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PACIFIC ADVOCATE

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PEOPLE’S VOICE FOR PROGRESS

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Published every Saturday by The People Publishing Com-
. pany, Room 104, Shelly Building, 119 West Pender Street,
Vaneouver, British Columbia and printed at East End
Printers, 2303 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, British
Columbia. Subscription Rates: One year $2; six months $1.

Editor Phone
Cc. A. SAUNDERS MA rine 5288

Labor Must Unite

AST week-end the B.C. Federation of Labor,
representing thousands of workers in the basic

industries of the province, spoke upon the neéd
for labor unity in’ the forthcoming provincial elec-

tions. The stand taken by the convention is wel-
comed by all citizens who regretted the division in
the progressive vote in the federal contest, and wish
to see no repetition of it in the provincial field.

The Federation convention put forward two
proposals: First, that the CCF and LPP achieve
electoral unity. And secondly, that “‘the influence
of the trade union movement be utilized in such a
manner that the support of labor will be centred

_upon one candidate in each constituency.’” Both of
these proposals are very laudable.

Certainly in the face of labor’s official stand
the CCF leadership cannot continue to persist in
their policy of going it alone and refusing unity with
other progressive forces. The significant thing is
that the above proposals were adopted with. the
support of a number of prominent CCF trade union-
ists voting for the resolution.

Undoubtedly the feeling for unity among the
working people is overwhelming. The CCF trade
unionists who voted with the resolution had their
ear close the workers and knew what they wanted.

At this moment the date for the provincial
election is not yet known, but organized labor has
provided us with the key to defeating the reaction-
ary candidates in the forthcoming vote. That key is
to unite all our forces qround one progressive
candidate in each constituency.

It is to be hoped that the CCF will take labor’s .

stand to heart and agree, while there is still time to
unite with other forces to ensure that when the
smoke of.the provincial election campaign has
cleared away, we will have a more advanced and
progressive provincial administration.

Can Strike

A. development has taken place in the American Can Co.
strike which the labor and democratic movement must quickly
‘react to. In the absence of Premier Hart and Minister of La-
bor Pearson, the provincial cabinet, dominated by the Tory
elements, have overruled the National Wartime Labor Rela-
tions Board and declared the strike to be illegal. This action
is not legal and establishes a dangerous precedent.

Some time ago the American Can employees took their
case to a conciliation board established by the Federal Govern-
ment under P.C. 1003. Once the present strike started the
administrator in charge of administering PC 1003 in this
province declared the strike to be legal. His is the authority
to do so. The reactionary clique now in charge at Victoria
have overstepped their bounds in an attempt to break the
union and encourage a union busting campaign in the province.

Every labor and democratic organization should protest
this action to the cabinet. The job of administering P.C. 1003
in B.C. is that of George Pearson, who is administrator. for
the Wartime Labour Relations Board. The authority of that
board must be re-established.

PACIFIC ADVOCATE—PAGE 4

Slandermongers 5 red wimer

Kes have a happy habit of boasting about
their achievements. When I was a little
gaifer, the kids around our neighborhood used
to like to get together and boast about how we
jumped off the tallest pile
of lumber in the construction
yard, how we outran and
outjumped the minions of.
the law, how many -more
handsprings we could do
than anyone else, or how we
could ‘swim out to the sea-
wall and back. They were
happy years and we used
to take our victories |and
achievements very seriously.

There was one type of guy
that was never very popular cone
among us. That was the kid who’d minimize
everything that anyone did. If you outran a cop,
he’d say the cop had a broken leg, or if you jump-
ed off the tallest lumber pile he’d say it was just
a little pile and anyone could have done it, so
there. It wasn’t long before that kind of kid
would find himself without a “gang” to hang
around with, and he was rarely missed from later
blow-sessions.

I was reading one of the dailies the other day,
and I came across an item that made me think
of the kid who minimized everything that any-
one did. It was an article, written by a veteran
newspaperman who was released from a German
internment camp by the advancing Red Army.
Kospoth, in a snide report on the ‘‘Ill-clad, badly-
armed, slouching’” Red Army, extolled the tre-
mendous part that American arms had played in
the Red Army’s victories and wondered how the
Red Army had. “managed to get there.”

One can understand newspapermen of the stripe
of W. L. White, whose ‘‘Report-on the Russians”
attacked every. phase of life in the Soviet Union,
writing their tripe for profit. White, who has been
censured by every fair-minded authority in the
U.S., had his book pushed by the anti-Soviet Book-
of-the-Month Club which printed his parade of
lies and slander. In this case, however, it is

more difficult to understand how a man who was -

liberated from a German prison camp could show
his gratitude by attacking his liberators in the
unfair and unprincipled manner in which he
does. .
White wrote his book after a “lightning tour”
through the Soviet Union. In the short period
of six weeks, “six rugged weeks of Socialism
diluted only by Soviet champagne” as he put it,

White was able to vilify and cast
Union as an “expert.” Wendell
fairly objective manner, recc
would take “a lifetime of study
of books to begin to tell the wk
the Soviet Union.” ;

Kospoth, however, in the recor
months, was able to discover the
to the Soviet Union, the use to w
the poor quality of Russian arm
ness of the Soviet army, and so (
He is one of the newspapermen 2
privilege of moving behind the ]
to attack the Red Army.

