Four Page Bie Ce WOR Kee RES = NEWS September 6 BC. WorKERS NEWS Published Weekly by THE PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASS'N Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street - Vancouver, B.C. a — Subscription Rates — One Year —__- $1.80 Half Year 1.00 Three Months-5 .50 Single Copy -05 Make All Ghecks Payable to the B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS Send All Copy and Manuscript to the Chairman of the Editorial Board — Send All Montes and Letters Per- faining to Advertising and Circulation to the Business Manager. Vancouver, B.C., September 6, 1935 NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AGAIN Tall of a “National Government” in Can- ada will not down. In a speech delivered in Bastern Canada, Mackenzie King predicted that Bennett would, within a week, perhaps in his new set of radio speeches, propose the formation of such a government in the The millionaire-owned press, among them the Vancouver “Prov- ince,’ unceasingly clamour for the abandon- ment of party government in order to deal with the “emergency” created by the failure +o solve unemployment and the many ‘prob- Jems arising out of it, chief of which is the growing determination of the workers not #o starve or accept forced labor and other Stevens with his new fascist party has also indicated his wall- “national interest.” forms of regimentation. ineness to enter such a government. Bennett and his Tory party are so thor- oughly discredited that they want to get their heads into the coalition government tent, while Stevens, with as little chance as Bennett of getting a majority in Parliament, would like to rejoin Bennett in whose re- actionary company he would be in his natural element. Woodsworth, in his address in the Audi- torium, made no reference whatsoever to the campaign, powerful although unostenta- tious, which is being conducted by the finan- cial interests for a national government. His dilence is disquieting when one considers his open declaration of belief in the sincerity of Bennett and Stevens for reform, although unable to effect it under capitalism. Tt is not a far cry from support of Ben- nett’s “reform” legislation in the House of Commons to participation in a national goy- ernment, giving as a reason the better facili- ties afforded by membership in the govern- ment in aiding Bennett, Stevens and Com- pany in their honest intentions to effect needed reforms. Mackenzie King when feeling sure of a majority in the next House was emphatic in repudiating any suggestion of a national gov- ernment. He is not so categorical now that the Aberhart victory in Alberta has upset his calculations and shaken his confidence. But we would like to hear from Woodswerth. It would reassure many of the members of the G.C.F. and its supporters if he would unequivocally declare his unalterable deter- mination to refuse to enter any government in which the Conservative, Liberal or Recon- struction parties would be represented, should such a government be formed. WOODSWORTH FLOUTS UNITY That Mr. Woodsworth, leader of the C.C.F., has no realization of the needs of the people of Canada today was painfully made plain by his speech last Wednesday night in the Au- ditorium. For him the menace of fascism does not exist, if failure to even mention such a danger in Canada is any criterion. His efforts to justify his support of Ben- nett’s anti-labor legislation were lame and unconvincing, The “reason” given was that whilst not all he desired, they were a “recog- nition of the responsibility of the State to provide for the unemployed.’ Yet Bennett's Unemployment Insurance Bill does not pro- vide for the unemployed of today or tomor- row, but places another tax on the workers of twenty million dollars per year. In order to justify support of Bennett’s legislation, including the monopoly-controlled central bank, he professed to believe in the genuine desire of Bennett to, effect reform. He believes also in the desire of Stevens to bring about reforms, but that neither can succeed because of the existence of capital- ism. Such talk is misleading the people. Neither Bennett nor Stevens desire to bring about reforms in the interest of the people, but in the interest of the finance capitalist inter- ests they represent. And such “reforms” are detrimental tofthe interests of the workers, the debt-ridden farmers and the middle class. The only show of hate that Woodsworth made during his speech was when he at- tacked the Communist Party. He is fearful of being associated in the bourgeois mind With any organization as revolutionary as such a party. The chief purpose of his speech on Wednesday night seemed to be to disas- sociate the C.C.F’. from the united anti-cap- italist front as proposed by the Communists in the federal elections. The only thing he granted Communists was the equal right with the Conservatives and Liberals to vote for C.C.F. candidates. His idea of a united front is that all other parties, including the most advanced of all, the Communist Party, efface themselves from the electoral