Page Siz The Peoples Advocate Published Weekly by the PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASSN. Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BG: Telephone: Trinity 2019 One Year ..-..+---- $1.80 Half Year Three Months .50 Single Copy Make All Checks Payable to: The People’s Advocate. Send All Copy and Manuscript to the Chairman of the Editorial Board. Send all Monies and Letters Pertain- ing to Advertising and Circulation to Business Mgr. Vancouver, B.C., Friday, May 21, 1937 Silence Over Hedley HE Big Shots seem to have secured an agreement between the Liberal and Tory parties that both will keep quiet about the Hed- ley Mines swindle. The temptation to take ad- yantage of the mess for political purposes must have been very great to the Tory politicians, but they couldn’t pursue it because big; shot supporters of the Tory party as well as of the Liberal party were into it up to their ears themselves. Accordingly, the papers of both capitalist parties have nothing to say about it these days. Eyerything is hushed up. The arrest of two men who worked in the mine was made to fur- nish a sub judice excuse tor putting the lid on. A progressive government at Victoria would be in a position to expose more of the dirty work that went on im the game of fleecing the public. But a Tory government would shield the fnan- cial gangsters just as carefully as they were al- lowed to carry on their erookedness for the last year and more. The-Tory Menace ie the provincial elections of 1933 the people of B.C. took a stride forward by throwing the Tory Tolmie gang out of oftice. The great popular vote for the CCF was further evidence of the distance travelled by the people. Pattullo betrayed the people who trusted him by shamelessly bending to the will of the big interests. So far had Pattullo, Pearson and Sloan (when he was in the government) gone over to open service to reaction that many of the progressively inclined members and sup- porters of the Liberal party were, and still are, in a state of open revolt. Pattullo’s jettisoning of the Health Insurance Bill at the bidding of the big interests and the Medical Association was about the last straw. But Pattullo and his close associates have the machine, they have the slush fund, and continue in the Liberal saddle. The great danger in this election is that the people who swept Pattullo into office because of his Work and Wages and other promises, and who now feel outraged by the actions of the Pattullo government will in their disgust turn to the Tory party with its new falsetace and demagogic promises. Big busines with its open shop policy is not entirely satisfied with a Liberal government, for there are rebellious elements that Pattullo finds difficult to control. What the Big Shots want is a downright reactionary government, in other words, a Tory government of the iron heel, one that would staash, even more ruthless- ly than did Pattullo, all militant unions and force even more extreme exploitation and sup- pression upon the people. The greatest danger facing the people of B.C. at this time is the Tory partys bid tor power by a majority in the legislature, or, failing in that, having a bloc sufficiently strong to be 10 a position to force a coalition with the reac tionary wing of the Liberal party. The Tory outfit, with their daggers beneath the gloves of demagogic pretence, must be turned back, definitely and conclusively. Fake Election Issues HE Tory and Liberal candidates and their supporters are busy at the old game of creating false issues in order to confuse the electors and divert attention trom the real issues. Lhe annexation of the Yukon, the pogrom spirit bemg worked up against Orient- als, chatter about prosperity and the restored eredit of B.C., these are some of the things they are trying to interest the people in. The prosperity that has returned to B.C. has not returned to the great mass of the people. The increase in production and trade has not improved the standard of living of the work ers; all it means is that the owners of the indus- tries, most of whom do not live in B.C. at all, are reaping greater profits to drag out ot the provinee, further despoiling the natural re- sources and impoverishing the people. As a matter of cold fact, the upturn in in- Instry has lowered the standard of living of the workers, because of the increased and still increasing cost of living without a correspond- ing rise in wages to meet it, which means that real wages have fallen. The cost of having restored the eredit of the province simply means that the bondholders and absentee owners of industry are assured that they will get thei cut before the elementary needs of the people are