turned mess Inco-Millard alliance defeated by Sudbury miners in record elections “Defend Your Union!” ‘ By AL CAMPBELL ‘Stop the Raiders!” —SUDBURY These were the slogans which awakened the miners and -smeltermen of the great sprawling INCO works in the Sudbury nickel district to the danger to their union. This was the call that set thousands of unionists on the march, and ended in decisive defeat for the union raiders. On December 13, the day of the election of officers for Local 598, International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, the Sudbury and district miners and smeltermen tumed out to vote in larger numbers than ever before in the union’s history to put back into office Nels Thibault, president of Local gressives who had led the fight in defense of the union. Thibault polled 3,405 votes against his op- ponent’s 1,327. So it went for every position on the executive board, nearly three to one for the Union Defense Committee candidates. The vote proved that the mem- bership was not fooled by the phony splitting tactics of Millard, or the red-baiting tactics of his stooges in Sudbury. The unholy alliance of the raiding Steel union, the Sudbury Daily Star and INCO, were blasted into silence when the Union De- fense Committee went into action. Masquerading under the much publicized title, the “White Block” (which only served to arouse anger and contempt in honest union men) Russel, Klemp and Co. shouted “Red” and took up the line of the 598, and the entire slate of pro- Sudbury Star to try and convince the best paid” workers in Canada that their union leadership was selling them out, that the leader- ship which had negotiated one of the best contracts in Canada had to be removed. The Union Defense Committee, composed of the militant executive members, shop stewards and rank and file activists, were on the of- fensive throughout the campaign. They brought the real issues to the workers, dealt with facts. The re- sponse of the workers to their call to action, indicated from the very beginning what the outcome would be. The “White Blockheads” were plowed under. The fighting tradi- tions of the historic Mine Mill Un- ion were upheld in its largest local. Old line victories show need of anti-war unity “Colonel Drew’s big majority in Carelton is additional testimony that the position of the LPP towards that by-election was correct,” - ‘Yim Buck, national LPP leader declared last week following the by- election. ““To have defeated the Tory candidate in Carleton in the pre- vailing circumstances required a candidate and a platform around which could be rallied all those de- mocratic voters who are opposed to the reactionary warmongering atti- tude and policies personified by Colonel George Drew. The CCF candidate did not even attempt to do that. Mr. Forsey presented him- self to the electors as a man who, if elected, would support and facili- tate St. Laurent’s war plans more efficiently than Colonel Drew can. Obviously the pro-war voters didn't believe him and by his efforts to out-Drew the Colonel he repelled _ the forces that could have been mo- bilized.” . In Laval-Two Mountains Premier Duplessis carried out a Tory-Lib- eral deal, the Quebec LPP office de- clared. “While creating a phony anti-war atmosphere around the Union Nationale and keeping one foot in the Republican camp, Du- plessis aided Liberal victory over the anti-war candidate by staying out of the contest, just as Liberals helped Drew over the hurdle, and the Tories gave Garson an assist. The Republican slogan based on petty-bourgeois ideology, confused and diffused the real, latent apti- war vote, beclouded the real issues, while poor Desy organization plus eopious Liberal beer and money bought the seat for St. Laurent. “The sizeable anti-war vote was significant of the real Quebec peace sentiment that will be fully mobilized under leadership of realistic working class slogans.” In Marquette, Manitoba, where Justice Minister Garson was re- in a traditionally Liberal riding, the LPP opposed him, call- ing for support to the CCF candi- date. In a pre-election statement, W. C. Ross, Manitoba LPP leader declared: “The Labor-Progressive Party urges the electors of Marquette to vote against Mr. Garson, the can- didate of the parties of Big Busi- and the Grain Exchange. Every vote cast against Mr. Gar- son will be a vote against the Wall Street Marshall Planners and the war policies of the St. Laurent gov- ernment. “While Mr. Garson betrays the interests of the people of Mar- quette, Mrs. Keating of the, CCF competes with Mr. Garson in red- baiting and supports him on such vital matters as the Marshal] Plan and the foreign policy of the St. Laurent government which is de- termined by Wall St.” Combat publishes to defy Duplessis —MONTREAL. Combat, left-wing labor paper that Duplessis tried to gag with his Pad- lock Law last March, this week made its .apeparance by the thou- sand in the factories and mills of this province, bannerlining its main article, “Quebec fights for the main- tenance of peace.” Just nine short months after a dozen of Duplessis’s burly storm- troopers walked into Combat’s of- fices and put a padlock on its doors, the fighting labor journal, with its face lifted and a sock on each page, was being issued again — this time as a bright, monthly tab- loid published in Toronto. Address of the office of Pierre Gelinas, tough, hard-hitting editor of Combat, is Room 328, 73 Ade- laide Street West, Toronto. Sub- scriptions for the paper, Combat announced, can be obtained by writ- ing that address. Price is 5 cents per copy, and annual sub costs only 50 cents, two years for $1.00. . “Combat has never retreated in the face of the infamous Padlock Law, by which Duplessis would like to reduce to silence the voice of the working