oo $i: wae wait! ving|) ‘al s S ari rmec ‘Sion ina umils s in embt it U3 unit ‘ttion:, mo. stanc e's | | thi on £ temj ; pot oven il he —— Page Four B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS B.C WorkKeErRS NEWS Published Weekly by THE PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street - Vancouver, B.C. — Subscription Rates — One Year $180 Half Year _____ $1.00 Three Months —_ 50 Single Gopy = ——— oe 4205 Make All Checks Payable to the B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS Send All Copy and Manuscript to the Chairman of the Edottorial Board. Send All Montes and Letters Pertaining to Advertising and Circulation to the Bustness Manager. Vancouver, B.C., Friday, August 14, 1936 The Burrard Contest ITH G.C.F. and Liberal candidates already nominated, the provincial political pot is beginning to boil, with the Bur- rard by-election furnishing the heat. The Pattullo government know that they and their’party are in bad odour, not only with the people of Burrard whom they have deprived of representation for nearly a ‘year, but with the people of the province as a whole. They are, therefore, going to make a determined effort to elect their candidate, if only for the effect his election would have on the next provincial election. The Pattullo crowd was much encouraged by the mutiny staged by Connell and his few supporters who, when elected, con- sider themselves not bound by the decisions of C.C.F. conventions, but are a law unto themselves. Their joy was short-lived, however, when it was seen that about all that Connell has accomplished was to diseredit himself and those who chose to follow an individual rather than remain loyal to their party. The C.C.F. remains united and loyal to its elected executive and the decisions of its convention. The forthright statement of Arnold Webster that his refusal to permit his name to go before the C.C.F. nominating convention was for personal reasons, and in no way could be attributed to dissatisfaction with the provincial platform, brings no joy to the Connell insurgents. Webster declared that he would give his heartiest support to Telford and the C.C.F. It may be in the cards that the Conservatives, knowing that they haven’t a ghost of a chance, and fearing the O.C.F., will merely go through the motions of nominating a candidate and later withdraw him in order to present a united front of reaction. Yet another Pattullo tactic may be to try to exploit the dis- eomfiture of the Connell imsurgents, still smarting over the col- lapse of their revolt, by forming a new ‘socialist’ party to further confuse and split the progressives, or by haying one of their number enter the contest as an “Gndependent” Socialist, a Regina Manifesto candidate, or some such camouflaged splitter of the progressive vote in order to bring victory to the Pattullo candidate. While the irresponsible actions of the Connell faction in insti- gating an inner-party revolt on the eve of an important by-election was treacherous enough, it is hard to believe that they would stoop to such baseness as to permit themselves to be used in such a way by the reactionary Pattullo party- Help the Spanish People HERE is no power in any country that can down an armed working-class. This undeniable truth has been demonstrated during the three-weeks-old civil war in Spain. Unprepared and caught unawares as they were, the Spanish workers and peasants, as soon as they had something to ficht with, began to win back territories the Fascists had occupied. From being on the defensive they turned to a smashing offensive, until at present the Fascist forces are being encircled and beseiged in what are their last strongholds. But as the victory for Spanish democracy looms closer, and there are signs that there will be a decidedly popular swing towards Soviets, the imperialist powers begin to throw off the mask of neutrality, and do not attempt to hide the fact that they are and have been conspiring with the Fascists to defeat the Government. Particularly active along this line are Germany and Italy. Latest press items gloat over these fascist states sending airplanes, aviators, artillery and anti-aircraft gun instructors to strenethen their brother murderers in Spain; and Great Britain 1s no more neutral than the others. She too is said to be shipping airplanes and other supplies to the rebels. There is not and cannot be any real foundation for this ques- Hon of neutrality in the Spanish civil war. The European capi talists can no more be neutral than they can refuse to breathe ; their system is endangered by the Spanish events, and they will risk everything to intervene on the side of the Fascists. Already the London Daily Mail advocates intervention ‘“‘in the cause of civilization and Christianity,” and utters the usual calumny that éMoscow tyranny’ seeks to instal itself im Western Europe. Britain, as well as Mussolini and Hitler, is preparing public opinion for possible intervention. If they all intervene and stifle every breath of democracy in Spain, it will not be long before they will be fighting like cats and dogs amongst themselves to see who syill control the Mediterranean. But if the capitalists do not want to be neutral in this situation, the workers of the world cannot afford to be. A successtul attack on the Spanish workers and peasants would be followed at once by a similar attack on the French People’s Front government, to be earried on into Great Britain and