XTRAB.C. WorKERS NEWSEXTR Published Weekly VANCOUVER, B.C., TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1935 Single Copies: 5 Gents SS No. 15 VANCOUVER, B.C., ens of thousands of workers ion and for the solidarity of nd. Gumberland miners will Streetcarmen to Take Strike Vote. Other strikes are pending. The treat Railwaymen are taking a trike vote, in sympathy with the amp boys. Workers from scores of hops and plants, large and small, ré coming up to the camp boys’ “rike headquarters, asking how they an help te win the strike. No doubt lany additional shops and plants ill come out on May Day. Other owas and yillases, and probably \seinge camps and mills in British columbia will follow suit. The Workers Answer. This is to be the answer to the unger, fascist and war policies of ie Sovernine bodies of Canada. The orkers haye had enough and will ‘and no more. The workers could 19¢0Se no better day to demon- rate their protest against these ipitalist policies, and to celebrate ieir srowinge strength and soli- arity. May Day is the workers’ historical xliday. Workers of B.C. and of anada, like the workers in other arts of the capitalist world, have atched with growing interest the orkine class government of the sviet Union, in their victorious arch to Socialism. They are realiz- = more clearly every day, that if i© workers can rule one sixth of e world, and provide ever increas- & standards of living for the asses, then why can’t we do it sre. The Power of Mass Action. The strikes and demonstrations in- ancouyver are not only in support the strikine camp boys, and ‘ainst the police terror at Corbin. it they are more than that. They e the first stretching and yawning the wakefulness of the giant zabor Unity in Struggle.” Strikes, Demonstrations, Parades On May Day Naterfront, Reliefers, Students, An Simic May Ist —All Roads Lead to Cambie Grounds April 29.—On Wednesday, May ist will pour out into the streets ere to demonstrate their protest against capitalist oppres- the working class. Vancouver’s miles of docks and waterfront will remain ile. Relief workers on city projects will down tools in soli- arity with the striking camp boys. Students will come out £ the class rooms Tuesday night and remain away till May strike for 24 hours. In Van- Juver, at Cambie Street Grounds at 1:30 p.m. working men, romen and youth and children will start the mass parade » Stanley Park, where a meeting will be addressed by sev- ral speakers from the “shell.” CUMBERLAND MINERS TO GO OUT MAY DAY CUMBERLAND, B.-C., April 29. —Cumberland miners will strike here for 24 hours on May Day as a protest against police terror in Corbin and in support of the striking Camb Boys now on sirilce in Vancouver. The miners union executive committee appealed to the man- ager of the mines fo close the mine down for Muay Ist as a pro- test, and when he refused, they called a mass meeting of the miners. The miners voted solidly to strike May Day. The Union elected President Sam Enelish to go to Corbin as a meniber of the Commission to in- vestigate the brutal police terror exercised on the Corbin miners. Schools will be closed and prob- ably all stores. The power of the movement oi the workers in strucele demonstrated as never before. In- tensify it further. Spread it to every working class home house. Spread it to every place of employment, and to every place where workers work, play or live. Spread it to every working class or- ganization, hall and office. Draw in every unorganized worker, man woman and youth into the Day Day Demonstration. Make it the great= est May Day in the history of Van- couver and of British Columbia. Spread the strike struggles to abolish slaye camps. Build the united front of labor. Sirike and demonstrate . your solidarity on May Day. Long live May Day—the workers’ historical day of struggle! Norking Up Hysteria The Slave Camp workers who are out on strike have such z00d case, have such a body of sympathy behind them, and ve so successfully withstood ve been subjected, that the authorities are now frantically ying to work up prejudice against them in order to forcibly eak the strike and herd them back into the camps. From McGeer to Pattullo to Acting Prime Minister rley, they are screaming “revolution,” “chaos” and “an- chy.” The extremity to which the discredited McGeer is driven is shown in his hysterical harangue over the air on Sat- day night. the provocation to which they Ine of his downright falsehoods S that “the Communists promised ir followers that leaving the nps would touch off a ike in Vancouver, leading olution aimed at Sweeping aside existing system, etc., etc.” This is a deliberate attempt to er up his self-exposed fascist fhods and his whole anti-working sS attitude. McGeer knows full Il that the issue is the existence he rotten militaristic slave camps h their graft and corruption, their itary discipline, their opening of yate mail and their coolie 20 cents lay “wage.” IeGeer Tries Alarmist Tactics. [eGeer would have the