= COLUMBIA is in the
f of an unemployment
rich is getting worse
pected +6 reach its
ispring.. Thousands of
men and laid-off

sare without jobs. Of-
ures estimate there
snd one-half times as
nm as there are jobs
im: the province. And
‘tion. is being aggra-
vy by new lay-offs and
Faumbers of discharg-

=
i

 iation has already be-
= serious that demon-
| actions have taken
F otest meetings have
» | among veterans, and
; f ex-servicemen’s. or-
“s are.predicting seri-
fe if something is not
, celieve the situation.
‘aed men are in no
= nind to accept unem-
fas gratitude for the
~ hey have done defeat-
- n.

ce ee

Now

But unemployment is only
one side of the story in the re-
conversion crisis facing B.C.
Side by side with it there is al-
ready a drastic reduction in
standards of living. Recently
published figures show that the
percentage oof earnings in
B.C. in the month of Septem-
ber, 1945 dropped eleven per-
eent over September, 19438. Van-

ecouver is the hardest hit city-

‘with a drop in earnings amount-

ing to 138 #£4percent,—almost
twice the seven percent drop in
Toronto!

What is responsible for the
increase in unemployment and
the simultaneous drop in ear-
ings? Back of it Hes a well

planned campaign by big busi-
ness. interests to use the period
immediately after the war to
drive down wage levels and
smash labor organizations. To
facilitate this plan big indus-
trialists and monopolists are
seeking to create an army .of
unemployed from among form-
er war workers and returned
veterans. Their grand strategy
is to postpone production of
peace time goods, while at the
same time speeding up the
elosing of war industry, there-
by allowing the labor market to
become flooded. Where jobs do
present themselves Selective
Service is made use of to send

the workers to lower paid jobs.

3

‘th an indignant de-
nowledge or even &
| :quaintance with the
' stlords of the Nazi
_w on trial for their
ie in fact only last
*m one of Britain’s
-s, the Lady Nancy
the Cliveden gang.
- will likely be many
“indignant protest of
- from highly placed
3 as the war crimes
eeds.

2 Nazi bigshots. have
tt out of the bag, and
“ceneral consternation,
3 g notice of their in-
-of calling defense wit-
‘om such British big-
Lady Astor and Lords
ook, Derby and Lon-
|. This was not all. Go-
“i company’s search for
‘witnesses showed def-
ms of extending to the
“tates. And Robert Ley,
: committed suicide, had
asked to call Henry
ec testimony ‘on his be-

Jvear that their names
pe dragged before the
judgment as partners
ents of Nazi Germany,
lagues so many British
‘and American reaction-
onstitutes in fact one of
my dangers besetting a
(and proper conclusion
Nuremberg trials. For
‘ing and his fellow crim-
vere to insist on proving
“Snnocence” by linking

lar Trials Make Municheers
‘comfortable

= by Al Parkin

' > Canada’s top-flight cartoonists, the Toronto Star’s Les Callan, gave the
“itry many a chuckle this week with a pictorial comment on the Nuremberg
s. The cartoon pictures an obese British Tory clutching a copy of the London
the sanctuary of his club, while an attendant discreetly proffers an exten-

f shone with the message, “Beg pardon, your lordship—Nuremberg calling—a
'ibbenrop wishes to speak to you.’”’ And the walrus-musached old gentleman is
| a startled “Who—me?”

themselves with prominent
Britons and Americans, the re-
sult could well be the biggest
expose of our own reactionar-
ies in history.

What a story it would make.
Lady Astor would have to an-
swer for her part as leader of
the infamous Cliveden Set, that
gang of Tory reactionaries who
controlled British policy dur-
the days of appeasement, who
‘tacitly encouraged Hitler’s
seizure of power and then went
on to sell out Spain, hand Aus-
tria and Czechoslovakia to the
Nazis. Lord Beaverbrook was
a frequent caller at the Astor’s
Cliveden estate, and together
they would have to answer for
the fact that the newspapers
they contro!]—the London Times
and the Daily Express—came
close to being British editions
of Hitler’s. Volkischer Beob-
achter.

Many another shady and
treasonable deal between Bri-
tish leaders and the Nazis

would*come to light.
@

THE close financial connec-

tions between such British
armoment firms as Vickers and
the German Krupps monopoly
would be brought out. It would
be shown how the Bank of Eng-
land advanced hundreds of mil-
lions in loans to the Nazis at cri-
tical moments. It would be re-
vealed how the Chamberlain gov-
ernment had sent Lord Hudson
+o Berlin to negotiate another
loan to Hitler in those last few
days before Germany invaded
Poland.

American monopolists would
not get off scot free. It has
already been revealed by the

€ ADVOCATE — PAGE 11

=
= ;
SS ee eee

Kilgore Congressional inves-
tigating committee how closely
connected were U.US. indus-
trialists, through cartels, with
the German imperialists. The
fact that the Ford Motor Com-
pany plant in Germany went
right on producing for the Ger-
man war machine has also been
proven. But the more pertinent
facts in respect to U.S. monop-
olists—the naming of names
and places—have yet to be ex-
posed. Hermann Goering could
well perform that duty.