everywhere else throughout the syorld. and the dark night of Fascist domination would descend on the democratic people of the world. Tn the Soviet Union the workers have subseribed millions of dollars to be sent to the Spanish government. In France and the United States the same action is being taken, and there is every reason for a similar campaign being undertaken at once 1n Canada. No neutrality in the Spanish civil war, but the greatest possible amount ot aid for the democratic People’s Front Government ! In the interests of world peace, in the interests of all democratic institutions, this action is imperative. Green and the C.1.O. ROGRESSIVE members of the trade nnion movement are thoroughly aroused and incensed over an interview given to the capitalist press by John W. Bruce, Canadian organizer for the Tnternational Union of Plumbers and Steamiitters afiliated with fhe A.F.of L., in which he supports William Green and other re- actionary members of the Executive Council of the A.F.of L. in their suspension of ten international unions with a total mem ber- ship of more than one million members. Bruce, who is generally reearded as a progressive and_a sup- porter of unity on the political field, lines up with the A.F.of L. reactionaries on the question of union policies. He denounces John L. Lewis, president of the Miners’ Union, which before its suspension by the Green bureaucracy was the largest affliated body in the A.F-.of T..—and an industrial union as well—because Lewis and his associates are out to organize the millions ot workers jn mass production industries, such as steel, but by transform The World This Week By F. B. Although the news that General John Metaxas head of the Govern- ment in Greese, had dissolved par- liament and declared martial law, thus establishing a dictatorship, came as a surprise, some such move has been expected in the country itself for some time. As long ago as last April the Grecian Commu- nist Party warned that Metaxas would do that very thing with the connivance of King George, both of them being enemies of democ- racy. Metaxas is classed as another “strong man’’; he has said he will erush Communism and declares a dictatorship is necessary because of a Communist “plot” to bring about a general strike. One of his first acts as a dictator was to order the arrest of thirteen Communist members of the dissolved parlia- ment. In the elections last January the Metaxas party had but six members elected, yet in spite of all constitu- tional regulations the king appoint— ed him Prime Minister. In the production of raisins Greece has held first place in the world, the income from this being second only to the income from to- bacco. But owing to competition in recent years from France and Australia there has been an over- production of raisins in Greece, and since the world crisis her export of raisins has dropped fifty percent. Professing to find a solution of the problem the government estab- lished an “Autonomous WRaisin Board,’ which bought the surplus raisins from the peasants at a fixed price, and to raise money for this it taxed heavily the raisins the peasants were able to get rid of in the foreign market. This benevo- lent scheme was in reality devised to permit wholesale robbery of the peasants. Discontent grew so rapid- ly that troops were scattered through the villages to put down peasant demonstrations against the government. So it is clear that the discontent and suffering that has been raging through Greece is not due to Com- munists but to the collapse of capi- talist methods of distribution of commodities. As in other countries, when the producers organize to fight for better conditions their leaders are arrested and the capi- talists make scrap of democratic institutions and go over to dictator- ships. Judging by the parliamentary representation of 14 Communists, the labor movement must be well advanced. Greece may be the next country where the common people will have civil war forced upon them. x + «x &* In Spanish Morocco, where the fascist forces are still in complete control, all Jews have been arrested and placed in concentration camps, another warning to world Jewry that they should not waste a mo- ment in supporting fully anti-fascist movements. For the past week it has looked as if Germany and Italy were going to intervene on the side of the Span- ish fascists, Germany claiming four Wazis and Italy three of her fascists killed by the loyalists. On top of this the expected “‘atrocity” stories began to be noticeable in the press, particular mention being made of the way the loyalist troops were burning churches and ravishing nupDs. However, the Madrid correspond- ent of the New York Times, an American eye-witness, gave the lie to such yarns when he reported: “Delegates from the Socialist Gen- eral Workers’ Union are giving valuable service to the government by confiscating convents and re- ligious schools, which with the churches have become state prop- erty. Most of these buildings con- tain valuable paintings, tapestries and other art treasures, which are being carefully listed .. - to avoid thefts and vandalism. . . The keys of the churches have been turned over to the government to prevent eS 5 CIVIL WAR HIiS BARCELONA Just a short distance from the photographer’s stand a shell can be seen bursting as fighting between the Fascist rebellious forces and the People’s Front government opened in Barcelona. The city, of great strategic