Page Four

PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

June 25, 1937

B.C. Trade Uni

HE big truck driver at
the crowded counter of

the Hastings street restau-
rant finished the last of his
sandwich and thrust the
plate to one side. Deftly he
rolled a cigarette and lit it.
The blond& waitress with the
tired blue eyes picked up a noon
edition left by the man in the
check suit who had sat a fuil hour

over his coffee studying racing:
form and pushed it along the

counter toward him_

“Yere’s the paper for you, Joe,”
she said.

“Say, that’s service all right,”
remarked the big truck driver, and
fhe waitress smiled as she hurried
away to take another order.

Idly, the big man seanned the
headlines into which so much
subtle propaganda had been intro-
duced. “Picket Lines Thinner AS
Loyal Workmen Answer Strikers’
Challenge.” How many would read
that and believe that the strike
really was weakening? “War Con-
{ract Will Create Many Wew Jobs
Here?’ Who, reading that, would
ponder over jhe profits also
created, profits that must ulti-
mately come out of the pockets of
the working man to pay for his
own destruction?

An item caught his eye and for
a minute he read intently. Then,
{urning to the man at the next
stool, a truck driver like himself,

he indicated the item at the foot
of the page-

“Read that, Charlie,”” he urged.
“Boy, I'm telling you, this ClO”
sure is going places.”

Along the waterfront, jn mining
and logging camp bunkhouses, in
the factories and workshops of the
cities, everywhere, they're talkange
about industrial unionism and dis-
cussing the CLO.

Wot for years has an ything
eaught the imagination of the
working Man so vividly as this

tremendous upsurge of unionisn2
in these stirring days of 1937. Im:
newspaper headlines, on the news-
reels, he can see his fellow work
men marching forward in their
thousands, irresistibly overcoming
obstacles that a short while ago
seemed insuperable.

yerywhere, inspired by Sweep-
ing CIO successes in the United
States, the working man has awak-
ened to a new awareness of the
strength of unionism.

Theyre not only thinking and
talking unionism in British Colum-
pia, they're practicing it, too. Not
all the intimidation, all the vicious
subterfuges of the bosses, has sut-
ficed to prevent organization.

Older, well-established unions
are experiencing a new wave of
confidence and activity welling up
from the rank and file. New
unions are coming into being In
industries that for years have
een notoriously open shop. @om-

REACTION
PREPARES IN
N. ZEALAND

By C. G. WATSON.

OMING into being as a
result of the forward
movement of the masses, in-
sistently demanding real re-
lief from their sufferings
under the coalition regime,
the Labor government has
in fact already carried out a con-
siderable part of its programme
and effected. a real improvement
jn the conditions of the workers
“and working farmers. Wase and
pension cut were restored; unemi-
ployment relief substantially in-
creased; the 40-hour week insti-
tuted for wide sections of the
workers; a suaranteed price for
dairy produce was established; pro-
vision made for the reduction of
mortgage debts; for the first time
WZ pistory a minimum wase for
jabor on dairy farms was estah-.

lished; the government assumed
complete control of jhe central
eredit system and took wide

powers over the trading banks; the
Mau (Samoan nationalist organiza-
tion) was given legal recogsnition;
many democratic rights were re-
stored; and at Geneva Labor High
Commissioner Jordan, sided with
the Soviet Union on the issue of
the attempted exclusion of Abys-
sinia, to the obvious disapproval
of Anthony Eden.

To some extent the upward
movement of agricultural Prices,
particularly of wool which the im-
perialist powers, including Japan
and Germany, are buying heavily
for war purposes, is assisting the
Labor sovernment, put for the
main reason one must look to the
powerful forward movement of the
workers.

Not only are the workers strik-
ing and winning their demands,
but they are adopting new meth-
ods, aS was shown in the historic
stayin strike of 4500 Auckland
freezing-workers against a decision
of thearbitration court at the be-
ginning of this year. In complete
order and discipline they occupied
the works, sleeping in and allowing
nobody to enter or Jeave without
the permission of the strike com-
mittee, and finally forced minis-
terial intervention to revise the
conditions established by the court
and upheld by the employers.

