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singer Raul Figueroa was among a number of performers,

including the Kobzar Dancers and Valeri Lord, who took the stage last
Saturday night as part of the birthday celebration for COPE alderman
Harry Rankin. Some 300 turned out for the birthday party — Harry’s

57th.

City politics: reading
to follow the changes

Some weeks ago, UBC professor
and TEAM president Paul Tennant’
made the laughable protest to the
editor of the Vancouver Sun that
despite all evidence and claims to
the contrary, TEAM is still a
reform organization.

A few years ago, Tennant’s
appeal would have found sym-
pathy. But the reform image that
lit the way to power for TEAM has
long since tarnished and now has
blackened right out of view.

The shape of civic politics in
Vancouver has changed since 1968
when TEAM and COPE were born.

To help stay on top of these
changes and to acquire an un-
derstanding of the real forces
behind them, the People’s Co-op
Bookstore has three books on its
shelves that should be useful.

The most recent is The City
Book, put together by James
Lorimer. There are two items of
interest in it to British Columbians,
both contributed by Donald Gut-
stein, author of Vancouver Ltd.

The first of Gutstein’s essays is a
chapter titled “The Developer’s
TEAM” which traces TEAM’s
record through to 1976. The
development is perhaps best
represented by that of TEAM’s
“suru” Walter Harwicke. In 1970-
1972, while TEAM was still in the
opposition, Hardwicke’s voting
record was very similar to that of
COPE’s Harry Rankin. The record
for 1974, however, after two years
of a TEAM-dominated council
shows Hardwicke voting pro-
developer as consistently as he had
voted for progressive policies two
years before. Today, of course,
Hardwicke is a Socred appointee
as deputy minister of education.

The other Gutstein essay offers a
different insight into the work of
architect Arthur Erickson. This
man, considered by many to be
Canada’s premier architect, has
“a history of controversial projects
where corporate clients from the
Anglican Church to Imperial Oil
have relied on his reputation to
override strong public opposition
to their profit maximizing
development plans.”

Lorimer’s other book, A Citizen’s
Guide to City Politics has been
around for a while having been
published in 1972. The information
is still useful, in 1977, particularly a
chart showing the interconnections
between property interests and
civie boards and commissions in
Vancouver.

The third book, Emerging Party

THE CITY BOOK. By James Lorimer
and Evelyn Ross. Lorimer and Co.,
1976. $5.95.

A CITIZENS GUIDE TO CITY POLI-
TICS. By James Lorimer. James,
Lekies and Samuel, 1972. $4.95.
EMERGING PARTY POLITICS IN
URBAN CANADA. By Jack Masson
and James Anderson. McLelland and
Stewart, 1972. $4.95.

Politics in Urban Canada, is
written for academics by
academics at the University of
Alberta. This book is full of useless
information and erroneous con-
cepts often bandied about in
university sociology and political
science courses, but there is some
interesting material to take note
of.

An introductory chapter to this
book traces the history of ‘‘non
partisan” politics in Canadian
cities and offers some of the
historical reasons for the absence
of political parties on the Canadian
civic scene.

The highlight is a survey of
Vancouver civic associations in
1971 taken by ‘none other than Paul
Tennant. Among other things the
survey shows that 70 percent of
TEAM leaders are either Liberals
or Tories and that 73 percent of
TEAM leaders are university
graduates.

Tennant, it seems, was unable to
draw any conclusions from the
data he collected. But correct
conclusions are not the strength of
any of these books. Rather ic is
found in the useful information
from’ which those’ interested in
civic affairs can draw their own
conclusions.

— Fred Wilson

!
|
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i
fs

Labor movement pays last

A career that had its beginnings
in the days of the One Big Union
and the early formative struggles
of the Communist Party was
recalled at mefnerial meetings in
both Toronto and Vancouver last
week as comrades and co-workers
gathered to pay tribute to Harvey

‘Murphy who died April 30 in
Toronto, felled by a heart attack in
his 73rd year.

Born in Poland in 1906, Harvey
Murphy could trace his part in the
labor movement back to his teens
when, as an apprentice plumber in
the new country adopted by his
parents, he joined the OBU. It was
a militant beginning and one that
Murphy continued as he took up
work with the Workers Unity
League and its affiliate, the Mine
Workers Union of Canada. His part
in the early struggles also led him
to join the Communist Party in
whose ranks he remained
throughout his life.

For two-and-a-half decades,
through the forties, fifties and
sixties, however, his name was
inextricably linked with that of the
International Union of Mine Mill
and Smelter Workers which he
served as regional director and
international vice-president until
the union’s merger with the United
Steelworkers of America in 1967.

Harold Pritchett, former
president of the International
Woodworkers of America and a
one-time officer of the B.C.
Federation of Labor along with
Murphy, recalled the time more
than 30 years before when he had
convinced Reed Robinson, the then
president of Mine Mill to give
Harvey the authority to take up the
organizational work among the
metal miners begun by Arthur
Evans.

