Page Four

BC WorkKERS NEWS

Published Weekly by

THE PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
Room i0, 163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C.

Telephone: Trinity 2019

One-Year === = = $1530 Half Year

Three Months —___ __-50 Single Copy ————

Make All Checks Payable to the B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS

Send All Copy and Manuscript to the Chairman of the Editorial Board,

Send all Monies and Letters Pertaining to Advertising and Circulation to the

Bustness Manager.

Vancouver, B.C., Friday, March 26, 1937
We Change Our Name

ITH this issue, the name of this journal, B.C. Workers

Naws. will be discontinued. Beginning with next week’s
issue it will be known as the Prorres ApvocaTe.
; Za: ee :

The B.C. Workers’ News has won a place in the esteem

of the progressive people of the province as the champion ot their
imterests. As the Prorre’s Apvyocars it will continue to cham-
pion the cause of the exploited people, and, despite all opposition
and other difficulties, it will strugele for the unification of labor
and all progressive forces in the struggle for a better standard of
living and against the dark and sinister forces of reaction.

With the change of name there is the enlargement of the
paper to six pages. This entails greater cost of production. We
feel, however, that the people whose tireless efforts and loyalty
made the uninterrupted publication of the four-page B.C. Worx-
ers’ News possible for more than two years, will assure the sue-
cess of the six-page Prorrim’s Apvocatr. Nay more, the mass
support which made possible the increase vo a six-page paper will
increase to a degree which, hefore very long, will make possible
an eight-paze paper.

Tm this period of threatening reaction, of erowing labor
strugeles and impending war, the need for such papers as the
Prort’s Apvocarr and the Clarion (Toronto) is greater than
ever before. Their requirements are also greater.

Before our next issue (under its new masthead) appears
the sreat Clarion-ProrLE s ApyocATE April Press Drive will be
on in full blast. On the financial and circulation fronts friends
and supporters of both papers are mobilizing and ore'anizine their
forces to reach the quota set for this province. As the demands
made upon labor ever increase, the ability and resourcefulness
of labor and its eyer growing number of allies also imerease.

Tt is with this knowledge, and the faith and confidence whieh
grow out of it, that we launch the six-page paper; the success
of the drive will be an endorsement as well as a vindication of
the venture.

a

Grange and Molland

OW that Fred Grange and Harry Molland are serving their

two-year sentences for being at Hamilton Hall when the
police riotously clubbed single unemployed who were peacefully
demonstrating in an effort to get bread, there is a danger that a
eomplacent public may forget their plight.

These two unemployed leaders were given severe sentences
because of the class bias and hatred of the ex-attorny-general of
the Liberal Party, now a judge, who sentenced them on convic-
tion of a charge which in an English court would, at the most,
have brought a 30- or 90-day sentence.

Class hatred and terrorization of hungry workers was carried
to the extent of denying them the right to appeal against the sen-
tences. Had they been convicted brokers or mine salters their ap-
plication to appeal would have been granted on even the flimsiest
technical excuse.

The closine of the prisen doors behind Grange and Molland
must not sienalize the ending of efforts to bring about their ]ib-
eration. These efforts must be increased and intensified. <All
people who are opposed to the use of the club and the prison te
still the ery of the hungry for bread should exert the greatest
possible mass pressure to have those two leaders of the unemployed

released.
3)

Working-Class Concerts Banned

HE stooges of the Shipping Federation, bankers and other

reactionary enemies of the people who constitute a majority

of the city council, are folinwing the lead given by the old Blue

Law makers of Delaware and Maryland and the witch-burners
of Massachusetts.

Sunday night concerts are to be prohibited—but what are
the organizations against which this ban is beimg directed 2
Working-class organizations, of course.

The Relief Camp Project workers wanted to hold a concert
in aid of their union and its members. They procured a permit
from the deputy chief constable, but his eranting ot the permit
was vetoed by the city finance committee. The West End Press
Committee applied for a permit for holding a concert in aid of
the B.C. Worxrers’ News and was refused.