Right-wing tendencies in the
sovernment, of extreme danger
for the future, are jndicated by
their toleration of a man like
Semple, minister of public works,
whose periodical outbursts acainst
“Communism ” and “Communists”
as the ‘‘enemies of mankind and
would-be wreckers of the nation”
combined with his fervid praises
of the British Jampire and the Brit-
ish monarchy as the ‘sheet-anchor
of civilization’”’ have disgusted all
jionest workers in the Labor move-
ment. fe

It is shown in the almost com-
plete silence of the Jeadership of
the government and the Labor
party on the jssue of Spain, ata
time when aid for Spanish democ-
racy is stirring the whole Labor
and trade union muovement as no
campaign of intemmational solidar-
ity ever has jpefore. Such ten-
dencies only assist the eathering
offensive of reaction against the
Labor eovernment which is becom-
ing increasingly menacing.

Day in, day out, the wealthy
press is carrying on @ campaign
of incitement against the Labor
government. Employees and
actionary State officials use every
means to sabotage the carrying
out of the new social legislation.

The leader of the National party,
Adam Hamilton, minister of labor
jn the Coates-rorbes zoyernment,
appeals for a ‘united front” to
ficht Labor.

An organization ealled the ‘De-
fence LLeacue.” which the alleged
object of opganizing public opinion
i aerence Of INGEN: Zealand

ieee

thn,

against foreign ageression, is dis-
playing a suspicious concern in.
enrolling the services of military-
minded young men.

The defeat of the Labor govern-
ment could only mean its replace-
ment by a government of the
pblackest reaction and a willing tool

of the British ‘National’ govern-
ment. i
The whole Labor movement

needs to unite its forces in defence
of the Labor government, not be-
eause it is the instrument for the
emancipation of the working-class
and the building of socialism, but
hecause its existence means 4
weakening of the forces of reaction
and a strengthening of the inter-
national peace front. But it also
has to be emphasised that the gov-
ernment can maintain its position
only if it takes really decisive
steps to meet the immediate needs
of the workers and working farm-
ers, if it yigorously checks the ac-
tivities of its enemies, if it lines
up consistently with the forces
making for peace on 4 world scale,
and in the first place the Soviet
Union.

Only a united working-class
movement, gathering to its side
the exploited farmers and the dis-
contented middle classes of the
towns, ean. successfully carry
through the fight for the defence
of the Labor eovernment against
reaction,

Unity in the Labor movement,
which necessarily includes the
affiliation of the Communist party
to the Labor party, is the most
urgent of the moment. Though
small, the Communist party has
an honorable record in the strug-
ele against the Coates-Forbes S0v-
ernment, many of its Jeaders suf-
fering prison sentences; today, Tek
is purging itself of the sectarian
mistakes of its past and consider-
ably developing its influence in the
trade unions. Its affiliation would
bring more than numbers to the
Labor Party; it would mean an ac-
cession of fighting strength and
understanding to the whole move-
ment.

That the workers are looking for
effective unity is shown in the de-
velopment of the trade union posi-
tion. he trade union movement,
which is big and highly organized,
is seriously split. Most of the
eraft unions are affiliated to the
Trades and Labor Councils Fed-
eration, while the bigger indus-
trial unions are grouped in the
Alliance of Labor. This position
was still further complicated last
year by a split in the Alliance it-
self, and the development of fac-
tion fight between the leaders of
the two sections of the Alliance.
But the workers in the trade
unions want unity and a2 single
national trade union centre.

The miners’ national council, it-
self affiliated to none of the three
rival bodies, passed a resolution
Calling for them to take the nec-
essary steps for the organization of
a national all-in trade union con-
eress, faling which it would itself
take the initiative. Other unions
joined in the demand, and at the
time of writing the prospects for
the formation of a single national
¢trade union centre are extremely
good.

