round the
Slipways |

By Charles Saunders

\Y DAY this year will once again see the workers
demonstrating on the streets of Vancouver—marching
id their banners, bearing aloft their slogans. The his-
bof the struggle of the workers, from the fight for the
hour day, can be read in the slogans carried by the
ers in their parades on May days. This year, the parade
bignify the unity of all labor, of labor with the armed
§s, of all freedom-loving peoples behind the all-out of-
# re to smash the Axis powers.
have taken part in many May Day celebrations, and al-
® feel the same inspiration and thrill as I march shoulder
; pulder with my fellow workers, but there are two May
= which stand out.
ne was in Spain, Spain where the first shots in this global
jwere fired. May Day 1938, after the fascists, aided by
janized reinforcements from Italy,
high to the Mediterranean, cutting Catalonia and the
fon from the rest of Loyalist Spain.
'e were manning trenches in defense positions alongside
ibro near Moira de Nueva, and the password of the day
Primero de la Maio and the countersign Venceremos—
hall win. We had our May Day banners ready the day
fe, and as the signs of daylight appeared our machine-
bers opened up a heavy barrage whilst we floated the
hers down the river.
the promises we made that day still live in our hearts.
§= of them were carried into life three months later, when
‘rossed the river again to carry the fight right to the
oaches of Gandesa. But we lacked the planes, artillery
tanks to storm the heights. The non-intervention policy
sealed the fate of Spain, and condemned the world to
war.

(i

EN May Day 1939. Once again in Vancouver the Mac-
kenzie-Papineau battalion celebrated May Day, march-
in parade with red-headed George Ross in the lead. I
smber as we marched in that parade, carrying our slogans
sg united action to prevent the coming war, thinking of
spanish people, already crushed beneath the fascist heel,
idy being murdered, thrown into concentration camps,
lemned to years of starvation and suffering by the non-
-yentionists. The Munichites, the appeasers, the man
_the umbrella—were they to betray countless millions
similar fate?

his is history now, and we know how each succeeding
’ Day has added to the millions of peoples brought under
ruthless domination of the Nazis.

3ut this May Day comes with a new aspect. Hope is
ing once again in the hearts of the oppressed peoples.

ist slavery in the course of their winter offensive. The
ed forces have swept clean through North Africa. Once
n the way is open, the opportunity is here, to completely
}and smash the Axis forces. We must not listen to faint-
rts nor yet to those whose policy springs directly from the
-Interventionists, the Munichites, those who condemned
whole world to an unprecedented bloodbath because
7 feared labor more than they feared fascism. “Invade
ope Now”... . “Everything for the Offensive” .. . “Back
Attack!” These are the slogans of labor this May Day.
: ; e

‘ND the Mackenzie-Papineau veterans will march again.
Not all, for many are once again in the armed forces, in
‘th Africa, on the high seas, fighting again, whilst others
hem have only memories—memories of gallant comrades
) gave their all on the battlefields of Spain. But they will
‘ch with us too—and the thousands who have lost their
S on other battlefields. Yes! and the hundreds of thou-
ds in concentration camps, the guerrilla fighters of oc-
ied Hurope—they will all be with us as we march this
y Day, marching to pledge our all, marching to demand
on now—the all-out Allied offensive promised at Casa-
nea.

drove a corridor.

Soviet Union has released millions of its citizens from.

Continued

There was no doubt about it.
Even the bosses could see that
Copper Mountain had gone union.

@

ND somebody else saw it too—
Blaylock, boss of Trail, the
town towards which manage-
ment and labor alike looked for
leadership. Blaylock saw Copper
Mountain, where workers had
been trying for some time to form
an independent union and now
stood solidly behind the
IUMMSW, as a test of union
strength. He saw growing signs
of discontent in his own “happy
family.” He recognized the pas-
sage of the ICA Act as a defeat
for his policies, and he sat in

Trail, waiting fearfully.

He didn’t have long to wait.
The union came to Trail, teo,
despite phony votes of the now
defunct Workmen’s Gooperative
Gommittee. Consolidated is still
trying to pull strings, but unions
have sprung up in both Trail
and Kimberley.

Trail is alive with meetings,
union meetings and mass meet-
ings. Workers are speaking up
for the first time in 25 years. In
all departments men proudly
sport buttons as big as American
dollars, on which are printed the
magic words, “Shop Steward.”
Others have managed to get CIO
buttons, and transfer them from
work clothes to “Sundaybest.”
One union man reports that the
kids in his neighborhood have a
new game, a reversal of the old
“Cops and jRobbers” — with the
virtue transferred to the other
side, which they call “Cops and
CIO.” In every restaurant and
beer parlor union buttons are
worn, and the whole town seems
to hum with discussion.

“To be in a town that’s going
union is’ to be in a real democ-

racy,” stated Harvey Murphy.
‘Votes run by the company
through its various setups, an-

nounced every day, have failed
to divert men and women from
their own union.

“There is a growing trek to the
new centre of the community, the
union office at the corner of EI-
dorado and Bay, where union
members drop in on their way

to and from work almost every
day. Trail is going union in a big
way.”

e

HE same story is repeated at

Kimberley, where at 1:30
on the afternoon of April 22, the
company union met and formally
voted itself out of existence.