satisfied, that their in- comes will not be further taxed and the com- mon people will be compelled to continue carry- ing the grievous tax burden. What the workers, farmers and small busi- ness men need is increased purchasing power which calls for higher wages, greater returns for primary products, and a lightening of the load of taxation which is erushing the people of our province. Tn order to gain this merease of purchasing power, it is necessary to have trade union organ- ization. And in no province in Canada is gen- wine unionism fought against as viciously and as persistently as in B.C. Im this province company unionism is forced down the throats of workers, while company towns are permitted to exist and flourish, controlling socially, econ- omically and politically, the lives of the hapless workers and preventing them exercising the ele mentary and democratic right te organize into unions of their own design, selection and choosing. The Pattullo government has been the plant tool of the Shipping Federation, the mining companies and the lumber barons in smashing unions. The murderous attack upon the Cor- bin miners, their wives and children; the use of provincial police against the slave eamp strikers, and in the waterfront strike of 1935; the intimidation of lumber workers in the log ging camps by provincial police; the diatribes of Pearson against the Project Workers because they dared to organize into a union—these and other acts of the Pattullo government show con- stant yielding to the pressure of big business. The workers must once and for all put a stop to the advance of reaction. Demoeratic and civil rights, which have been abrogated, must be restored. The immediate step to this end is the election of Communist, Progressive, C.G.F. and Labor candidates, who will fight to secure progressive labor and social legislation and hamstring reaction in the legislative assembly. No Support tor Whitham N the struggle of the Communist Party to form a united front with the CCF, the argu- ment often used was that the Communists were not sincere. Hyents, however, have abundantly showed that they were sincere. Tt is a regrettable fact that in North Van- couver a delegation of Communists who visited CCF headquarters to offer support in the cam- paign met with insults and refusal of their prof- tered assistance. On top of that, the reactionary elements in the CCF in North Vancouver are circulating a slan- derous statement to the effect that the Commu- nist Party is secretly opposing the CCF eandi- date in that riding and is behind the candida- ture of the alleged Socialist Whitham. The Communist Party is not responsible for nor does it support Whitham, who is a splitter of the progressive vote, a stooge in the field for no purpose other than that; and it ill becomes members of the CCF campaign committee to resort to slander in order to cover up their own anti-unity position. A Trotskyist Howl ROTSKYISTS who machined themselves into nominations under the CCF banner affect to be surprised at the refusal of halls to them by mass working-class organizations such as the U-L.F.T.A. and the Canadian Labor De- fense league. Workine-class organizations the world over are taking the same stand against these anti working class elements. And the CCF ofticials have had repeated notification that the Commu- nists and all other honest, wideawake people would in no circumstances tolerate, much less endorse, Trotskyists whether they drape them- selves in thé garments of the CCF or in the tattered rags of the counter-reyolutionary, pro- fascist scum that they are. Trotskyism does not represent any tendency or wing of the labor or progressive movement, it is against progress, and the unity that can effect it, at all times and everywhere. That Trotskyites have wormed their way into the CGF, even occupy prominent positions and, ip a few instances, have secured nominations in the provincial elections, is a stain upon the CCF which should be wiped out by open repudiation of them and their expulsion from the party. The bitterest enemies of unity of anti-capi- talist forces, the Trotskyists, were sheltered and protected in the GCF by anti-unity leaders in order, through the unholy alliance, to resist the demand for unity that was becoming more power ful and insistent within the CCF. The halls referred to were rented in good faith to the CCF as a working-class political party, but when it was learned that the individuals who were to use the hall were Trotskyists who had wormed their way into the CCF, the agree- ment was cancelled. Im this case it is nonsense or worse to talk about ‘“‘free speech” in the ab- stract. There can be no free speech for Trotsky- ists any more than