Real issues facing labor

_ brushed off at TLC m

CALGARY

After the opening four days which were aptly described by one delegate as a political version of
the Calgary Stampede, the 64th convention of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada got into
Motion and in the remaining five days chalked up decisions which can only be regarded as besmirching
the record of fhe country’s oldest labor body.

Delegates returning home to report to their locals on this year’s “Parliament of Labor’ will have

this to show:

The congress “permanently suspended’? the 9,000-member Canadian Seamen’s Union.

indulged in the wildest anti-Communist hysteria.
It decided to affiliate to the Marshall-planned “Free Trade Union” center, the U.S. state de-

partment’s creation to divide world labor and oppose the World Fed-

eration of Trade Unions.

And in its closing hours it rammed through nearly 200 resolutions
on labor’s economic problems without discussion and, it appeared, only

for the sake of the record.
The threat of the impending

crisis and union action to protect

the working class of this country received scant attention in the sessions.

Efforts of left-wingers and other
Mnilitants to center discussion on
& program of action were hyster-
ically dismissed as “Communist
Propaganda” emanating from
“some central. source” outside the
‘Congress. :

Preceeded by a four-day cam-
Paign of threats and intimidation
by roadmen of the international
Unions, the Canadian Seamen’s
Suspension ordered by the AFL
executive and reportedly agreed
to by the Trades Congress admin-

MAURICE RUSH

- BYELECTION

“What do the people want?
They want homes and jobs. To
Maintain a high level of employ-
Ment our country must throw off
the yoke of Wall Street, break the
Chains tying us to American im-
Perialism, change our foreign pol-
icy and begin to trade with the
World. : 3
' “These questions are main ques-
tions upon which the St. Laurent
80vernment is betraying its elec-
tion promises. By devaluating the
dollar and clinging to the dying
Marshall plan,» Ottawa has sold
us’ down the river to the Yankee
Cold war planners.

“‘T am in this fight to expose
the betrayal of the Liberal govern-
Ment and to present an alterna-
tive policy to economic crisis,
unemployment and war. I stand
for a program of trade with all
the world, which will ensure jobs
@nd homes for all workers.

“The present government's poli-
Cies will hit hardest at the secur-
ity of the farmers, woodworkers
and fishermen of the Fraser Val-
ley, and will undermine the whole
fconomy of this constituency.
“Only the LPP, of all the
Political parties and individuals
entering the byelection, stands for
@ fighting people’s policy. As the
LPP candidate I will bring the
Teal issues before the people of

€w Westminster.”

LPP candidates are running in
three of the eight federal by-
€lections across Canada. Mrs. |
Louise Watson, Toronto house

Wife, is contesting Toronto-Green-
Wood, and Pierre Gelinas, editor
°f Combat, is carrying the LPP
banner in Montreal-Laurier.

istration at last summer’s Cleve-
land meeting, started the week’s
witch-hunt.

Efforts to point out that the
CSU withdrawal from the Con-
gress had removed the question
from the agenda were of no avail.
Right-wing delegates used the oc-
casion for the convention’s wildest
red-baiting. Fantastic and scur-
rilous slander of the seamen and
anyone defending them was in-
tended to frighten any delegate
who didn’t want to be smeared
a “red,”

The executive’s contribution to
the discussion hinted at the CSU
being involved in a world-wide
plot to overthrow governments
and subvert “our way of life.”

‘Tt am standing here with a
gun pointed at my _ head,”
charged one of the delegates
in the debate. His union had
instructed him to defend the
CSU. His international officers
had ordered him to vote for
their expulsion. “My ean
membership, my very li hood
are at stake,” he continued as
he explained the intimidation
that had been practised by the
roadmen.

A roll-call vote registered 702
delegates voting for expulsion, 77

_|opposing it. Ninety-nine delegates

were absent when the vote was
taken.
“A ok. *
Amendments to the constitution
were expected to set off debate.
Earlier it h been rumored that

stitution and Law Committee
would seek to change representa-
tion to conventions and introduce
the bloc-vote system. In the last
minute the minority report was
withdrawn.

An amendment changing the

present representation of one
delegate for every one hundred
members carried. Future con-

ventions will be called on the

basis of one delegate for 199
members or less; two delegates
‘for a local with a membership
of from 200 to 399 members;
three delegates for memberships

from 400 to 599; and one addi-
tional delegate for each addi-
tional 500 members thereafter.

Another amendment: giving the
president almost automatic pow-
ers to suspend or expell mem-
bers or locals was referred back
to the committee. In the dying
hours of the convention it came
back unchanged and was carried

An oath of allegiance will now
be required from all candidates
for Congress offices.

* * *

Executive elections were a ma-
jor defeat for the roadmen. Be-
fore the Thursday morning ses-
sion, which had been set aside
for the balloting, a slate of
names sponsored by the roadmen
and called the “Right Wing Anti-
Communist Slate’ was distributed
to all delegates. It aroused many

a minority report from the Con-,

It ordered the expulsion of Communists and “‘their fellow-travellers’’ from their local unions. It

delegates who branded it as open
interference. :

In the elections, Percy Ben-
gough was returned as president
unopposed, as were the vice-presi-
dents for the Maritimes and On-
tario, James Whitebone and Wil-
liam Jenoves.

Gordon Cushing of Calgary de-
feated the roadmen’s nominee
Hugh Sedgewick, for the post, of
secretary-treasurer, He succeeds
J. W. Buckley, who is retiring.

Claude Jodoin, running for the
roadmen, won the Quebec vice-
presidency from J. E. Beaudoin
by a majority of two votes, 385
to 383.

