ro AR Liberal government of
Prime Miuinister Louis St.
Laurent is responsible for the
strike of the Canadian seamen.

The government-owned Cana-
dian National Steamships opened
the war on Canadian seamen and
their union; it spearheaded the
union-busting attack for privately
owned steamship companies, many
of which are owned by foreign
capitalist groups.

The government-owned CNS
Signed a contract with the strike-
breaking SIU while Canadian
Seamen's Union officials were in
conference with the highest of-
ficials of the federal labor de-
partment and while a full under-
Standing was being reached be-
tween the representatives of the
Canadian seamen and labor de-
partment officials. :
the SIU
member

This was done while
did not have a single
on a single salt water ship on
the Atlantic coast of Canada.
Hon. Lionel Chevrier, federal min-
ister of transportation, ordered
the signing of the fink contract
with an outfit that didn’t have
a single member on the govern-
ment-owned ships because he
didn’t want to renew the contract
with the CSU, certified and un-
disputed representative of all the
seamen on all his ships.

The Liberal minister of trans-
portation cynically violated the
labor laws of his own government.
He and his shipping magnates
were afraid of the peaceful settle-
ment which was being arrived
at. They wanted the strike. They
hoped to break the fighting un-
ion of the Canadian seamen, the
CSU. '

Chevrier and his shipping mag-
nates hate that union because it,
was the first union of Canadian
seamen that succeeded in estab-
lishing itself permanently in the
industry. They forced the strike
on the seamen in the hope of
breaking their union and destroy-
ing all that the CSU had gained
for its members.

Chevrier and the whole St.
Laurent cabinet. (for it is un-
thinkable that he would have un-
dertaken so provocative an act
without cabinet approval) are
guilty. They provoked the strike
and they assumed the foul role
of a union-busting government,
ry ;

But that’s not their only guilt.
- Having accepted the role of un-
ion breakers on behalf of the
Shipping trust, the St. Laurent
government went further.

It resorted to the use of every |

means of force and violence
against the Canadian seamen. It
made use of its vast resources
and its armed police forces to
beat, wound, maim, and to let
armed goons shoot at unarmed
and peaceful strikers in order to
break the just and government-
provoked strike of Canadian sea-
amen.

Remember, it was the govern-
ment-owned shipping company
which brought .a trainload of.
gangster-scabs to the Halifax
dockside in the quiet of the night.
Remember also, that this scum
was brought on a government-
ewned Canadian National Rail-
way train. =

It was this trainload of goons
which swooped on the handful of
pickets, most of them native sons
of Halifax, wielding every con-
ceivable weapon. It was this mur-
der squad, brought secretly on a
government-owned train to man
government-owned  strikebound
ships which directed murderous
gunfire from aboard ship on the
handful of unarmed seamen on
the dock.

And remember something else.
After the murderous and unpro-
voked shooting a wave of indig-
nation rolled across the country.
The RCMP was compelled to act.

It didn’t take the RCMP long
to learn that some of those re-
sponsible for the shooting had
been smuggled off the ship and
put aboard a train leaving for

~

During the Second
World War govern-
ment spokesmen
lauded the men who
faced death on the
high seas to carry
food and arms to
Britain. And many
of them gave their
lives in the line of
duty. ...

The Liberals indicted

Halifax. Some of those characters

were arrested and, so the press

reported, the RCMP found a box

of rifles and ammunition mark-

ed Canadian National Railway.

e i
But even that is-not all the

. Sordid tale. There is much more

that you should know and re-
member.

The Halifax massacre did not
weaken the strike. On the con-
trary, it strengthened it and
caused hundreds of thousands of
workers of all trade union groups
to rally around the seamen.

The government then declared
global war on the Canadian sea-
men. It began its drive to arrest
Canadian seamen in all ports of
the world. The government which
broke its own labor laws, the
government which agreed to be-
come a union-breaking agency for
ship owners, reached out across

in

the seven seas to throw into for.

eign jails Canadian seamen who
struck to uphold their country’s
labor laws, to defend their union
and their hard-won gains and
working conditions. A Cuban
naval boat shelled Canadian sea-
men who were aboard a Canadian
freighter in a Cuban port with-
out reason or warning, and an
infuriated Cuban navy detach?
ment climbed aboard the Cana-
dian with all guns *ablaze like
a band of murderous pirates.
Let no one try to tell you that
the Cuban attack and the round-
ing up and jailing of Canadian
seamen in all world ports could
have taken place without the dip-
lomatic intervention of the Cana-

dian government. It couldn’t. So

we find not only Lionel Chevrier’s
department of‘transport, not only
Humphrey Mitchell’s department
of labor but also Lester B. Pear-

By J. B. SALSBERG

son’s external affairs department
lined up in this cruel government
war on Canadian seamen.

The situation is clear enough.
It is sickeningly clear. It is the
government which is’ résponsible
for the present seamen’s strike.
It is the government ,which is
responsibie for the beating, the
shooting, the world-wide jailing
of Canadian seamen. :

St. Lauren.; has dissolved the
House of Commons and has or-
dered a general election. It is now
the task of Canadian labor and
of all Canadian democrats to de-
velop the fight in every single
constituency in the country. Your
constituency must become the
battle ground for the Canadian
seamen and for trade unionism.

Every Liberal candidate must
feel the people’s indignation every

4
PACIFIO TRIBUNE — MAY 6, 1949 — PAGE

eee |

time he appears in public, It
must be made plain to him that
the people condemn the govern-
ment’s strike-breaking role and
demand an immediate settlement
of the seamen’s strike, and that
they hold him, as a Liberal can-
didate, responsible for the gov-
ernment’s strikebreaking actions-

While the Liberal candidates
must face the main protest and
must be considered as those wh0
can be most effective in settling
the strike because it'is their g0OV-.
ernment that is involved, the can-
didates of all other parties must
also be called upon to declare
themselves in public on this cen
tral and crucial labor battle.

The government declared global
war on the Canadian seamen. The
people must extend the battle
lines for the Canadian seamen —
and their families into every rid-
ing in this country.

a

..But now... The
government’s praise
is for the ship own?-
ers, the men who
made the war prof-
its, and the govern-
ment’s own Cana-
dian National
steamships leads
the attack on the
Canadian Seamen's
Union. The men who
fought fascism oD
the high seas. must
now face police at-
tacks and the fire of, -
police - protecte
goons and _ strike-
breakers,