Tf it had been permits for concerts for war purposes that had
been applied for they would not have been refused. The refusal

of those permits to working-class organizations is a direct blow
against freedom of the working-class to assemble,

The law which requires a permit at all for such gatherings
is an undemocratic one, and it is high time that a campaign were
waged im Vancouver for the elementary right of free speech and
assembly without having to apply to a local Goebbels for per-
mission.

rs

2)

Outlawing the Sit-Down Strike
HE Kine government, according to press reports is sone
fs : oS IDEs DOES) soms
to outlaw the sit-down strike in compliance with the de-
mands of the employers who see in the new strike technique a

Cet WO tte

NEWS

March 26, 198%

The Ruling Clawss

By REDFIELD

By BECHKIE EWEN

In the great struggle for de-
mocracy now raging in Spain, Ca-
nadian workers are playing a very
important part. Many of our best
sons are on the firing line. Madrid
has not fallen; on the contrary, the
Fascist hordes are being swept
back. The supreme heroism of the
Spanish people and the great iIn-
ternational Brigade is beating back
the invader and preparing the
graveyard for Fascism. And among
the names of those who have built
of their bodies a wall to break the
onslaught of the Fascist enemy is
the name of Pete Zepkar—Ca-
nadian!

We who knew Comrade Zepkar
saw embodied in him the best of
the Ganadian emigrant workers,
who have given so much in the up-
building of this country. A Jugo-
Slav worker, he came here many
years ago, and helped his fellow
workers to organize in the steel
mills of Wamilton, the lumber
camps of Port Arthur, and in many
other places. He was a loyal and
active member of the Communist
Party.

Because of his persistent wors in
the revolutionary movement, par-
ticularly in the lumber workers’
strike of Port Arthur in 1934, the
Bennett regime singled him out for
their jails, in which he served a
long sentence and was then de-
ported.

But persecution only strengthened
our loyal comrade, his Communist
beliefs, and understandings. I saw
him last in Moscow in 1935, where
he was recuperating from his jail
experience, and he told me he was
soon going back to his native land
where, under severe conditions of
terrorism, he would continue the
work he had carried on in Canada.
When the invasion of demo-
eratic Spain began, Zepkar was one
of the first to volunteer his services
in the International Brigade, and
fell in action a few weeks ago.
Canadian people honor the
memory of this brave fighter. He
has given us an heroic example.
Wis heroism, together with the

against the

meeting after the fascist Cross
carrying on under a new naine.

will not soon forget.
The impudent flaunting
tion by the fascists was a proyoc
down the government.

menace to their excessive profit-taking and denial of the right
of workers to organize.

Tt will be recalled that when the workers of England first
began to organize into trade unions, laws were passed#making
such organizations illegal and anyone who joined them was liable
to imprisonment. It will also be recalled that Iron-Heel Bennett
invoked Section 98 (since repealed) to destroy the Communist
Party. :

Neither imprisonment of the early trade nionists of Ene-
land nor of the Communisis of Canada stamped out either trade
unionism or Communism. But the defeat of the attempts of the
reactionary forces of those days was not accomplished without
struggle. And the attempt of the bie industrialists and bankers,
through the King government, to prevent sit-down strikes, can
be defeated only by organized mass resistance in which the trade
unions play a leading role.

The sit-down strike has been evolved out of the needs of the
unions for a modern method of strugele to cope with the many
new methods, legal and illegal, evolved by the employers to prevent
trade union organization and collective bargaining.

Labor must fight to the last ditch for the right to the sit-down
strike. Workers and trade unions should shower the ing goy-
ernment and the members of parliament from their respective
constituencies with protests agaimst this latest yielding by the
federal government to the demands of the employers who are
whining because the new wave of organization under the leader-
ship of the CIO and the sit-down strike are forcing them to rec-
ognize bona fide unionism and imerease wages.

—,

Fascist Provocation in France

HE Trotskyists, those enemies
foes of a people’s front everywhere, are continuing their
service to counter-revolutionary fascism by berating the Com-
muunists of France for not bringing about the fall of the Popular
Front government headed by Blum because of his use of police

of the people of Spain and

protested mightily against the
into the fascist trap.

They served
be put to his easy-going,

ously put into effect the law against Tascist
At the same time they know that the
of the Popular Front would be followed by a
TO |

breal them wp.
of the eovermment
seovernment

power: for, despi

“Tired, sir?”