people be- e that the strike is an “upris- "and a ‘‘mad yenture,’ “and hails Scabs who stayed in the camps possessed of ‘‘common sense” | “reason.” The great proportion the men who stayed in the camps mot remain because they were general to. 2: (Continued on page 2) Firefighters Are Injured VANCOUVER, April 29. — Five firefighters were injured here on Sat- urday night at a fire at the Ilchester Apartments when the floor collapsed, hurling them to the basement. Two tenants were carried to safety by the firefiehters. The injured firemen are: H. RAMSELL, No. 3 Hall. A spike pierced his thigh when he fell through the floor. A. GREENWOOD, No. 2 Hall. CAPTAIN GIL MARTIN, No. 3 Hall. J. WILEINSON, No. 2 Hall. H. GRIFFITHS, No. 12 Hall. The B.C. Workers News congratu- lates the firefighters for their mag- nificent support of the Camp Boys, and trusts that the injured men will mass united against capitalist oppression is being and roomins BANNED IN B.C. Board Calls in All Police Heads to Witness Preview VANCOUVER, April 29, — The Soviet film, ‘“‘Ten Days That Shook the World’’ was rejected for show- ing in British Columbia by the Bourd of Censors today. The board is composed of four members, and they called in to view the showing of the film, Chief Foster of Vancou- ver Police, the head of the Provin- cial Police and the head of the R.C. M.-P. as well as some of the legal advisers to the police heads. Panic-Stricken Over Camp Strike. The authorities are so panicky over the relief camp workers’ strike that they shudder at the word Soviets. This film has recently been shown in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Lhe preparations had been made to show the film at the Ukrainian Hall on Pender Street East this week. This will now be called off. Mass Protests. Eyery organization should protest against this decision to ban the film. Send in protests to the Chair- < HALIBUT CREWS OUT ON STRIKE Resistance to Wage Reductions PRINCE RUPERT, B.C. April 29. (By Wire)—Halibut fishermen de- clared strike today. Goats manned by owners and captains were de- clared unfair to union, and anyone fivine supplies of any kind to the boats will also be declared unfair. According to information received here from responsible source, the Strike was declared as a result of the vessel owners demanding 20 per cent boat share for the halibut livers. Hitherto the proceeds from the hali- but livers have gone to compensate the miserable wages paid to the erews, and the 20) per cent which now has been claimed by the own- ers is a direct cut on the livlihood of the crews. The Fishermen & Cannery Work- ers Industrial Union of Canada has contacted the other fisher- men’s unions with a view of pre- venting the manning of provisionine the halibut boats. already man of the Board ef Censors of Mo- tion Pictures at the Courthouse at Vancouver, B.C. S ockers Walk Out In Sympath /SOVIET FILM Waterfront Paralyzed By One- Hour Strike In Support Of ee Striking Slave Camp Workers FLASH! | (By Wire) BLAIRMORE, Alta., April 20.—John Stockoluk, general secretary of the Mine Work- ers Union of Canada of which Corbin Local Union is a branch, was kidnapped near Michel. Martial law still in Corbin. Police, heavily rein- forced, terrorizing against May Day. Preventing miners riding in trucks. MAY DAY IN ’PEG WINNIPEG, Apr. 23.-—The Win- nipege May Day Conference today sent to Mayor John Queen, I.L-P.. and Mr. Farmer, I-L.:P-. whip in the Provincial House, invitations at the mass meeting to be held on the Market Square immedi- ately following the May Day parade. to speak labor and from other strata of trade union wages. Vancouver. strikers and their supporters. have a speedy recovery. ERAL STRIKE. The fayorable sentiment for such action in many resolutions passed by trade union locals. The sentiment expressed in the Arena meeting leaves no doubt in our mind as to the willingness on the part of large sections of the working peo- ple to take the step of a general strike. The has been expressed The strike of the relief camp boys has en- tered the fourth week. The broad mass sup- port received by the strikers from Vancouver has been demonstrated in no uncertain man- ner. The major labor organizations, labor po- litical parties are uniting their forces in full support of the relief camp workers, for the abolition of the slave compounds, for work at The demands of the strikers have so far been ignored by the authorities. The mass of the working people demand that the gov- ernment abolish the relief camps and give the men work or adequate maintenance at places of their own choice. The government’s reply consists in raising the “red bogey” in an at- tempt to split the strikers and the undivided support they are receiving and with open threats of violence against the working peo- ple and the strikers, by massing police, by threatening to bring the army and navy to Labor must give its answer to the inciting agitation of the government against the ness of the government can be broken down