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 “<consummation”
which is so “devoutiy” wished
by the writer of the Federation—
ist editorials, Weaver.

Wot for a moment is it a “fore—
gone conclusion’? to “the CCF”
that the old-line parties are or-
ganizing such a united front. They
do so for the purpose of winning
the forthcoming federal election,
of fastening a dictatorship of re-
action on the backs of the Cana-
dian people as the prelude to open
and naked fascism. That is the
aim of Canadian reaction, fright—
ened at the rise of democratic
movements.

Is this inevitable? No. It can
be scotched, this vicious plan, by
the unity of the masses of the Ca-
nadian people, not only the
CCH’ers and Communists, but by
all those who are opposed to the
curtailment of their present hard-
won liberties, imperfect though
those liberties may be.

It is the job of the labor move—
ment to prevent at all costs the
unity of reaction and to defeat its
efforts—before the concentration
camps and the gallows and the
bloody terror of fascism drive the
labor movement underground and
inerease its difficulties a thou-
sandfold.

And we believe that to be the
majority sentiment of the rank
and file and the supporters of
the €CE.

Consequently, the defeatist rub-
bish of The PMederationist, which
can lead only to capitulation and
self-destruction, must be rejected
and denounced.

This is not the private affair of
the CCE.

Such advice, if followed, will
mean not only violent attacks
upon the CCE but on all sections
of the labor movement, on all
those who oppose the iron heel of
reaction, on all those who will not
kowtow to their political, ethical
and religious beliefs to the pre-
vailing “code” of fascist “mor-
ality.”

It is high time the members of
the CCE put a stop to arguments
which can only cause rejoicing in
the purlieus of the reactionary
conspirators against the security
and safety of the Canadian people.

Comments From Our Readers

ASKS CLARIFICATION

Editor, People’s Advocate:

As reported in the Advocate
of May 19, Fred Carr's remarks
on changing the basis of taxa-
tion were, to say the least, some-—
what disappointing, particularly
when it is remembered that the
speaker is the representative of
the Communist Party in the Era-
ser Valley.

We all know it is necessary
to change the basis of taxation,
but why, oh why, was he not
Marxist enough to point the way
in which it can be done?

At present the municipalities
are controlled by the Municipal
Act which limits their power and
beyond which they cannot g0a-
It is obvious, therefore, that
these powers have to be changed
by the Provincial Government
at Victoria.

That being the case, the Union
of BC Municipalities and the
Reeves’ Association could both,
be used for the purpose of ini-
tiating a movement in the re-
quired direction. Such a course
of action was indicated by a Tre-
solution passed unanimously at
the last convention of the Surrey
Workers and Farmers Associa-
tion.

Tt should be borne in mind that
the first-mamed union represents
a considerable body of public
opinion which, if roused, would
command the attention and con-
sideration of the MILA’s who are
elected by the people of these
different municipalities.

When a2 leader of the CP
speaks to a labor organization,
the least one would expect is that
be would deal with practical
questions in a Marxist, dialectical
manner that would show the way
out A. Cheverton.

Editor's Note: We will in-
vite Mr. Carr to deal at some

length with the questions

raised by the writer. However,
in fairness to Mr. Carr, it might
be pointed out that the news
item dealing with his speech at
the Open Forum was necessar-
ily abridged and undoubtedly
he must have dealt with a prac-
tical solution during the course
of his remarks.

UBRAINIAN TEMPLE

AID

E:ditor, People’s Advocate:

Ten years have elapsed since
the Ukrainian workers and farm-—
ers built their only cultural and
ednicational center in Vancouver.
Last January they celebrated the
10th anniversary of the founding
of the Ukrainian Labor Temple.
A lot of valuable work has been
done in this building during these
last ten years, which has made
our Labor Temple one of the
most popular labor institutions in
BC, if not in Canada.

Through our Temple, many sec-
tions of Ukrainian labor-farmer
mass organizations were created;
we have educated hundreds of
our youth; political parties and
trade unions have located and
met in our building. We, the
Ukrainian workers and farmers
of BC, are proud of this institu-
tion of ours, and proud of the
service it renders to the working
class.