PETE ZEPKAR. HERO
OF CANADIAN LABOR

camed

heroism of tens of thousands in
Spain, and the mighty support of
the people outside, including the
common people of Canada, ensures
the victory of the progressive forces
over Fascism.

OPEN
FORUM |

Speaks On
United Front

Editor, BG Workers’ News:
J believe that the CP of London
worked and supported the labor

eandidates for the LCC even though
there was no united front organized,
thereby avoiding a split vote. It
must haye been very galling to the
reactionary laborites, but what
could they do about it?

{ thought of this a month ago,
and when I spoke of it to a radi-
cal worker, he laughed and thought
it was a perfect joke and that it
was the correct thing to do.

So it would Seem that in places
where the united front has not
accomplished, it might be a good
policy to follow this up. TSE. JEE
A Country
Viewpoint
Editor, BC Workers’ News:

Permit me to state the opinion
of many people here regarding
unity of the CP with the CCE.

The position has changed since
1933 and there are signs of pro-
Fascist tendencies which make
unity very necessary if we are to
defeat Fascismi and obtain some-
thine to satisfy our own needs.

I believe the Communist party
stands for progress, such progress
as the CCF ean never make so
long as it allows itself to be in-
fluenced by the cunning Trotsky-
ists,

Gomradely yours,
PAISY 3s:
BC.

LAZAROFF.
Cinema,

down auti-taseists can not be co
than two million workers woder t
munists and the trade mmicns was a demonstration that

of reaction and the rapid advance
te its shortcomings, the people’s front government

Socialists and Conmmunists in the recent clash with
the fascists headed by de la Roque and the ex-Trotskyist Doriot.
Blum can not be exculpated for his protection of a fascist
g of Fire was declared illegal, and
The use of special police to shoot
ndoned: and the strike of more
he leadership of Socialists, Com-

Blam

of the existence of their organiza-
ation with the:object of bringing
But while the
action of Blum, they did not fall

Soejalists and Comiinists

ynmistakable netice on Blam that an end miust
vascillatine policy, that he must yigor-

organizations and
downfall

of tascism

+s essential to the holding back and even-ual crushing of fascism.
cro

For a Progressive Youth Movement!
Oe. of developments in the youth movement in
I

2ritish Columbia will agree that the announcement of the

Proyine'al Executive

erease its dues-paying membership to «
by the time of its Proyineial Convention, to be held

of the Young Communist League to in-

louble its present number
April 17

and 18, is timely and of great im )ortance.

Tn the struggle against young Trotskyists
youth movement who are attempting
and ultimately destroy it, a strong
in aidine sincere elements in the Exe
yy jomtly working out a practical

ean be of ereat assistance
to oust the Trotskyists, and |
program for the youth of iEXEY

Tn rhe broad Youth €

within the CCF
to narrow it down, disrupt
Younes; Communist League

Jjoneress movement that is at present

being built in Vancouver a strong Young Communist League
ean contribute much m the fight a@aimst reactionary influences

which seek to mislead youth.
Because of the fact that the

YCL is deeply concerned with

every-day problems of youth, it has endeavored in every way to

strengthen youth

organizations. The policy and program of the

Young Communist League makes it a driving force in the Youth

movement. No greater contribu-

*on can be made to the future

of British Columbia’s youth than building of the YCL into a
larger and more influential organic ation.

jing

French Fascists Plot
Against People’s Front

PARIS, France, March 24.
Backed by mobile guards and
marked by gunfire on the part of
fascists, the murderous attack on a
workers’ demonstration last week
may be the signal for a general re-
pbellion of reactionaries against the
People’s Front government of
France. The seriousness of such a
situation, surpassing as it would
the present danger in Spain, might
be the torch to start the continent
of Burope flaming.

The fascists, armed with guns
and plenty of ammunition, suc-
eeeded in killing five workers and
one policeman. For weeks they
have been arming and secretly drill-
ing to effect a coup.

The plan in its entirety was ex-
posed last Septembe rby the Com-
munist paper l’Humanite, when the
fascist leagues were ordered dis-
banded. The paper reported that
Francois de la Rocque, fuehrer of
the Groix de Feu, was actively or-
ganizing a fascist putsch to over-
throw the people’s government and
slay prominent workers’ leaders.

