HARVEY MURPHY

orful past deserves to be
a fleeting chapter lost in
history. Too often its im-

distorted and maligned.
ed at the hands of writers

e and uninspiring. With
ved to a lucrative market,
historians pen flowery
Canada’s greatness as the
n of some ordained indivi-

and always will stamp the
progress across the pages

wages, job security and

than the miners. The
ple who lived in that tur-
it have set labor a course
y today. It lives in the valu-
ns garnered by the miners
tperienced the bitter despair
the sweet jubilance of vic-
a tale that has no ending.
inning could only unfold
the reminiscences of miners
from the past as told by one
ly participated in them, a
labor at its best in the face
and intimidation. To stand
with the proud dignity of free
_win through when the odds
cag ong a whole life-

service in the labor move-
miners leader for over 30
has tirelessly worked to bring
in the ranks of labor. After
of effort he achieved a sig-
as a prime mover in bring-
being the merger of the Mine,
Smelter Workers and the United
ers. This marked the adop-
-new formula for labor, gain-
acceptance by other unions
a new stage in labor unity.
y Murphy has a reputation of
Shrewd negotiator at the bar-
fable, a tribute earned by the
unwavering confidence of the
om this position of strength
Orced the grudging respect of
8S. Unlike some labor leaders
ere is Pan absence in his make- -up of
€ sleek professionalism so dear to the
it Of management.
ig him for the purpose of this
Murphy impressed me as
itant product formed in the

By
William

Turner

hurly-burly world of labor struggle. His
physical presence is enhanced when he
speaks. The language is direct, earthy
and forceful. He possesses a vocabulary
enriched with the colorful idiom that
reflects the personality of the working-
class. With the foregoing observations
prompting my thoughts I decided that
my list of prepared questions to ask
Murphy were perhaps inadequate. I re-
solved that in order to capture the real
color of labor’s past, I should be an
attentive listener quietly suppressing
the desire to interject with a question.

I was aware that he seemed constant-
ly to anticipate my thinking through-
out his story, which began:

“I got my first taste of trade-union-
ism when I was 19 working in a rub-
ber factory in Kitchener . . , following
the Winnipeg general strike the idea of
the One Big Union grew. It was form-
ed to organize the unorganized. It was
what you might call a Canadian type
of the IWW ... it opposed the AFL
craft unionism. What finished the One
Big Union idea, as great as it was, was
its internal fights over policy. It split
over the question of labor unity. Then,
and now, this is the supreme question
for workers . , . if we close our eyes
to it labor is finished . . . and that’s just
what happened to the OBU.

“During the '20s the fight for labor
unity and to organize the unorganized
was taken up by the Trade Union Edu-
cational League, Tim Buck was Secre-
tary ...as a member of the Machinists
Union, Tim with others, fought to unite
the railroad unions . , . the TUEL did
a good job in fighting for labor’s rights
in spite of discrimination and a ban
against us by the officialdom of the
AFL . . . who lifted charters and ex-
pelled workers.

“Just after the depression hit in 1929
the Workers Unity league was form-
ed . . . led’ by Communists like Jim
MacLachlan, Charlie Sims, Sam Scar-
lett, Tom McEwen, Art Evans. I took
charge of the WUL when its secretary
Tom McEwen was jailed with the other
leaders of the Communist Party under
that left-over from the Winnipeg gene-
ral strike—section 98. Outside the AFL
craft unions were thousands of un-
organized workers ... so the WUL set
its aim to organize in the main basic
industries, steel, mines, lumber, auto.

A life linked with
the miners struggle

We set out to prove long before the
CIO was formed that industrial trade
unions could be built .. . wage cuts
could be stopped and we could even
raise wages during the Depression. Of-
ficialdom said no it couldn’t be done.
We figured if companies can make pro-
fits the workers must get more wages.”

During the years of the Depression
the stock-exchanges ticker-taped great-
er company profits. Sudbury’s Interna-
tional Nickel made $6 million net profit
in the first six months of 1934...

“You know, we proved that with
militant leadership workers will sup-
port you. The Workers Unity League
showed the way ... it won 84 strikes
out of 109 in 1934. . . we issued char-
ters, one I remember well was to the
Fraser Mill strikers in 1931 .. . it be-
came the Lumber Workers Industrial
Union led by a communist, Harold Prit-
chett. The LWIU set the tone on the
coast to organize B.C. lumber camps
later.

