THE PEOPLE

Published every Wednesday by The People Publishing Co., Room 104, Shelly Building,
119 West Pender Street, Vancouver, B.C. Telephone: MArine 6929.

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aber and Civic Affairs

NE of the peculiarities of the Vancouver scene is the ex-
istence, within perhaps the strongest trade union city
in Canada, of an anti-labor, anti-trade union city council.

Two weeks ago, for example, the Civic Employees’ Federa-
tion applied for a closed shop agreement with the municipal
government. The union’s request was turned down—only Al-
dermen Price and Corey voting in favor—with Alderman Ben-
nett mumbling something about the closed shop “savoring of
nazism and fascism.” The fact that thousands of citizens
whom Alderman Bennett represents already work under
closed shop conditions was ignored by the finance committee
chairman. Presumably Bennett believes that all these work-
ers—in the shipyards, in steel and machine plants—are “suf
fering’ under nazi and fascist conditions.

What is important here is not so much that Mayor Cornett
and other members of the council have consistently gone
against the best interests of the working people in the city on
a whole number of issues, though their position is repre-
hensible, to say the least. After all, as members of the so-
called Non-Partisan Association they are doing a job for
those whom they represent, and it requires no stretch of the
imagination to determine what groups are pulling the strings.

The important thing, as far as labor is concerned, is to rec-
ognize that the trade union and labor political movement in
this city is responsible for such a ridiculous state of affairs.

It is true that traditionally organized labor has paid very
little attention to civic affairs in Vancouver. This was due,
in earlier days, to the floating character of the population;
that up until comparatively recent times a large number of
workers were single men, spending much of their time in
out-of-town jobs.

But it is also true that in very recent years, with an ac-
cumulation of evidence pointing to the crying need for labor
representation in civic government, no attention has been
paid to the problem and we have permitted the city to be
governed by a group of people more concerned with serving
the bondholders than their fellow citizens.

There are a whole number of questions that should be
tackled by the city council—housing, fuel, transportation,
nurseries for women war workers—to cite only a few. But
they never will*be tackled unless labor wakes up to its own
responsibilities and fights to see that it is represented. There
must be close to 50,000 unionists in the city of Vancouver.
They could be a tremendous influence, both in electing labor
men to the council and in seeing that labor’s problems are
recognized. Let us make sure that in the next civic election
some real changes are made in this direction.

The Quislings Aren't Beaten

oq storm of criticism levelled against the film “Mission to
Moscow,” criticism for which the magazine Time grants
almost a column of space to leading American Trotskyites
for the most vicious anti-Soviet slander, goes much, deeper
than mere opposition to the movie based on Ex-Ambassador
to Moscow Joseph E. Davies’ book. It is in fact a cover-up
for a ferocious attack on President Roosevelt and his win-
the-war policies, and is an integral part of the sinister cam-
paign to weaken the foundations of United Nations’ unity
and “throw the fight” to Hitler and the Axis.

The signs are everywhere. The Goebbels-inspired provo-
cations of the Polish government-in-exile have set the pace.
In every country the voices of defeat and disunity take up
the anti-victory chorus. Here in Canada the quisling Anthony
Hlynka, MP for Vegreville, asks the Canadian government
to support his stand for separation of the Ukrainian Soviet
Republic from the USSR. Everywhere the rats squeal and
find people in high places to listen to and support their trait-
orous schemes,

It is well to consider these facts, for they indicate that
even yet, with the Allied armies on the move everywhere,
with victory in the air and the second front an immediate
possibility, over-confidence would be fatal.

There should be no slackening now in our efforts to main-
tain national unity, in our fight against those elements who
seek to obstruct a 1943 victory policy. Labor, upon whom the
main burden of carrying out a positive war policy falls, must
instead intensify its efforts to rally the maximum of support
behind the splendid promises of Roosevelt and Churchill and
King. The ery for the second front in Europe must be in-
tensified. The victory is not won until the last gun is fired.

May Does It
Stand Today?”

By CORPORAL FRED WILMOT

“How does the bond drive stand today?”

That has been the common phrase among Canada’s fight-
ing forces for the last few weeks, and the army has backed
up the interest it implies to the tune of $30 per man subscribed
to the Fourth Victory Loan. No mean accomplishment when
it is considered that that figure stood with ene week of the

JAB!

by OV Bil

loan drive still to be completed.
One single unit situated on the
west coast, and running to about
700 mien subscribed $26,000 to the
drive. This is pertinent, and
means that Canada's fighting
foree; have confidence that they
are investing their money in
their victory, that their contri-
butions te the drive are going to
meal: that they are fighting with
dollars, are contributing their
money as well as their lives to
the drive for the final defeat of
fascism.
e

ANADA’S army feels that now,

with the current develop-
ments on the African front, with
the incressing weight of men and
material that the Russian army
is pouring against the German
Army on the Eastern front, with
the shattering of Japan’s consoli-
dation on Attu, with the growing
discontent and activity and
strength of guerrilla movements
in occvpied countries, they are
contiibuting fighting dollars to a
fightine campaign that bears the
promise of early defeat of Ger-
many ahd its satellites.

They are not interested so
much in “post-war savings,” in
the meager security that fifty or
a hundred dollars invested at
three percent against the future
can mean. But they are very
much interested in putting their
money into the fight, and in
standing shoulder to shoulder
with a’! of the Canadian people
in the “doNars for victory” fight.

e

Hi current bond drive has had

a two-way effect. Soldiets are
also seeing that the investment
in the wer effort must be more
than the offering of their lives,
and are taking a new interest in
the conservation of their cloth-
ing ani weapons.