It is inevitable that the more
the unity of the working class
grows in New Zealand, the more

it consolidates an alliance with the
small and middie farmers and
middie class of the towns, the
more energetically the defence of
peace is carried on, there will
come from British imperialism new
efforts to secure the downfall of
the Iabor gzovernment. Indeed,
the measures which are already
peing employed to pring it to heel
— the attacks in such papers as the
Evening Standard with their delib-

erate attempt to sow financial

-_-

|
|

oe eee

Dispatches of a Canadian
War Correspondent
By Ted Allan

tough getting used to flies and
mosquitoes,” said Dr. Barsky,

ACK from Paris and Ge-

neva where I observed
the inaction of diplomats in
the face of a world catching
on fire, I decided to wipe out
the taste of it (of British
diplomacy especially) by tak-
ing a trip to southern Spain
and seeing the People’s Front
in action.

T also wanted to observe the re-
sults of the Negrin eabinet which
was formed the day I left for
Paris. I bad already seen the ef-
ficiency which resulted on the
central fronts after a central com-
mand was established. Now tL
wanted to see what the far-away
Cordoba front looked jike. What I
saw convinces me again that no
matter what yvacillating attitude
Britain takes, the Spanish people
will win the war.

Wow, 30 miles fron Cordoba, the
government is digging in, solidity-
ing the gains of the last few
weeks. IL traveled riearly 1,200
miles. In the fertile fields of Anda-
jusia, [I saw the small farmers ¢co-
operating magnificently with the
government. There was 2 steady
stream of mule-driven carts from
the farms to the front and to the
villages.

J traveled with the Canadian
plood transfusion car making a
tour of the southern fronts to or-
ganize a plood centre there. we
visited American Hospital No. 1,
216 miles behind the lines, closest
hospital to the front in Spain. The
morning we arrived the front was
pombed hy Fascist planes—Ssix
Junkers and nine chasers. The hos-
pital of tents under trees was
completely camouflaged. The mo-
bile operating room, technically
called “auto-chir,’ has pulletproot
windows and looks like an ordinary
truck hidden under the branches
of a tree where the American Dr-
Barsky performs operations. There
are only Six such auto-chirs in
Spain.

Dr. Barsky said that abdominal
cases and severe hemorrhages need
immediate attention, and this
makes it necessary for the unit to
he located so near the front. The
need for more auto-ehirs is most
apparent.

The heat is
flies and mosquitoes

“Well, getting used to
the shells and Hut it 1s

terrific, and the
unbearable.
we were
bombs,

scratching himself.

One nurse said; “The only con-
solation is that the mosquitoes are
biting the Wascists, tao.”’

After visiting American Hospital
Wo. 1, I rode back to the base with
an ammunition truck driven by
Ben Levine, 21-year-old American.

These truckdrivers are the un-
sung heroes of the Spanish war.
Levine wants the people at home
+9 Know that many Americans
and Canadians are driving trucks
and working as miechanics.

‘wre are doing our duty too, al-
though many of us are not in the
Lincoln battalion,” said Willianr
Gordon, young Montreal garage
mechanic, who drove over 1,200
miles with! a truck to Almeria,
bringing back a number of Amer-
icans stationed there.

Gordon said several Americans
were wounded in the shelling of
Almeria by-the Nazi fleet, but he
couldn’t give the names.

There are 35 American and
Canadian truckdrivers on the
Gordoba front. On the way back
to Madrid via Walencia I met
members of the newly-formed
Canadian. Mackenzie-Papineau
battalion now fighting alongside
the Lincoln battalion at the
Jarama front. In spite of the
Jong drawn-out character of the
war, there isa magnilicent spirit
and morale. The simple words
and statements of the yolunteers
and what I saw of the new ef-
ficiency due to centralized con-
trol on all fronts indicates the
energy of the Spanish people
and shows that their will to con-
quer over Fascism is as sirong
as ever.

