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Peace is our

] WONDER how many women
in Canada shuddered when

the news flashed over the radio’

and appeared in the headlines
that napalm bombs were to be
dropped on Canada. How many
looked at their children and felt
their own homes tremble and
crack, in their minds experienc-
ing the horror of the flaming
explosions, The bombs, it was
announced, were being dropped
only in war games, But the re-
Port brought very close the ter-
tible reality of the drive to war.
It meant in fact, that American
warfare in all its hideousness
Was actually searing the earth
of our own Canada up near
Fort Norman in the Northwest
territories,

This International Women’s
Day finds the peace of the world
threatened as never before. The
White House at Washington has
@ new incumbent whose first
Words were of war. President
Eisenhower has made it plain
that the U.S. is giving Chiang
Kai-shek a free hand — and, you
May be sure, American assist-
ance in attacking the People’s
Republic of China. Not peace,
as he promised during the elec-
tion, but an extension of the war
in Korea is his purpose.

In the greater war that Eisen-
hower is planning, atomic bombs,
Napalm, yes, and hydrogen
bombs, will kill and maim. in-
discriminately. Korea already
knows the ghastly burns of na-
Palm. Nagasaki and Hiroshima
have experienced the agonies of
the bomb. The hydrogen bomb
threatens to transform the green
€arth into an inferno, destroying
human life on an unprecedented
Seale.,

What, you may ask, has all this
to do with International Wo-
men’s Day? It has everything to
do with it.

This is the horrible prospect
that challenges the women of
the whole world. It challenges
them.to rise up and fight against
the threat of war in which their
husbands, sons and brothers will
be called upon to use these in-

uman weapons of destruction
against men, and women and
children. For the full fury of
any future war will be visited.
upon cities, as in Korea—make
ho mistake about that. We wo-
men must accept this challenge
og do something about it NOW.

This day of international solid’
arity among women was inaug-
urated in the year 1908, or there-
abouts, by Clara Zetkin, a leader
of the German labor movement
for over fifty years. Clara Zet-

im was an ardent fighter for
Social equality amongst women
and for their active participation
in the international labor move-
ment.

Her last appearance in Ger-
Many was at the opening of the
Reichstag in August 1932, when
Hitler and his Nazis attempted
to assume power. Clara Zetkin

ad come out of hiding because,
as a senior member of the Reich-
Stag, she was entitled to open
the first session. This she did,
Im spite of the developing Nazi
terror, in which Communist;
leaders were hounded and im-
Prisoned — even as they are to-
day in the “free world.” Her
Speech lasted more than an hour.
Tn it she vehemently denounced
fascism and appealed to the wo-
Men of Germany, and to all Ger-
Man workers, to form a united

front against the threatening
Catastrophe.
How - clearly she envisaged

What was happening in Germany,

goal

By MARY FLANAGAN

LOCOS E ORE ee TT Pn te

history has since borne out. But
her dream of women ‘participat-
ing in the fullest sense in the
labor movement has only been
realized by the women of the
USSR and now by the women of
the People’s ‘Democracies and
the German Democratic Repub-
lic.

Clara Zetkin died in 1933.
What she dared to do in the
face of rising Hitler terror (and
who can forget it?) we women
of all countries must emulate
today. We must call for a curb
on the warmongering nations
now. Peace must be maintain-
ed. :

e@

In the twenties, years after
Clara Zetkin first launched the
movement, Canadian women took
up the struggle she had started.
Organizations such as the Wo-
men’s Labor Leagues were set
up across Canada through the
efforts of such well-known work-
ing women as the late Florence
Custanee, Annie Buller, Alice
Buck, Becky Buhay and many
others, who worked in Ontario
and Quebec, while in Saskatche-
wan Florence Theodore and in
British Columbia Annie Stewart
and Henni Bell. amongst others
carried the movement forward.
Thus March 8 has become in
Canada a day on which public

rallies are held proclaiming the.

international solidarity of women
for peace and progress.

We can well take pride in the
successes that have been achiev-
ed by women in the Soviet Union
and the People’s Democracies,
but in our own Canada, we also
have successes still to be won,
and our own special responsibili-
ties, whether it be as workers or
housewives or trying to fill the
difficult dual role of worker and
housewife.

