n-%

| “The political rule of the pro-
ducer cannot co-exist with the
perpetuation of his social slay-
—Marx.

ery.” :

B.C. WorkKErRS NEws

A powerful weapon against the
attacks of the bosses on the liy-
ing standards of the workers is

TRADE UNION UNITY!

VOL. I

1a
' =

Published Weekly

VANCOUVER, B.C., FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1935

Single Copies: 5 Cents

SS >

No. 16

Princeton Workers Ask
For Work and

Wages

PRINCETON, B.C., April 25. —
Unwilling to further withstand

Wthe intolerable relief conditions ex-

* isting in this community, which have
been further aggravated through
}the closing down of the Tulameen

ei lati

ay 9.

7) Coal Mine, the workers reorganized
their unemployed organization, as-

sisted by the Mine Workers’ Union

of Canada, local 120.

A list of demands was drawn up.
based on the burning erievances
prevalent in the locality.

' i. A programme of “Work and
Wages” to be started immedi-
ately, as promised by the pres-
ent Liberal Government.
Pending this, a 50 per cent in-
erease in relief.

2. An equal disirmution of all
work, whether on maimtenance
or emergency.

5 3. No DISCRIMINATION

FAVORITISM,

4. That a First Aid man with kit
be provided on every job.
That we receive relief cheques
on registration.
i| 6. That in the event of anyone be-
ing turmed back from the job
on account of bad weather, it
count as a day’s work.

or

or

7. Fhat no explosives be carried
on the trucks with the men.

| 8. That all workers be supplied
with leather footwear immedi-
ately.

That the Chinese workers re-
ceive the maximum relief al-
lowance.

a 10. That all single persons (male or

female) staying at home receive
the maximum relief addowance.

11. Phat all families on relief with
children receive a milk allow-
“amce, over and above their re-
lief.

"2. That there be no deduction of

rent from those owning their
own homes.

MAY DAY PARADE,
DEMONSTRATION
WINNIPEG, MAN.

WINNIPEG, May 1. —
(By Wire)—Led by Penner
and Bilecki, Communist
alderman and school board
trustee, respectively, with
a banner bearing the words
“Workers of the World
Unite,” a May Day parade
ef 6,000 marched through
the streets and ended with
a huge meeting of 13,000
in Market Square.

One thousand Young
Pioneers, mass choral sing-
ing and hundreds of ban-
ners were a feature of the
parade. Resolutions of
solidarity and support to
the B. C. Slave Camp Strik-
ers and to the striking
miners of Corbin were en-
thusiastically passed.

FERTILIZER FROM
SOVIETS FOR N.S.

PORT WILLIAMS, N.S.— Nova
Seotian apples—some at least—are
to be grown’ this year with Russian
fertilizer. The first cargo of fertil-
izer ever brought to the Canadian
Maritimes from Russia has been
landed here.” The 3000 tons was the
first full cargo of any kind ever
Shipped directly from Russia to
Nova Scotia. It will be followed soon
by another 5000 tons.

Relief Strike Won

LONDON, Ont., April 26—(ALP)
—London Township relief workers
have won the strike which they
have been carrying on for the past
few weeks. The municipality. has
adopted a definite scale of allow-
ances, based on the Campbell report
schedule,

“These workers haye been in the
past working for extremely low re-
lief pay (20 cents per hour) and un-
der conditions described as ‘the
worst in Canada.”

THREE THOUSAND

STRIKE IN VANCOUVER MAY DAY

Pupils’ Close Technical
School —— Students’

League Grows
VANCOUVER, May 1. — Three

housand students came out of the
schools on strike here today in sym-
sathy with the camp boys.

— A member of the Relief Camp
workers, Buro, the organizer of the

Students League of B.C., and the

National organizer .of the Students
#league, Norman Crawford, were
Hnly able in three days to contact

Britannia and Templeton Junior
"High schools and from these two

schools about 600 students struck.

Vancouver Technical School came

jut 100 per cent in support of the

strike.

Other high schools came out with-
jut any. preparation. Iwo public
schools — Alexandra and Dawson—

mame out spontaneously. Not one or-
zanizer had been sent to these two
schools.

Techincal School All Out.