field. His boast that the C.C.F. already has a united front from coast to coast was a shoddy play upon words. The C.C.F. has not even a united front within its own party. And even if it had, it would not be a united front of all anti-capitalist forces, which is the only united front worth talking about. Woodsworth should know that the develop- ment of the political consciousness of the workers and farmers is an unequal develop- ment, that there are fundamental and irre- movable differences between the C.C.F. and the Communist Party, but that notwith- standing the existence of such differences, there is nevertheless common ground upon which both parties can unite. That common ground is the fight for the immediate needs of the common people, the checking and beating back of the advance of fascism and the fight against imperialist war. In this period of threats of fascism and impending world war it is not to debate ir- reconcilable fundamental differences that the C.C.F. and the Communist Party should meet, but to seek the common ground upon which unity against capitalism in immediate struggle can be brought about. But this is precisely what Woodsworth opposes and to a great extent prevents, thus keeping the anti-capitalist forces divided and powerless to resist the intensifying attacks of the cap- italists against the workers. Woodsworth professes to see a contradic- tion in the Communists supporting C. C.F. candidates who support the united front and who have not already proved themselves enemies of the workers, such as Heaps of Winnipes, while running candidates in other constituencies. But there is no contradic- tion whatsoever. In those constituencies fav- orable to the running of a Communist can- didate where the united front is flouted and denied by the ©€.C.F. the Communists hold that they have a greater right to contest the riding than has a C.C.F. candidate. ‘The Communists have proven their sincerity over and over again in offering to withdraw can- didates in the interests of the united front, but they are not necessarily going to with- draw a candidate when the united front is refused by the C.C€.F. candidate. The “united front’ desired by Woodsworth is a united front of one party with itself with the other committing suicide. When one contrasts the results of Social Democratic domination of the labor move- ment in Germany and Austria with the re- sults in the Soviet Union under Communist Party leadership, it is easily seen that the Communist Party of Canada will never ef face itself to advance the spurious unity pro- posed by Woodsworth, but will oppose those leaders and candidates of the C.C.F. who stand in the way of unity. Despite the. opposition of Woodsworth, unity has been achieved in several constitu- encies in Canada. The fight for unity in B.C. must go on. The rank and file of the C.C.F. recognize the erying need for it in the face of the capitalist offensive, the menace of fascism and the danger of war, despite the declared determination of Woodsworth to “go it alone.” MINIMUM WAGE EVASIONS Hon. G. S. Pearson, Minister of Labor in the Liberal B.C. Government, in a statement just issued at Victoria, has unwittingly ex- posed to the workers the worthlessness of the minimum wage act in B.C. In the B.C. Workers News last week we showed how one cannery at Kamloops last year was permit- ted to pay much less than the minimum wage all during the canning season, and also after the plant closed. Mr. Pearson in his recent statement tells the employers what to do. He states, “But there is another class of case in which the charge will be merely that the employer failed to keep records. In such cases he will be fined if guilty, but will not have to pay back wages, since there is no record of what he did pay.” There you have it. All an employer has to do in order to cheat workers out of hun- dreds of dollars in wages under the act is to pay any wage the workers can be forced to take, and if a bold worker reports him (and takes a chance of being blacklisted) then all he has to do is to say that he doesn’t keep records of wages paid, and he will be asked to pay a fine of a few dollars, but will be exempt from paying back wages. The only dependable way of collecting the wage set by the Board, and improve on the minimum wage scale, is by uniting into a trade union that will fight for better wages and conditions. With such a union there will be no need for minimum wage boards. Election Campaign towards 1 ——_ in operation (Continued from Page 1) press service, mess the nominating convention in Wancouver this week, when Rev. | ing and leaving Alberta. Batzold, an ex-K.E.K. leader, was ©@.C.F: Leaders Iznore Danger ehairman, and Dennies, an ex-leader itn fees ae = of the A.C.C.0f = here WES aan ee the €.C.&., Mr. Woodsworth, the nominees, and is supported by} 4) aicInnis and sections of finance capital. Anti-Labor All The Aberhart Government is an 5 : ees the imminence of war. < ha te a . 