Secret Orders.

Seeret orders had been issued to
“shock troops” to execute eertain
government, Socialist and Com-
munist leaders as the first step in
maxing France a fascist state. La
Rocque ordered his confreres to
“keep contact with active and re-
serve army officers, particularly
those in charge of guns, so we can
place our hands on guns and am-
munition at the desired moment.”

Secret instructions to buy guns
of every type obtainable at private
arm stores were issued, with de-
tails designed to commandeer var-
jous provincial towns.

The plan went into immediate
preparation and on Wov. 24, some
94.600 members of the banned or-
ganization appeared simultaneously
at Ghelles, a suburb of Paris, and
commenced maneuvers. Theri cars
were hidden in the establishment
of a wealthy garage-owner and the
fascist then spread over the town,
setting guards at erossings, block-
ing roads leading throlgh the little
jndustrial town, and “capturing”
strategie points.

Workers who became aware of
the import of these actions formed
small brigades and held themselves
in readiness. The took no provoca-
tive action and later reported the
matter to the government. Nothing
was done.

Financed by Arms Gang.

This whole plogram of fascist
rebellion is financed and organized
by emissaries of the Gomite des
Forges and the Schneider-CGreusot
armaments company. A conference
of metallurgical and commercial
enterprises Was called in Paris on
Christmas Eve of 1936, and al-
though financial papers reported
the conference as opposed to trade
union activity, it was known that a

fund had been instituted to finance
the fascist groups.

Each industrialist joining this
French counterpart of the Ameri-
can Liberty league agree to pay
one per cent of total weekly wages
paid his workers. In two weeks it
was estimated that 20 million francs
had been donated and the sum is
expected to overreach 120 millions
in less than a year. QDhe activities
of this ‘committee of action” in-
clude: obtaining information on
Communist party activities; supply-
ing funds to hold meeting by Jacque
Doriot and De La Rocque, comibat-
ting Gommunist propaganda, and
the forcible curtailment of trade
union activities.

Frequent Shootings.

This plan of espionage, sabotage,
armaments purchase and murder
has gone into the stage of practical
realization. Shootings in provincial
towns are manifold:

On Dec. 28, agents of 1’Humanite
and Populaire in district 14, Paris,
were beaten by fascists wielding
knives and rubber batons. Several
workers were injured and a police-
man who interceded was badly
hurt.

At Sjidi-bel-Abbes, several 1Hu-
manite vendors were beaten up and
when a crowd gathered to protect
them, Doriot agents fired into the
crowds with rapid-firing guns. One
man was killed and ten were badly
wounded. The worxers rushed the
fascists and mobile guards fero-
ciously attacked them and arrested
several. All fascist attackers went
untouched.

Tast August, at a People’s Front
election meeting in Corsica, a pas-
cist, under orders from Sabiani, the
chieftain, fired on the crowd and
killed one spectator. Four others
were seriously wounded. Hhis month
when a motorized propaganda ex-
pedition was met by a demonstra-
tion of French workers, revolver
shots fired into the thick of the
procession seriously wounded an
inhabitant of Valmy-.

A meeting at Yvetot was attacked
by fascists wielding long steel
rods and rubber batons. Two Com-
munist deputies, Renaud Jean and
Mocquet, were the main targets of
the hooligans.

France of France.

The Gomite de Forges and the
capitalist class of France have un-
Jeashed their reign of terror. To-
morrow Doriot or De La Rocque
may be picked as the Franco of
France, and blood will drown the
fleur de lys-

But the Freneh workers and the
middle class are marching. Unity
of the people for freedom, peace
and prosperity is better wielded
than the united People’s Front of
July, 1936, in Spain. The Hrench
working class has learned a lesson,
and UNITY is the watchword.

“Rebels Won't Take Madrid,”
Declares London Editor

ERSATZ!

L’Avant-Garde of Paris tells this
little Story about Ersatz, German
term applied to the erowing number
of substitute products.

“Tired of life under Hitler, he
bought a box of rat poison and,
returning home, swallowed the con-
tents. He lay down to die...
ing happened: the rat poison was
Ersatz, ?

