a Usy J is jpn the time Prime’ Min- ' } ter John Die aXin a ; a ™Paign on the uda, ices wy Nemp|, fenbaker was re- Strenuous election Sunny beaches of National Unemployment i 88 doing some computing al] ett Statistics, Despite Minister 4 Predictions by Labor Conser vats Ichael Starr and other * ay leaders during the el- ies that the peak of nt had been passed, Situat; °N remain i east, S grim, to say Th that . NES officials estimate inting “re some 90,000 jobless. *Otkers ; ; € families of jobless Proba ly 'S means that there are SOme 225 ls fe Province now . 000 or more in “celebrating” the ha . D vic Y in SOmewhat the same as : Bold ee Miners of ’58 after the Us Or a burst, But at least Gov- for i. Douglas found work Th af, Nene e LY Weeks unless the , ‘ ; govern Yong tends the deadline far be- ie ! . entany Me Set (May 15), sup- Bi crm employment benefits iohy “Pi - Mas oa depriving thousands of i SOFe Cover, Ba even this pittance. ing i hundreds of others ee benefits, and noth- tha %, QS hott €xcept charity hand- e . . One, “employment situation. ’ ; ex : % "e Imm i edingly grave, requir- ate and decisive action. © sy . Bi ice se" of province-wide €tween industry and _ of ; 0vernment to tackle the ould IDs is all to the good and a i," all Sees every encouragement he bien one of the people. But Be f of Iving is a pressing A. OF a : / ¥ ily, the Mbless worker and his “Nees, Ti, cannot wait for con- _ at can only be met by | Pacific Tribune Pp 4 ce MUtual 5-5288 Manas; | > TOM McEWEN Ng Eq; ditor — HAL GRIFFIN Subscription Rates: : One Year: $4.00 Six months: $2.25 Boog, tblishea weekly at i 8 — 426 Main Street 0 @Ncouver 4, B.C. Sangean and Commonwealth My, Year (except Australia): $4.00 " aj ;, Australia, United States °ther countries: $5.00 one year, Extend Ul benefits and provide jobs now the federal government extending and increasing supplementarly insurance benefits now, until jobs are available. : Every public organization, and organized la- bor in the first instance, must make that demand clear to Prime Minister Diefenbaker. Certain Unemployment Insurance formulas must be based on need rather than rule. When an unemployed worker is told he must wait for: supplementary unemployment benefits until he has received (and spent) a miserable income tax refund that smacks too much of the old Conser- vative regime of R.B, Bennett — whose govern- went out on an even bigger landslide than the one that put Diefenbaker in. a The Canadian Labor Congress convention in Winnipeg this month, and every section of the labor movement across the country, must make this issue of increased and extended unemploy- ment insurance benefits, plus government policies to provide: jobs, one of paramount urgency and concern. The present nation-wide attack of big business upon organized labor is accentuated by a growing army of jobless workers deprived of all means of livelihood. Then it is that unemploy- ment becomes. a menace to the economic and social status gained by labor — a threat to its very existence. Sincerity is a purely relative emotion. Most people are very sincere about what they are think- ing or doing, whether it be for good or ill A burglar going through someone’s household ef- fects is also deadly “sincere” about the job on hand. The ultimate test of the Con- servative party’s “sincerity” won’t be what it promised on the hustings but what it does in parliament. An unemployed worker with jobless benefits run- ning out cannot support his fam- ily on Tory “sincerity”! Then comes another question: Will the Diefenbaker government with its loaded majority turn out to be another “Iron Heel” Ben- nett regime? Well, two decades have passed since the Hungry Thirties. By it- self of course, that isn’t “a very profound observation. But again, without a rising and united con- sciousness among the people, and organized labor in the first place, it could be. Tom McEwen OME : post-election speculations S compel me to hand out some unsolicited advice. It may not be worth much, and then again it may be. In any case, there was nothing in the Tory sweep to warrant any utopian expectancy. The first question on many people’s minds is, will the Tory government fufill one fraction: of the multifarious pre-election promises it made? I would say that it will, with one important qualification; that a mighty labor, farm and peo- ple’s movement, with a greater sense of class-consciousness than was evident on March 31 last, compel it to do so. Without that public mass pressure outside parliament the Diefenbaker gov- ernment will do what any Tory government anywhere has done over the last half century — serve the most reactionary interests of modern monopoly capital. A labor leader of sorts was ex- pounding to me the other day his streng belief that Prime Minis- ter Diefenbaker is a very “sin- cere” man. Indubitably, and why not? Lenin once wrote something to the effect that there was no sit- uation for the bourgeoisie from which there was no way out, meaning that without a militant and united working class to. turn the tables, the bourgeoisie could always extricate themselves from crisis of their own making, by loading its burdens upon the peo- ple. It is good to remember that while waiting for John to follow through. Despite all the efforts of the top leaders in the camp of social democracy, in cahoots with Tory, Liberal and Socred alike, to de- cry the “class struggle,” to deny its existence, and to propagate the mythical idea that modern capitalist society is all “one hap- py family,’ with just some slight adjustments needed to equalize the monopoly coupon-clipper and the jobless worker with his un- employment, benefits exhausted, that ruthless struggle persists. The evidence is all around us. A new world socialist society is steadily rising, in strength, in achievement, in social progress, while an old and decadent capi- talist society is tottering on its last legs. That also is an import- ant factor contributing to greater working class enlightment and action, and serves as a strong de- terrent against any Tory govern- ment, now or later, trying to turn the clock back to 1930. Meantime the situation’ wors- ens. Our “seasonal unemploy- ment” seasons get longer, the periods of “gainful” employment sherter, while the ranks of the jobless increase almost as fast “as food prices. Worst of all for tens of thousands of unemployed, insurance’ benefits are tapering off or being exhausted entirely. “I pledge,” said Prime Minister Diefenbaker on CBC-TV on the evening of March 31, “that no Canadian shall suffer by unem- ployment.” Nearly a million un- employed workers and _ their families would like that pledge honored — now! April 18, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5