PEOPLE'S: VOICE FOR PROGRESS

| \No. 45 gS

5 Cents

At The §

production and the prot
wartime industrial workers at a mass meeting held
torium on Wednesday this week..

BOR MOVES ON OTTAWA
Nationwide Lobby Will
Urge Immediate Action
pening Session

Organized labor signified its intention of opening a full scale of-
fensive for a full reconversion program, pointed at the maintaining of
ection of the right to work by B.C.’s thousands of

VANCOUVER, B.C., SATURDAY, SEPT. 8, 1945

tiht To
ep TLC
1 WFTU >

_ ght to have the Trades
abor Congress of Can-
' presented at the Paris
ence of the World Fed-
-n of Trade Unions was
’, this week in Vancouver

: regular meeting of the
| r Trades and Labor Council
6

/Ynanimously to urge the

body ‘to reconsider its
im against sending dele-
to the Paris conference.”

before the meeting by
(sate George North, United
_§ :men’s Union, who pointed
— ‘hat abstention from the
— conference was no way to
the demand for Canadian
ipation in the WFTU ex-
FE Are.
'—.am confident,’ Delegate

'. .declared, “that if this
{| ir of world labor unity were
-. presented to all affiliated
,f ers of the- Congress across
2% la, we would find a major-
. support of full participa-

r
[ia
7

08
bE question arose out of a
‘b<t given to council by Presi-
mt Birt Showler on the results
pi.ae recent Trades Congress
i ged national executive
af ing in Ottawa, held in place
ie he postponed national con-
#8 on. Speaking on the WFTU
12, Showler read a national
: } utive. statement which
; acd that Congress participa-
o@. in the Paris conference was
sf ficult” due to:

Hae “dual nature” of the WF
) which includes the CIO as
E iffiliate.
sack of Canadian representa-
& on the WFTU_ executive
nic mittee.

go osts of affiliation, estimated
»56,000 yearly.

 harging that the Congress
dition toward the WEFTU was
gzenable, Delegate Pete Munro,
fe Railwaymen’s Union, ri-

1

| Aled the argument regarding
fh sc pointing out that the sum
= $6,000 distributed among the
/

1.000 members of theTLC,

uld be too small to be noticed.
gf we don’t take part in this
| irld labor body we are isola-
Mnists,” Munro said, “and look

Z

(Continued on Page 8)
See TLC

ion for reconsideration was || ~ achievements,

Help Build Your Paper

the P.A. will

Drive.
will be
sup-

On September 15,
launch its fall Press Sustaining
The quota set for this drive
$8,000, and each subscriber and

porter of our paper who recognizes the ©

important role that this paper has played
in the furthering of the working class
movement during the war will be asked
to aid in ensuring that the labor press
will continue to add its voice to the
affairs of this nation.

The problems arising out of the con-
clusion of hostilities have confronted the
labor press with new situations. During
the course of the war the main duty of
the labor press has been to fight for
national unity in the fight against fas-
cism, interpret the news of labor's
reporting. gains, giving
voice to the expressions of the people.
But now that we face the problems of
the peace, labor must continue its leading
role. ;

In order that the labor press can play
its part in the new situations facing the
labor movement, it is essential that each
and every worker recognize that this
paper is his own. Years of struggle have
gone into the establishment and exten-
sion of the labor press, years which rep-
resent honest toil and effort on the part
of many workers who have recognized
the need for working class expression
through the columns of a working-class

paper. In the course of those years, the
labor press has grown from a small voice
to a strong voice, capable of hurling la-
bor’s challenge at ail who oppose pro-
gress, capable of exposing anti-labor
elements and pressing for labor's
demands.

It is important, then, that with new
situations arising, situations that at
times will call. for clear and accurate por-
trayal of facts and strong leadership, that
that the labor press be maintained and
strengthened as a rallying force in the
working class struggle.

The P.A. is your paper. It belongs to
each and every worker who recognizes
the need for a strong labor press. It
belongs to: every person, worker, farmer,
and small business man, who sees labor’s
new strength as a force in national and
world affairs.

The Fall Press Drive will assure that

the Pacific Advocate, as the People’s

- Voice for Progress, will continue to ex-

press labor’s opinions and to record la-
bor’s gains and achievements. It is
necessary that we all reaffirm our loyalty
to the workingclass pres$ by getting be-
hind this press drive and pushing it over
the top as the most successful drive ever
launched by the labor press.

