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2 _ - Sa Ai Ae RE A A A NC TO A LAO OI LE SKA IN SS IO

THE PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

°

AY DAY, launched on the North Ameri-

can continent by American workers,
stands for international solidarity of labor,
the bond between the workers of all coun-
tries.

Tts history, begun with the first struggle for
the eight-hour day in 1886 and adopted as a
Day of Labor by the Second International
at Paris, half a century ago, is a glorious un-
folding of working class progress in the short-
ening of hours, the betterment of conditions
of labor, the growth of trade unionism and
working-class political organization, the ex-
pansion of working-class culture and the
breaking down of national, racial and color
prejudices.

This progress was not effected without
struggle against the forces that would bar the
way to working-class economic and political

development; the forces of reaction which
sought to keep the workers in abject slavery
and the ignorance which accompanies such
slavery.

The May Days of the past have taken their
toll. Few, if any, of them passed without
death being visited on demonstrating work-
ers in some part of the world, but out of that
spilled blood of labor have sprouted rights
that won for labor a dignity it had never be-
fore possessed. Out of the May Day struggle
grew more firmly the feeling of international
working-class solidarity; a declaration of war
against war and the movement for establish-
ment of universal peace between all peoples.

On this May Day, all these victories of labor
are threatened in the whole arena of world
social relations. The very foundation of civil-
ization themselves are tottering. Naked force
and brutality in the garb of fascism threaten

An Editorial For May Day 1939

every democratic institution—the destruction
of the trade union movement, which has se-
cured for the workers the bettermen of their
standard of life; the political rights of freedom
of speech, of the press and of assembly, to-
gether with the franchise—all the weapons
the workers have found necessary in their
struggle, all will go if fascism triumphs. Al-
ready the outer bastions of democracy have
fallen. Czechoslovakia, Spain, are gone
through treachery in the camp of democracy.
And world war is in the air.

On this May Day, the most significant of all
May Days, we do not have to look te distant
Jands to learn of the danger that confronts us.
Here in our homeland, fascism is showing its
ugly visage. In the Leadership League, the
Canadian fascists and pro-fascists are con-
solidating what they have already done. Their
program means the smashing of the Canadian

trade union movement; depriving the workers
of all the rights won by them including the
right to vote — to have some control over the

Day.

May Day then sets us the task to be true
to the May Day tradition — to fight not only
for what we have won but to carry the fight
to the enemy, to take the lead in organizing
all the progressive forces for the defeat of
reaction centered in the Leadership League;
to halt the war plans of the dehumanized
fascists and Nazis and to carry on the strug—

gle for democracy, for peace and for a better t

world.

lawmakers. Such is the prospect on this May \

And we may take for our model, the Soviet | ~

Union, where May Day is a glorious pageant :

of a people who have already defeated re
action and are today showing the way to de-
feat world fascism.

THE
PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

Published Weekly by the Proletarian Publishing
Association, Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street,
Vancouver, BG. Phone TRinity 2019.

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Vancouver, B.C. Friday, April 28, 1939

Elect Mrs. Jamieson!

HE CANDIDATES of the Liberal and

Conservative parties are performing in
their time-honored way in a frantic effort to
hoodwink and bamboozle the voters of Van-
couver Center.

Tt is generally admitted that Ald. Wilson
hasn’t much of a chance, and that the real
fight is between Ald. Corey, candidate for
the Pattullo machine, and Mrs. Laura E.
Jamieson, candidate of the CCF.

Corey and his supporters are putting for-
ward the claim that, if elected, Corey will be
able to get a better deal from the provincial
government for Vancouver. But this is a
specious argument. If elected, Corey will owe
his election to the Liberal Party and his first
loyalty will be to the Pattullo crowd. He
would be an apologist and special pleader for
the provincial government in its continued
shabby treatment of Vancouver.

What Corey is asking the voters to do is to
endorse his police of “appeasement” of the
Pattullo government, in the vain hope that
the hearts of the cynical front benchers will
be softened toward the just claims of Van-
couver.

lf the voters elect Corey they will be en-
dorsing the shabby treatment Pattullo has
been handing out to Vancouver for years;
should they elect the Liberal candidate they
will be telling Pattullo to kick Vancouver in
the pants once more, and to keep on doing it
because we like it.