But, friends, we must not for-
get that this wonderful institu-
tion of ours is still burdened
with a debt of about $3000, which
we must liquidate this year. It
must be considered that our
Temple is the only one among
the Ukrainian halls in Canada
which successfully handled the
debt problem during the crisis
years, and! paid off $12,000 during
the last 10 years. The Commit-
tee for the Liquidation of Debt
has decided to conduct a cam-
paign to the end of this year in

ASKS

order to completely wipe out the
debt on the Temple, and is now
preparing 500 lists which will be
Imailed to all our members and
sympathizers in BC, be they
Ukrainian or not.

Now friends, let us work hard
toward liquidating the debt this
summer. The committee extends
hearty thanks to all our mem-
bers, sections and friends for
the wonderful support they gave
us in, the past and anticipate the
same or better support now.
Committee for Liquidation of
Debt ULETA.

THEYRE STILL “GLORY-
HOLES”
Editor, People’s Advocate:
“Underwater Dweller,” who

writes in your May 12 issue, does
not overstate the case in regard
to the miserable conditions on
CPR coastal steamships.

Thirty years ago this month 2

strike of 26 members of the
steward’s department on the
Princess Charlottee took place

for the sole purpose of demand-
ing better quarters. Just before
the Charlottee took her first tri-
angle run, an excursion trip was
made to the Queen Charlotte
Islands (to boost Queen Charlotte
City to a group of real estate
sharks) and the stewards were
allowed the use of the second
class compartments, which were
roomy, airy and well-lighted.
Then they were herded into the
“slory hole’ which had no sani-
tation, only ome deadlight (be-
low water most of time) and was
barely 10 feet by 15 feet spare.
three bunks high. This was for
approximately 18 men.

The company gave promises to
alter this rathole, but I am in-
formed that today it is little bet-
ter than in 1909. The then port
steward is still with the com-
pany, a faithful servant to a
ereedy master——Hans Kroeger.

ant to the welfare of organized labor to be
neglected. It must be won and the injunction
must be defeated, particularly in view of the
broad organiz-

Council’s decision to open a

of a renewed attack through the courts on its
right to picket. Look at Blubber Bay, at the
Hollywood Theater strike, at the present dis-
pute with the Woman’s Bakery. And there

ing campaign which would be seriously weak-
ened in the beginning if the bakery strike is
allowed to go under.

In view of this, President E. A. Jamieson’s
refusal to accept a motion which would have
thrown the whole weight of the Council be-
hind the bakery picket line, on the plea that
it was the loser in an injuction case several
months ago, is all the more difficult to under-
stand. No one will deny that the injunction
racket as used by unscrupulous, labor-hating
employers is a dangerous threat. But the
menace will never be defeated by backing
down and refusing to fight.

The fact is, BC labor is now in the midst

will be more of such actions against indi-
vidual unions, particularly if the Trades Coun-
cil refuses to come to the aid of one of its
affiliates.

All present indications point to a big up-
surge in unionism throughout the province.
Victory in the Woman’s Bakery strike will
remove the one major obstacle to success, and
that victory will be assured if Council takes
up the employers’ challenge on the injunction
issue. But if it fails to do this, labor will in
effect be inviting the employers to continue
their attacks, with a resultant serious weak-
ening in the whole fight for the risht to or-
ganize and picket.

SHORT JABS

A
Weekly

Commentary

By Ol’ Bill

Backward

L ki In the Looking
Sone column of the Province nDews-
Backward. paper of May 19, the news

of Twenty Years Ago featured a strike story from
Winnipee dealing with the historic general strike
of that time which started in Winnipes-

The digest informs the readers that the Province,
twenty years ago, published 2 story about the insti-
tution of a Soviet government in Winnipeg on that
day. Three thousand striking workers were sup-
posed to have proclaimed a Soviet in the city and
the brains of the trade union cause was our old
friend Bill Tvens.

I remember that story.
the worst labor-haters and news
Ganadian newspaper game, Col. G. G. Porter. The
Province does not convey the whole despicable
character of Porters scoundrelly lying invention.
The Soviet, according to Porter, was supposed to be
porn in a shack on the banks of the Red River at
midnight, in a most secretive manner. The three
thousand multitude was a jater dream (pipe-dream).

There was no truth in the story. it was utterly
false. But neither Porter nor the newspapers which
printed his- lying rhodomontade made any effort
to retract it or to apologize to the strikers or the
readers whom they purposely hornswogeled.