The Young Canada Club were in-
strumental in organizing Grandview
High School of Commerce, which re-
sponded with ~ about 100 students.
The Co-operative Commonwealth
Youth, the Young Socialist League
and the Young Communist League,
aided by a Technical School gradu-
ate, now a member of the Relief
camp strikers, organized Technical
School solidly, resulting in a turn-
but of the entire school, leaving the
teachers with enypty seats to teach.
| Credit is to be given to King Ed-
ward High School, King George High
School and Prince of Wales High,
who came out in the support of the
strike, although there was no preyi-
sus organization in these schools.

Release Mooney

SACRAMENTO, Cal., April 26—
ALP) — Freedom for Tom Mooney
and Warren K. Billings, by means
9— commuting their sentences to
“time served,’ was urged yesterday
in a resolution passed by a 51 to 28
vote by the Assembly of the State of

California ,

STUDENTS

MESSENGERS’ UNION
-~PROTESTS CAMPS

The following letter was sent to
the Hon. Grote Stirling, Minister of
Wational Defence, by the General
Delivery and Messengers’ Union of
Vaneouvyer on April 16th:

Sir: We, the membership of the
General Delivery and Messengers’
Union, hereby protest the method
adopted by the authorities of starv-—
ine the single unemployed into sub-
jection. We know that the demands
of these men are fair. We also
know that the conditions urder
which they have been forced to live
has been atrocious.

Immediate steps should be taken
to provide these striking Camp
Workers with adequate relief until
a settlement is reached.

This organization, numberine 260
members, is firmly behind the just
demands of the Relief Camp Work-
ers’ Union.

Expecting your immediate action,

Recording Secretary.

CHILDREN DROP
FROM HUNGER

Farmers Must Unite for
Joint Struggle

CLOVERDALE, B.C., April 29.—
Two children collapsed last week
from hunger and had to be taken
into houses for treatment here. One
is the 15-year-old daughter of a man.
who has been discriminated against
for being a member of the Farmers’
Unity League. He was practically
forced to beg for some relief, and
then put off by telling him that the
investigator would come around, but
he never showed up. The parents
of the other child are supposed to
be people of low moral ethics. This
is just a pretext to bar them from
relief by our reactionary Reeve and

Council.

ALLEGE OAKALLA
INMATE BEATEN

Committed Suicide

Black Hole

VANCOUVER, B. GC, May 1—A
small news item appeared in the
daily press the other day to the
effect that “a prisoner in Okalla
Jail committed suicide by hanginr.
himself in his cell with his belt.’

Beaten By Guards

A worker reported to the ‘“News”’
today that “this man named James
O’Doennell, aged 35, had finished his
Sentence some time ago, and that
he was held for deportation ‘to
Scotland.

He complained about beine held
in jail so long after completing his
term and demanded to see the war-

in

den. The deputy warden refused
his permission, and later some
Suards beat him up and he was
thrown in the Black Hole.’ It was

in the black hole that he hung him-
self with his belt.
Should Not Have Had Belt

Prison regulations do not permit
@ prisoner to have a belt. How did
this man cometo haye one? This
worker also alleges that ‘after the
man had been beaten and thrown
into the black hole at 4 p.m. he
was never looked at again until the
next morning, when he was found
dead.”’

This case certainly should be in-
vestigated. Any prisoners lately re-
leased from @kalla should report any
information they may have on this
case to the “‘B. C. Workers’ News.’”’

UNITED ACTION
OF UNEMPLOYED

Chinese, White Workers

Combine
VICTORIA, April 28. — United
front action is now under way by

three workers’ orfanizations to gain
better relief. They are the W.P.A.
of Victoria, the Chinese Unemployed
Association and the Island Relief
Camp Workers. A joint committee
is apéalinge to all trade unions, fra-
ternal bodies, ete., for added sup-
port.

Authorities “Pass the Buck.”

The city authorities have changed
their tactics from intimidation to
passing the buck. They endeavor to
see how little relief they can pass
out and how big a graft they can
make on the relief racket. In this
they are ably assisted by the slimy
propaganda pf the Victoria Colonist.
The workers are realizing the power
of solidarity, and are strengthening
the fight for more relief.

BUCK WILL WIN,
SAYS R. B. HANSON

REGINA, Sask.,May 1.—
R. B. Hanson, successor to
Harry Stevens as Minister
ef Commerce in the Ben-
nett government, speaking
here tonight, stated that he
believed that Tim Buck,
Communist candidate in
North Winnipes, would win
the seat in the forthcoming
Federal election.