The Cordoba front, with moun-

tains and valleys stretching 120
miles, is beings solidified to such

an extent that when the fovern-
ment begins an offensive eVery
front can begin moving according
to plan and not in a sporadic fash-

jon as in the first days of the
war.
There is a man in Spain why'll

eelebrate his first wedding anni-
yersary August 12, simultaneously
with the collapse of the rebel cen>
tral front. His prophecy.
on two facts: that he’s comandante
of “the best Funeh of fighters in
the Spanish army” and that opera-
tions on other fronts are forcing

is based‘

pany towns, where not jong ago
merely to mention the union meant
speedy loss of a job, are now solid-
ly organized. Before this new deter-
mination of the workers to win
higher wages and decent living
conditions for themselves, and to
organize into unions of their own
choice and under their own con-
trol, the most- efficient company
spy system has proven useless.

Because the constitution of the
Trades and labor Congress of
Canada permits the formation of
industrial unions ‘there is no rea-
son why the trade union move-
ment of Canada, massing, the
workers behind it, cannot advance
as a unified force.

Already the big interests are
consolidating their forces. Tem-
porarily, before this new militancy,
they are giving ground, but only
while they deyise new methods
of robbing the workers of their
gains, only while they concentrate
to take from the workers on the
political field what they have won
on the economic.

That is why trade unionists
must turn their attention to poli-
tical as well as economic action.
Labor's rights must be euaranteed
by legislation. Tabor must speak
for itself and through those parties
pledged to uphold its interests.
That is why trade union unity
must be maintained. To engage in
splitting tactics, in internecine
warfare, at this time would be to

CLOTH

The man in the cloth cap
leaned farther over the bar
and whispered to the pbar-
\ maid “No more tonight,”
L she said as though he had
: suggested sleeping with her.
“You've had enough.”

He was tired of waiting. His
feet were numb and the nails of
his right hand fuli of dust from
cleaning out his pockets in his
poredom. Pacing up and down
the platform, watching every at
rival, and asking the ticket col-
lector why the Birmingham train
was an hour late. He was sick of
it. And now he was drunk, too
drunk to notice that his sand-
wich was stale and his beer the
dregs from other people’s pottles.

When they had discussed travel-
ling on different trains, he had
said it was a daft idea, but Bob
was boss and what he said went.

“You go early,” he said. ‘iuess
suspicious.”

“Tot of blooming secrecy,” said
the man with the cloth cap- “How
eould dumb workers jn a factory
pe suspicious?” But Bob was boss
on this trip; it was his turn.

God, his head hurt and when he
tried to remember arrangements
a pain shot across his eyes.

“Palk to plenty of people in the

the Fascists to withdraw troops
so that when the eovernment is
in a position to attack it will
preak right through.

The name of the comandante
cannot be told. He is a 23-year-old
Cuban exile who heads the Primero
Brigada Choque oF Virst Shock
Brigade. The brigade was on leaye
at a village near Madrid, so he
iad time to sit in a eafe sipping
jemonade talking to me.

Wis record and that of , the pubs and round the factory,” Bob
brigade he commands reads like a had said. Here he was, at the sta-
romantic novel. He was 4 leader tion, drunk, never been near the
in the Cuban student movement factory-

Factory hell! It was 2 plooming
nuisance haying to work there.
He had done inside jobs before,
put never on a conveyor belt. Bob

and was sentenced to death by the
bloody dictator Machado.

“But I put one over on him,”’
he added. He escaped, remaining
in hiding until Machado himselt
was overthrown and had to flee
the country. When Col, Batista
established the power which today
holds sway over Cuba, the coman-
dante again found himself sen-
tenced to be shot. “This time I got
really disgusted and escaped to
New Work,’’ he said Jaughingly-

When he first came to Spain
he fought together with Cubans,
Americans and Canadians at the
Jarama front. Soon he was made
captain of a Cuban pattalion. He
was wounded twice and then trans-
ferred to another brigade, in which
he found himself at the Guadala-
java front. His battalion was the
first to enter Brihuegsa, where he
Was again wounded.

