mel NIGEL MORGAN

ly : beginnings of the B.C.
Movement go back to the

isle €ginnings of the province

nse Period immediately prior
it ¢ ollowing B.C.’s entry
tra ‘Onfederation were years
4 pd expansion. Dissatisfied
Colonial Wretched conditions of
} Tages Tule, the miserable
tor at and exhorbitant prices
To life se ntals; the heavy toll
| Sovele e those sent into the
the Of the earth for coal, on
the ¢,v84 Seas for fish, and into
. rests for timber — the
tok to rersing working class
like 4 82nization and politics
The Uck to water.
telon Struggle for the right to
0 a union and bargain
: ely; for the 8-hour day,
tiversal fen conditions and for
MRE Tanchise was forced
New 1 a early pioneers by the
Dush 8€oning capitalist state

aleetiy

Dainice Its way across the
thivins by covered wagon,
tation 8 to unite into a new

North ws territories of British
Cast Merica from coast to

er
€ was tremendous

4
lit
lca) turmoil in the Crown

it yap.

tt Gallery.

F \%Ge9 empl, .
* Ht g sinpleved are shown in this historic photo taking ay
a ce Gnd an for work and wages, to throw their support

Colony of British Columbia
when the year 1871 broke. Two
big issues were foremost,
decisively influencing politicai
relationships of the period, and
leaving an indelible mark on the
B.C. labor movement of this day.

The biggest question was:
Would British Columbia become
a province of Canada? It
appeared likely, but certainly far
from sure. It had yet to be
debated in the colonial ‘‘legis-
lature.”’

A few months previous, US.
secretary of State, William
Henry Seward (who had just
completed the purchase of
Alaska from Russia for a paltry
$7 million) had visited Victoria.
A number of prominent citizens
had addressed a petition to U.S.
President Ulyses Grant inviting
U.S. annexation. This.small but
powerful clique centred mainly
around the merchants of Vic-
toria (who, like their present-
day counterparts wanted a
north-south tie for a fast buck),
and the Hudsons Bay Company,
fighting to preserve the Pacific
wilderness for fur production.

In this battle the trappers, gold
panners, prospectors and
miners, impelled by class rela-

‘ote to leave the
behind the unemploy

100 YEARS

of labor struggles

tionships — class struggle,
moved into the political arena.
In fact, it was a two day demon-
stration of a thousand Cariboo
miners at Barkerville which
tipped the scale against the U.S.
annexionists and helped Amor
de Cosmos (who led the fight for
B.C. to join Confederation) to
overpower Dr. Helmcken, the
chief advocate of U.S. annex-
ation.

The second major issue which
similarly divided the early
colonists on class lines was.
responsible government.
History records the fact ,that in
1859 one lone vote sent.a “‘repre-
sentative of the people’’ to
Victoria. So limited was: the
franchise, so dominant the
Hudson’s Bay Co., that in the
election in Nanaimo that year,
Captain John Stuart was duly
nominated.by Captain John
Swanson of the H.B.C. ship
Labouchere, who solemnly cast
the lone ‘‘registered’’ vote,
sending Stuart to Victoria as the
“elected representative’ of
Nanaimo!

FIRST UNION

British Columbia’s first trade
union was formed within four

199

NA) 7 ing their st le against

| Fate, me bor was outstanding in the support it rallied for the Spanish pepe eee rete
© shows the Girls Brigade to Aid Spain in the May Day parade o :

ia Hotel, where they had
Geere, who had occupied the

LOGGERS STRIKE, 1934: These historic photas show the Campbell River
picket camp and some of the loggers. This struggle was one of the early
bitter battles of woodworkers to unionize B.C.’s basic industry.
Communists played a leading role in the fight to organize the
woodworkers and workers in other basic industries in B.C.

years of the first colony being
proclaimed, and a full decade
before B.C. entered Confed-
eration. Robert Hollowy, who
had travelled overland by prairie
schooner from Quebec to
become the first printer of the
Cariboo Sentinel at Barkerville,
was elected president of the first
local union of printers. in
Victoria.

Barkerville was then the third
biggest city west of Chicago, and
Vancouver, it was said, ‘‘will
never amount to anything; it is
too far away from Barkerville.”’

The trade union movement in
B.C. took on quite a political
character from its earliest
days. For example, when
Vancouver became a city,
although there were only two

.assemblies of the Knights of

Labor in the New Westminster

“district, their influence is

credited with bringing about the
defeat of the leading lumber
czar, R. H. Alexander.

When Alexander’s friends (all
lawyers, owners and chisellers
of one kind or another) nomin-
ated him, the Vancouver loggers
decided to keep him out. They
approached Malcolm McLean,
after whom McLean Park is
named, to run. It was their
money and votes that elected
McLean the first mayor of
Vancouver.

British Columbia labor has a
long and proud record of struggle
for the betterment of working.
and living conditions in this
province. The history of B.C. is
one of militant, and often
bitterly-fought. strike struggles
forced on the working class by
the privileged monopolies
starting with the Hudson’s Bay
Co., which took domain over the
whole of Vancouver Island in
1849 at an annual rental of 7
shillings.

B.C. strike struggles started
with the first coal mines in Fort
Rupert, near Alert Bay, when
Robert Dunsmuir became B.C.’s
first scab. Later, with his
brother ‘‘Sir James’’ he was
rewarded with the E. and N. coal
and timber empire for his strike
breaking.

Then there was the historic
fishermen’s strike of 1900, led by
Frank Rogers, of, which the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1971—PAGE 3 .

newspapers of the day
acknowledged ‘‘everyone was on
their side except the canneries,
police and press.”’

In fact, the strike had such
popular support that when the
Attorney-General laid fifteen
‘“charges’”’ against Rogers, the
Bowser government demanded
a change of venue “‘because the
Crown couldn’t get a fair trial’’
in the Vancouver-Westminster
area! That is they couldn’t get a

jury that would convict Rogers,
who was later shot down ona .

CPR picket line at the foot of
Abbott Street by two hired thugs.

GENERAL STRIKE

On August 2, 1918 the first
general strike in Canada took
place in B.C. Five years after
the company slaying of Frank
Rogers, ‘‘Ginger’’ Arthur
Goodwin, executive of B.C.
Federation of Labor and
organizer of the Rossland-Trail
miners and smeltermen, was
cold-bloodedly shot in the back at
Cumberland by a provincial
policeman hidden in a tree. In
the 24-hour general strike that
followed scarcely a wheel turned

, and even the telephone system

went out.

In 1919 B.C. workers downed
tools in sympathy with the
Winnipeg general strike at
Dominion Bridge, where the
Meighen government had wired
Labor Minister Gideon Robert-
son ‘‘Arrest the strike leaders.
We will pass the legislation on
Monday!” -

More recently there was the
big loggers strike in 1934, the
heroic waterfront strike of 1936,
and the great On-To-Ottawa trek
of unemployed workers
demanding from Prime Minister
“Tron Heel’’ Bennett work and
wages— a new deal for Canada’s
army of jobless, the forgotten
men and women of the dirty
thirties.

One common thread runs
through this long history of
struggle — state intervention:
the use of naval boats, troops,
(Bowser’s Hussars in Nanaimo
and Ladysmith), police,
government ruses, (right down
to today’s legalized shackling via

Bill 33 with its sophisticated,

half-million dollar Mediation
See LABOR STRUGGLES, pg. 11