2S5 = ; = anti-labor government, As IEMES= | have 116 candidates nominated the continuous statements of the SAN Sines Ss leader to the effect that the divi- field dend will not be paid if it will bank- rupt Alberta, and in any event will mot be paid for at least 18 months. legislation similar to that in Germany the government will set up its own and will be maintained of people enter- all this the leaders of Some others still seek to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the threat of fascism and few more yet in the Unity Is Realizable There is no real reason why unity an anti-capitalist front against Tory, Liberal and Reconstruction parties in the next House that would assist in rousing the masses of people in Canada, would make it very unpro- fitable to introduce further fascist measures and would prevent the warmongers plunging the masses of Canadian toilers into another world slaughter. whereby a careful check Cold- Communists for Unity Communist Party leaders are ada- mant in declaring that they are out to achieve unity in the elections that will procure the anti-capitalist front in face of all the obstacles placed in their path. The declare The C.C.E. and that a sreater num- _ And even then there will be so many with Communists could not be] ber than ever before of the electorate ineligible that it will be useless. brought about in every one of these | of Canada are realizing the need for This government is already moyins constituencies which would ensure | such united action in this election. “Enelish democracy | peculiar kind. The parli structure consists of two Houses, the is Commons and Lords, of which the t is elected and the second con- tary members, “Peers™ Ot £ d of the bishops or the e Church. Be fore 1914 the franchise on which the Lower House was elected was limit- ed. Women were excluded complete- Iv; a particular severe exclusion for the working class, since over 2 quarter of all factory workers were women, young workers under 21, and also all workers who lived in lodgings, that is to say, a ereat) number of the vast reserve army of unemployed and paupers. In addi- tion, the bourgeoisie has the advant- age of a double “property” vote, that to say, a person voting in one constituency could register a second vote in another constituency where he=held property. Graduates of the universities, who at this time were exclusively drawn from the middle and upper ranks of the bourgeoisie, also had a second vote in their uni- versities. Until 1912 the veto of the Second Ghamber of landlords, bish- ops, financiers and industrial chiefs were absolute. is The Privy Council. “These were not the only limita- tions to “‘democracy’’ which existed: The king still retained considerable powers which, in case of emergency, he could exercise without parlia- ment through his “Privy Council.” This council consists of the chosen servants of imperialism, politicians of all parties, judges, lawyers, high naval and military officers, impor- tant members of the Royal Court, a certain number of prominent indus- trialists. The kine has the power to pass any decree necessary without sanction of parliament merely by calline together a handful of the members of this council, a power A Study In Capitalist Democracy none the less real for being eised. The Council also acts as the supreme judicial tribunal for the whole Empire. All Capitalist Laws Defend Property “There in Gritain neither a written constitution nor a written code of laws. The constitution is all those laws which have ever received the ratification of the ‘King and his Couneil in Parliament’ ever since the early Middle Ages, and remained is unrepealed, while law is largely established by the decisions of judges. Interpretation of a given law remains good until it is changed by another judge Judges are ap- pointed by the King and can only be removed by him. All British legal historians recognize the foundation of English Jaw, and, therefore, of the constitution, to be the defence of property. In this way the much boasted freedom of speech and press in England can be reduced to noth- ine by the application of some long- forgotten law of the Middle Ages re- interpreted by a modern judge in the interests of imperialism. The law on state treason, by which the Irish revolutionary Casement Was exe- euted in 1916, dates from the four- teenth century. Tom Mann was sent to prison for anti-militarist agitation in 1912 on the basis of a law passed in 1797, when the British bourgeoisie feared mutiny in the fleet during the French revolutionary wars. The so-called “law of liber” is frequently used against the Press, especially the workers’ press, and editors are jmprisored and fined heavily. Capitalists Use Worce and Violence “The system of local justice in England is almost exclusively and openly used against the working elass. The so-called magistrates who administer justice in these courts > are appointed by the Home Secretary from ‘well affected’ persons, in the period before 1914 almost exciusive- ly from the ranks of the landlords, business men and ex-officers, thoush lately their ranks have been supple- mented from the trade union and La- bor Party bureaucracy.