importance, is in democrats’ hands. French Leader Reports On Popular Front Achievements By MAURICE THOREZ (Concluded) For Order, Liberty and Peace Our people desire peace and or- der. Workers and farmers want to live honestly and decently on the fruit of their labor They have an- swered, not with violence but in a voice of power, the fascist uprising of the 6th of February. The govern-— ment, following the will of the peo- ple, has decreed the dissolution of the fascist leagues. But it would be mere self-deception to believe all danger past. Hirst, because fascism breeds and develops in the decline of capitalist society, and a counter- offensive aimed at the people is always possible. Second, because fascism is not found only in the form of violent and bloody acts of terrorist bands the use of the buildings by Fascists for sniping or as places or refuge.” Another American writer in the New York Herald Tribune states that the Roman Catholic Church “possessed 210 monastic orders, male and female, in Spain. In 1910 the wealth of Spain’s monastic or ders alone represented one-third of the total wealth. There were Jesuit banks and Jesuit-controlled rail- roads, and the richest mines in the Asturias were owned by the order. Moreover, these vast properties were exempt from taxation.” The Fascist stronghold of Sara- gossa is being beseiged by the gov- ernment troops whose planes have dropped on the city thousands of leaflets with this message: “Soldiers of Saragossa: When the militia en- ters the city shoot your leaders and fraternize with your comrades. Your officers represent the blackest sort of reaction. They are the de fenders of the land-owners who starve the peasants to death.” It would have been as easy for the planes to drop bombs, but unlike the Fascists, the workers and peas- ants’ militia take the more humane way. Great Britain is raising a fuss by claiming that one British sub- ject has been killed by a Fascist shell. Whether she too is trying to raise an excuse to intervene re- mains to be seen, but one thing is certain—if she were to intervene against the People’s Government she would receive no backing from the British labor movement. There- fore, she will step cautiously, like a eat on hot bricks. (Committee for Tndustrial Organization ) with “splitting” labor movement ! the At the last two annual conventions of the A.F.of L. the dele- gates instructed their executive to organize these workers. the Green crowd refused to lift a finger to do so. But Nor could they do so while clinging to the outworn ¢ raft form of organization Pwhich is utterly unsuited to mass production indusiries. By his opposition to the G.1.0. Green has lined up with Wall Street and the steel corporations to keep tens of millions ot low- paid and fiercely-exploited worl rers unorganized. Tied up poli- tically as are Green and his reactionary associates on the Executive Conneil with the Hearst - Landon - Liberty League - Black Lesion forces of reaction, they do not hesitate in splitting the trade union movement by suspension of ten px ywerful unions. And the suspension is wholly illegal. A-F.of L. does not confer power of suspension affiliated unions on the Executive Council. The constitution of the or expulsion of Such power resis solely with the Convention, and it can suspend or expel only by a two- thirds vote. Tt is clear that Green took the illegal action of suspending the wmions so that these unions would not be able to seat delegates at the next annual convention, thereby oivyinge Green a majority for their expulsion. Jobn Bruce must have lost his head when he declared that he saw in the organizing activities of the C.1.0. on industrial lines a trend toward tascism. by finance capitalists Bruce knows that fascism is promoted How then can he explain why Wall Street and the Steel Institute of the U.S. spent more than half a million dollars in newspaper advertising in one week im a campaign against the C.1.O. and in support of Green ‘ When did these exploiters and murderers of the working class start fghting 1 ascist trends 4 Oulv into industrial unions can the millions of unorganized workers in mass production industries im the United States and Canada be organized. The same applies to existing etait unions. They too must be revamped, not by disrupting and smashing them, ng them. Only in this way can the industrial organized and ynited to meet the needs Germany, on the basis of respect for contracts. We want to consoli- date the bonds of friendship which unite the people of France and the small nation of Central and Bast ern Hurope menaced by Hitlerism. Yagainst the working-class and the We want to work in harmony with the U.S.S.R. to organize the peace of the world, and to avert the hor- rible war which again threatens to overwhelm us. Everything Is NOT Possible We are convinced that the appli- cation in toto of the program of the FP. will enable the government, at the end of its term of office, to stand with honor once more before those who have elected it. We are democratic state. It also wears the redoubtable mask of social dema- gogy directed towards winning mass-support. Popular discontent resulting from disappointments would-be exploited by fascism. Finally, because the dissolved leagues are re-organizing openly and illegally under another name, because they still keep their head- uarters, their newspapers, thei ¢ Seas = a 5 Bey concn: certain that the present government their network of sections and armed