for other fascist elements. Every facility should be provided OOF eandi- dates with the exception of the Trotskyists who should have been thrown out of the CCF long ago. And if the CCF takes up the cudgels for them it will only further tie the party to Trotsky- ism and discredit the whole movement. Health Insurance HE Health Insurance legislation introduced into the last provincial legislature by Hon. Mr. Weir, although unsatisfactory in many re spects, nevertheless was good social legislation in principle and a step in the right direction. Opposition and pressure from big corpora- tions and the organized doctors was strong enough to cause the government to suspend op- erations of the Act and refer the matter to the people by plebiscite on June 1. The people should vote “Yes” on this ques- tion, though it is put in general terms. Once established, the law can be amended so as to make it include all indigents and those for whom such a measure is supposed to serve. The best euarantee that improvements by amendment can be made is to send the strongest possible group of progressives into the next ADVOCATE if Spain Calls Britis May 21, 193% h Columbia By TOM EWEN Spain is still bleeding! The Fascist barbarians of Mussolini, Hitler and Franco still pursue their murderous raids upon a democratic peo- ple. Villagers and towns= people, defenceless women and little children are murdered in cold blood by the aerial vul- tures of Fascism. Daily we read of these raids con- ducted with a systematic callous- ness that is almost inhuman. Madrid—Bilbao—death and de- struction. The Four Horsemen— Hunger, Fascism, War and Death, ride roughshod over the people of Spain, while we in British Colum- bia seek refuge in our isolation and democratie sense of security. x Imperial Britain, under the jead of the Baldwin national povern- ment, gives aid and moral support, to Mussolini, Hitler and Franco in their ruthless attempts to subjugate the Spanish people and place upon them the yoke of Fascism. a The blockade and non-interven- tion pact—hypocritically paraded as an aid to the Spanish people—in actuality are helping the Fascists. International law and the covenant of the League of Nations are cynically set aside under the pre- text of averting war and Fascism is permitted to proceed unhamper- ed with its program of devastation. The Foreign Enlistment Act of the Mackenzie King government is indicative of the extent to which Ganada is still tied to the apron strings of British foreign policy. And British foreign policy in the Spanish war against Fascism un- dertakes to assure a victory for Fascism. Indignation of the great masses of the British people and of the whole peace-loving peoples of the world is breaking through this Im- perial ring of steel and hypocrisy to bring aid to the heroic Spanish people. The International Brigade is a symbol of this worldwide sup- port of the fight for peace and democracy. Here, in these men of many nationalities, are enshrined the hopes and aspirations of all humanity—to live in democratic neighborliness and peace. * Four hundred Canadian boys are in this International Brigade —Communist, CCF, Liberal, Non- Spain Week ( May 3sO- June D Partisan, Catholic, Gentile and Jew—fighting shoulder to shoul- der against the bloodiest scourge the world has ever known. Al- ready many of these Canadians have paid the supreme sacrifice on Spanish soil in order that democracy and freedom may pre- yail in the world—in their own lands. ; They—with the Blood Trans- fusion unit under Dr. Norman Bethune—ceall upon you in British Golumbia to give greater aid to them, and to Spain. More Canadian medical units must be organized to save life in Spain and more of Can- ada’s sons must go to Spain to halt the wanton destruction of life. * When the British skippers ran their freighters laden with food supplies for the brave Basque de- fenders of Bilbao into port— right under the guns of the allied fleets of Imperialism—they wrote a deathless page in British history, the Britain of the working class. They symbolized the granite hard truth uttered by Joseph Stalin in his message to the central commit- tee of the © Pof Spain “The liberation of Spain from the yoke of the Fascist reactionaries is not the private affair of the Span- jards, but the common cause of all advanced and progressive human- ity Let this message echo in very town and hamlet of British Col- umbia. Deep in the mines and in the logging camps. Out on the fishing grounds and far . back into the hinterland Spain is our business. Spain is our fight. British Columbia will stand by its sons on the fighting line of democracy. * From May 30 to June 9 let Brit- ish Columbia, with the rest of Can- ada, institute