Carl E. Berg, former vice-presi-
dent for the prairie region, re-
tained the post. He was opposed
by James McDuffie of Brandon.
James Graham of Winnipeg,
whose name appeared on the road-
men’s slate, withdrew when nom-
inated and later denounced those
who had placed his name on their
list. .

Birt Showler was returned as
B.C. vice-president. He was op-
posed by Alex Gordon and W. M.
Black of Vancouver.

In the ballotting for fraternal
delegates to the British Trade
Union Congress and the Ameri-
can AFL conventions, the road-
men’s candidates went down to
defeat. R. Gervin of Vancouver
won in the third count over Archie
Johnstone and will represent the
TLC at the British convention.
R. Rintoul of Calgary defeated
S. A. Stevens of Thorold in the
other ballotting.

* * x;

A single resolution consolidat-
ing four on anti-communism: was
delayed to the last day. It recom-
mended “to all affiliated organi-
zations to remove” Communists
“from any key positions or of-
fices they may hold and to ex-
pell them from their ranks.” It
further stated “that no known
Communist shall be permitted to
hold office or to sit on any com-
mittee of the convention.”

The resolution was greeted by
an uproar in the convention. The
cheers of the right-wing could
not drown out the angry shouts
of other delegates. With over a
dozen delegates lined up at the
microphones demanding the right
to speak, President Bengough ar-
bitrarily called for the vote, cut-
ting off all discussion. In a stand-
ing vote, the resolution carried.

Cursory attentron was given to
a few. The convention declared
in favor of the 40-hour week; rent
control; restoration of price con-
trols; a social security program
covering health insurance hospi-
talization. and old-age pensions;
higher income tax exemptions;
and a federal housing program.

The sausage-macnine pirocess
method of dealing with these
problems brought one of many
angry delegates to his feet to
shout “We spend nine days
dragging the red herring across
the floor of this convention
without discussing properly the
questions affecting the - people
of Canada.”

STANTON & MUNRO
Barristers, Solicitors, Notaries

SUITE 515, FORD BUILDING, 193 E. HASTINGS ST.
(Corner Main & Hastings Sts.) MArine 5746

eet!

’No welfare--no work’

Like 480,000 miners in 20 states, these three Morgan, Pennsy
vania, miners relax at home during the voluntary strike of United

4

Mine Workers members. The U.S. shutdown was provoked by

refusal of southern coal epe'rators to continue

union’s welfare fund.

payments to the

Fishermen tie-up solid,
fair chum price sought

Rejecting cannery operators’ price offers for chum salmon, 1400
seiners and 600 gillnetters, members of the Fishermen and Allied Work-
ers Union, struck this week for fair fall chum prices.

Fishermen voted unanimously to leave the Fraser River open to

gillnetters ‘another four days, but
fishermen this weekend if can-
nery operators remain adamant.

The strike is solid. Not a
seine boat is out at any point
on the coast. Seiners and _ gill-
netters fishing cooperatively in
.the Straits and Gulf who are
net directly affected by the
price dispute have tied up in
solidarity and are standing by
this week.

Cannery operators are already
laying off crews and _ shutting
down plants all along the coast.

The Fishermen’s union is ready
to negotiate with operators on
chum prices, which is the only
issue in the tie-up. The union
agrees that the chum market
this year is below the 1948 level,
but points out that the silver-
bright market in Canada and the
canned chum market is not be-
low the 1947 level.

The last operators’. offer, re-
jected by fishermen, was eight
and one-half cents a pound for
fall chums in Johnstone Straits
proper and summer minimum
prices for fall chums in all other
areas.

Last year the price was 14
cents. In 1947 the minimum price
for Johnstone Straits fall chums
was eight cents from September
1, ten cents from September 29.

Prices above these minimums
were paid before the season
ended.

In the present strike the fish-
ermen are asking ten and one-
half cents a pound minimum in
Johnstone Straits, eight cents
2 pound minimum in _ other
areas, This is three and one-
half cents below last year and
about the same as 1947 prices.
Under the agreement _ signed

this summer the fishermen had
the right to tie up any time after
September 18 until such time as
fall prices were settled... Last

the tie-up will include all Fraser

weekend fishermen voted over-
whelmingly in favor of strike ac-
tion to win union demands.

A joint meeting of seiners and
gillnetters is being held in Pen-

der Auditorium this Friday eve-
ning, September 30. :

Offer daisies

to Mitchell

~The union bulletin published by
the Civic Workers Union in Van-
couver is offering a bunch of
daisies to federal] Labor Minister
Humphrey Mitchell for his recent
speech at the Calgary convention
of the Trades and Labor Con-
gress.

“After listening to Mitchell's
speech we would like to give him
a bouquet of roses, but the best
we can do is daisies,” says the
bulletin, caustically. “When ques-
tioned from the floor about de-
valuation, Mitchell replied, ‘The
British and Canadian govern-
ments acted in the best interests
of the people. If you don’t like
it, go to countries with other
forms of government.’

What he meant is, if you don’t
like it, go to Russia. Such a
crude statement violates two fun-
damental concepts of democracy.
Firstly, the people, not the gov-
ernment, are the final authority.
Secondly, the people have the
right, including those in the min-
ority, to address their grievances
and questions to the government.

“It would be better if some
pecple talked less about Russia
and more about the problems of
Canada.”

srs rua meNeeeeceE

2

BIG SOVIET FILMS

2

STATE THEATRE

THREE DAYS ONLY

Thurs. — Fri. — Sat.
October 7-8-9

TURNING POINT
HELLO, MOSCOW -

English Titles -

Russian Dialogue

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 30, 1949 — PAGE 7