“Phis was lucky,’ he related,

“hecause when I arrived at the
American hospital, I found my

himself—the money is good.

to the barmaid.

the boss.”
pailway?

he roared with jJaughter.

would be annoyed.
The words came

old Bob.

wife arrived the same day as a opening the carriage door. He
nurse. I promised her we'd cele- certainly looked the part. er
brate our anniversary with the Fancy seeing you here,’ sal

collapse of the rebels’ Madrid asOD: ;
front, and I always keep my 2 TRADES do you mean, Fancy see-
promise.” ing me’? Didn't we arrange to
= : a
After he recuperated he was Core sre aaa Bees Oe ee eet
made comandante of the first

i drunk for?’ hissed Bob.
shock brigade formed in Spain. A a

- you forgotten ever jain, we
better name for them 15 death planned?” yehing:
Hatialion. They only attack, only “Good old Bob,” said the man
take positions. This Brigada

2 in the cloth ca pblandly.
Choque is the apple of his eye. He a P y

speaks of it like 4 mother of her
brood, this man who at 23 com-
mands one of Spain's most dare-

dewil agerceahen=: éned with the smoke from mill

‘wwe replace the men in chimneys, 20 jonger in use. Bob
charges,” he explained. “We only made a great fuss of the land-
zo into attack——bayonet charges Jady, explaining that he had met
or hand grenade fighting. There’S the man in the cloth cap just at
where we're the pick of the crop.’ the gate. “You'll look after us,

Wis English is faultless. He won't you?” said Bob. “Ill bet

Yearned it at a school in Mianii,
Ilorida. drunken man
4 ing the “typical

—

panic, the hostile outbursts of Lord
Blibank and other delegates to the
conference in Wellington last year,
the action of the shipping Ccom-
panies in raising their freight on
New Zealand produce—these are
only an indication of the weapons
that will be used.

In its armaments programme the
Imperial Chambers of -Commerce
the reactionary British government
needs the willing acquiescence of
all the Dominions governments,
and both at the Coronation and
the succeedin= Jmperial Conference
every effort has peen made to bind

5 man”

still closer to British
To meet its powerful

New Zealand into bed

and all.

in all bis clothes,
imperialism.
enemy the New Zealand working

class meeds the active understand- most difficult.

ing and support of the British by, and he wished he had as much
Labor movement. Now is the time experience as the foreman thought
to bing closer the common front he had. “You'll have to lie about

against; the common enemy.

was lucky to be in the paint shop.
But the money is good, he said to

“phe money is good,” he chanted

“Your money isn’t good enough
to entitle you to make a nuisance
of yourself. Shut up or Vil fetch

“Who is he? The owner of the
Anyway, Um in with the
posses; you can’t scare me.’ Then

If he couldn't drink any more
he had better get on the plattorm
to meet Bob. Good old Bob. He

tumbling out
as he walked to the barrier. Good

The loudspeaker boomed, “Fiye-
forty-five from Birmingham. One
hour late,” and there was Bob

“Have

The rooms they were to live in
were in a long row, the only house
without a lodgers sign in the
sindow. The red brick was black-

you can cook.” It seemed to the
that Bob was lay-
working-class
stuff on a bit thickly, but
he didn’t say anything: just got
cap

The first day at work was the
The belt whizzed

your qualifications,” the guy nor

ons Are Going Places ="

play right into the hands of the
big interests.
*

Trade unionism in British  Co-
Jumbia has already made great ad-
vances that presage the complete
orzanization of the province in the
not far distant future.

