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# il. No. 19

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LABOR’S VOICE FOR VICTORY

5 Cents

Vancouver, B.C., Saturday, May 15, 1943

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10 Cents an Hour --
‘low Starvation

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By ELSIE ANDERSON

NCE upon a time there was a man who thought he'd get
a job-in the shipyards and make lots of money and live
oily ever after .. . and if that sounds like the beginning

fairy tale I can’t help it. For the myth of shipyard “mil-

ires” has been exposed and
reality makes grim jeading.
questionnaire circulated by
{ Dock and Shipyard Workers’
Ma in recent months asking
lesser paid members for de-
of their financial problems
the lie to the pleasant-
ding rumor of worker-prof-
s and sketches a sordid pic-
of penny-pinching and priva-
among these essential in-
gal workers*° whose 50 cents
pur means that if they work
reek and every week, and if
mre lucky. enough to escape
or ‘flu, they may take home

@ he wife and children the

i sum of $48 at the end of
wo-week pay period. Cost of
: bonus only serves to offset
Part of the deductions from
pay check—compensation,
‘axes and so on.
e
iS cross section survey, re-
alts of which are now being
tired by Pacific Coast Labor
@u in a brief for presenta-
to hearings of the National
aber Board in Ottawa,
% that even for a single man
sicture is none too rosy. Out
635 approximate hundred dol-
a month he pays (average
es) $4 for transportation,
for his work clothing and
dering and cleaning of them,
or His room and board, and
ections of $22.50 including
s and war bonds. -And if
fre added those figures you
fy that $76 is the total. And
+ the $24 balance this wartime
j;crat may spend all he so
=es on dress clothing, tobac-
Nirinks and recreation. «
: @
f it is when we turn to the
figures covering married men
We see the shocking impli-
2 us of a 50-cent an hour wage

4

m)aese days of climbing prices

'diminishing qualities.
hiking an average from the

pins filed with the union, we

a that the married worker
ds $470 for transportation,
0 for rent, $46.70 for food
| average is computed from
jlies of from 1 to 8 children)
~-0 is deducted from his check
®-axation and other items, and

® work clothes he spends $5.90.

*< lower cost of work clothes
Smarried men tells of patient
"S of patching and darning by.
wite). Add these figures and

you'll find that the married
worker has a balance of $12.80
to his credit.

But wait! Let’s see what he has
to do with that twelve dollars.
Fuel is one important item not
covered in the survey. (There’s
the twelve bucks shot for a whole
month, and nothing else bought.)
Then in addition to rent most
workers pay electric bills, maybe
gas bills, too. Can’t afford a
phone. And the children need
clothes, and the wife. “And the
wage earner himself needs a
“good” suit. He pays union dues,
of course. It’s nice to be able to
go to a show once in a while
but obviously all these things
can’t be done with $12 a month.
Can’t slash the food allowance
much—the kids don’t get enough
milk as it is. We'll, just have to
do without clothes, that’s all —
Make over, make do, makeshift.
And 60 it goes.

@

NLY 28 percent of these mar-

ried workers own their
homes, but 61 percent are buy-
ing victory bonds and war sav-
ings certificates. And 76 percent
are in real need of medical and
dental care. The questionnaire
didn’t ask how many could budget
on medical or dental expenses —
the answer is obvious. Out of his
war-inflated pay envelope the
shipyard worker knows he can’t
spent a cent on health require-
ments either precautionary or
otherwise. Cod liver oil costs
monuey and doctors want their
bills paid—but fast — now that
everyone is “making plenty.”’

When illness strikes one of the
family the wage earner goes to
work with -a terrible burden of
worry foremost and always in his
mind. Sometimes he feels tied up
in’ knots inside, tense, “jittery”—
and production undoubtedly suf-
fers because one man’s life has
too many problems. Accidents
can happen, too, when a man’s
head is confused. He knows how
many accidents there have been,
he knows he may be next. And
if it should be him—what of the
family?

This terrible load of responsib-
ility is too much for any man to
shoulder. This threat of destitu-
tion, this living on the edge of
extreme poverty, this nerve-
wracking, ever-present burden of
worry saps the energy that might
better be diverted to production
for victory.

Are Japanese
United in War?

By L. P. THOMAS
7 OUR previous article we saw how under the stress of
war the ruling cliques in Japan have been forced to cen-
tralize power in the hands of one man, Premier Tojo. We saw
how this centralization of power is intended to enable Japan
to withstand a long siege by consolidating her hold on all
occupied territories and the people therein.

By this tactic Japan, as her
spokemen have frankly confessed,
hopes to stage another “peace
offensive.” At the proper psycho-
logical moment the Japanese will
trot out the so-called “moderates”
—men of the business and finan-
cial world with international con-
nections. Through them, certain
concessions may even be offered
to the possibly war-weary West-
erm powers as Japan seeks to re-
tain most of her newly acquired
booty. But these “liberal’’ busi-
messmen, as has so often been
pointed out, are only another face
of Japanese imperialism. Lo do
business with them would mean
underwriting Japanese military
fascism, just as any thought of
dealing with such Germans as the
banker Dr. Schacht, the indus-
trialist Fritz Thyssen, or the
“anti-Nazi” generals of the Reich-
swehr would offer German Naz-
ism its golden opportunity of sal-
vaging victory from defeat.

: @

PECULATING on the relative

merits of so-called liberalism
in Japan is not only a futile task
but one which must inevitably
lead to a defeatist attitude. But
is this the only alternative we
face? Are there no other ele-
ments in Japan with whom we
can do business once our military
victory is won?

