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LEFT TURN!

A Column For
WAR VETERANS

-- by Jack Philips

LACT

certain reactionary groups had their way in Canada, the
} present spy scare would be turned into a political witch hunt, with
fe Labor-Progressives as target number one. If such a situation
‘allowed to develop, a certain general on active service will most
rely be locked up for Seditious utterances. I make two quotes
})m a recent speech of his:

j x
“T+ is clear that housing built at present construction costs is
yond the means of the great bulk of veterans who are seeking
become re-established in civil life.

“While there are many veterans unemployed, we can not say
it the work of rehabilitation is complete. In fact, we must go
-ther than that and say that while there are veterans who are
ployed at low wages and on tasks which are obviously below
ir capabilities and) who are thus unable to establish homes for
“selves, rehabilitation is not satisfactory.”

This is exactly what the Labor-Progressive Party, the trade
mon movement and newspapers like the Pacific Tribune have been
ving for a long time. The first quote should be used by every
G@-aker advocating support for the LPP Billion Dollar Housing
ogram. The second proves the need for bigger and better labor-

eran lobbies, to Victoria and Ottawa.

= Who is the general? None other than Maj.-Gen. BE. L. M.
jommy) Burns, DSO, OBE, M.C., director-general of veterans’
@iabilitation. Im this same speech, Tommy stated that 50,000
@y vets are listed as being without jobs, and 25,000 are drawing
-of-work benefits. Add to these figures 20,000 new veterans who
@. taking vocational and trade training and you have 70,000 vet-
ms for whom employment is needed. Further, tens of thousands
= Canadian servicemen still in uniform will be discharged in the
+ year.

The coming Provincial Convention of the Legion, in March,
"| the Dominion Convention, in May, must appraise this situa-
Bi very carefully and give a cleat and constructive lead to the
(evans ef Canada. Veterans must unite with labor and all pro-
Assive groups in the nation for a program ef Jobs, Homes and
Siurity for all Canadians.

LIEVE ME, 17S TRUE

During the depression years, the Disabled Veterans’ Association
Vancouver provided a bare subsistence for 100 down-and-out,
-bled vets of the last war. When their funds ran out. the DVA
2cted kitchen refuse from Chinese restaurants, cooked it and
red it up as mulligan. Previously, the, refuse had been used as
food. Fhe moral of the story? Get organized, brother, get or-
Bized! Don’t let your country drift back to the hungry thirties,
suse if you do, you may find yourself lining up for a 15 cent
fi ticket or a slop kitchen hand-out!

‘anco Regime Tottering

tion ‘in closing the Spanish bor-
der will bring out the true na-
ture of the Bevin policy toward
Spain. In spite of the position
taken at the UNO conference it
is evident that the British gov-
ernment is not facilitating the
speedy return of a democratic
regime in Spain.

‘ople who purport to be well
‘med about opinion in Mad-
‘report that Franco’s people
\ rightly or wrongly, con-
2d they would get British
‘ch not American support
-plans to re-establish the
archy with Franco still lett
ominant power. Hrance’s ac-

least in an election year.

For the 1946 Labor Lobby,
representing B.C’s 100,000 trade
unionists and backed by the vet-
erans’ organizations, has taken
over the capital city since Sun-
day, and its 340 members from
almost every corner of the pro-
vinee are still, as I write

parliament buildings, bringing
labor’s legislative program into
the very midst of an uneasy
government.

Several things have resulted
from the lobby already. Press
coverage of the event has been
extensive. Labor problems are
front page news in the two local
dailies for the first time in
months. Thousands of Victoria
people, usually unaware of the
existence of a labor movement,
are getting. a first hand view otf
the strength and influence of the
trade unions.

All this is to the good. But it
is not only staid Victoria that
is undergoing an entirely new.
experience.
many of them newly elected,
many of them from purely farm-
ing communities. No member, re-
gardless of how narrow his out-
look may haye been, can any
longer disregard the existence of
the labor movement and its prob-
lems, nor overlook |completely
the need of solving the problems
as a step toward solving those
of his own constituency, farm-
ing or otherwise.

Indeed, the members of the la-
bor lobby have brought the fresh
eutlook of the industrial worker
—of the men in the woods, the
mines, the fishing grounds and
the factories—into the tight little

“government” -atmosphere of
Victoria, and in effect have
“moved” the Parliament Build-

ings back into the province of
B.C., if only for a. few days.
The story of the 1946 Labor
Lobby begins last Sunday when,
by the oficial tabulation of the
eredentials commitee, 309 dele-
gates registered at the Canadian

Legion hall on Blanshard Street

HAROLD PRITCHETT: B.C.
District President IWA-CIO;
secretary of the B.C. Federation
- of Labor, and member of the
National Council €CL. Active in
lobby steering committee. Just
returned from Ottawa where
CCL plans for national wage
drive were formulated.

IVEY MURPHY;- B.C.' or-
zer, International Union of
>, Mill and Smelter Workers;
@ executive member, BCEL.

#FIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 3

, They Helped Lead Labor’s Lobby | il

ALDERMAN G. K.