The quota is the challenge. All who
support the labor press must accept that
challenge.

LPP Announces Provincial Program
Nominating Conventions Proceed

of the war has been launched

The program points out that
since the surrender of Japan, no

~by the Federal or Previncial gov-
ernments to maintain production
and bridge the gap between war-
time and peacetime economy with
a minimum: of industrial dislo-
cation..The program points out
that while much work has been
done in’ reconstruction and re-
habilitation planning, little or
nc practical steps have been tak-
en to give effect to these plans.
Mass layoffs, lowered wages, and
conditions created by the disloca-
tion of unplanned . reconversion
constitute a “nationwide attack
against living standards, em-
ployment and social security of
the people,” the statement warns.

The committee underlines the

need of a large scale housing

A. draft program to meet

adequate steps have been taken.

the needs of British Columbia labor arising with the end

by the Provincial Committee of the Labor-Progressive Party

in conjunction with the announcement that nominating conv
out the city to choose candidates to carry the party banner

entions will be called through-

in the provincial elections.

program which has been obvious
for some time, “and yet the end
of the war finds tens of thous-
ands of our armed forces and
civilian workers together with
their families without homes.”

The draft program also. points
to Canada’s new role as a world
Tower as demanding that this
country play a big part in the
reconstruction of  war-fatigued
Europe, supplying food, building
materials, clothing and other do-
mestic needs. “Supplementary
to this role is the need of a Ca-
nadian Merchant Marine,” the
statement points out, “and yet
in British Columbia, thousands
of shipyard workers are exper-
iencing mass lay-offs and wage
reductions, and an industry basic
to Canada’s export trade is be
ing rendered derelict.”

J

LPP provincial candidates will
be chosen to carry this program
to the people of the province, at
nominating conventions to be
called throughout the city dur-
ing the next week. Candidates
have already been nominated in
the constituency of Kamloops,
where C. H. Cook, CNR shop-
man and trade unionist, will
campaign for the LPP, and in
Prince Rupert, where Bruce
Mickleburgh, who represented
Skeena Riding in the federal con-
test, will run for office under the
LPP banner.

During the coming week it is
expected that candidates will be
nominated in the following con-
stituencies: Wancouver Centre,
Point Grey, Burnaby, North
Vancouver, Vancouver East, and
Burrard.

in Boilermakers’ Audi-

Speakers for organized la-
bor flayed “the do-nothing at-
titude with which three levels
of government met the obvi-
ous problems of reconversion
during the war years of
plenty, and reaffirmed their
determination that labor will not
be compelled to return to the lean
years of hunger and degradation
of the Hungry Thirties.

The Conversion Committee re-
ceived solid and enthusiastic en-
dorsation of a resolution pro-
posing that organized labor send
a delegation to Ottawa to force
action to meet the reconversion
situation. The resolution pointed
out that at present it appeared
obvious that the government was
moving much too slowly to meet
the mass layoff situation facing
thousands of B.C. workers, and
emphasized the. need for labor-
management-government cooper-
ation to force -action: on labor’s
reconversion program. The dele
gation will meet with members
of the cabinet and will solicit sup-
port for labor’s demands.

Harvey Murphy, International
Representative of the Mine, Mill
and Smelterworkers, drew round
after round of applause from the
six hundred enthusiastic trade
unionists attending the meeting,
and stated that labor has not the
slightest intention of returning to
the lean years of hunger.

“The Canadian people well re-
member when Canada was plung-
ed into the unemployment crisis
of the thirties,’ Murphy stated,
“When the Canadian government
could rely upon the Salvation
Army to hand out a night’s sleep
and donuts and coffee. You will
remember that over thirty thous-
end people demonstrated in Van-
couver, and there were demon-
strations across the country, and
then the federal government es-
tablished their relief system.”

“You will remembe? too that
all during that time labor was
proposing definite measures to
meet the crisis that existed.”

“We had the spectacle of the
richest country in the world with
a large part of our young men
living in relief camps.. Some of
the people in this country are
still living in those days. There
have not been many changes in
the minds of our upper classes.”

Murphy -pointed out that the
people of Europe, realistically
meeting the new _ situations
brought about by the defeat of
the forces of aggression. in Eu-
rope, have placed their govern-
ments on trial. “Some people in
this country,” Murphy said, “don’t
know that the people in Europe
have placed their governments on

(Continued on Page 8)

See MOVES ON OTTAWA.