Six Restaurants Close Their

Doors To Celebrate May Day

Prince Geo.
Win Claims

Mass Pressure Achieves

Results

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C., April 27.
—The City Council on Wednesday,
April 24th, was compelled to meet
the delegation which was backed
up by a mass demonstration to con-
Sider the demands of the unem-
ployed workers.

The mass pressure of the workers
Was the chief factor in compelling
the City Council to grant the con-
eessions which they did. In some
families the gain relief means
several dollars more per month than
formerly received.

May Day Holiday.

The mayor granted a holiday for
all those working for the city on
May Day. The city agreed to pay
their share of the medical allow-
ance (one third) if the provincial and
Federal overnments do the same. On
the question of relief the city agreed
to come up to the provincial scale.

Further Struggles Loom.

Other struggles are pending in re-
gard to the water being impure, the
meagre rent allowance and the
grievance of small home-owners in
regard to back taxes.

in

they

Active Union
Miner Dies

Tim Walker Helped
Build Cumberland

Local

CUMBERLAND, B.C., May 2.
Tim Walker died in the hospital
here at 9 a.m. today. He had suf-
fered for a Tong time from a growth
on the neck which developed into
cancer. For foany years Tim was
a member of the Socialist Party of
Canada.

When attempts were made to build
the union here, Tim was one of the
first to join. He found it hard to
shake off the old S. P. of C. ideology,
but admitted that the methods
adopted by the W. U. L. in building
trade unions was correct and effec-
tive. During the last strike at Cum-
berland Tim was a member of the
strike committee and one of the
most able leaders of the union. His
death is a distinct loss to the labor
movement.

NOTICE
Food Workers’ Industrial Union
is holding a social on May 4th at
8 p.m. at 19 East Hastings St.

Full Union Cafes, One

Bakery in May Day
Parade

Six restaurants=and-one- bakery
closed up shop May ist in Vancou-
ver, and all the employees marched
in the May Day Parade to Stanley
Park.

The restaurants were the Stock-
holm, White Star, Harbor, Public,
Crystal, and Scandia. The bakery
which participated was the Hastings
Bakery. :

Hundred Per Cent Union.

All of them-are hundred per cent
union. The employees are members
of the Food Workers’ Industrial

Union. The union carried its own
banners, and cooks, waiters, wait-
resses and bakery workers were

prominent in the parade. The union
is making an intensified drive to
line up new members and unionize
more shops. The office of the union
is at 19 East Hastings St., where
the seeretary can be found to ad-
vise any unorganized workers how
to build a union in their plant.

Cartage Men
Lined Up

Delivery & Messengers
Forging Ahead

VANCOUVER, April 28.—Practi-
cally all of the employees of Ter-
minal Cartage, one of the key Shops
in the industry of general delivery
and cartage work, have enrolled as
members of the General Delivery &
Messengers Union.

Rapid Growth.

This union has had tremendous
growth during the past winter. Tak-
ing form among the messengers at
the beginning of the past winter the
union srew from 2 small group until
at the present time our membership
which is comprised of truck drivers.
motorecyele drivers, messengers and
Swampers, it now numbers well over
200.

Path.

This union is travelling along the
right road in building the united
front as shown by the fact that we
exchange fraternal delegates with
the Longshoremen & Water Trans-
port Workers of Canada and with
the Workers Unity League. In this
way we are able to strengthen our
organization by co-operating with
other labor unions of an industrial
character for the betterment of the
of the workers

Following Correct

working conditions
in industry.
Press Correspondent.

May Day Demonstration Greatest

In H

istory Of Vancouver; Parade

With Monster Meeting In Park

Camp Boys
Sentenced

Clubbed by Police—

Framed, Jailed

VANCOUVER, April 30.— Peter
Seymour and George Wood
found guilty today in police court
on charges of assault ‘on police of-
ficers and Sentenced to two months

were

and three month respectively. Both
of these workers: were brutally
beaten by the police during the

police-inspired riot of Tuesday night,

April 23rd. Peter Kennedy was re-

leased on suspended sentence.
Trials Lasted Six Days.