GERVIN;
Secretary of Vancouver Trades

and labor Council, leader of
AF of L delegation to Victoria.
and co-chairman of lobby steer-
ing committee.

thronginge the corridors of the:

By AL PARKIN

Labor Lobby Marked By
Unity - Determination lo Win

The capitalist politician likes to tell how he keeps in touch with his constituents, at
But in Victoria this week the 48 MLA’s who guide the des-
‘tinies of British Columbia for better or for worse, are going through the unique experi-
ence of having their constituents come to them, and in a way that has brought consterna-
tion to some, and considerable enlightenment to others.

for the opening conference. It
was here the curtain was lifted
on the full extent of the labor
invasion of Victoria. Those 309
delegates, since increased by an-
other 30 late arrivals, came from
112 local unions. They repre-
sented logging camps on the
@ueen Charlottes, isolated hard-
rock mines in the Interior, the

listening attentively as the mem-
bers answered their questions,
referring often to copies of the
labor brief as they pressed home
a@ point. It was this quiet insis-
tence on getting a straight ans-
wer, pressed home a second time
if the first interview was fruit-
less, that brought many a change
in the “box score” after Tuesday

Trail smelter workers, coal min-
ers of the Crows Nest, the ship- |
yards, steel plants and sawmills,
the construction and transporta-|
tion trades of the Lower Majn- |
land. |
The men of the lobby’s top '
Committee, sit-_ : : :
ting on the
conference hall §
platform, themi-
selves testified
to the broad-
ness of thef
gathering. Here
was Ald. R. K.
Gervin, chair-
man of the

So are the MLA’s,!

| unionists when he placed his or-

B.C. executive,
Trades and la-
bor Congress
of Canada, AFL, sharing the
chairmanship of the lobby with
ODaniel O’Brien, president of
the B.C. Federation of tMLabor,
CCL-GIO. Here were George
Wilkinson, secretary, and Percy.
Rayment, executive member, of
the Victoria Trades and Labor
Couneil, working unitedly with
BCEL secretary Harold Prit-
chett, and with Harvey Murphy
and Alex Mackenzie, BCFL vice
presidents.

On the platform, and on the
Steering Committee too, were
Tom Harnett, Vancouver zone
president of the Canadian ITLe-
gion, and Car] Fallis, both repre-
senting the Legion’s provincial
command. And on the floor of
the conference were President
T. R. Wheaton of the Army and
Navy Veterans provincial com-
mand, and Duncan Peers of the
Canadian Corps Asociation.

It was Legionnaire Garl Fallis
who brought cheers from the

ganization fully behind the 40-
hour week demand, declaring
“there must be no isolation of
the yeterans from the labor
movement, since the needs and
demands of both groups for jobs,
decent wages and good housin

are identical.” :

SOLIDARITY ...

High point of the lobby up to
Tuesday afternoon was the Mon-
day morning march on the Par-
liament Buildings. Marshalled
behind their 30 group captains,
the delegates massed at the Vic-
toria Labor Temple and paraded
along Government Street in
bright sunshine, stirring the
echoes alongs the Causeway with
a chorus or two of “Solidarity
Forever,” bringing. curious on=
lockers to the windows of the
plushy Empress Hotel.

Once inside the buildings, the
lobbyists dispersed in groulps,
each detailed to interview one or
two MiLA’s. Within a few min-
utes, in corridors and offices,
labor men could be seen forming
tight circles around legislators,

morning. ;

I joined one such group sur-
rounding Coalition member R.
€. MacDonald of Dewdney, who
the following day was to give a
favorable answer to several key
points in the labor program.

MacDonald was very obviously
net sure of his ground ,certainly
unfamiliar at first with the ob-
ject of the lobby.

Yes, he admited, he had re—
ceived a copy of the labor brief.
Unfortunately, though, he had
“net yet had the time to study
it fully.”

“Don’t you feel that enactment
of the 40-hour week law is the
next logical step for B.C. indus-
try,” he was asked.

“T am not yet prepared to give
an answer to that.”

The group captain pressed him
for a further interview at which |
he could give a definite answer.
Obviously ill at ease, his indeci-
sion showing plainly in his face,
MacDonald agreed to a further
meeting Tuesday, then pushed
his way hurriedly out of the
circle and disappeared into the
Members Room. See

So it went throughout Monday
and Tuesday. Lobby members
did find support for their de-
mands. Some members, among
them all of the CCE House
group, gave definite commit-
ments. Others were inclined to
approve one or two of the
points in the labor program, or
were undecided, or were noncom-
mittal. A few like Coalitionist
R. H. Carson of Kamloops, who
launched into a tirade against
trade unionism and sarcastically
commented that “he was not
worried about his old age pen-
sion,” were flatly opposed.
CARDS ON TABLE

But. in every case, the mem-
bers approached were left with no
doubt as to where organized la-
bor and the veterans stood on
such issues as the shorter work-
ing week, a 60-cent minimum
wage, a provincial labor code, old
age pension of $50 at 60, and
health insurance. And whatever
the outcome of the labor lobby in
terms of conerete results, which
seems promising now, labor had
put its cards on the table for all
te see. j

The labor men have stated,
in effect: “Were telling you
what we want, what kind of
legislation our 100,000 mem-
bers expect to see enacted for
the benefit of every citizen,
for the betterment of B.C.’s
economic and social life. You
can give these things to us
through legislation. But we
still possess the economic
strength to jenforce jour de-
mands. We hope it won't be
necessary to use that last
resort..”

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1945

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