4

B

Ry

LUMBER WORKER

From page 1

“Salute!”

Political instrument for Canadian workers and farmers.
Full support was tendered Congress action in this res-
Pect.

The convention then turned to the pressing immed-
iate question in British Columbia.

What role should be taken by organized labour in the
event of a provincial election before ratification of the
national plan? :

The answer given by the convention was the only
Practical answer that could be given by delegates bent
upon the downfall of the Social Credit Government and
the repeal of Bill 43. All other parties but the CCF had
supported the enactment of Bill 43. Their voting records
were plain to be seen.

Lacking any other basis for effective political action

in an early election, active support of the CCF provided
the only possible alternative.

As IWA officers declared on the floor of the con-
vention a new political party can not be brought into
being in time, should an election be called next year, as
expected.

Is was a sign of maturity that the convention recog-
nized that a political party must be organized around
principles. Proposals to select labour candidates, with-
out consideration of their allegiance to any political
principles or program were discarded. In this respect,
the convention refused to repeat the mistakes made by
British Trade Unions before the formation of the British
Labour Party. Labour men then elected were derisive-
ly described as “Lib‘labs”, because they too attached
themselves to the Liberal Party in self-protection at that
time and soon lost their independence and value as la-
bour members.

The proposals supported by the IWA delegates at
the convention do not in any way infringe upon the in-
dependence of the IWA. The policies supported in the
convention were those which earlier had been outlined
in principle and approved by the IWA District conven-
tion.

These policies will be further discussed by IWA
members without any restraint. No coercion will be im-
posed to cause any individual or group to sacrifice scru-
ples of conscience in support of the policy approved by
the majority.

It is the declared intention of the Federation as well
as the IWA that democratic means are just as import-
ant as democratic ends.

In consideration of political movements, the means
usually shape the ends.

This salute is tendered the Federation in recognition
of the fact that the IWA needs the Federation, even
as the Federation needs the IWA. The IWA is the larg-
est Union inside the Federation but has not taken ad-
vantage of this fact.

Its representation on the Executive Council is based
on the merits of the men selected rather than their union
affiliations. As a matter of fact the IWA makes a con-
siderable sacrifice to release competent men for the exac-
ting work of the Federation.

Consider the demands made upon the time and en-
ergy of the three representatives now serving on the Fed-
eration’s Executive Council, 1st Vice-President Joe
Morris, Local Union Presidents John MacKenzie and
Jacob Holst — and the value of this IWA contribution
will be realized.

On the other hand, it is clearly indicated that the
IWA more than ever before,must rely upon the efforts
of the central labour body for every necessary leg-
islative protection. There are few IWA members who

«would have the temerity to say that their union could
sunction alone in the legislative field quite as well as
the combined forces of all the unions in the province.
This pooling of strength for action on the legislative field
is now vital to the success of IWA aims at the bargain-
ing table.

The recent strike experience made it plain to the
IWA members that the employers’ activity in the poli-
tical field could impose grave handicaps on economic
action. The only answer to such political activity on the

Emprovers
ANTI~UR ON.
CAMERON 3

“Hey, | think this guy means business”

part of the employers is political counter-action by the
workers. The greater the organzied strength of workers
in this field the more certain are satisfactory results.

The value of mutual support during a strike period
was emphasized over and over again. It is now certain
that trade unionists recognize the imperative necessity
of such mutual support under the conditions now sur-
rounding strike action. Through the Federation they
will seek to achieve efficient co-ordination of their ef-
forts, for a common purpose.

A salute may be tendered the Federation on behalf
of the general public, even though it may seem at times
that the general public fails to appreciate the values of
trade unionism.

Throughout the convention proceedings, full atten-
tion was given to the interests of the public. This is
another sign that labour has grown up. Labour’s poli-
cies are now formulated in recognition of the requirement
that as one section of society, it must seek its welfare
in the welfare of the whole community.

An outstanding illustration of this point of view was
seen in the convention’s treatment of the report dealing
with natural resources, and the report on human rights.

Here again it was demonstrated that organzied la-

bour forms one of the main bulwarks of our democratic
way of life.

Government “give-aways”
condemned by Committee

Strong protest against action taken by the Provincial
Government to hand over the natural resources of the prov-
ince to large corporations was contained in the report of the

«BE.

