Page Two THE PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE THE PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE Published Weekly by the Proletarian Publishing Association, Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BG. Phone TRinity 2019. One Wear os $2.00 Three Months Half Year __________$1.00 Single Copy ——-—— $ .05 Make All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate Vancouver, B.C. Friday, May 26, 1939 Bourbon Pearson And The Plight Of The Jcbless IN| aes OF LABOR PEARSON seems to be bent on a campaign of provocation against the single unemployed workers. He contemptuously refuses to meet a delegation from the Relief Project Workers’ Union, be- cause, forsooth, he does not “recognize the anion, on the ground, so he says, that some day in the hazy future unemployment may be unknown and there will be no such union in existence. Pearson pretends to think that un- employment in Canada is an incidental phe- nomenon instead of a chronic disease incur-— able as long as capitalism and politicians of the stripe of Pearson are in existence. This does not mean, however, that while capitalism exists the wretched conditions un- der which the unemployed workers live can not be improved. And it was the pressure of the unemployed for improvement that called forth the statement of the minister of labor. Although admitting that there is no im- provement in economic conditions, Pearson stubbornly refuses to provide either work or relief for the jobless workers—UNLESS they first prove to HIS satisfaction (sic) that they are unable to get work. But what are the un- employment services which are maintained at such great expense by the governments for? Why should the impoverished worker be ex- pected to tramp around looking for that which Goes not exist? Pearson states that it is “unwise” to give the unemployed assurance of government as- sistance summer and winter, therefore those who will be given jobs on summer projects will not be allowed on the winter projects. All in all, the schemes and proposed projects as announced by Pearson are inadequate and apparently designed to fool the single unem- ployed men and keep them quiet until after the Royal Visit, after which he can resort to the club and the tear gas as he did last sum- mer. The fact is that the deferred pay of the men is all spent. The projects that Pearson says will be started are not ready, and for some considerable time to come will absorb only a fraction of the number of men now facing starvation. These men must eat. And eat they will. And they will not stand for the burden of proof of not being able to find work being placed on them. The very fact that they HAVE no work, and Pearson is unable to tell them where there IS work, will be enough. And on that basis they are demanding that public works be started at once and that until there is a job on the projects for all of them the government must provide relief for those for whom jobs are not available. As for recognition of the union, Pearson should have learned from his experience with the boys last summer (which contributed largely to the loss of Vancouver Center to his government) that the boys are not only able fo compel recognition of their union from the public but from Pearson as well, whether he likes it or not. Roosevelt Opposes Domestic “‘Appeasement’’ go SESDENT ROOSEVENT is not only an opponent of “appeasement” in interna- tional affairs but at home as well. He demon- strated this quite sharply this week while ad- dressing the National Retailers’ Forum, where he took occasion to again warn Big Business and reaction that the principles of the New Deal—spending and lending to increase pur- chasing power—would not be abandoned. The significant fact here is that only a few weeks ago he refused invitations to address conventions of the National Manufacturers’ Association and the US Chamber of Com- merce. Undoubtedly this great democrat, swhose militant stand for progress and peace has made him a world-respected figure, has advanced even further in his progressive viewpoint by finally realizing that Bis Busi- ness and pro-fascist groupings in the US, like Hitler, will mever be stopped by “ap- peasement,” and that the political future of the New Deal lies with the great majority of Americans who want progress and are hbit- terly opposed to surrendering any of the gains of the past few years. Hence Roose- velt’s refusal to speak before the conventions of Big Business; hence his determination to come still closer to those hundreds of thou- sands of small and middle business men, rep- resented by the National Retailers’ Forum, who along with organized labor form the very backbone of the New Deal policy. A Serious Mistake Da to the last Trades and Labor Council meeting who urged active Coun- cil