piecework while Yarrows was on
strike.

In a statement on the strike
settlement, the CCL union noted
that Yarrows “has agreed to ar-
bitrate the dispute, which was the
union’s original demand. Yarrows
has also agreed to live up to the
terms of the closed. shop agree-
ment it signed with our sister
union in Victoria.”

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 3