The coal miners of Nanaimo are
organized after 25 years ot strug-
sle. This in itself represents no
mean achievement And now some
3,000 workers in the pulp and
paper industry fave been brought
into the Pulp, Suiphite and Paper-
Makers’ union, AF of L affiliate,
so that working men in the com-
pany towns of Powell River and

-Ocean Falls will no longer be

obliged to meet in secret, fearful
of the ever-present stool-pigeon.-
Demolition of these strongholds of
finance capital is an important
step forward for labor.

One by one the big industnmes of
this proyince are capitulating be-
fore labor’s advance, but only
watehfulness and unity will pre-
serve the gains made. In the cities
underpaid and oyer-worked white
collar workers are joining hands
to win better conditions for them-
selves. A new spirit is at work
among the workers everywhere
which, given proper direction and
far-sighted leadership, will provide
the base from which all progres-
sive forces can advance to new and
greater victories.

CAPS MAKE >
| WORK-

\ A Left Review Short Story
; _ By Nancie Whittaker

MEN

had said, “but then, you know all
about that. You've done it be-
fore.”

Wot on a conveyor belt, he
hadn't. : :

“My arms feel like a couple of
lead pipes,” he said to Bob at the
end of the day.

“My throat feels like a hot tin,”
saia Bob. “Get to know any-

thing?”

“Tt won’t take long. There is 2
chap on the belt near to me. He's
clever, but not as clever as T am.
The quiet kind. They are all in,
except me. They are bound to
ask me to join. When they do
that the job is as good as fin-
ished.”

Tt was over a week before they
asked him. Every day he talked
and gave them encouragement.
He complained of the speed, and
they agreed with him. Then they
asked him to a meeting. Bob was
not invited because the paint shop
was only half as well organized.
At the meeting the leader spoke.
That was all they wanted, the
leader and his two pals. Not the
other fifty-nine belt workers who
were sick to death of the back-

breaking speed, just the ones who
were doing something about it.

Joe Smith, earning two-ten for
a fifty-hour week, supporting two
children and a wife; Alf Adams,
a kid of twenty-one, earning thir-
ty-five bob, saving up to marry Eid
Burns’ sister; and Ed, earning
two quid, were the three to be
sacked. Not all at once, a week's”

interval between each. Joe got

his ecard for inefficiency, Ed for
being five minutes late, and Alf
for being unsuitable for the job.

As Bob and the man in the

cloth cap sat in the home-going
train, Bob said:

their jobs when times are so bad.”
‘Don’t get soft,” said the other.

“Tf men make trouble, they have —
You've got to co-operate _

to go.
with the boss, not fight him. I'm

a working man myself and I a

know.”
“What
asked Bob.

Fascism Looms

In South Atricaa

What of South Africa? Hertzog,
whose speech in 1931 proclaimed
the right to secede, has now been

Prime Minister for thirteen years. ~

The unification of Hertzoz and

the victory of a British orienta-

tion, as the unification of th
White possessing class against thi
African majority of the population,

Smuts represented, not so much

“Tt seems a bit 3
hard that those chaps had to lose

won the two-thirty?” q

who constitute seven millions of

the nine millions in the Union.
Repressive measures and restric-

tive legislation against the Afri

cans are daily increasing; the new

franchise bill removes even the

limited franchise they held in the

Cape; the recent Pirow speech pro-

elaims the permanent
ef South African policy. ;

There are growing Fascist ten:
dencies in South Africa. These are
most openly expressed by the
Dutch Nationalists under Malan
who combine anti-semitism am
anti-Communism with 4 pro-Naz
orientation. But they have thei
reflection in the sovernment
Pirow, minister of defence, is o
German descent and an admirer 0
Wazi methods; his reception of th
Nazi cruiser, and his prominen
part in negotiating the South A!
rican commercial treaty with Ge}
many, cutting across the principle
of Empire economic unity, ind
cated the direction in which 5
was moving.

subject
status of the Africans as the pivot

a

frepiee

Seid RE Yer pie apa ek loa at

cena Sh Amat h

Seb