“In Ontario around Port Arthur the
union fought a bitter strike . , . the
Mine Workers Union was active in
Glace Bay, Sudbury, the Crows Nest,
Trail, Cumberland, Nanaimo, in every
mining town . the boss fought us
with police and ‘the courts, too,

“The miners were a special field of
work for me... we went through some
really tough struggles together. For in-
stance, the strike at Blairmore lasted
seven months and 86 were arrested .
the workers were made up of all na-
tionalities . . . but they stuck and won.
After the strike Blairmore elected a
labor mayor and council. . . one of its
first acts was to name the main street
Tim Buck Boulevard. When I went to
organize Michel, Corbin and Fernie I
was barred at the B.C.-Alberta border
by the police. We travelled another
route to reach Nanaimo and Cumber-
land and bring them back into the
union ... Tom Uphill MLA and myself
interviewed Premier Patullo and Attor-
ney General Sloan, on why I was pre-
vented from going into the Crows Nest
area, They said you kncw why. The
why was that Cominco was behind this
move to prevent union organization.

“A few years later Sloan was made a
judge of the B.C, Supreme court...
we did organize the mines in the Crows
Nest . . . and the big breakthrough at
the Trail smelters, the heart of Comin-
co’s empire years later. You know, to-
day a lot of those mining towns are
gone .. . some are still here with no
mines to keep them going . . , like
ghost towns too without miners . . .”

My mind’s eye saw mining camps
silent, abandoned. Stilled machines
rusted with the scars of time, the hol-
low ghosts of past wealth and men’s
lives.

Harvey continued his story, “Winning
a strike in those days didn’t come
easy . . , the companies used police,
scabs, stool-pigeons, all the time. Who
used violence? Take the strike I took
part in at Port Arthur with the lumber
workers union . . . two Communists
who were union organizers, Rosvall and

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 24,

Voutilainen, were murdered, that was
in 1929... In Estevan in 1931 the moun-
ties shot and killed three miners and
thirteen were wounded , . . Annie Bul-
ley a Communist woman organizer was
arrested and jailed for two years . .
but those who murdered the miners
were never charged.

“In B.C, at Corbin seven women on
the picket-line were injured when trac-
tors ran them down .. . the company
mounted machine-guns during the
Fraser Mills strike ,. . At Anyox miners
were arrested and deported without
trial, foreign born and English... When
miners struck in Princeton the police
kidapped Art Evans, the miner’s union
organizer, and jailed him in Vernon a
hundred miles away . .. These are
some bloody strike struggles workers
will always remember .. .”

As Murphy spoke we were both con-
scious of the passing noise of traffic
from a nearby highway; the peremp-
tory summons of a telephone ring to
be answered.

“The boss never forgets the mili-
tancy of the workers . . . today he uses
new methods and new tricks . . . like
Bill 33 in B.C, and the Rand report in
Ontario, To confuse and divide labor's
ranks he buys out some of its leaders
. .. a kind of psychological tactic. He
don’t discriminate. They could be right-
wingers, centrists or so-called leftists
all looking for a fast buck at labor's
expense...”

Listening, I thought the lines of a
Robert Browning poem were fittingly
appropriate, written upon the news of
a close friends’ betrayal of a cause:

“Just for a handful of silver he left

us,

Just for a riband to stick in his coat.”

“The B.C. government has appointed
Baskin, Sims and Stewart to its Media-
tion Commission for Bill 33 . . in spite
of tactics to buy over labor leaders
there'll always be new leadership com-
ing from the workers, The government
might buy out a labor leader but can’t
buy out the workers he represents...
Sam Scarlett once said the boss is al-
ways prepared to emancipate one
worker at a time but has a hell of a
job to emancipate the whole working-
class.”

We both laughed, relishing this
earthy witticism of sound working-
class logic, as our interview drew to a
close, Before leaving I ventured to ask
one question of Murphy. What did he
consider were some of the miners’
greatest achievements?

“In 1952 when Mine, Mill brought
Paul Robeson to the Peace Arch on the
U.S.-Canada border to sing to 40,000
people. This terrific demonstration
broke the Cold War ban on Robeson
imposed by the U.S. State Dept. ...
big victories too were the first Mine,
Mill agreements at Sudbury and Trail.”

I viewed the treasured gifts from his
fellow-workers, from the mine locals of
Riondel, Trail and Kimberley. We shook
hands with Murphy’s parting words
I'll remember, “So long, I'll be seeing
you.” They seemed to hold a promised
pledge to the whole labor movement
as well and to the miners that special
breed of.-men who bared the riches of
the earth, and fought hard for labor’s
rights. Given the power of labor in mili-
tant struggle the future has everything
going for it. Make no mistake about
ipod er will be around, too.

196¥—Page’/