by decisive action on the part of the working people. The next and only step to be taken, if the struggle is to be victorious—is a GHN- the population sion. General Strike The Next Step In The Struggle Of Camp Boys! [AN EDITORIAL] strike of the relief camp boys is a struggle fer trade union conditions, against scabbery “and against sweat-shop conditions. The movement for a general strike musi immediately be given full and open expres- Special local meetings of the unions. the organization of strike committees, the establishment of a central strike committee, should be proceeded with immediately. Hesi- tation and delay will be detrimental. camps, mines, The stubborn- —~ vince. general strike the struggle. The strikers, class, must take this step. The forces of labor are in a position to do it. Our determination and desire to win the struggle dictate to us that we will do it. The strike must be won. The organized power of laber—through a general strike—can stop the hand of McGeer in his preparations for and a threat of a blood bath upon the workers. strike can at the moment produce the neces- Sary pressure to compel the governments to grant the demands of the boys. A general strike at this moment, when the masses are prepared to move into strike ac- tion, is the only thine that can put into mo- tion the unorganized workers of this pro- vince. A general strike can unionize all the workers, and take the initial steps in abolish- ine the sweat-shop conditions existing in A general mills and plants of this pro- Unity, firmness, decisiveness and deter- mination are required. The working class once set into motion possess these qualities. Immediate decisive action in the form of a of labor is imperative to win assisted by the whole working SIXTEEN THOUSAND AT ARENA SUNDAY BACK UP CAMP BOYS Vancouver Labor Revives the Spirit Of Militancy of 1919 VANCOUVER, April 29.—Sixteen thousand workers and pathizers jammed the Arena and an overtlow meet at the Auditorium in a mass rally to support the Relief A parade to Street labor sym- Camp workers’ strike. the Arena from Cambie Grounds was participated in by at lJeast ten thousand. When the front ranks were entering the Arena, the tail end of the parade was at Gran- ville and Georgia Street. Women to the Fore. Marching behind the C.C_F. Band Was nearly two thousand women, and following behind them was two thousand camp workers with their banners which they had just sot re- turned to them by the police, who took them during the raids last Tues- day. Lined up along the line of march was thousands of workers, especially in the West End of the city. These workers swarmed out of their “furnished bunkhouses’’ to view the mass parade. The Arena was more than half full when the parade entered. : Speakers Enthused. at the Speakers were enthused mass turnout. Dr. Telford exposed the conditions at Campbell River under whieh the loggers have to work. He stated that “loggers are working today (Sunday) at C.R.T. logging camps, because if they do not they will not only be fired, but blacklisted.” The Lumber Workers’ Union has been combatting this right alone. Call to Action. The high note of the meeting was Struck when the two trade union delegates spoke. Pete Munro told of the plans being made in the Street Railwaymen’s Union for taking a strike ballot for 24 hours, and stated (Continued on Page 2) i } (A Retort To The Riot Act A Knock Down Arsu- ment to McGeer VANCOUVER, April 29.—During the last few days (from April 24th to 29) the financial support to the Relief Camp Strikers has indicated to a slight degree the sentiment of organized labor. : The following donations are some of the most important ones. Lumber Workers Industrial Union, collected in logging CAMPS eee eee ee ela Brechin, via Telford ..... 21.00 Westminister Open Air Meeting ri se ee 64.89 Woman Sympathizer ..... 20.00 Vancouver City Fire- firhters: 2 SS Sees 100.00 St. James Cathedral (Canon Cooper) ........- , 10.00 Tag Day at Powell River.. 204.82 Mrs Phillips: oes ce 10.00 Lumber Workers Industrial UNITED MAY DAY AT MISSION HATZIC, B.C. April 27—The first May Day celebration to be held in Mission is to be arranged jointly by the Socialist Party and the Gommu- nist Party and other working-class organizations in the district. The relief camp strikers and other speakers who will deal with the vital problems facing the workers and farmers haye been invited to speal: at the gathering, by the committee in charge of the arrangements. INDEPENDENT COMMISSION GO TO CORBIN VANCOUVER, April 29. —An independent conimission to in- vesligate police terror at Corbin, B.€., where miners are on strike left here tonight. The commis- sion is composed of: Jacl: Steyen- (Continued on page 3) son, Carpenters Local 452; Geo. Ragget, Longshoremen’s Union; Sam English, | Mine Workers Union, Cumberland; Wm. Braith- waite, €.€.