It has been revealed by compe
that although the Soviet autho:
American weapons and supplies,
percent of American war produc
ted to lend lease to the Soviet '
other hand it has also been pr
shadow of a doubt that it was the
own war production that brougi
the Wehrmacht. The figures on §
duction are staggering. One Soy
alone produced 35,000 tanks—m
supplied to the Soviet by the Al
the war. The Red Army’s artille
completely Soviet-built and dé
light, medium and heavy machi
matic rifles and other infantry
also produced at home. All of the
tegic weapons of warfare used by
in its crushing victories over G
were Soviet-built.. The supplies
lend-lease were almost insignific:
pared to the expenditure of WwW
struggles on the eastern front. |

While it cannot be denied itt
Unien welcomed the materiel of 4
the allied nations, it must be cle
that these supplies played only a

Soviet victories. s i

The Whites, Kospoths, and othe
experts will undoubtedly continue
Red Army and its achievements,
recognizes a deep debt of gratitud
ageous people’s army. The anti-So:
experts are spitting into the ¥
opinion, and they will doubtless
ward of such folly. World opinic
ber forever the Red Army’s cou:
fices, without which “the ultimate
cism might not have-been-sescom

plished. . ;

Around Town By Cynthia Carter

[452 Saturday’ Pauline, the girl who sits with

the baby, had a heavy date with a Van John-
son movie, so we had to decide whether to stay
home or to go out and take Little Carl along. We
finally decided to go out and make it a three-
some, with the result that .
Little Carl, last Saturday,
met his first celebrity, A.
Phillip Randolph, president
of the International Broth-
erhood of Sleeping Car Em-
ployees.

Mr. Randolph, a big, broad
shouldered, quiet spoken man
who wears suits straight out
of Esquire, is, of course,
more than a celebrity. He is
one of the people who have
given many years of hard
work to the organizing .oi
Negro working people in the
United States and Canada, and is achieving
success in this very important task. Organizer ot
elevator operators in New York at the age of
24, and now possibly the most well-known Negro
trade unionist on this continent, his experiences
have been varied in the labor movement. He’s
tackled many a tough job, but the toughest, he
believes, was bucking the powerful Pullman

Company in the United States.

“Pullman decided a long time ago that no union
man would work for them,” he told me. _ “We
kind of changed their minds.”

Though you may disagree a little with some
of Mr. Randolph’s political views—and many
unienists do—you must admit that as a labor
organizer he’s something of a whizz. Unionizing
perters who work in small gangs on the big
Trans-Canada trains or on shorter runs in the
provinces is a lot different from organizing the
workers in a shipyard or plane plant. A much
more personal approach is needed at times, be-
cause of the difficulty of getting workers to-
gether in one place. Yet the union is growing,
advancing in prestige and influence as well as

numerical stregth, and ‘is, at +t?
fighting its war on two fronts; firs.
for better working conditions ai
sezond, in the war against diserm
ployment practices.

While he was in town, Mr. Rand.
out to speak at a meeting in a little
in Vancouver. The meeting had
set up a local branch of the Natior
for the Advancement of Colored FE
an influential body in the Unite:
NAACP has yet to make’ its voi
loudly in Canada, yet last week’s 1)
packed the tiny church to the di
finger to a very significant future:

To be perfectly frank, the “Ne
so-called, is not very acute in Vam
because the Negro population heré
Then why a NAAGP?. That’s sim:
bers. Colored people don’t necess-
be black. What about the large Cl
tion, for instance, and what ab
Indians and the Japanese? Whi
tion against Negroes is much wea
in some parts of Canada, Chinese:
deal on ‘the Pacific Coast than in @
of the Dominion. Yes, there’s lot
the NAACP. here is still, for insta
tion of franchise for minority Asiat
the problems of that long-suffer
Native Indians. Will the NAAGE
problems? Its constitution, acceptel
bers, suggests that it. will. z

When Mr. Randolph left V
NAACP was in good hands. Preside
body is tall,. serious-faced Frank C€
also president of his district uni_
working, sincere sort of guy (on _
tween trips he has cleared a small:
his own hands built a cosy coun
his wife and two little girls). Fr-
new job seriously. One of the
first tasks, he says, will be to fight
ian version of the Fair Employ |
Committee of the United States, 4
discrimination on the part of emt

SATURDAY, AUG