Organization began on April 4,
with a big meeting called in the
theater by the company union,
with a sign on the door reading
“Miners Only.” But the first mo-
tion passed by the men inside
was that the union organizers
should be invited in to address
the audience. And they were. The
discussion lasted over four hours,
Some of the men skipping meals
to sit in on it. Finally the whole
audience, with the exception of
five men, endorsed the action of
the Trail workers on joining a
union. The meeting filed out of
the hall, and Organizer Murphy
was swamped with applications
for membership. Men were
signed up on street corners. For
a table the organizers used the
fenders of cars, and the obliga-
tion was taken in a doorway of
a nearby store.

A second meeting was called in
the high school grounds. A car
was driven up, its lights turned
on the school steps, from which
Murphy and Fred Henne, Trail

president, spoke. Seventy men
were signed up, forming a new
Tocal.

The enthusiastic workers elect-
ed as their full time business
agent Duke Hyssop, former
trainer of the Kimberley Dyna-
miters, Allen Cup winners and
world champions, who beat a
German team on German soil
Most of the team now working at
Kimberley joined the union in a
body. President of the thriving
new local is Danny Martin, a
Glasgow Scot who has worked in
the Sullivan mine for i7 years.

HEN workers have been held
down for so long by a setup
such as Blaylock’s, nothing can
stop them when they start or-
ganizing. There is a new feel in
the air, say workers, who for the

Now We Can Speak

first time can back a union, a
real union, of their own choos-
ing.

In fact, the only unhappy man
in the empire is Blaylock the
ever-generous who, out of the
goodness of his heart, deplores
the fact that his “happy family”
must be deprived of his financial
support as far as their organiza-
tion’ is concerned.

“Main problem now,” says Har-
vey Murphy, “is to win formal
recognition of the union, so that
big grievances can be settled
without the usual buck-passing:
that you invariably find in anti-
union plans. Absenteeism is ab-
normally high, and the union is
going to attack all causes of ab-
senteeism. Social life in the com-
munity must be organized. The
men must feel that they are more
than company property.”

The latest plan at Copper
Mountain, following out this line,
is to ask the company for land
on which to build a union office
so that, to quote one miner,
“strangers will know by the sign
on the building that there is one
piece of real estate in Copper
Mountain that Granby Consoli-
dated can never own.”

RAIL, Copper Mountain and
Kimberley are now the be-
ginning of a new democracy of
the interior. The workers have
something now that all the mil-
lions of Blaylock and his gang
cannot buy—a union of their own
choice, won by their own struggle.
Robert Carlin, Board Member
from the East, who has been
tackling a similar problem at
Inco at Sudbury, and Board Mem-
ber Chase J. Powers, who has ad-
dressed miners’ meetings in Trail,
are coordinating the campaign
and backing it up with the sup-
port of the International union.
But the men and women in the
mines and smelters aren’t kidding
themselves; they know the fight
isn’t over yet. But there is one
thing they do know: that they are
solidly behind their union, and
now that they have that union,
theyll defend it against any
weapon the boss miners want to
introduce.

|_etters

From Our

Readers

Fuel ‘Problem

STANLEY ANDERSON, presi-
dent of Northwest Cooperative
Society, writes:

We, the members of the Dan-
ish Credit Union have set up a
cooperative society with the aim
of solving the fuel problem. A
committee set up several months
ago made investigations regard-
ing fuel, housing and health in-
surance, and in order to legally
handle such matters we decided
to set up a cooperative society,
incorporated April 17, 1943, with
offices for the time being situat-
ed at 451 W. 8th Ave, Van-
couver.

The possibilities as to what we
can accomplish depends on the
support we are able to obtain
financially, and the moral sup-
port of citizens of Vancouver.

Our findings are that we can
put somewhere around 25,000 or
30,000 cords of wood into Van-
couver during the summer and
early fall. Regarding coal, ne-
gotiations are proceeding for two
different coal properties, which in
six montths’ time from the start
of operations will be producing
500 tons per day. Other fuel such
as peat and sawdust are being

investigated.

All these things need financing.
We are not millionaires. We be-
long “to a credit union, and also
to our respective trade unions,
and are represented in practically
all trades in Vancouver war in-
dustries. This is an earnest en-
deavor by labor to solve this fuel
question, and open to investiga-
tion by any individual or organ-
ization. Our cooperative has been
set up following true Rochdale
principles. No proxy voting is
permitted, no buying up of shares
by any ome individual, and no
discount or commission is paid
any person selling shares.

Membership in the cooperative
is by approval of a member in
good standing, and the initiation
fee is one dollar. Shares are ten
dollars each. A dividend not ex-
ceeding six percent will be paid
on each share, profits to be di-
vided as purchaser rebates in ac-
cordance with cooperative prin-
ciples.

Our aim is to get at least 5,000
members. The main issue today
is fuel, so let’s get together and
solve this fuel problem, Once the
fuel problem is solved we plan
to investigate possibilities for a

cooperative housing plan, and a
health insurance scheme.

Hard Work

Ss. TODD,
writes: ‘

I would like to draw to the
attention of the unions and shop
stewards in the shipyards to the
very serious acts of what amounts
to sabotage taking place in the
yards every day, namely, the em-
ployment of lads 15 or 18 or 20
years of age in the capacity of
holders on and riveters. This
amounts to nothing more than
sabotaging our young manpower.

For these are two of the heavi-
est jobs in the shipyards. No
man, no matter how strong, can
stand the grind of these jobs for
any length of time. They soon
develop bad arms and shoulders
and knees, to say nothing of their
eyes, so what must be the con-
sequences from such work among
young men who have not fully
attained the strength of man-
hood.

I venture to say, in my capac-
ity as a first aid man, that not
less than nine out of ten will be
erippled within a year,

shipyard worker,