All these things are what
worry the monopolists of the
western powers as the Nurem-
berg trials grind slowly for-
ward. They will try desperate-
ly to keep Goering ‘and the oth-
er defendants from washing the
dirty linen. But if they can’t
keep the lid on, watch then for
an attempt to sidetrack the
trials and perhaps let the Nazis
off with some sort of light sen-
tence such as exile.

Robert Ley, just before he
took his own life, told news-
papermen that he had applied
for a job with the Ford Motor
Company in Detroit “after the
trials are over.» And another
German banker, so far not on
trial, has coyly admitted to
having been asked by some
leading American industrial-
ists to draw up a plan for the
reeonstruction of the German
steel industry. There are still
powerful elements in both Bri-
tain and United States who do
not only favor the rebuilding
of Germany as a “bulwark”
against the Soviet Union, but
are known to favor the release
of the war criminals. And they
will keep trying, up until ‘the
last minute, to achieve both
aims. 5

Fight For Jobs And Security

by Maurice Rush

This is their plan in a nutshell.

Not very long ago I attended
a meeting at which a ship-
yard worker told me he for-
merly earned one dollar and
fourteen cents an hour as an
electrical welder, and after be-
ing laid off he was compelled
to take a joh paying sixty-four
cents an hour. At the same
meeting a young woman who
formerly earned one dollar an
hour at Boeings explained that
Since being laid off she has
been working for thirty-five
eents an hour. These are not
isolated cases. Many of the
25,000 shipyard and aircraft
workers who have been laid off
in recent weeks have the same
story to tell. This accounts to
a very large extent for the
serious drop in earnings.

Big business interests are also
seeking to use the growing un-
employment crisis as an instru-
ment of blackmail. They plan to
create an economic crisis which
will force the government to
make new concessions in the
form of lower taxes on profits
and a new batch of anti-labor
laws.

This post war program of big
business was glaringly exposed
in a recent article in the Van-
ecouver Province which ‘sum-
marized the reasons for the un-
employment situation thus:
“Some observers say it (un-

‘emmployment)-is*-caused by the

primary industries themselves
marking time—and adding to
unemployment in the process—
until excess profits taxation is
cut farther and in the hope that
wage scales will drop.” (Sat-
urday, Nov. 24). Here is proof
if any were needed of what big
business is about.

The present unemployment
situation and the decrease in
earnings was not inevitable. It
need not have happened. It need
not continue.
only because Federal and Pro-
vincial governments have fail-
ed to act on the crucial prob-
lem of reconversion. The Fed-
eral government has announced
that it has a full scale program
to avoid unemployment, but,
they argue, this is not the time
to start it. The governments
are leaving it up to private in-
dustry to solve the immediate
post war problems. And priv-
ate industry is working out the
solution to its own advantage
and against the people’s inter-
ests. The inactivity of our gov-
ernments in the conditions of
unemployment and _ declining
the green light to go ahead
with its reactionary policies.

There are no sensible reasons
why there should be unemploy-
ment. and declining imcomes:
Certainly the excuse that there
is no money cannot be raised.
Nobody expected the war with
Japan would end so quickly.
Our country was prepared to
go on spending hundreds of
millions of dollars in 1945 and
1946. Why not use that money
to maintain employment and
decent living standards?

Action is needed to meet the
situation, and here is what must
be done:

@ The Federal and Provin-
cial governments must proceed
with their announced recon -°
version program without delay.
The closing of war industries
should be accompanied by the
opening of industries to pro-
duce needed goods to meet the
big domestic and foreign mar-
kets, especially consumers
goods for which there is a. great
need in Canada.

Wherever certain indus-
trialists refuse to start the
wheels of industry going the
government should force
them to move or
else take over their plants.
In those industries where
orders are being held up be-
cause of big business subter-
fuge, the government should
move in to get production

MAURICE RUSH

Provincial Organizer
Labor-Progressive Party

It is happening -

started. By these aetions the
sit down strike of big bus-
iness can be broken.

@ Our governments, Federal
and Provincial, should start on
a large scale home building
vide employment and decent
homes for our hard pressed
program without delay to pro-
communities. Whenever neces-
sary this should be suppic
mented by public works pro-
jects.

@ Immediate action is need-
ed to safeguard living stand-
ards Our wage control order
should be amended to allow for
an upward revision in wage
rates. National minimum. wage
laws must be established to
place a floor under wage levels
below which they must not be.
allowed to go. Trade union
security should be guaranteed
by law in order to protect the
workers against the attacks of
big business.

@ During the period of un-
employment caused by trans-
ferring from one job to another,
inereased unemployment insur-
ance benefits. These should ‘be
increased by 50 percent.

These are the minimum Tre-
quirements to meet the present
needs of the people. It is neces-
sary for veterans, trade union-
ists and progressives to unite
their ranks and take up the
fight for jobs and security now.
We must have a say in de-
termining our future. We must
act now to end the deliberate
sabotage of big business.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1945