—

| :lothing in rags and many of them without shoes,
ugee children in France await a miserable winter
|. receive warm clothing. Watch for announcement
drive by Spanish Refugee Appeal.

People’s Party Of Iran Leads

iin. Fight For Democratic Gov't
Reign Of Oppression And lerror
Preceded Present Persian Uprising

The outbreak of civil strife in Northern Iran, with armed people’s forces reportedly
marching against the Iranian capital of Teheran, has again focussed world attention on
this ancient nation which occupies such a strategic position in relation to the Soviet
Union and the trouble zones of British-occupied Near East.

ird Crowd Attends
yal Labor Art Exhibit

' ost significant event in the history of Labor-Art
was attended by a record crowd when _ the

-inual

“British Columbia at Work’

competitive

ion, conducted by the Labor Arts Guild, was
F pened by Elmore Philpott in the Vancouver Art

~ November 14.
‘emphasized the im-
‘ationship of the al-
—xrt and Labor to the
‘nd development of
_f society. Other re-
-: speakers who stres-
al value of this move-
John Turner, Secre-
1e Vancouver ~- Labor
SL), and Lawren Har-
-al President of the
| of Canadian Artists.
© made the following
2 tatement:

a thrilling and stimu-
hibition of pictures,
> the paintings are
1a new life, showing
«.rtists have something
o say. The painters
fered more fully into
£ the - worker and into
aa and vitality and
of Labor. It almost
ito a new movement in
ritish Columbia.

th the projects of the
Its Guild the artists
‘ng to understand the
fand feel the power of
great. contribution to
a life; and the workers.
mg to share in the life

\

in the arts. We thus have the
beginning of the creative union
of the worker and the artist,
of Art and Labor. This means
new life for both, and one
hopes that this movement
spreads all across Canada; for
there is nothing that could do
more for the harmony and
health of all Canadians.

May I then, as a member of
the Council of this gallery, wel-
come all of you again to the
Gallery and offer the Labor
Arts Guild and the artists and
British Columbia Trade Un-
ions congratulations, greet-
ings and best wishes.”

$500 prize awards contributed
by organized labor were present-
ed by R. K. Gervin, Secretary of
the Vancouver and District
Trades & Labor Council (AFL),
to the following winners, select-
ed by a jury comprised of three
judges appointed by the Federa-
tion of Canadian Artists and two
representing labor, Nigel Mor-
gan, Vice-President ef Interna-
tional Woodworkers of America
Local 1-71, and Garry Culhane,

(Continued on Page 10)

See LABOR ARTS

C ADVOCATE — PAGE 9

same time, 200 prominent citi-
zens wrote an open letter to the
U.S. Army ealling attention to
the use of lend-lease weapons
to establish fascist rule in their
city. The first appeal reads:

“Your government, unlike
ours, is democratic and _ toler-
ates free speech. We would like
te be sure that America will help
promote Chinese democracy and
not block Chinese unity and pro-
gress. It is essential that material
and financial aid should not be
put in the hands of bureaucrats
and tyrants to exploit China’s
common people and that arms
should not be turned over to a
dictatorship that butchers ‘the
people. The civil war in North
China, now going on, is on the
surface a conflict of two parties.
But really it is a war between
Chinese ‘fascists and all Chinese
democratic groups here,

“The Kuomintang Fuehrer
even uses Japanese puppets
against the people. If the civil
war is not stopped in time it will
not only kill many Chinese but
(destroy international peace. The
policies and actions of Ambas-
sador Hurley and Gen. Wedmeyer
have encouraged the Kuomintang

to fight. China belongs to her
people, not to dictators.

“The Hurley - Wedemeyer
policy is, we understand, in con-
flict with the goodwill of the
American people. It is your duty
to correct it. China can only be
built up into a modern nation and
a matket for U.S. goods under a
united, democratic coalition. Any
wishful thinking about the pres-
ent corrupt, inefficient and re-
actionary regime can only lead
to disappointment.”