Vancouver needs to send to Victoria a fear-
less, capable, progressive representative, one
who will strengthen the real opposition —
and that is the CCF — and compel the govern-
ment with ‘its swollen majority to swerve
toward the path of progressive social legis-
lation.

The candidate for that job is Mrs. Laura
E. Jamieson!

Conscription . . - For What?

FE THERE are left any persons so gullible

as to believe the word of Prime Minister
Chamberlain, or who place a higher value on
his promise than they would on the word of
Hitler and Mussolini, his repudiation of his
solemn promise, made on March 23, that his
government would never permit conscription
in peace-time, should act on their credulity
as a douche of cold water.

Under cover of a pretense of opposition to
further aggression by the dictators, Chamber-
Jain is steadily introducing reactionary legis-
Jation to cripple the trade unions and the
working class generally. While professing to
be preparing to resist fascist aggression from
abroad, he is moving toward the introduction
of fascism in Britain.

That he connived at the complete destruc-
tion of Czechoslovakia is now obvious to all.
Later, knowing full well that Italian troops
and the navy were on the way to Albania, he
went on a fishing excursion to Scotland. When
the Albanian people appealed for aid he
turned a deaf ear to their cry. Forced by the
rising indignation of the people of Britain,
he recalled the British ambassador from Ber-
lin. But in order to strengthen the hand of
Hitler, who is to make an important pro-
nouncement on April 28, he knifes the Roose-
velt peace proposal — which Hitler is com-
pelled to answer — by sending the British
ambassador back to Berlin and sending the
notorious friend of Hitler, Lord Lothian of
the Cliveden set, as ambassador to the US.

Many honest and sincere persons are fooled
by the Chamberlain duplicity. They think

May Day---Parade of Power

By FERGUS McBEAN

AY DAY 1939 occurs at

the most critical period
in world history since the
economic and political up-
heavals which followed as an
aftermath of the world war
of 1914-18. The post-war
peace system established by

the Treaty of Versailles and the
League of Nations has been prac-
tically destroyed by the fascist
ageressors on the one hand and
the betrayals of peace by the lead-
ers of democratic governments on
the other. Because of this fact
the most burning issue which
concerns labor on this May Day
is the immediate threat of a fas-
eist-inspired, second world war.

The second imperialist war for
the redivision of the world has
already been in progress in Spain,
China, Ethiopia, Austria and
Czzechoslovakia. Parallel to the
drive for a redivision of the
world by means of war runs the
attempt of financie capital in all
capitalist countries to establish
fascism as a world system of ter-
rorist suppresion of liberty. It
is the last resort of the watchdogs
of a decadent social order.

Opposing this drive to war and
fascist enslavement stands the
gErowing power of the democratic,

peace-loving forces led by labor
and allied with the first workers’
state, the USSR. On the one side
all that is youthful, progressive
and good; on the other all that
is moribund, reactionary and evil.

This is why the theme of this
May Day in all countries will be
“Stop Hitler and Save Peace.”

HERE are, however,

sues with which labor will
concern itself on this May Day.
These are the issues of economic
recovery, social security and the
preservation and further exten-
sion of democracy. In Canada,
these issues will be fought out be-
tween reactionary finance capi-
tal and its creature, the Leader-
ship League, and the democratic
forces of the Canadian people
among whom the trade unions
will play an important if not a
decisive role.

other is-

May Day grew directly out of
the 8-hour day movement which
characterized the first serious and
independent working class strug-
gle of American labor in the lat-
ter part of the 19th century This

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struggle is not yet ended. The
8-hour day has not yet been en-
forced Wi all industries in Can-
ada. Therefore the demand for
a national 8-hour day law will re-

ceive prominence in the May
Day parades.
Economic well-being is largely

dependent on the restoration of
purchasing power, which means
the creation of jobs for the un-
employed. This is why labor will
advance the demand for a na-
tional recovery program, for a
huge program of public works.

7 THE present time there is
no guarantee of social secur-

ity for the Canadian people. The
achievement of social security re-
quires such measures as federal
unemployment insurance, mini-
mum wage and maximum hour
laws, a revision of the entire sys-

tem of taxation so that the costs

ef social security
ably

may be equit-
distributed, protection and
opportunity for Canada’s youth
and the care of those who have
contributed to the wealth of Can-
ada through old age pensions at
sixty. Social security will be an
idle phrase unless the heritage of

the Ganadian people, our natural
resources, are safeguarded from
destruction by those who now fat-
ten on their exploitation. Preser-
vation of our natural resources
are part and parcel of labors’ de-
mands for recovery and security.