PUBLISHED TWICH MONTHLY ON THE FIRST
AND THIRD THURSDAYS BY

International Woodworkers of America S35
(AFL-CIO-CLC) Regional Council No. 1
REGIONAL OFFICERS:
President Joe Morris
Ist Vieo-Pri Jack Moore
2nd Vice-President —.. R. C. Ross
rd Vice-President . ~. Bred Fieber

Secretary-Treasurer

George H. Mitchell
International Board Members

.. Walter F. Allen
'S, M, Hodgson

Address all communications to
GEORGE H. MITCHELL, Secretary-Treasurer
45 Kingsway - TR 4-5261- 2
Vancouver, B.C.

Subscription Rates.__.$2.00 per annum
Advertising Representative......_G. A. Spencer
Authorized as Second Class Mall, Post Office Dept., Ottawa
27,500 COPIES PRINTED IN THIS ISSUB

of Labour.

Said the report in part, —

“We now see Wenner-Gren
purchasing, or reserving to
themselves, six million eight
hundred thousand (6,800,000)
shares of Peace River Power
Development at 33%4c each.
Sale of a purported million
shares @ $1.00 to B.C. Electric,
and sales to several British
Companies of more millions of
shares, at ostensibly the same
price,

If the residue of the capital
needed, which could vary be-
tween 200-500 million dolars is
sold at $1.00, then, Wenner-
Gren’s profit would only be
200%, or $4,533,333.34 on their
investment of $2,226,666.66

Enormous Profits Seen

However, ‘this would be a
most unwieldy capital structure,
and your Committee seriously
doubts there will be issued 200-
500 million shares of this Com-
pany, Therefore, this leaves us
with only one conclusion, that
fewer shares will be issued at a
much higher price. This will in-
crease the equity of those. who
hold shares now.

It is to be presumed that
major Trust Companies, and the
public, will be requested to

Participate in the completion of

Natural Resources Committee, (John Hayward, Chairman)
adopted by the 4th Annual Convention of the B.C. Federation

the financing of this Company,
Taking a hypothetical minimum
price of $10.00 per share, this
would give, Wenner-Gren a
2900% profit, and the rest of
the original participants a profit
of 900%, Wenner-Gren would
then have shares valued at $68,-
000,000 on an original invest-
ment of $2,226,666.66.

The -hypothetical figure of
$10.00 per share is not your
Committee’s but that of a reput-
able investment advisor,

Recommendations

The principal recommendations
of the Committee were; J

1. That there be no unilateral
development of power resources
by drowning of trees in areas to be
flooded as this is the antithesis of
good resource management, and
will be a snag-infested, floating,
rotting testimonial to the lack of
foresight and avaricious greed of
those concerned for the next
hundred or more years,

2. That in line with Labour
policy all B.C. power develop-
ments to be undertaken by the
B.C. Power Commission with due
respect to our Fish resources.

3. That we recommend support
of the Government in its petition
re the Grimshaw Pine Point Rail-

way link, as presented before the

Labour @
Weekly
Planned

Plans are maturing for the
publication of a weekly news-
paper owned and controlled by
organized labour, it was
reported at the recent B,C,
Federation of Labour Con-
vention. A resolution authoriz~
ing completion of these plans
was adopted.

The resolution referred to the
fact that these is an increasing
need of a medium which will
place the views and activities of
labour before the public instead
of the employer-slanted reports
in the daily newspapers.

The incoming Executive Coun-
cil was instructed to intensify its
efforts in this- direction and de-
cide whether to publish weekly
or bi-monthly.

Portable
Pensions

Urged

CCF House leader Hazen
Argue has reiterated his de-
mand for a national old age
portable pension plan that
would give old age pensioners
one-half of their income on
retirement.

Contributions to the na-
tional pension fund, he said,
would provide a source of in-
vestment funds for carrying
out public developments in
Canada. He was speaking
here during his present tour”
of the Canadian west.

Manning Commission,

4, That, inasmuch as all logging
roads, regardless of what form of
licenses are in operation in the
area, are paid for by the people of

page.

Therefore, the B.C. Federation
of Labour petition the Govern-
ment to amend the Forestry Act,
by deleting the words “Private
Roads”, and inserting the words
“Public Roads”, subject to the
necessary restrictions in said Act.
We further request the com-
plete removal of all restrictions
on the Ucluelet and Tofino Road,
and this road to be brought up to

vincial highway,

British Columbia. out of stum-

the standards of a first-class Pro-