Experts on Japan do not share
the widespread belief that the
Japanese people are different
from all other peoples or that the
Japanese social structure is so
firmly knit that the morale of
the people will never crack, The
most recent testimony is provid-
ed by the well-known anthropoto-
gist and student of Japenese life,
Professor John Embree, in his
booklet, “The Japanese,” pub-
lished by the Smithsonian Insti-
tution in Washington. This study
concludes that the Japanese are
a people “whose basic mental and
psychological abilities and pro-
cesses are similar at birth to
those of Americans or Germans
or Chinese.” Professor Embree’s
analysis definitely disposes of the
notion that Japan is a nation in-
dissolubly united under the “di-
vine” guidance of the Emperor.

Even a cursory glance at Jap-
anese history justifies this con-
clusion. We can count upon allies
within Japan, as we count on al-
lies in Germany. It is true that
at present there are no signs of
widespread, organized political
opposition within Japan. Terror
and repression dn Japan have
gone to even greater lengths than
in Hitler’s Germany. In fact,
Japan has been a classic exam-
ple of the “police State’ ever
since the second half of the 19th
century when it “emerged” from
its long feudal sleep.

.)

Buz popular opposition and re-

volt have flared up repeated-
ly. This is inevitable in a land
where some 80 percent of the peo-
ple live off the land, most of them
as tenant farmers living on the
bare edge of starvation under
conditions approaching serfdom.

In i9th century Japan there
were widespread peasant upris-
ings. The “People’s Rights Move-
ment” represented the aspirations
of the agrarian masses for dem-
ocratie government. The ruling

classes — feudal landlords, court
circles, bureaucracy, army offi-
cers, and rising capitalists —
joined forces to crush this move-
Ment. But the social conditions
which gave rise to it were, if
anything, aggravated as Japan
became an efficient and highly
industrialized nation.

After World War I the revolu-
tionary spirit grew in Japan. Pov-
erty, high prices, and war-weari-
ness caused the rice riots which
first broke out in August, 1918,
and lasted almost two months,
involving millions of tenant far-
mers all over the country. The
mumber of tenant farmer con-
flicts rose from 85 in 1917 to 408
in 1920, according to official fig-
ures. Tenant farmers’ unions
grew rapidly in extent. Strikes
broke out among the industrial
workers and the first mass trade
unions were formed, soon em-
bracing well over 100,000 workers.

Ree flared up again in
1931-32 when the effects of
the world economic crisis were
felt by the common people of
Japan. Labor disputes rose from

933 in 1924 to 2,456 in 1931 and
tenant farmer disputes from 1,260
to 2,689. Even the partial abate-
ment of the economic crisis did
not put an end to popular strug-
gle.

Japanese aggression after 1931
in Manchuria and North China
was not supported, as superficial
observers would have us believe,
by a united Japanese nation. In-
deed, 1932 and 1933 were years
of unbridled terror.
Japanese were arrested for hold-
ing “dangerous thoughts.” Among
them were judges, teachers, stu-
dents, and scions of aristocratic
families, as well as workers and
peasants. J

Despite fierce repression the
anti-fascist movement continued
to be a powerful force. From No-
vember, 1936, to January, 1937,
over 3,000 anti-fascists were ar-
rested, mainly trade unionists in
industrial cities like Nagoya and
Osaka. Srtikes increased from
2,689 in 1936 to 6,170 in 1927. Ten-
ant farmer disputes rose to 6,-
170. The elections of 1937, held on
the eve of Japan’s major aggres-
Sion against China, testified to
the courage of the democratic
forces in Japan who defied every
form of moral and physical pres-
sure to register their popular pro-

Unconditional sur-
render must con-
tinue to be our
watchword on the
field of battle
against our foe in
the Far East. But
we may hasten the
outcome of the war
if we find ways of
reaching the people
of Japan.

Over 38,000:

test. Ten of thousands were
clapped into jail on charges of
“dangerous thoughts.” The police
state used every weapon in its
arsenal to exterminate all Jap-
anese who protested against Jap-
an’s “divine mission” in Asia. And
as late as the end of 1940 ex-
tensive rice riots occurred.

This, then, is only a brief run-
ning account of the opposition of
the Japanese masses to their mili-
tary fascist rulers. It is no doubt
unwise to overestimate the pres-
ent strength of this opposition.
The rulers of Japan bury all
group rivalries and dissensions at
a moment's notice whenever they
are faced with “dangerous
thoughts” on the part of the
people.

e@

UT on the other hand, it is a

dangerous illusion to con-
ceive of the masses of the Jap-
anese people as one spirit with
their fascist overlords and some-
how “different” from the exploit-
ed peoples everywhere. To operate
on this theory may be to prolong
the war against Japan unneces-
Sarily.

The social structure of Japan
is top heavy. Japan remains the
only large State today in which
feudalism has been fused with
20th century large-scale capital-
ism and the resulting merger
given a kind of divine sanction
because of the strenuously culti-
vated myth of the Emperor’s di-
vinity. The agrarian problem
is the Achilles heel of Japanese
economy.

And the Japanese labor move-
ment in the brief two decades of
its development has given ample
proof of its political courage and
maturity in the face of savage
terror. The various government
crises of 1918-20, 1931-32, 1936-87,
and 1940-41 testify not only to dif-
ferences of cpinion among lead-
ing capitalist and miltarist groups
in Japan but also to their con-
stant fear of popular uprisings,

UR watchword in the war

against Japan is “uncondi-
tional surrender” on the field of
battle. But we may hasten this
outcome by findigg ways and
means of reaching the Japanese
people who suffer under the yoke
of domestic fascism and to whom
“Japan’s divine mission” jis a
stark, bitter jest. They have
fought many battles for democ-
racy and social progress in th
past. We can and must SutiGE
them in the present fight for the
Principles of the Four Freedoms
and the Atlantic Charter. Fascist
Japan must be utterly destroyed.
4 democratic Japan of the People
will rise from its ruins,

ee ms