HE DRIVE of the predatory
financial interests through
their child, the Teadership League,
to destroy Canadian democracy,
will be countered by the demand
for the democratic national uni-
fication of our Dominion and laws
guaranteeing the rights or or-
fanization, free speech and as-
sembly, freedom of the press and
the preservation of all elective
bodies of government.

May Day, 1939, will serve as 2
challenge to the forces of reac-
tion and their Leadership League
by the vanguard of the forces of
peace, progress and democracy
labor.

May Day in Canada, this year,
should serve as the widest mobi-
lisation of all men and women
who toil by hand and brain in a
gizanttic parade of the power and
forces that stand for péace in
the world, social security and de-

macratic progress at home.

Comment From Our Readers

OL’ BILL’S COLUMN
CIRCULATES
Editor, People’s Advocate:
I was interested and attracted

by your editorial in the last is-
sue, “abor Will Answer.” That
sure was a “jim dandy,” full of

first-class material and right on
the front page at that. Come
again with the same brand as
we can sure stand it.

Our capitalist friends at times
speak very feelingly of the moth-
er of parliaments in London. fit
may be of passing interest to
you and many of the readers that
I recently clipped Ol’ Bill’s Short
Jabs column and forwarded it to
Sir Stafford Cripps, member of
the British House of Commons,

with a covering letter pointing
out the able qualifications of OV
Bill as a columnist. In this parti-
cular column Ol’ Bill was paying

tribute to Sir Stafford Cripps of
the Labor Party for some re-
marks he had made during a4
speech of the ability of working
elass representatives to govern
the country.

The other day I got a reply
from Sir Stafford acknowledging
receipt of the clipping ad ex-
pressing interest in what I had
told him about Ol’ Bill. One of
the things I had mentioned was
that Ol’ Bill came from Scotland,
the land of the heather. In a
previous letter to Sir Stafford
Gripps I had expressed the hope
that the Labor Party would scon
take over the reins of government
in England, and that the time
was not far distant when they
would change the British Empire
from a capitalist to a socialist
empire.

Tt seems that Russia has made

@ success of socialism, so I sug-
gest the British Empire should
follow her footsteps.

—Tommy Atkins.”

RAPS WOOCDWARD’S STORE
Editor, People’s Advocate:

Being a regular listener to your
broadcast IT think some publicity
should be given to Woodward’s

Store. F
On the letter-head of the Vet-
eran’s Assistance .Commission

Woodward’s name is very pro-
minent as one of the honorary
committee members helping to
secure employment for veterans.
Tt is time someone demanded the
removal of his name, as ex-ser-
vicemen are barred from getting
work on the new building, yet
Woodward is allowed to commer-
cialize with his name at the ex-
pense of unfortunate unemployed
ex-servicemen. —H. 5.

munition plants were all built up by the

they see in conscription jn- Britain an effort
to halt Hitler. But Gottwald and other Com-
munist deputies in the
ment in the years
large expenditures for military purposes so
long as reaction was allowed to run rampant
within their country. The correctness of their
position has been amply shown by tragic
events.
force, the mighty guns and highly productive

Czechoslovakia parlia-
before Munich opposed

The great army, the magnificent air

people of Czechoslovakia, thinking they
would be used to defend their country against
aggression, only to find that they are now
in the hands of Hitler, that all they were
doing, thanks to the Hodzas and Tisas, was
strengthening the armed might of their even-
tual executioners.

Labor in Britain is bitterly opposing con-
scription which is being introduced by the
chief hangman of Spain, of Austria, of

Czechoslovakia and of Albania, for they sus-
pect that with a Chamberlain government in
the saddle, the newly-built military power
will be used not against, but on the side of
Hitler in further attacks on democratic states,
the final objective being the destruction of
the Soviet Union.

There can be no endorsement of conscrip-
tion or military expenditures so long as there
are Chamberlain or Daladier governments at
the head of affairs.