“Stij] determined, he bought a
rope, tied it to a Post, kicked away
a chair and jumped. He landed
safely—the rope broke: it was
Ersatz,

“Deciding that he was not to die,
he grew cheerful and made up his
mind to Celebrate the recovery oL
his spirits. He wentito a restaurant,
had a good meal—and died as a
result of it: the meal was Ersatz.

NOTED BRITISH

ISOCIALIST ON

UNITED FRONT

In the present state of world af-
fairs we need, not a self-righteous
minority of Socialist Simon Pures

isolating itself from all contaminat-
contacts, but a majority for
the anti-rascist cause. But a major-
ity of Class-conscious Socialists is
wholly beyond our reach within the

limits of time within which we
are cOmpelled to work.
Accordingly, we have to seek al-

lies outside the Socialist ranks and
be ready collaborate. in the
emergency, with anyone who is pre-
pared to join us on the basis of an

to

immediate policy that will serve
our need.

55 _ Iam fully prepared to com-
bine with mnon-Socialists who be-|

lieve themselves to be on the demo-
cratic side in the present crisis. aE
fee] sure that, if they start work-
ing with us on our immediate pro-
eTam, most of them will be pre-
pared to go much further when the
time comes, and to accept the
necessity of a Socialist solution... -
ee _ I want, then, for the pres-
ent a crusade in every locality both
for the United and for the People’s
Front. No People’s Front is
of any use if it excludes the Com-
munists. _ The national People’s
Front can come only when local
success forees it upon the national
leaders, or throws up new and
more energetic leaders to take their
place—G. D. H. Cole in Labor
Monthly (London) for January.

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noth- !

|| People Will Win In End,’

Vernon Bartlett
States

VALENCIA, Spain, Mareh 24. —
(By Cable to FPP)—‘I am tremend-
ously impressed by the changes for
the better made during the past
four months since my last visit to

Spain,” Foreign Editor Vernon
Bartlett of the London WNews-
Chronicle, declared upon leavine
| Valencia,

, «7 4m particularly impressed
with fortifications around Madrid,

| the

which are so strong that £ doubt if
rebels can ever take the eapital.
Feaually impressive 1s the better dis-
cipline which prevails. Of course, it
is true that Valencia and other rear-
ira cities must learn to make
reiter sacrifices on behalf of Mad-
rid. and it is especially necessary to
oreanize improyed transport of sup-
plies to Madrid and there are many
ether problems, but the progress
made in four months is amazing.

People Will Win

‘“Pime works in favor of the loyal
ists, for the overwhelming mass of
the Spanish people support the re-
publican government. The mistake
of the Pascists is underestimating
power of resistance of the
masses fighting for liberty. On one
side you have the militarists and
privileged classes, on the other the
Spanish people. I am confident the
people will win in the end.”

Bartlett hopes the new control
plan will operate in favor of the
government, for he says Franco de-
pends far more than the Loyalists
on foreign aid.

“Tf Germany and Italy violate the

agreement, it will foree the demo-
cratic governments to recognize
that the Fascists never respect

agreements and will bring conserva-
five Englishmen into a2 more sym-
pathetic attitude toward the Span-
ish republicans,” he says.

‘Th

4

EN
t)

ey Say.

President Roosevelt behaved in
the manner of a true gentleman.
His neutrality legislation is a ges-
ture we Nationalists shall never
forset.””—Francisco Franco, gen-
eralissimo of Spanish Fascists.

‘Recovery has now gathered
such momentum that minor hand-
rances cannot check the vigorous
upward swing. . Industry is
able today to lift workers’ living
standards nearer the comfort level
than ever before.” — American
Federation of Labor monthly sur-

vey of business.

Ear
——¥

SHORT
JABS

ooo

By
OL’ BILL

$200 We are on the spot, that

is, Ol’ Bill and those
Wanted. who think this column
should be continued in the paper
when it comes out in its new garb,
“The People’s Advocate.”

You will see in another part of
the paper that this column has been
assigned the task of raising $100 a=
a quota during the April Drive for
the press. Do you think it can be
done, and have you any suggestions.
that will make it easy to double:
the quota? Slim Eyans allows he
is going to raise more than any
other individual in the drive. Tf
you all get behind Ol’ Bill’s column
we'll put the sxids under him, but
it will take real support, for he is:
no slouch.