e2a BS! jouees than the preceding groups. ones, that it can last for the whole of its appointed term. And if this policy of the United Front had as a result merely this, that it has prevented the advent of fascism in France, it would be sufficient merit in our eyes. Thanks to the F-P. the whole working-class throughout the world has received a forward impetus. The Communist Party has devel- oped its policy by drawing up on the glorious traditions of our his- tory, by applying the great lessons of energy, audacity, and revolution- ary common-sense, and also by their papers. We must formally ex- profiting from the experience of clude them from the General am-| the international working-class nesty granted by the F.P. to war- movement. veterans, soldiers, militant workers Some of our Socialist comrades and pacifists, and to imprisoned | called insistently for the insertion natives of colonies. We must apply | into our program of SOCLALIZA- the law repressing incitement to TION OF INDUSTRY. We were murder. laughed at, and accused of luke- Nevertheless, our Party carefully | WaT™MnESS, because we refused to distinguishes those Frenchmen and write into the program of the FP. French women who have been mis- anything other than the economic led, from their leaders, who are the demands capable of being realized tools of capital, and at the same within the framework of the exist- time, agents of Hitler and Musso- | 12s regime. , lini. We have held out our hands in We knew just WHAT WAS POS- friendship to veterans who have SIBLE in the given situation. We joined the Croix de Feu, to all those | are enemies of all demagogy, and who have been deceived by the | therefore we refused to disseminate demagogy of the Gount de la] any illusions. We held firm, and Rocque. What do they want? They | we have been in the right. We are want, like us, France UNITED and | sure, in any case, that this is the STRONG. opinion of all the workers who Our campaign for the union of have rallied to the cause. the people of France against the The Communist Party has been 900 families which exploit and di- | able to show the right way. It has vide it, our campaign for public de- | refuted the leftist chatter of those cency and honesty, our proposition who said in December, 1934: that a committee be set up to in- “We no longer believe in the pos- quire into the origin of the fortunes | sibility of any amelioration yhat- of careerist politicians—all this has | eyer as long as the capitalist sys- impressed them. Many members | tem is not directly attacked by “he of the Cross of Fire joined the | yevolutionary forces.” trades Wat oa somie _bave OaSEDE The Communist Party has deemed for admission ot the Communist | j; wiser to follow the teaching of Party. Marx. In the same spirit, we have held Fascist demonstrations are be- ginning again as they did just be- fore the 6th of February. The re- action tries also to regroup itself under the leadership of ex-revolu- tionaries ejected from our Party ana thrown out of the Front Popu- laire. [Here Thorez is alluding to Doriot, ex-Communist, who is now uniting with the Croix de Feu and desperately trying by his weekly paper to split the United Front. | We must put an end to the agita- tion of these leagues, imprison their chiefs, and forbid the printing of Cinderella of the Movrement! when they wer “Tf the working-class were to lose out. our hands to the Catholics, workers, farmers, and employees of all sorts. Although we are con- vineed Communists, we are neither sectarian nor intolerant; we recog- nize as our brothers all those who endure the same misfortunes. We want to UNITE our people to pre- serve peace, that most precious of all things. The Front Populaire Is Peace Qur people desire peace- They have no hatred nor resentment against any other nation. Our Com- munist Party has won 4 great elec- toral victory because it spoke clear ly and unhesitatingly on the ques- tion of peace. We support every sincere move for peace. In particu- lar, we support, in common with the program of the F.P., the policy of COLLECTIVE SECURITY and that of PEACE INDIVISIBLE pased on the respect for the pact of the League of Nations, and sup- ported by a system of mutual-as- sistance pacts open to all, on the model of the Franco-soviet pact. We want an entente with Hitler’s ground in the daily struggle with capitalism, it would devrive itself of the possibility of undertaking any movement of wider scope.” We can assert with justice that it is our policy which has prevailed with the masses. That is why they listen to us at moments of crisis. Those who responded to our appeal on the 9th of February nad confi- dence in us when we sz ‘d: “Tt is necessary to know when to stop a strike.” We said we must not risk, by a hasty step, compromising the future of the Front Populaire. We must not at any cost allow a split to be formed between the workers and the middle-class, especially the farmers. THE WOREING CLASS MUST NOT ALLOW ISOLATED. ITSELF TO BE We are Leninists, not adyentur- ers. We have summed up our policy in this formula: “Byerything FOR the Front Pop- ulaire; Everything BY the Front Populaire.” The Communist Party intends to SHORT JABS By OL’ BILL The youth hav} always bee:y looked. upon =| f considered at al —as an embarrassing but neces sary appendage of the labor MOVE: ment. If they had any special prot lems, these were buried out 3a sight. The trades unions gaye ther” only a minimum of consideratio: and