SHORT JABS

A
Weekly

Commentary

By Ol Bill

A Myth A couple of weeks ago in
this column, in taking issue
Dissolved with the tourist ink-slinger,

Gordon Sinclair, a reference
was made to the superiority of partisan tactics
over the methods of accepted military practice

The two pictures at the Royal Theater the first
three days of next week, will demonstrate this truth
The Japanese war-lords have created and fostered
a myth for the consumption of ali Asiatic peoples
—the invincibility of the Japanese armies. But it
is only a myth. It bears no relation whatever to fact

This has already been proven. The only victories
of the Japanese forces have been scored against
weak and demoralized armies, those of imperial
China under the last empress and of Tsarist Russia
in 1904. In the World War they played no military
part whatever. Since then they have engaged in
war with two adversaries of a different character,
Soviet Russia and Awakened China. These tywo
wars form the backgrounds of the pictures at the
Royal Theater this coming week—*Defense of Sr
beria” and “China Strikes Back.”

Both of these films deal with the new form of
warfare devised by a people in arms defending
themselves, their liberties, their right to live their
lives in their own way, against the grasping greed
of imperialist aggression, in both instances, fight
ing not only for themselves, but for humanity, for
progress, for civilization.

Defense of In the Soviet film, which is
a ‘ one of the best I have yet
Siberia seen from the Soviet studios,

the stern, resolute struggle
of the Siberian workers and peasants is told in
such bold and dramatic incidents that the film be
comes a historical document without equai, fer
everyone will leave thetheater Knowing that not
the Japanese military brigands are invincible, but
the workers and peasants with a determination not
to be made into slaves of imperialism.

In that war, which took place during and after
the occupation of Siberia by American and Canadian
troops, 1919-21, the Japanese wardogs got the worst
shellacking in their history.

In the play there is nothing that looks like acting,
which means that the acting is of superlative
quality, a high compliment to the artistry of the
Soviet actors and a credit to the Soviet sereen.

China Strikes
time in BC, after a long fight

Back

with Japanese interests here
who have exhausted their box of tricks in trying
to prevent the people of British Columbia from
learning the truth about the Chinese struggle for”
mational independence, views and shots of the
people who are now inflicting the second defeat”
on the myth of Japanese military invincibility will
be shown.

In the Chinese picture, which
is being shown for the first

Here you will come close up to the really in-~
vineible army—the 8th Route Army, the army of
the Chinese Soviets. You will see Mao Tse-tung
and Ghu Teh and the guerilla fighters who learned
how to defeat the regular armies of fascist Japanese
imperialism from the Soviet Siberian partisans. |
You will learn from this film how the Chinese”
Communists have inspired the 450,000,000 Chinese
people and welded them into a united China that”
will administer the death-blow to the reactionary |
clique of militarist rulers of Japan; the united
China that is fighting today the battle of humanity
against the hell’s legions of fascist aggression.

Marx wrote in the New York Tribune of the
Spanish people fighting for their independence
against Napoleon in the Peninsular War, that, “the =
center of Spanish resistance was nowhere and
everywhere.” He quoted a contemporary of theirs,
Abbe de Pradt, who wrote: “It was neither battles
nor engagements which exhausted the French
forces, but the incessant molestations of an in-
visible enemy, who, if pursued, became lost among
the people, out of which he reappeared immediately
afterwards with renewed strength. The lion in the
fable tormented to death by the gmat gives a true
picture of the French army.”

This might be a description of the army you
will see in “China Strikes Back.” You will see
in it the Chinese fighters at the front ‘which is =
nowhere and everywhere” defending not only China
and Asia, but British Columbia and Vancouver, from
the Japanese warmongers and the renegade hireling|
Canadian “Fifth Columnist” businessmen and radio}
spouters who accept their pay. You will be in- |
spired by the guerillas who are going to drive the)
bordes of reaction and barbarism into the sea as
the Spanish guerillas did in the early days of the
nineteenth century and as the Siberian partisans)
did in 1921.

Don’t miss seeing ‘Defense of Siberia” and “China
Strikes Back.”

A City Hall story from the:
Snobbery ! Proyinee newspaper, Satur

day, April 22 last: “Hopes:
are held that His Majesty may recognize the civic
mace which will precede him into the hall, by
touching it with his fingers.” How about the:
mayoral dog-collar too?

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