a Spanish week A week of active mobilization in aid of Spain. Trade unions; language, cultural and peace organizations; church people and professional groups of all kinds; farm organiza- tions. All should concentrate during this period on a real drive in aid of Spain. Organize mass meetings, tag days, special services in church, demonstrations in school by the children in support of their little comrades in Spain ,menaced now by Fascist bombs. Make it a real British Columbia Spanish Week. Spanish Aid commiuitees should be set up in every community to help in the organization of a second medical unit to Spain and to assist the Bethune unit with money and medical supplies. To assist in the mobilization of humane opinion that will smash through the im- perialist blockade and bring food, clothing, medicine and medical sup- plies to the Spanish people. A drive in aid of Spain that will halt the shipment of armaments direct or indirect from Canada to the Fascist governments of Japan, Italy, Germany and the Spanish rebels. Make this week of May 30- June 9 a week of mobilization in defense of Spanish democracy to the end that our own democracy may live. Talk Spain! aie the needs of the people of Spain and the serious international complications a topic of conversation with your friends. Act for Spain! Bring the peace- loving people of your neighborhood together and form committees to work with and through a mighty movement to aid Spanish democ- racy. Give until it hurts! Because it Can never hurt so much as the body of a little child mangled by a Fascist bomb. Your dimes trans- formed into medicine and blood transfusion may Save the life of a Spanish child or a Canadian lad fighting the greatest battle of all time. Demand from your political rep- resentatives and aspirants for the legislature that they will fight with you to preserve democracy in Can- ada by lifting their voices in de- fense of Spain. Make these poli- ticians assist you in breaking through the blockade against the people of Spain in order that the Coo By OL’ BILL It is to be The Almost hoped that Perfect Drama those workers in the field of proletarian culture and their allies who are attempting to mould @ stage that will reflect, artistically, the actual conditions of life today —the Progressive Arts Players, New Theatre movement, Little Theatre and so forth— were listening in te at least some parts of the Corona- tion mummeries, a week ago, not the circus part of the show, but the dramatization of it for the mil- lions out of sight but mot out of hearing. This dramatization was an object lesson to all our amateur Thespians, surpassing in its impact on the slaves of Empire any mere stage production, even though bolstere@ up by a combination of genius like the Bard of Ayon and Sir Henry Irving. I was compelled to this conclusion listening to a part of the program sponsored by the BBG, the almost perfect drama. Qut of the fartlunge corners of the Empire came voices of welcome and loyalty to this new symbol of class rule. A 70-year-old Cockney who hac lived through three events of a like character, a Welsh coal-miner, an old Scots woman, who knew the Queen when she was a “wee lassie,” a Belfast schoolboy, a Saskatchewan farmer, a girl from French Canada, 45 planter from the West Indies, a Boer gold-miner from the Rand, a Maori member of the New Zealand Parliament, an Indian Babu, an Australian boundary rider and @ people of Canada may respond as they desire to da. Make this a week for Spain! Make tke slogan of Werdun that gave Canada so proud a place in history relive in Spain with greater emphasis — They shall not pass! Help your sons and the sons of meny lands fighting side by side with the sons of Spain drive the Fascist menace from her soil. Help Spain to live! : Through the medium of the Hitler-Lansbury talk, a cun- ning diplomatic move is being made by Nazi Germany to further its aggressive aims. Lansbury’s visit to Berlin has presented Hitler with an opportun- ity to once again try and throw dust into the eyes of the people. Under cover of hypocritical pre- tences about being concerned with peace, the Nazis are making use of Lansbury as an instrument for at- tempting to play upon Left opinion in Britain to suit German Fascism’s sinister purposes, . It is already well known that the whole trend of the National Goy- ernment’s policy plays up to the idea of a free hand for Hitler in astern Europe. The motive underlying Hitler's latest move in meeting and convers- ing with Lansbury is very definitely to aim at bringing Labor and paci- fist opinion in Britain in line with this. The comments made by the Nazi press organs on the talk between Hitler and Lansbury make this erystal