the working-class political pai ties kindly allowed them to act a bill-posters and messengers. : The period of capitalist decay ha” set in and the situation as fare the youth is concerned has entire] © changed. It is they who suffer mos jj under capitalism, as capitalisr™ steals from them, not only th present but the future also. Rotar Club platitudes like “youth is 47 ways revolutionary’ and “yout will be served” have had no mear ing till now. Decadent capitalis: | that offers neither present comfoj |! nor future promise for the yout-]/ has compelled them to tackle th’ solution of their own problems, 4 Growing out oO — peat i em A New this a new Cane - d dian magazir agazine. has seen the ligh” in the last mont} >| ~_“Advance,” to be a spokesmat | fighter and organizer for all sei tions of the new generation threa\ ened with a hopeless future, as foo for cannon in war and intellectus } and physical slavery under fascisn In its pages the youth in th chureh organizations, in the trad unions, among the reformists ani | revolutionaries, the whole mass ie youth that is on the side of hums) | progress, will be represented. Thi - magazine deserves, and must ha our full support. It will be a vali” able weapon in the struggle to say a humanity from the Frankenstelj monster invented by class rule an capitalist greed. Buy it! Read i Boost it! j A littie over a year ag - True to theR.C.M.P. was turne ; Type. loose in Regina by Al B. Bennett, Gen. Mi Brien and Commissioner Wood * to club, maim and slaughter th { pick of the youth of Canada, | little while later the Regina Hy hibition was held. Regina nevwi paper men blushed with shame bi cause reports were current on th midway that one pressman sat 7 the front row of one of the “le shows,”’ at every performance whi ° the fair lasted. Every reporter ? Regina proclaimed vehemently thi he was innocent but the evident was overwhelming that the mor} had a press badge. When the fair opened this yee’ they solved the mystery. TI “sloater” with the press badge Ws a member of the R.CMP. Th type of cattle with a barnyal morality and entirely lacking an kind of ethics, is what Benne , used to defend his particular brat of Ganadian democracy. The wor of the boys in the trek were betle than the best of his minions. = Vancouver's Italian dtl Viva zens missed a couple’ Italia! good bets in their J bilee celebrations, 1 all the ballyhoo about CGolumbi they made no mention of the fat” that for discovering America, t ; intrepid Genovese sailor receiv the lordly sum of $320. Of all & thousands of millions of wealth 8 quired through his voyages of di covery, that was his share. In ft freight rates case alone, Ger McGeer presented a bill to the Bs Government for $150,000—468 tim: as much as the reward of © lumbus. Maybe the Jubileers thought © lumbus had no immediate conne tion with the building of Vanco ver; maybe Vancouver would hat had its Jubilee even if Columb! had never discovered America, D there is another Italian event th is intimately connected with Ve couver’s imperial growth. When the Capilai Early pipeline was bell Vancouver laid in 1888, the 2 Strikes. orers who dug # ditch were sons sunny Italy. During the course the job they came to the cone sion that 17 cents an hour waél enough for the work. They ask for more and were refused. Tht were 50 of them on the job and th gave infant Vancouver one of first demonstrations of workit elass solidarity. They struck work to a man. Lat ing funds, with no organizatil they recognized they might beaten if they remained on str so they went back to work after t days, but every man of them | a piece off his shovel to bring ' output in line with the wages. This is an incident that certai should have had its place in” [talian contribution to our 50th | workers be mobilized, into industrial unions affiliated to the A.F-.of L., the of today. eee ee ee ened. and Caarees Lewis and the C.1.0.. automotive, rubber, textile, ete., Thomas Dobie Passes e Just before going to press the B.C. Workers’ News learned, with deep sorrow, of the death of Thomas Dobie, of Prince- ton, B.C. In his passing the workers have’lost a champion and a warm friend. To his bereaved wife and family we extend our deepest sympathy. niversary junketing. : = Last Sunday, 0 Link-up the air, Tom ° with Murder. I=n¢s identi himself and Nationalist Party with the trail who are attempting to overthr by murder and riot, the const tional Spanish government; ¥ the Nazi warships that are block ing the coast of Spain to pre\ foodstuffs reaching the Spal people from Soviet Russia; and Fascist butchers who are supplj the Spanish treason with planes ammunition from Italy. “Wh2 happening in Spain,” said Mcin “is a fight between Wationalism Bolshevism.” Nothing could plainer as to what McInnes and party stand for—treason aga constituted authority. pursue firmly and calmly this pol- icy, which has already proved its wisdom. We shall do everything to crown with success the program selected in common by all parties of the People’s Front. COMRADES: Our Party, united under the lead- ership of its Central Committee, has contributed much to the victory of the F.P. It has grown in the struggle against reaction and fas- Gism. It has grown in the battle of the working-class, for the union of the French nation against the 200 families. By our will, by our work, py our bolshevik unity our Commu- nist Party will increase yet more. IT WILL LEAD TO A FREE, STRONG, AND HAPPY FRANCE! (The End)