Ethel Genkind of the Congress
of Canadian Women has written
a fine pamphlet entitled} Our

Mine-Mill makes new kind of

SOME TIME this summer you
will probably have an opport-
unity to see a new kind of
movie. -It will tell the story of
working people and their union.
It will be an exciting, heart-
warming story, not a document-
ary.

Most of the cast will be work-
ing people, union members act-
ing the story of their own lives.

Shooting is under ‘way this
month. This is the first time in
the history of! motion pictures—
at least in the U.S. — that a
full length story movie has been
made by a union. The union is

Mine-Mill. -The cast are mem-
bers of Amalgamated Bayard
(New Mexico) . District Union,
Local 890.

Script; direction and photo-
graphy are by top experts of the
motion picture industry employ-
ed by Independent Productions
Corporation.

Working title, which may be
changed, is Salt of the Earth.

It is the story of a typical mi-
ner and his family. It is told
mainly through the eyes of the
miner’s wife, Esperanza Quin-

Goal Is Peace. It gives a com-
prehensive picture of what wo-
men the world over are doing to
improve their lives and also to
improve conditions on a world

scale.

The following is a message
from this pamphlet to the women
of Canada:

“For us in Canada, peace would
mean living without fear that
our families, our homes, our
towns and cities would be de-

stroyed. Peace would mean that .

money now being spent on
planes, guns and _ battleships
would be spent on houses, on
schools, on recreational centres,
on food, on medical care. Peace
would mean lower prices for the
things we need....
“Peace is our goal too.”

tero. She is the mother of three
children, one of whom is born in
the course of the story. It is a
love story, though not the usual
romantic kind. This story begins
several years after marriage and
tells how the love and under-
standing between the miner and
his wife develop until, at the
close of the picture, they are
real partners, sharing their
troubles, their trials and their
joys on the basis of mutual res-
pect and dignity.

The. story deals with the
vnion’s struggle for safety in the
mines, with the advance of the
Mexican-American people toward
equality, and with the acceont-
ance of women by their men «as
partners in personal and union
struggle. ‘
x x *

THE PART of Ramon. Quin-
tero, husband of Esperanza, is
played by Juan Chacon, recently
elected president of Local 890.
He. has developed a sensitivity
and intensity in acting that is the
marvel of professional movie
people on the set.

Within a few days, Chacon had House

what the Hollywood people call
“camera sense”—something that
many, professional actors never
do achieve.

The only professional actor or
actress assigned to a leading role
is Rosaura Revueltas, the Mexi-
can star, who won the Mexican
equivalent of the Academy
Award in 1950. She plays the
part of Esperanza.

Will Geer, star of Tobacco
Road, plays the Sheriff.

Hundreds of members of Local
890 have taken part in the pro-
duction—most of them in scenes
depicting union meetings and
picketlines.

The script was written by Mi-
chael Wilson, who won the Aca-
deniy Award last year for the
screenplay A Place ‘in the Sun.

Director is Herber- Biberman,
former Theatre Guild and Hol-
Iywood director, one of the
“Hollywood Ten.”

A number of the’ people work-
ing on the production have been
blacklisted in Hollywood for
either refusing to cross a picket
line or for contempt» of . the
Un-American Activities

i a
Committee.

(Last week, U.S. immigration
officials gave Miss Revueltas the
choice of leaving the U.S. volun-
tarily or being placed under ar-
rest, claiming that she had vio-
lated immigration regulations )

x * 7

MINE-MILL had planned to
start publicity ‘cn the movie
when it was nearly ready for re-
lease, but press atiacks misrepre-
senting the whole project made
it necessary for the union to
reply. he attacks apparently
were inspired by Hollywood pro-
ducers intent upon keeping a
monopoly hold over movie pro-
duction, and by professional red-
baiters.

Juan Chacon said:

‘“The union has just about as
much right as RKO or MGM or
any of the industrial corpora-
tions that have made movies. If
Hollywood tries to blacklist some
of its finest workers, that’s Hol]-
Iywood’s loss. These people ‘are
helping us to tell our story.
That’s our gain. We are con-
fident that our movie will serve
the people’s best interests.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 6, 1953 — PAGE 9