participation in the Woman’s Bakery strike as the best means of defeating the bakery attempt to secure an injunction against picket- ing were correct. This strike is far too import- POLITICAL ‘HARI-KIRIP By LESLIE MORRIS If ever the CCF press revealed a suicidal attitude toward the great task of stopping the advance of fascism, it did so in the May 11 issue of the Federationist. In an editorial entitled “Hon. W. D. Herridge,” following an ambiguous series of statements to the effect that the New Democracy leader is saying what the CCF has been saying for a long time, appears a paragraph which reads: “The threat of a united front of the old line parties is not the novelty which Mr. Herridge seems to think it is; even the fairly bright R. L. Maitland has conceded that possibility—in an emergency.’ “To the CGE it is a foregone conclusion and ‘a consummation devoutly to be wished.’ The soon- er the opposing forces are united, the sooner will the workers also unite and the issue be joined. Profit to one means loss to an- other; and there can be no de mocracy in any real sense so lone as capitalism exists.” This is tantamount to saying: The quicker fascism comes, the sooner the workers will learn what facism is! Or: the quicker the war comes, the sooner the work- ers will learn what war is! The logical political conclu sion to be drawn from this, if the Federationist is going to be consistent, is to hasten the pro- cess of reactionary concentra- tion in Ganada on the plea that the worse things are, the better ‘they can become. Further, it would mean the liquidation of the CCF, which, de- spite the nonsense of the editor of the Federationist, is a barrier to the advance of fascism in Canada, although not nearly the barrier it could be if such hari-kirl opinions were rooted out of its ranks once and for all. These astounding statements, which appear in a paper which de- votes much of its space to the daily struggle of the BC workers, ean cause only the utmost con- fusion in the ranks of the labor movement if they are taken seri- ously. They stem from the decrepit and completely anti-socialist opin- jons which permeate sections of the old Socialist Party of Canada, opinions which denied the daily struggle and treated with superior contempt the painful experiences of the labor moyement. They are an expression of hopelessness and defeatism in the labor movement. They have nothing in common with the fight for socialism, with the re— quirements of the day to day fight against reaction in the economic and political arenas. They are an expression inside the labor movement of that muddieheadedness and despair upon which fascism and reac- tion batten, and which it en- courages in order to mislead the masses into concentration camps. There are other dangerous ele- ments in this “theory.” Readers of the Hederationist are asked to believe that until the re- actionaries and fascists unite their ranks, nothing can be done to bring unity to the labor and pro- gressive movement. Hence, this editorial wiseacre would have us believe the labor movement of Germany is in a happier position than the labor movement of France, for in Ger- mnay the reaction did unite, and the workers did not, while in France the reaction has not yet united while the workers have! So in Ganada. The quicker the Holts, Beattys, Hepburns, Manions and Duplessis get together with right wing Liberals to form a re— actionary bloc for the purpose of destroying the labor movement, the better it will be for the labor movement, for then they will have a chance of uniting —hbehind the barbed wire of Canadian fascist concentration camps, or in the dungeons of penitentiaries, in which case unity will have been achieved, of a sort, and progress pushed back for decades! Is the editor of the Federa- tionist so innocent politicatly that he believes reaction, once it is united in Canada, will not as its first step drive headlong against the labor movement, and its press, including the Federa- tionist? Has he not read about Germany, Austria, Spain, and Czechoslovakia? Does he “devoutly wish” the “consummation” of the travail of Ganadian labor on the fascist gal- lows in Ganadian prisons? The question arises: Why does the CCE permit this poisonous “theory,” this advocacy of suicide and hari-kiri, to appear in its press? Does the CGF membership agree with this point of view? It is not credible, not for a moment. If it is true, then why the great and justifiable jubila- « tion at the victory won by Mrs. Laura Jamieson in the recent Vancouver by-election? If soa, why did some members and sup-— porters of the CCE go to Spain to fight in defense of Repub— lican Spain? If so, why does the CCF group in the Federal House put up a fight for the immediate needs of the people, a fight which can only retard the “