—.; Miss Gutteridge of the C.C.F., Jack Price; M.L.A., and member of the Street Rail- Wwaymen’s Union. Jack Price is chairnian of the conimission. The Canadian Labor Defense League is sending thei lawyer, Gordon Grant, to assist other counsel in Corbin to defend the miners arrested, and framed on charges of assault and riot. Policy of Starvation Or Camps Answered By Longshoremen OTHERS TO FOLLOW of all shoremen on the Vancouver water- A one-hour strike long- front on Monday from 3 to 4 o'clock was the answer of the strongest union in the district to the stubborn- ness of the authorities in refusing to abolish the slaye camps in which | the youth of the provinee are being Slowly destroyed. No Blufting Here. The strikers were greeted by a mass parade of striking camp work- ers and sympathizers numbering up- wards of 3000. The longshoremen will also stage a 24-hour strike on May Day, not only as a mark of working class in- ternational solidarity, but also in support of the camp strikers. Other Unions to Follow. Consideration is given to Sympathetic strike by other unions in the city and district. The rank and file are overwhelmingly in favor of it, but are being held back by some reactionary officials who use the shackles of antiquated rules to hold back the men. being Fascists Distribute Forged _ Leaflets at Mass Meeting Scurrilous Rats Try To Split Ranks of Camp Boys In every struggle of major im- portance that the workers of Van- couver have engaged in, some anti- labor rat has appeared on the scene to slander and villify the leadership with the obvious purpose of sowins dissention in the ranks of the strikers. On Sunday night last after dark an anonymous leaflet purporting to be issued by “The majority of the Relief Camp Workers on Strike”’ made itS appearance. This piece of vicious slander is such an apparent forgery that it would not be worth answering, as it will get the-reply it deserves from the strikers, but supporters and sympathizers not be- ing; in possession of all the facts may be misled. Wot one single Relief Camp striker, much less a majority, has had anything to do with this poison- Strike-breakinge appeal. Earmarks of Fascists. It bears all the earmarks, rather, of the fascist McInnes who befouls the ous, air from one of the Jocal radio Stations, of the pie-carder, P. Thomp- son of the “Labor Truth,’ who was recently booted out by the workers of the A.C.C.of L. unions and of Praying, *“‘Riot Act Gerry McGeer.’’ The central point of this alleged majority circular is the lying accusa- tion that “Arthur Evans, organizer of the Workers Unity League, has been in jail for stealin= labor union funds and that funds too.” he may steal your This is an excellent ex- ample of the insidious propaganda the bosses use to split our ranks. Evans a Militant Union Leader. Slim Evans was framed by the of- ficials of the United Mine Workers of America and the coal operators of District 18, because, as the busi- ness agent of the miners’ union in Drumheller, he refused to send 32,500 to the bureaucratic officialdom. in Indianapolis, U.S.A... but paid it out in strike relief. The strike lasted Six months. For this Evans was sent to jail for three on a charge of “fraudulent conversion’ but the mass pressure of the miners of Dis- trict 18 compelled the government to release him at the end of nine months. Every miner and every years Se militant worker in Alberta proud of Arthur Hyvans. Rats, like the editor of “Labor Statesman” and the author of this Spurious majority leaflet, use this lying accusation to disrupt the unity of the labor moyement, but the Gar- penters, Local 452, were so satisfied with the record of Com. Evans that they demanded a retraction from the “Labor Statesman” which has never been forthcomins, Camp Boys Have Confidence in Evans. the Relief Camp strikers same confidence as the had in him and brand liars and dis- And we are satisfied with the leadership of Arthur Hyans, who meets the demands of the “allezed” majority in at least one way, he is a Canadian leader, born in Ontario. With the support of the organized workers and the sentiment of the people at large behind us, we will compel the government to abolish the camp system and institute a program of work for wages that will sive us a chance to live like human beings. Red Walsh. Was Today have the carpenters these sSlanderers as rupters. Crows’ Nest Miners March Unemployed and Miners On March From Cal- gary and Other Points BLATRMORE, More than five from all over Alberta and Pastern British Columbia are expected to ar- rive in the Crow’s Nest Pass for the sreat May Day demonstrations. They are beine joined by unem- ployed contingents from Calgary and other points. Pollowin= Shortly after a detach-— ment of Mounted Poliee left Caleary for the Pass: 350 unemployed of Calgary left in parade formation for the same place. Alta., April 29 — They will be joined by miners and unemployed from Drumheller, Wayne and other towns. Meanwhile the police butchers in Corbin are spreading wild rumors about receiving threats from Sym- pathizers of the Corbin victims that they would “wipe out” the police, thousand miners ~