ae Meee cg WEITAT eg May ey ROR Raa ‘ nh ete a LT a gremvatiere (bi! | hieitlialtoet ebo gee y TP} f 4 WMT he RU nem IA ERT ALA CLI LR Price Five Cents RELEASE OF SEAMEN IVIL LIBERTIES TEST “Watch out. This is how it started in Germany.” These words came this week from a young man behind the bars of Welland county jail. He was a seaman, a member of the Canadian Seamen’s Union, who had been on -strike to compel a ’ shipping company to obey the laws of Canada. He ‘is one of the 70 victims of the infamous Canada Shipping Act — written 300 years ago in the days of Captan Bligh—which denies a seamen the right of every other citizen, trial by jury. The story of labor’s struggle for its rights contains all too many instances of wholesale arrests, vicious sentences, savage reprisals, to smash strikes and break unions. In the Nanaimo coal strike in 1913 more than 200 miners were arrested and of those sentenced to jail, a few received two-year terms. The harsh penitentiary sen- tences, some of two and three years, imposed on seamen for exer- cising their legal right to picket in the Great Lakes strike, exceed in their scope and viciousness even the reprisals for the Nanaimo strike. Unless public opinion, by protests to Solicitor General Jean and MP’s through organizations and as individuals, compels release of the imprisoned seamen, the sentences constitute a threat to every organized worker and his right to protect his living standards by strike action if necessary. Ihe severe sentences imposed upon the seamen are not merely reprisals for their stubborn struggle against a company-government-Chamber of Commerte-Hall AFL group com- bination. They are part of the developing pattern of Canadian re- action, the pattern that can lead to fascism unless it is arrested now. In the past few months there have been ample warnings of the heightened threat to civil liberties. @ Gordon Martn, young Vancouver veteran and law student, has been denied admission to the B.C. Bar because of his political affiliations. @ William Patterson, American civil rights leader, has been barred from Canada. @ A Christmas peace message around the theme, “‘Peace on earth, good will toward men,” was banned by a Moose Jaw radio station as “seditious.” @ Nazi-trained stormtroopers, brought here as DP’s, are planting bombs, disrupting meetings of the Association of Ukrainian Canadians, assaulting its members. @ A richly-financed, well-organized campaign originating from the Chamber of Commerce has as its aim the splitting and destroying of the trade union movement, with men of the stamp .of Frank Hall, Charles Millard and Pat Con- roy promoting from inside the unions the divisive policies desired by the Financial Post. @ An inspired story carried by the Vancouver Sun this week reports that the St. Laurent government is drafting amend-* mends to the Criminal Code for introduction at the forth- coming session of parliament. “It is known that they would strengthen the ‘sedition’ sections of the Criminal Code in such a manner as to make it more difficult for LPP leaders to operate without falling afoul of the law,” states the report, adding significantly, “The RCMP is understood to have had a hand in drawing (them) up... .” But what is ‘seditious’? According to a Moose Jaw ra- dio station, peace is ‘‘seditious.’” And so the plot to gag the people in their fight for peace against the big business war policies pursued by the government becomes apparent. As in Germany, it starts with the Communists, with the militant unions. But Canadian democracy, with the experience of a war against fascism, is strong enough to halt reaction, to broaden and strengthen itself, to secure the peace and win greater security. And the first step is to obtain the freedom of those seamen now jailed because they fought for labor’s -rights, a foundation of democracy. Do your. part. Send your protest now! Dutch aggression denounced Renewed Dutch aggression against the Indonesian Republic has called forth a storm of protest throughout the world. When the UN Security Council debated the truce violation, Colonel W. R. Hodgson, Australian delegate (top, left), charged the Netherlands with having made “the first clear cut, deliberate viola- tion of the UN charter by any UN member.” in the Netherlands itself, Communist deputies voted against the government’s declaration, although social] democrats supported it, and Communists were arrested for distributing leaflets denouncing the government. The left-led Trade Union Federation of the Neth- srlands, with 17,000 members, has condemned the government’s cam- paign, and leading Dutch artists, scientists and educators have voiced their protest. : The governments of India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Burma have re- voked Dutch airline licenses to operate in their countries, and in Australia longshoremen are refusing to load goods destined for the Dutch in Indonesia. In Canada, the LPP is calling for stoppage of shipments of war materials to Holland and for “a statement by Canada as a member of the UN Security Council branding Holland as an ag- gressor.” (In Vancouver last week an LPP delegation made a pro- test to the Dutch consul.) ; Meanwhile, in Indonesia, patriots like those shown in the lower picture are continuing the fight against the Dutch through wide- spread guerrilla warfare. LPP seeks repeal of sales tax Six months have passed since the Coalition government set in motion its greatest fraud and greatest folly — the universally resented sales tax, which the Coalition prefers to call “The Social Security and Municipal Aid Tax.” Contrary to the fond hopes of Premier Johnson and Finance Minister Anscomb, the B.C. pub- lic feels no more kindly disposed to this most reactionary of all taxes than it did last spring, when protests deluged the legis- lators. In fact Otawa despatches now intimate that while a provincial election was considered certain for this year, Premier Johnson, confronted with “the unpopular- ity of the sales tax .. . will want more time to consolidate his po- sition.” ; Be that as it may, the public is still kicking like a steer, from the slowly-starving old-age pen- sioner whom the government ad- mits pays 48 cents a month in sales tax, to the “typical” work- er paying at least $2.50 a month, and the storekeeper loaded with sales tax red tape. This February’s legislative session offers an opportunity to give the ko. to the tax nobody wants but big business. As in- dividuals and through organiz- ations, the people can do it with united effort. The Labor- Progressive Party this week launched a province- wide campaign, aimed, in the words of LPP provincial organ- izer Maurice Rush, “at crystal- lizing public opinion to give the sales tax a death blow. “We are circulating 1,560 pe- titions for repeal of the sales tax to help scores of thousands to express their opinion. Copies can be obtained from 209 Shelly Building, Vancouver. “In addition there will be broadcasts and meetings throughout the province.” (See article, page 5).