In these and many other ways
are the soldiers of Canada con-
tributine to the ultimate victory
they know is theirs. Soldiers in
camps all over Canada are wear-
ing battle dress with minor re-
pair jobs which they have done
themselves, instead of turning
them into QM for replacement.
And these men are using their
leisure time to clean and service
their weapons, working out meth-
ods to save material that may
well be needed in the fight.

©
HIS might have been just an-
oti.er drive, another appeal
for funds by the government, but

A Tribute

MOSCOW.

RAVDA on May 10 devoted its

whole issue to the third All-
Slav meeting here, Its editorial
noted that more than a year has
elapsed since the second All-Slav
meeting in Moscow. In this peri-
od, the Slav peoples have gained
rich experience in their struggle
against their mortal enemy, the
Hitlerite oppressors. The glory
of the great Russian people's
struggle, with its brother Ukrain-
jians and Byelorussians on the
field of battle, in the ranks of
the Red Army and in partisan
detachments behind enemy lines
will go down in history.

“the events to date, the growing

momentum of tke offensive all
over the world front, the unity at
home ance the expressions of sol-
idarity with the army by labor,
has lei them to feel that now is
the time they may strike with
their dollars as well as their
weapons.

Tie words “how does it stand
today” bring pictures of soldiers
clustered around regimental and
battalion notice boards to see how
their efforts in the drive are go-
ing. The interest in how much
they are able to contribute, and
the will to contribute as much as
they are able, indicates that Can-
ada's army is interested in the
victory loan drive as yet another
means of crushing fascism, of
supplying the wherewithal to
buy the guns, the tanks, the
planes. Fighting dollars from the
fighting forces; and the thirty
dollais ner man that has already
been contributed by the army is
evidence that they are one with
all who contribute to the Fourth
Victory Loan. The army is
spurred by the enthusiastic re-
sponse all over Canada to the
drive. by the exceeding of quotas
in all fields and localities, and
they know that they will soon
be putting to use the weapons
their money will buy. They want
the jot completed as soon as pos-
sible, and will continue to ask
“How does it stand today?” until
the iast vestiges of fascism are
ecrushei and shattered in defeat.

e@

HEN the barrages open that

prelude the establishment of
the aliled bridge-head in Europe,
when the armed might of the
Unitea Nations engages the Fas-
cist.fcrees on the western front,
and when the final crashing rum-
ble of collapsing Nazi and fascist
power is heard, the Canadian
army vill know that its dollars
were a steeljacketed part of that
barrase, the lever exerted in the
opening cracks in the rotten fas-
cist structure.

The gevns in their hands are
truly their guns, and the cloth-
ing oe their backs, the ammuni-
tion in their weapons, the armor
on their tanks part of their con-
tribution, with the ultimate and
inevitable defeat of Germany,
Italy, and their stooges their
aim. Tae army does want to know
“How does it stand today?”
Their stand is against the forces
of reaction and retrogression, and
they back up their determination
with ‘their dollars.

To Slavs

Immortal is the glory of the
Yugoslav patriots, said Pravda.
Freedom-loving Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes developed an armed
struggle against the Italo-Ger-
man invaders. The partisans of
heroic Yugoslavia liberated thou-
sands of villages and towns. The
armed struggle of the true patri-
ots of Poland is growing and
‘strengthening, Partisan detach-
ments are multiplying. The Pol-
ish people are enslaved but not
vanquished by the Hitlerites, The
Czechoslovak military unit on the
Soviet front is fighting shoulder
to shoulder with the Red Army.

Slave Marke
2 g ii
Revived!
LETTER found on ¢
of a dead Germans
Rudolph Lammsmayer, Ww
his mother in a little ©
town named Lutte. It tol
hard way fate» had des
her neighbor, Frau Roste
Frau Rostet had lost h
sian slave girl who hi.
hanged herself in the
Frau Lammsmayer co
Frau Rostet, telling her, “
purchase another Russian
for a reasonable price.”
evidence proves that |
girls have been sold to ™
employers, farmers mosi
as low as 17 marks ($3.50
Threats of the punish:
Axis criminals should b
take definite form from a
viet and British bre
should inform the Germar
that every German who
Soviet citizen, civilian or
wil be hanged at the cor
of the war. |

The Permane :
Five Dollars

R. BLAYLOCK is wori
cause we are using
best mineral resources,
the mines are Wearing (
is insistent on that poi
takes every opportunity
of it.

Since 1936, when the $25
of the Consolidated Mint
Smelting Company were c
to $5, each $5-share has
the following sums in di
and bonuses: 1936, $2.00
$3.50; 1938, $2.50; 1939, $28
$2.25; 1941, $2.50; 1942, $3:
1943, $3.72. A total of $22
the shareholder still has }
spot. :

The ore gives out in the
but the $5 never gives ou

Deadly Paral
YOUNG man, little mo
a boy, was sent to jal
month with hard labor by
couver police magistrate
days ago. :

The crime he was acc!
was that of leaving an
monthsold baby on the 4
of the Children’s Aid Sol
and his wife, he told the
were both victims of TB 4!
willing to pay. for the
keep if they could find 3
for it.

Naive people like mys
imagine that the Childre
Society should he the P
take babies who need he
are not told what happ
the baby. i

Such a case could not ;
the Soviet Union. Childre
Soviet Union have the fir
on the wealth of the count
are, as Alf Campbell wrot
them in The People las
“the gold treasury of the
ist state—the Soviet bab
they are suffering toda}
the work of Nazi barbari
as units of the Soviet ¢
they are treated with the
est solicitude.

And the father and
too! Im the Soviet Uni
would not be sent to warl
rockpile but to a sanita
be cured of TB, a social
for which they are not
sible.

The real criminals ar
who sent this young lad t
and who maintain the ¢0
which made him take f
where he thought it W
treated kindly and given é
in life.