During the trials, which lasted six
days, the police were charged by
Gordon Grant, G.L.D.L. lawyer, with
deliberately lying, and conspiring to
create a riot. The judge made sev-
eral unsuccessful attempts to silence
the lawyer, asking for a retraction
of the statements. Grant literally
told the judge what his job was,
which was not to interfere in his
method of cross-examination, but
to listen to the evidence and render
judgment accordingly.

Police officers gave conflictine
evidence during the trial; they were
unable to agree on who gave the
orders for the attack, and the time
it was to take place.

Twenty-two Camp Boys
Arrested.

Twenty-two camp workers were
arrested during the day of April 23
on various charges; seventeen have
been released, which included the
Gelezation that was sent to inter-
view Mayor MecGeer from Strikers
gathered at Victory Square, and
ended with McGeer reading the Riot
Act from the Cenotaph in the face
of 2000 hungry camp boys.

Two others, Richard Rothery.
charged with damage to property
and assault on police officer, and
John Lawson, charged with damage
to property, were held over to a

Sceres of Labor Organizations in Mighty United
Front Demonstration — 3000 School Sudents
Parade in Sympathy with Strikers

The greatest May Day parade and demonstration in the
history of Vancouver was the answer of the working class
and their sympathizers to the fascist threats of Mayor Me-
Geer, Premier Pattullo and the Federal Government to their
stubborn attempts to drive the slave camp workers to the
camp, and to the brutal attack upon the miners and their
womenfolk in Corbin. More than 15,000 men, women and

A HOME FOR ONE
DAY FOR RELIEF
CAMP STRIKERS

VANCOUVER, May 2.—
The central branch of the
Women’s Labor League has
sent out calls to working
people who have the facili-
ties te each be host to
one Relief Camp striker in
the city and provide him
with a midday meal on
Mother’s Day.

In the afternoon it is
planned to hold a parade in
which working women and
women sympathizers, camp
strikers and others will par-
ticipate. In the evening a
huge mass meeting will be
held.

The members of the
W.L.L. point out that such
action will be something of
real yalue, instead of the
usual bourgeois maudlin
Sentimentalism associated
with Mother’s Day.

higher court, while the case of A. R.

children, headed by the Pipers’ Band
ef the Caprenters’ Union, Local 617
(A.of L.), paraded from Gambie
Street Grounds through the heart of
the city to Stanley Park. Long be-
fore the appointed time for the par-
ade to start demonstrations were
converginge on Cambie Street
Grounds. Hundreds of banners
bearing slogans breathing the class
struggle, while as early as 10:30
hundreds of school children paraded
downtown streets bearing strike
slogans. a

Effigy of Mayor McGeer
The greatest amusement was
ereated by a float bearing a canvas
“cenotaph’”’ 10 feet high, before
which was a masked worker repre-
senting Mayor McGeer, reading 2
huge document which was marked
“Riot Act.”” Another effective float
Was one representing one of Ben-
nett’'s Slaye Camps, tar paper and
all, inside of which were seated
Some inmates, and over the shack
were pasted many copies of the Na-
tional Defense Rules.

Grientals Out In Force

The Chinese workers made an im-
pressive showing, and some of their
banners and slogans were strikingly
expressive. Among them were slo-

Scott a juvenile, is pending while
The C.L.
DL. is now arranging for bail for

his parents are located.

the two mentioned above.

Gordon Grant brought out to the
forefront that the police were re-
sponsible for the damage and riots
at night, and exposed the whole trial
as a deliberate frame-up.

RESTMORE FACTORY GIRLS
_ SUPPORT TO CAMP BOYS

All Hands Will Work
One Hour to Help

VANCOUVER, April 29.—Two re-
lief camp workers spoke at noon-
hour today to the Restmore Mat-
tress Factory of the conditions of
the relief camp workers and why
they are on strike.

The workers listened very atten-
tively as the delegates related the
story of the conditions which they
had to endure in the camps. The
speakers appealed to the Restmore
Mattress workers to support them
in their struggle, explainins the sup-
port given by other trade unions.
There is some organization in the
plant, but it is not sufficiently de-
veloped to bring about sympathetic
Strike action.

Workers to Protest.

The Restmore workers decided to
donate one hour work each to help
the camp workers financially. They
also decided to send a representative
to the committee of action, and to
send a letter of protest against the
brutal treatment meted out to these
workers by the Department of Na-
tional Defense to the Bennett gov-
erment.

