4 Bae; MAY DAY 1959 a significance of May Day is sometimes overlooked in the stress of trade union activities. Nevertheless it is appropriate that the occasion should provide a tribute to the early pioneers of the labour movement, and a re-dedication to the ideals which have been written Plainly into its history. The meaning of the day was not forgotten by the ICFTU. A world-wide perspective of developments affecting the workers of all countries keeps that organization very close to essentials. We are reminded by the ICFTU that workers’ solidarity and trade union action at the international level is just as ‘vital today as when the ICFTU’ was first set up to meet the need for a strong and independent free world labour centre. Anxiety over current events now centers around unemployment in many countries, which has soared “because goverments have failed in their duty to main- tain full employment and promote social and economic Progress”, “While the dole queues have been growing in industrialized countries, falling. prices, and demand have dealt severe blows at the already deplorable conditions of the workers in countries producing primary products.” Biggest anxiety is about the slow rate of develop- ment in under-developed nations, and “their appalling low standards of food, housing, and education”. Workers in the free world are urgd by the ICFTU to be on guard against the “forces of reaction, which are everywhere ready to filch your hard-earned labour rights”. “No country can claim to be truly democratic which denies full trade union freedom to its workers.” In face of all the grave threats to prosperity, free- dom and peace, the ICFTU calls on all workers to rally around their free trade unions in the fight:— + ..to achieve full employment and an end to the tragic waste of the world’s human and material resources. «..to harness modern science and technology to the needs of the whole people, not the selfish interests of the few. «+,.to provide adequate economic aid to the developing countries, together with fair prices and markets for primary products. «+eto re-assert the right of the workers to be heard on all matters affecting their economic and_ social progress. eeeto give all the dependent people the right to decide their own destinies, and in particular to put an end to colonialism in Africa. to oppose all dictatorships, and in the first place finish with that of Franco who clings to power thanks in a large part to the connivance of leading democratic powers. ++sto free the people once and for all from the night- mare of nuclear warfare through agreement on the banning of weapons of mass destruction within the framework of general and controlled international dis- armament. Never was it so imperative as on May Day, 1959, that workers the world over should rally for the achieve- ment of all these aims through a strengthened and consolidated free trade union movement. Norwegian Labour Fed. Marks 60th Anniversary OSLO (CPA)—The Norwegian | / ion, the Federated Co- Federation of Labor, which in- ives. other Nordic labor cludes affiliates with over half the tions, the , the total working population of the] / CIO and the Soviet Federa- nation, marked its 60th anni- i Labor. versary April 1 with ceremonies Founded in 1899 with about and the beginning of a months | 1,500 members, LO today includes organizing drive, 48 national unions with over The monument to union }542,500 membe: Organizational pioneers in front of Peoples’|growth has been very strong since House here was decorated with|the end of the second world war, flowers, and wreaths were laid] Since 1938 the percentage of on the graves of four former|organized workers in relation to Federation presidents. the total working population has The Federation (“LO”) also]|risen from 39 to 51, while in the voted to give a prize worth 30} came period the number of wage thousand kroner in a national and a4 per cent and the total membership of LO went up by 63 per cent. Industrial work per cent organi: salary earners inereased noel competition on a theme from the life of Norwegian workers. Greetings Received Greetings were received from the Labor Party, the Employers s are about 100 To Build College African Labour College be erected at Kampala, U; by the ICFTU Commi managing the _ Inter Solidarity Fund. The Instit will accommodate 40 st at its inception, and will about $266,000, a The college will have ai primary purpose the training 9 active organizers and officials fi the fast developing African union moyement, It will also be the foal for stimulating programs OF training. Within a expected the entirely by Afri for 37 students hi temporary quarters, Publication date of the next issue of the B.C. LUMBER WORKER is May 21st. Deadline for ad copy is May 14th and for news copy May 15th. BC LuncentVorwer PUBLISHED TWIGE MONTHLY ON THE FIRST AND THIRD THURSDAYS BY International Woodworkers of America (CIO-CCL) << District Council No. 1 <= President Ist Vice-P 2nd v President Bea see nae WY TE CBSULED mene GEOES H, Mitchell International Board Member sn. Walter F. Allen Address all communications to GEORGE H. MITCHELL, Secretary-Treasurer 45 Kingsway - TRinity 4-5261-2 Vancouver, B.C. Subscription Rates..cccu-.$2.00 per annum oe Asvertiaing Representatives -@. A Spencer orized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept, Ottawa 21,500°COPIES PRINTED IN THIS ISSUH DISTRICT OFFICERS: Joe Morris — village center, other ills, and thet frech MOTHERS WAIT at Telsizler produces rickets and They are fearing id medicine. sir and