“Harvey was appointed regional

director of Mine Mill,’’ Pritchett
told a memorial meeting in the
_IWA Hall in Vancouver May 7,
“and with the help of many hard
rock miners and outstanding ef-
fort, the metal mining industry
was organized.”

Ken Smith, former Canadian
president of Mine Mill and now an

_associate deputy minister of labor
in Victoria, remembered those
early years building a union among
the miners.

“The organization of the mines
in which Harvey played such a
large part was really the
‘liberation’ of the miners,’’ he told
the meeting. ‘‘Because as miners,
_we didn’t just work for eight hours
a day; we didn’t just go to work
and come home at night — we
belonged to the boss for 24 hours a
day.

“When we got union
organization, it was liberation. I
call it liberation because it enabled
us to lift out heads as men.”

Smith, a former miner from
Britannia, added: ‘‘Harvey

tribute to Harvey Murphy

Celebrate |

with

Hal Griffin

50 years as anewspaperman.

On the occasion of.
Saturday, May

his 65th birthday.
28, 6:30 p.m.

Fishermen’s Hall

Supper-dance

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 13, 1977—Page 10

Admission $5, Unemployed, Pensioners $3

Murphy belonged to everybody —
we have all lost a friend whom we
mourn today.”

Communist Party provincial
organizer Jack Phillips paid
tribute to Murphy’s role as a
Communist unionist and recalled
the years of the cold war when
advocates of peaceful coexistence
and international cooperation had
been the targets for bitter attack
both from within the trade union
movement and without.

“Harvey will be remembered for
his courage, ingenuity and tenacity
in defending his union against all
attacks during the bitter, cold war
period,” he told the meeting in the
IWA Hall.. “It was a period in
which those leaders and those
unions who dared speak up for
peace, disarmament and _ better
relations between capitalist and
socialist countries were under
heavy attack, from outside and
inside the labor movement. It
seemed that the world was on the
verge of World War Three, a war
that would bring more destruction
and death than all previous wars
combined. It is to the credit of
labor leaders like Harvey Murphy
and the union he served that they
spoke out against this nuclear
madness. Now, many of the
policies advanced by Harvey and
his colleagues have become
majority policies in the labor
movement.”’

Phillips also paid tribute to
Murphy’s advocacy of a sovereign
Canadian trade union movement,

and to the pioneering work by Mine .

Mill in establishing autonomous
Canadian and U.S. sections. ‘‘The
fact that Canada has travelled a
long. way towards a united in-
dependent and sovereign trade
union movement is a tribute to
Harvey Murphy and the party he
belonged to. That party, the
Communist Party, has fought for
this objective since its foundation
more than fifty years ago,”’
Phillips said.

In Toronto, where Murphy had

been living since his retirement,
several hundred people attended a
memorial meeting May 3 to hear
Steelworkers’ representative and
longtime co-worker Ray Steven-
son,. Communist Party labor

secretary Bruce Magnuson, Mike ©

Gidora, secretary of the Young

HARVEY MURPHY

Communist League and Sam Cal
of the United Jewish Peopl
Order. q

“As ‘Harvey’s name is
separable from the history of th
Communist Party, so it is #
separable from the history of @
powerful trade union movemé@,
which he‘ helped to. create
build,’’ Bruce Magnuson declar@
in paying tribute to the labo!
veteran.

Bill Mahoney, Canadian direct
of the Steelworkers express |
condolences to Harvey’s wil
Isobel, his daughter Mary-Ann ‘
sons Rae and Bill in a telegra
that was read at both memoti {
meetings. It said: ‘‘Deep® {
sympathy to you and your fam .
on behalf of 197,000 Canadi® |

f
d
|

steelworkers who are among 4%
beneficiaries of Harvey Murph:
untiring dedication to the wor i
people of Canada. His lifetime

effort will not be forgotten.” _

Although Murphy retired ff!
full-time union work in 1968,
continued to be active until
time of his death.

One of the last committees ¥
which he had devoted much of
time- was the Paul Robes
Commemorative Committee wht
he chaired. / |

Harvey Murphy shared |
platform with Robeson on May /
1952 and on subsequent cone
dates when Mine Mill organ’
the famous Peace Arch concel™ —

SOUTHERN AFRICA |
A TIME OF CHANGE

7 CONFERENCE
SATURDAY, MAY 14th and SUNDAY, MAY 15th,

~ CANADIAN MEMORIAL CHURCH, 1811 - 16th AVE (at Burrard St.), VANCOUVER

PUBLIC MEETING FRIDAY, MAY 13th, 1977, 8:00 P.M.

UNITARIAN CHURCH, 49th and OAK STREET, VANCOUVER

Contact: Canadian Council for International Co-operation, 2524 Cypress St., Vancouver, Phone 736-9515
or the Southern Africa Action Coalition 734-1712

Sie fa Aa AD eared ys uk i cli gi so wei

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