clear. Abundant Proof Of Aggression The whole world has already had abundant proof of German Fas- cism’s aggressiveness. Time and again Hitler has resorted to the most blatant war provocation, and has made no secret of his intentions to conduct a war drive to the East. Yet in spite of all this, Mr. Lans- bury declares he got all that he wanted from Hitler, and iS satisfied that: “Germany is willing to go with a good heart into an international conference which may help in keep- ing the world at peace.” What touching faith in the ruth- Jess and bloodthirsty dictator who bas violated treaty after treaty, and who executes and puts to the tor- ture the best sons of the German people! Hitler is after a conference all right. But the type of conference he wants is one consisting of im- perialist powers calculated to assist his war aims, with the Soviet Union excluded from its proceed- ings. Lansbury’s admission that question of Russia attending proposed conference was never sidered, testifies to the truth of this. Such a conference would be used by Hitler as a sounding-board to raise once again Fascist Germany's claims for a redistribution of the colonies, the demand for which Hit- Jer is busily driving forward as hard as he can, with a special eye on the Ukraine. Hitler-Lansbury Talk Swindle Under the circumstances it is not surprising that Hitler erected Lans- bury very “cordially.” Under the Nazi regime the in- ternal situation of Germany is be- the the con- coming more and more desperate. The economic and financial diffi- culties facing the Nazis as a re- sult of their colossal armaments drive haye become exceedingly acute. legislature. Hitler's hypocritical pretence of Hitlers Manoeuvre being for “peace’’ which Lansbury now acts as a mouth-piece for, is designed to procure assistance which would enable Germany to ease up on her economic difficulties and thereby facilitate Hitler's war plans. One has only to look to Spain te see what Hitler is up to. A German army has invaded Spain and is striving to throttle the Spanish Republic, and yet Lansbury, in over two hours’ talk with Hitler, never mentions a word about it. What a complete swindle the Witler-Lansbury talk is. But it is a swindle which should awaken feel- ings of the deepest alarm in the British Labor movement and rouse all of us to still greater efforts to defeat this latest plan of the Ias- cist war-makers. JENNY CLARK FOR CARIBOO | It is a straight two-party fight in the Cariboo. The CCE nominee, through technical and other diffi- culties, failed to qualify. It is a contest between Louis LeBourdais, Liberal ‘Yes man’’ of the mining companies, and Mrs. Jenny Clark, Independent. This working-class woman of the Cariboo is neither CCF, Communist, nor Socialist of any hue, but she is a good fighter for the needs of the common people in her constituency. She will oppose any and all anti- workingclass legislation. She is prepared to help the miners puild powerful unions to wrest from the mining corporations a greater share of the fabulous wealth pro- duced by the miners. She will fight for greater hospital and school facilities in the Cariboo. She will fight to bring the needs of the farming communities in her constituency to the forefront. Above all she does not “yes, Sir’ the repre- sentatives of Canada’s financial barons. All these are good argu- ments why Jenny Clark should be elected. The CP of BC urges all the pro- gressive people in the Cariboo to support Jenny Clark with their votes and influence and see that she is elected on June 1. SEO SSSOOSSS TIM BUCK 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 pm. —- 3pm.toizpm. —- People’s Advocate Office, Gu ET ez SESS SSOSSOOOC OOS SPOOLS SSSSSSSS SSS SSIS SS SSS SSS SSS SOS SSSR. SOINTULA A Study In Progress By BECKIE EWEN During my recent yisit to Soi- tula, I was impressed by the amount of self-saecrificing activity carried on by many there in the interest of the progressive movement with its workers” halls, co-operative, and strong labor sentiment. The women especially play an important part in these activities and it was an inspiring sight for me to see the large number of women in the audiences I was in- vited to address. The women’s sewing circle has raised hundreds of dollars for Spain and every activity of the progressive movement is supported by them. A notable affair was the women’s garden meeting, where, by means of a raffle, $10 was raised for the Communist election fund. The women were also a driving force in last year’s fishing strike. Malcolm Island, where Sointula is situated, is a beautiful spot, ap- preciated by its population and visitors alike, but capitalism has cast its blight here as elsewhere and mothers are confronted