Much of Kunming’s previous
relative freedom ‘from _ restric-
tions which have long stifled in-
dependent expression in other
Kuomintang cities was due to the
fact that it was the seat of a
semi-autonomous administration
which, socially backward, had not
developed fascist methods of po-
litical control. Early this month
this administration, headed by
{Gen. Lung Yun, was overthrown

Kunming Citizens Charge
U.S. Encouraged Civil War

KUNMING — Kunming intellectuals and democratic
political leaders have appealed to the American people to
“correct’’ the policies of Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley and
Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer, which
tang to fight,’”’ and resulted in civi] war in China.

““encouraged the Kuomin-
At the

by a coup d-etate carried out by
the Central Government 96th Di-
vision, armed with U.S. 37 mm.
guns, bazookas, machine guns
and small arms lend-leased to
China for the war against Ja-
pan.

Normally the people would
have welcomed close integration
of their province with the rest
of China. But this unification’ was
of a fascist character and re-
versed even the small progress
already achieved. -Even before
the coup the growth of Chung-
King’s control was accompanied
by arrests of democratic ele-
ments. Strict censorship was im-
posed. A progressive journalist
was spirited away by the secret
police. These developments were
protested by professors of the
Southwest Associated Univer-
sity, headed by Dean Quentin
Pan, and by teachers and stu-
dents of Yunnan University. The
protest was sent to the U. 8.
army headquarters here and dis-
tributed among the troops.

The revolt against the oppres-
sive military administration of
this semi-feudal country has oc-
casioned little surprise to those
who: have followed the country’s
history since the abdication in
1941 of the Reza Shah. The
Shah’s openly pro-Nazi views,
which resulted in the flooding of
the country by German fascist
agents, constituted _both a seri-
ous threat to the safety of Iran
itself, as well as to British and
Soviet interests at a time when
Germany was pressing the Al-
lies hard on every front. Iran
was therefore jointly cccupied
by the USSR and Great Britain
and the Shah deposed.

There is no basis for the
charges made this week by the
British, Canadian and American
press services that the civil war
is being sponsored and aided by
the Soviet Union,

RISE OF PEOPLE’S PARTY
The revolt centers in the Iran-
jan province of Azerbaiijan,
where the democratic movement
recently won an overwhelming
vietory in the elections against
the former reactionary admin-
istration. In an attempt to re-
verse the results, the defeated
administration turned to the use
and repression against the
people’s representatives and the
trade unions, sending police and
troops to provoke disputes under
the pretext of putting down a
“separatist” movement.

ee

pas es

(Continued on Page 16)
See IRAN

Auto Workers’ Leader Claims

Mineworkers

WASHINGTON — Richard T. Frankensteen, vice-
president of the CIO Automobile Workers, has charged that
John L. Lewis and the AFL made a merger agreement be-
fore the labor-management conference opened, but have
kept their arrangement secret so that they could wield more

power at the conference. Lewis
declined to comment on Frank-
ensteen’s charges.

Asked to comment on a report
that the pre-conference merger
had been concluded to the extent
that Lewis’ United Mine Work-
ers already has paid a substan-
tia! sum to the AFL in readmis-
sion dues, Franksteen declared:
“T understand that it’s true. And
you may quote me. As to their
motives in keeping the action se-
cret, your guess is as good as

mine.”
Other CIO leaders, who de-
clined to be quoted, said that

the reported pact between Lewis
and AFL president William
Green was aimed at muzzling
the CIO at the conference. Cit-
ing the unity of Lewis, Green
and management against CIO

Back In AFL

efforts to place the wage issue
before the conference, Franken-
steen declared: ‘‘They are simply
burying their heads in the sand
like so many ostriches. They
are trying to evade the most im-
portant factor in our economic
problems today.’

The UAW vice-president also
disclosed the plans of his union
to survey the aircraft production
industry preparatory to launch-
ing a nationwide drive for higher
wages. “The wage structure in
the aircraft manufacturing in-
dustry is different from that in
the automobile industry,” he
said, “and there are other varying
factors. But we definitely will
ask the equivalent of the 30 per-
cent raise now sought for auto
workers.”

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1945 A

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