Bosses Foil Strike Action.

Some of the workers in this plant
were willing to call a sympathetic
strike of one hour as a protest but
it is understood that three or four
of the bosses talked things over be-
fore the meeting. One of these is
the head of the Sick Benefit Associa-
tion. He appealed to the workers not
to strike but to give donations to
the striking camp workers.

The camp workers highly appre-
ciate this financial support; they,
nevertheless, realize that a strike of
one hours protest would have sig-
nified even greater working class
Im order to bring this
about it is essential that we intensify
eur efforts in industry to
strengthen our organization.

solidarity.

every

WOODSWORTH
"EXPLANATION’

Speaks for Himself on

Unity — Stony
Silence
WINNIPEG, April 24.—That all

requests for united action in the
federal elections or at any other
time, made by the Communist Party
to the C.C. F., would be turned down,
Was indicated by J. S. Woodsworth,
vesterday, speaking here at the in-
augural meeting of the C.CG.r. fed-
eral election campaign.

“Almost every other day the Com-
munist Party makes requests for
unity to the CCF. ... There are
two prerequisites to unity, (1) To be-
lieve in the other’s sincerity, and (2)
Unity in ideas and tactics is neces-
sary, and the tactics of the €.C.F.
and the Communist Party differ. All
that the Communists adyocate in
their last approach we have advo-
eated for the past fifteen years,’
stated Mr. Woodsworth, after cast-
ing bland unsubstantiated aspersions
on the sincerity of the C.P. offers.

Pausing after his statement, ap-
parently expecting applause, Mr.
Woodsworth was visibly surprised
to have it received with stony silence
by the gathering of some 1200.

‘News’? Greets
Miners’ May Day

Copy of telegram sent to
Crow's Nest Pass miners by
our paper.

Vancouver, B.C.,
May ist, 1935.
Mayor William Knight,
Blairmore, Alberta.

Greetings to Crow May
Day celebration, to Red coun-
eil and Corbin miners.

“B. C. Workers News”

gans reading; “Down With Chane
aj. Shek,” “Ione Live Soviet
China,” ‘“We Paid 3500 Head Tax to
Come to Canada to Starve,’? ‘140
Chinese Workers Died in the Aneli-
can Soup Mission.”

Tens of thousands of people jam-
med the sidewalks along the line of
march, many of whom fell in line

When the official parade had
passed.
Waterfront Workers’ Strike

The powertul Longshoremen’s
Union, the Seafarers’ Industrial
Union, the CGoastwise Longshore=
men’s Union, Boilermakers’ Union
ACCEL), and the Export Loe
Workers’ Association —all declared

a 24-hour strike for May Day and
in solidarity with the Striking Slave
Camp Workers and the Corbin
miners, and paraded almost to a
man. The waterfront, apart from
ferry boats, all day was as Silent as
a graveyard.

Two working class political parties,
the Communist Party of Canada and
the Socialist Party of Canada, with
their own slogans, participated, as
did unions of the A.Fiof L., A.C.C.of
L,, W.U.L. amd independent unions,
Women’s Labor Leagues, Canadian
Labor Defense League, Youth and
Pioneer organizations, Students,
School Children, Chinese and Jap-
anese Workers’ Associations, Ukrain-
ian, Finnish, Jugo-Slavy, Polish,
Swede-Finn and German Mass or-
Sanizations, W.P.A., P.W.C., and
leading the parade behind the band
were the striking members of the
Relief Camp Workers’ Union.

Students and School Children.

Despite the presence of provincial
police at the school and the threats
and bullying tactics of a few reac-
tionary teachers over 3000 students
from university, high schools, tech-
nical school and lower grade schools
came out on strike and joined in the
parade and demonstration Carrying
their own banners and slogans.

The monster parade was joined at
the entrance to Stanley Park by a
throng equally as numerous, and
when the meeting began before the
“Shell,” with its elevated stage,
there was a @atherine estimated at
from 25 to 30 thousand present. As
detachments came on the grounds
from the parade with their distinc-
tive banners they were cheered to
the echo.

Impressive Meeting

The great meeting was opened by
Jack Taylor, who introduced the
chairman, Sam Shearer, of the $_P.
of C. The Ukrainian Workers’ Or-
chestra played the ‘Internationale’
and later the revolutionary “Funeral

(Continued on page 3)