people of Quebec,” Combat’s editorial board stated. They promised a consistent cru- sade to expose Duplessis’ sinister design to lead Quebec down the path to imperialist war. Pierre Gelinas thanked the work- ers, trade unionists, housewives and professional people whose nickels, dimes and dollars collected in the recent Quebec Press Drive made the reissuing. of Combat possible. Centre spread of the new tabloid is devoted to an article by Oscar Roy, provincial organizer of the Labor-Progressive Party. Millard ok'd by war organ The big business Financial Post this week hailed the re-election by acclamation of Charles H. Millard as national director for Canada of the United Steelworkers of Ameri- ca (CIO-CCL). In a detailed article based on the Pest’s close connections with the Steelworkers’ hierachy, it is ad- mitted that reason for the acclama- tion is the peculiar nominations’ procedure in steel, which requires that a candidate for national of-}| fice must be nominated by five lo- cals, not more than three of which must be in either the eastern or west-central district. George McNeil, who polled a large vote against Millard in the last steel] elections, was nominated by three eastern locals, but re- ceived no nominations in the west. What the Post did not describe was the tactics used to block Mc- Neil’s nomination in the west. * Vancouver locals which have tra- ditionally nominated against Mil lard in the past found their juris- dictions arbitrarily altered by Steel officers so as to lump them with “safe” majorities. In an understanding way the Bay Street organ tells how steel offi- cials now hold office for four years instead of two, and how Millard’s and other salaries have been raised from $6,000 to $8,000. In Bay Sireet language the Post relates that “anti-communist’ con- tro] of this strategically important union” is “assured” for four or five years, ie., Canada’s three giant steel monopolies expect a con- tinued handsome payoff from Mil- lard’s collaborationist policies. What the steelworkers will do to safeguard their living standards is evidently omitted from the Post’s ealuculations, but that discontent is rife is seen in the sweeping mea: sures taken to curb opposition. The American east coast maritime strike is sufficient indication that workers are able to fight back no matter what kind of labor bureau- cracy they may have to surmount. Uninvestigated Un-Americans . In a public ceremony in the city auditorium at Macon, Georgia, the terrorist Ku Klux Klan initiated 300 new members, wearing eye masks, into the nightshirted organization. = Low salaries rob forty B.C. classrooms of teachers Forty B.C. classrooms are_ still} closed due to lack of qualified teachers, it was reported at the Christmas session of B.C. Teach- ers’ Federation executive. In addition, mavy classrooms that are functioning are staffed with unqualified teachers. The chronic teacher shortage is due to continued poor salaries. BCTF decided to continue its fight for the right of teachers to contest municipa] elections as _can- didates for aldermen, councillors, mayors or reeves. Labor-baiters at this year’s Union of B.C. Munici- palities’ convention refused for the fourth year to back the teachers’ application for such amendments to the municipal act. It was revealed that one third of all superannuated teachers re- ceive pensions of less than $40 a month, Although many are in “dire need of help” due to the high cost of living, the government has spurned BCTF demands for aid. Miners’ delegate to Europe gets back job Robin Denton, young Kimberley miner who represented the’ B.C. District of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers on this year’s Beaver Brigade dele- gation to Europe, has been rein- stated in his job by Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company. At first the company tried to un- dermine Denton's position as ab- sent on union business by claiming that he had quit, but when it be- came apparent that the union would go to arbitration if necessary Denton was asked to report for work. Donald “Dusty” Greenwell, Is- land Labor Council delegate on the Brigade, has not yet been re-hired by Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd. TLC tells Ottawa that wage boost and price controls are top issues A hard-hitting brief presented to the Royal Commission on Prices here by the officers of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada emphasized that the TLC was prepared to lead Ny campaign for stantial wage increases.” Wage boosts and price controls were the two main issues facing Canadians t day, the brief stressed. In contrast to a recent “prices” brief presented to the Commission by the CCL-CIO, the TLC brief had no political axes to grind; it was a straightforward affair which bas- ed its program on the decisions of the recent Victoria convention. The TLC officers bluntly told the prices commission that as far as the Congress is concerned “it is ur- eet —OTTAWA “ube gently necessary, in the face of the price crisis now at hand, to advance and secure, through the power of our organized strength, substantial wage increases this year in all in- dustries and trades.” Presented by TLC President Percy Bengough and secretary- treasurer J. W. Buckley, the brief stressed the fact that the Congress would lead a public campaign de- signed to bring pressure to bear PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 31, 1918 — PAGE —t on the federal government. Subsi- dies, the return of price controls and a 100 percent excess profits ta¥ were immediate needs, the TEC said. “The root of present day evils,” the brief said, was the fact that organized indus i tically wmconteolled ands dca in- creases prices through the medi um of cartels and combines, both national and international.”