with the same questions of a future for the youth, how to Xeep them in- terested in the labor movement, manual and vyocational training, sports activities and other problems. * * = Meetings which I attended, work- ed out ways and means for the im- provement of many things on the island. The building of roads, for instance. Imagine having to walk miles along a cow trail in the rainy season because the government has built no roads. Or when sickness strikes, the mearest doctor is at Alert Bay and the only conveyance is by boat during all Kinds of weather. All these issues are being prought out in the present election cam- paign, in which the majority of this community is supporting Colin Cameron, GCF candidate. The international solidarity of these folk! A meeting on Spain draws them out in the pouring rain, trudging miles to attend. Burmese all said their little piece in their own particular ‘bat,’ and, at appropriate intervals, a few judi- cious words were thrown in by pro- consuls like Stanley Baldwin, Mac- Kenzie King, Hertzog, Savage and others. None of them A Competent mentioned the Performance Capitalist system, but their collec- tive effort was directed towards its perpetuation. Only the Welsh miner referred to the misery of life under that system, saying: “It is hard to understand why there should be so much magnificance and display or wealth when one looks around and sees the suffering and destitution of the valleys of my native country.” I said this was almost the perfect Portuguese gun-smuggler and 2 Fascist Spanish manager from the Rio Tinto mines the Empire would have stood out in bolder relief and the drama would haye been closer to perfection. And if a Bengal detenue from the concentration camp at Chittagong or the Andaman Islands, a striking bus driver from Tondon, a disin- herited Indian from the Cariboo liv- ine on $3.50 a month relief and one of the boys who were sent to jait a couple of weeks ago for refusing to die of starvation had been brought up to the mike, the drama- tization would have been plupertect. @f course the event had its tragic side, too. It wrote finish to the sale of silk ‘“‘panties’” featuring the Union Jack, prayer books issued by the Oxford University Press, bound in red, white and blue; and whether this is tragedy or farce I don’t know—$2.50 for a seat and no rain checks. “General’’ Qwen Duf- Generals fy, the modern c¢ru- i sader who left Old Die in Bed Ireland with a small Fascist band to fight for the Catho- lic religion in Spain alongside of Moorish Moslems and German heathens, is now back im Treland, but minus the greater part of his followers. Duffy and his followers have been disillusioned regarding the service they were performing for their re- ligion and now claim that nobody among the Fascist hordes was fight- ing for the Catholic Chureh but themselves, in fact, their Fascist Spanish, Moorish, Italian, German allies turned the machine guns on them, probably to show how much they loved Mother Church, too. This experience will not turn O'Duffy against his own brand of Fascism, but it has had a healthy reaction from some of the little band of workers whom he had succeeded in deceiving. To men who have any honesty and sincerity about them nothing We women in Vancouver can VS ~ PELE SSSSSS é c 5 SS SSSSSSSSS> SSS SOO S ESSSSS SSS SS SSS Grand Banquet and Dance Canadian Legion Hall, New Westminster SATURDAY, MAY 22nd Guest Speakers: Dance to Music of Pete Cowan's Old-Timers Tickets on sale at 45 Sixth Street, New Westminster, and Room 10, 163 W. Hastings St., Vancouver. learn much from these hardy set- tlers on this isolated isle. OP 9S SSGOSIOOOOF x E. H. BAKER - Supper and Floor Show. S5EOSOCSIOSSS sf «‘ xy serves so well to lay bare the yici- ous character of Fascism as actual contact with it. From another part of the battlefront comes the story of another Irishman who went to Spain to defend the ideals that shaped his life, the Rey. Robert Hilliard, the “Boxing Curate’ of Belfast, who represented Treland in the Olympic Games at Berlin last year. The weeks he spent in Nazi- Jand during the Olympics convinced him that Fascism had to be fought if Civilization was ta be saved. About the same time that the Fas- cist O" Duffy arrived back in Treland, friends of the Rey. Hilliard received word that he had been killed fight- ing on the side of the people of Spain. He had gone right from the demonstrations of Fascism in action at its centre to prevent it spreading further abroad, willing ta lay down his life even for that purpose- Among civilized and intelligent people in Ireland, Hilliard’s name swill be honored but that of O’Duity will forever be erected with curses. drama. If the BBC had called on 2 |