The Canadian capiatlist press and the prostitute
journalist, Porter, were consistent in inventing and
spreading such lying rumors because they were in
the service and pay of the Manitobe Bridge and
Tron Works and the other thieving capitalist inter-
ests involved in the strike. And as they lie about
the workers to blacken them, they also lie about
the bosses to make them appear like angels,

This is the kind of “news-making”’ and “news-
publishing” that convinees us of the need for our
own press. The success of the press drive we have
just come through is evidence that this need is being
more and more understood.

Our undertaking to raise $100 in this column dur
ing the drive was more than accomplished, and f
want here to thank those who made that successful
effort. To mention a few by Rame: Jim Hodgkin-
son, Donald MacKenzie, Mrs. Campbell, John Con-
lon, Ann HEieccles, Bob Law, the Wictoria Road Pro-
etressive Women’s Group, and the dozens of others
=vho sent donations and subscriptions. And an extra
word for the magnificent work of 2 few real live
wires in Atlin who organized and carried through
the collections in that camp.

Here’s hoping there will be a press committee in
Atlin when the next drive comes and that they
will be able to make Ailin the banner district as
they did once before.

It was written by one of
fabricators in the

= = It may be possible that there
Promises Like are some people who believe
Piecrusts. Mr. Umbrella Chamberlain.
People with short memories, perhaps? No indi-
vidual whose memory is serviceable enough to take
him back six months and who is honest with himself
Can possibly believe the statements and promises of
the ereat betrayer of democracy.

Among the insinuations and half-lies used as
arguments in putting over conscription in Britain,
was the one that only about 200,000 youngsters be
tween 18 and 21 years of age would be affected by
the bill; another that it was not the purpose of the
sovernment of extend the principle of conscription
to industry.

Just how much truth is there in these government
promises and undertakings? A month before in-
troducinge the conscription measure Chamberlain
assured the Opposition that conscription would
NEVER be enforced during peace. When he did
introduce conscription, peace still reigned over No.

10 Downing Street, but Mr. “Chamberella” explained ~

that it was necessary because of changed conditions.

If our memory is long enough to go back to the
days of the Great War, we may remember the de-
mands that were made on the British trade unions.
They were asked to allow the government to “‘di-
lute” their ranks, that is, to permit unskilled work-
ers and laborers to do the work of skilled mechan-
ies. They were asked to allow the government to
“comb out” the industries, that is to permit the con-
scription of skilled workers who were exempt by
reason of their skill and industrial qualifications.
They were asked to allow the government to compel
union members to work at whatever work and
wherever the government bureaucrats ordered
them, and at whatever wages the same bureaucrats
decided.

After a long struggle, the
An Old unions gave in — to win the
Story. war. They surrendered the

gains of a hundred years of
trade unionism. They admitted unskilled workers
to do their work at lower wages. They allowed their
members to be dragooned into the army. They ac-
tually, through their officials, aided in the combing-

out. Im return for these concessions they were
promised by the government of that time — and
Neville Ghamberlain was a member of it — that

when the war was over everything would be re
stored to the pre-war status.

What happened? They never got back anything.
The government pleaded “changed conditions” and
broke its promises just as a month ago Chamberlain
pleaded “changed conditions” and broke his promise
of only a month previous.

The Chamberlain government promise that there
is nothing in the nature of industrial conscription
intended in this bill is just as worthless as the
promise of Asquith in 1916 when he gave official
assurances to Arthur Henderson that there was no
such purpose implied or meant in his conscription
bill, the same bill that enabled the government to
batter down trade union resistance to intensified
exploitation, wage cuts, and lengthened hours, by
taking men into the army who refused to be docile
in industry.

C Al Capone former gang-
apone 2 =

Pp leader of Chicago, is one of
Is Saved. the leading anti-Bolsheviks in

America. Do you remember
his pronouncement about the need for saving the
purity of the American workers?

This is what he said: “Bolshevism is Knocking
at our gates. We can’t afford to let it in. We have
got to organize ourselves against it and put our
shoulders together and hold fast. We must keep
America whole and safe and unspoiled. We must
Ikkeep the worker away from red literature and red
ruses. We must see that his mind remains healthy.”

Well, the murder-king himself now wants to be
“saved”? After a sermon in Alcatraz, the preacher

told his congregation of 75 convicts that if any of .

them felt the need of a savior he should stand up
before his fellows and confess the fact. Capone was
the first to raise.

Good work, Mr. Preacher!
lini, Hitler and Chamberlain.

Wow go after Musso-

at MIL ET LGA

4

Bers
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NE ey werent

TERT VMAs ate MAL