If you are a member of a press:
committee already, get your com—
mittee to follow the example of the
Salmon Arm committee that raised
$5 for Ol Bill’s quota in the last
drive. If you are not a member of
a press committee and would like to
help, send me your name and ad-
dress and I will send you a list on
which to collect donations for this
column. Tom McInnes or Gerry
McGeer need not send for one, but
everybody else is invited.

As a little encouragement, to
every individual who collects 4 dol-
Jar or more, an autographed photo
of Ol Bill will be awarded, and
to every press committee that raises
$5 for the column, a photo of the
nameplates of labor papers of BC
since 1885 will be given. These
photos show the matheads of al—
most all the labor papers, 34 in
number, that have been published
in this province. They are about
18 inches square and when framed
will make a suitable and instructive
ornament to hang in a working-
class hall or home. This offer is
open to individuals as well as com—
mittees.

Wow everybody get busy. I would
particularly like the boys and girls
who read this column every weelk
to help on this job; then Twill know
that when old codgers like Bruce
and myself are carted out to the
bonevard our places are being well
and creditably filled.

This is the slogan: “$200 or more
—but beat Slim Hyvans!”’

A Capitalist A shiver of horror

So swept across the
Calamity. U.S. and Canada a
few days ago when a school in Texas
was destroyed by an explosion that
killed 455 children. This calamity,
which bit deeply into the hearts of
every class of people in both coun—
tries, created a more profound re-
action than the recent Ohio-
Mississippi floods that involved over
a million sufferers, because the
victims were all young boys and
girls standing on the threshold of
life.

The evidence that has been ten—
dered to the military court investi-
gating the ghastly disaster, proves
that the blame must be laid to the
eredit of the capitalist system.
“Bconomy,” cheapness, was respon—
sible for the change from the orig—
jnal heating system to the gas Sys—
tem that filled hollow tile walls
with explosive gas that only needed
a spark from a switch to destroy
the lives of 455 hopeful, eager,
young Americans. Bolsheyism cer-
tainly cannot be blamed for this
horrible catastrophe.

While we can only feel the utmost
sympathy for the sufferers fronz
this capitalist crime, do not let us
forget that every fascist murderer
that drops his gas-laden messengers
of death on the helpless school chil-
dren of Madrid and other Spanish
towns creates an equal or greater
amount of suffering. These little
murdered Spanish children are vic-
tims of the same capitalist money—
greed as the boys and girls of New

London, Texas.
=

* + *
“Soviet Everybody is so busy,
;, So pressed for time, in
Annual this age of bustle, that
few can find more than a spare Mo~-
ment to read the literature of any
particular subject they are inter-
ested in. This is one of the reasons
for boiled-down digests, that give
readers the “meat” of great num-—
bers of international magazines
and periodicals in a form that can
be assimilated while cating lunch-
The “Soviet Annual” is, in @
sense, in this category, as it is a2
digest of the contents of the “Mos-
cow News” of the past year; but it
is much wider as it is at the same
time a text-book containing yalu-
able data on every phase of de-
velopment of Soviet industry, po-
litical institutions, culture, and re-
lations with the capitalist world.
Although some of the data can
only be presented through the
medium of figures, these are so
worked in as to be really interest-
ing—in contra-distinction to the
usually repellant economic charts,
The meaning of the new Soviet
Constitution: the conquests and
perspectives of Soviet industry and
science: the difference between
Soviet and capitalist culture, and
the peace policy of the USSR—all
are covered in this modest digest,
which should be in the hands of all
friends of progress and peace to ré-
move doubts and clinch arguments,
Tt may be bought at the New Age
Bookshop for 15 cents.

‘Wage increases and shortened
hours are being granted im the
hope that they may forestall de-
mands, and so avoid strikes.” —
Cleveland Trust Co.

Organized labor comprises only
about 10 per cent of the employes
in the U.S. The vast army of 96
per cent are still free workers.’”’—
Frank FE. Eberhardt, machine
Works executive, in Iron Age.

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