e

Women's right to work defended,
more child care centres sought

The subject “Should Married Women Work?” i
: irrie <?” proved a controversial one at the LPP
Open Forum in the Pender Auditorium last Sunday when a young man in the audience
commented that women do their best job bringing up children and should stay at home.”

nit
cringing to U.S. GcOMe

mands at variance "7 ag
ada’s interests as 2
dent nation. -:

“Political recognition of
China could lead to revitaliz-
ing of our shipbuilding indus-

Neither the audience nor
the three panel speakers,

Miss Helena Gutteridge, vet-
eran member of the labor
movement, Mrs. M. Beagle,
vice-president of the United
Fishermen and Allied Work-
ers and Mrs. Kay Edwards,
Community Worker, agreed
with the young man.

Miss Gutteridge, one-time
secretary of Vancouver
Trades and Labor Council,
chairman of the Suffragette
movement here in the First
World War years and Van-
couver’s first woman alder-
man, described the _ role
played by women in’ labor
struggles through the years.

“In our ‘doom and_ bust’
economy women workers are
welcomed in the good times,
but in the bad — 1912, 1921,
through the ‘dirty thirties’
and today, the cry ‘married
women shouldn’t work’ is
heard.”

Mrs. Beagle asserted that
women, generally speaking,
did work, such as clerical and
other office work, that men
“did not do. She said legisla-
tion must be demanded that
women receive equal pay for
general labor.

“In most cases women be-

Exchange visits of

trade unionists urged

OSHAWA — Fraternal ex-
change visits of Canadian and
Soviet trade union represen-
tatives will be urged at the
April convention of the Cana-
dian Labor Congress by dele-
gates from one of Canada’s
largest local unions, the Gen-
eral Motors Unit, Local 222,
United Auto Workers.

A resolution forwarded to
the conventions committee
- proposed exchange visits of
trade unions as a “positive
action” to ease world ten-
-sions,

KAY EDWARDS

cause of physical differences
“Actual, not formal, rights”
cannot ‘do ‘equal work’ so the
“equal pay for equal work’ is
not good enough.”

Mrs. Kay Edwards said tbo
many people tended to liken
a working wife to a “moon-
lighter.”

“Women have a_ formal
equality, the right to vote and
equal rights in property and
at law. We also have the
right to work at a lower rate
of pay than the man stand-
ing next to us. We have the
right to educate and _ train
ourselves but then we marry
and are told to stay home.”

Panel members and the au-
dience agreed that women
have the right to work, that
it is up to husband and wife
to decide whether she should
work, but not up to society,
that more and better child
care centres must be estab-
lished so working mothers
can be confident their chil-
dren are well looked after
and that women themselves
must fight to make a formal
equality, equality in fact.

The next forum will be
held Sunday, March 23, 2 p.m.
on the subject “Youth Prob-
lems in the Sputnik Age.”

Labor scores Volkswagen
for anti - union campaign

TORONTO —- Toronto and
District Labor Council has
demanded that the federal
department of citizenship and
immigration act to stop Volks-
wagen management’s efforts
to discourage unionization of
employees.

Action of the council fol-
lowed charges by the United
Auto Workers that “West
German officials of the firm

acting like S.S. men” have

threatened newly - arrived
immigrants with deportation

if they take part in union
activity.
Paul Siren, international

representative of the UAW,
said that efforts to organize
the Volkswagen plant have

been met by management
with threats of deportation
and that the immigrants

would leave themselves open
to physical violence.

Mine - Mill aids

strike victims

TORONTO — Opening a
drive to aid 125 miners and
their families’ in the Gaspe
area, Mine-Mill Union has
sent an initial $500 to aid the
Murdochville strikers black-
listed from their jobs.

Over 1,000 miners went on
strike last March 11. The
strike was lost and company
reprisals against unionists
started. An SOS _has been is-
sued by the Catholic Syndi-
cates and the Quebec Feder-
ation of Labor. ©

Québec Labor Relations
Board, in a move that paral-
leled the present “starve-

them-out” operation, has re-
fused to certify the United
Steelworkers of America.

EF ven Yankee hoopla fails to stl
audience at Pearson’s city

The Exhibition Forum was nearly full,
of supporters wore paper polka-dot ties in thei

ing “Politics can be Fun!”
te get his election campaign

For some reason Canadians
don’t respond to time-tested
U.S. political gimmicks,
When the lights went out and
a spotlight blazed on Pearson
walking up the centre aisle,
followed by three  placard-

bearing young girls, the
strongly Liberal audience
cheered and applauded, ac-

cording to script — but there
was an obvious undertone of
embarrassment.

And when — more than an
hour later — an attempt was
made to give Pearson a stand-
ing ovation when he rose to
speak, half the audience rose,
some people began to rise and
then subsided, and others re-
mained stolidly in their seats.

_Even the hecklers, scattered
here. and there throughout
the hall, became _ infected
with the general apathy and
lost heart.

Mike Pearson sensed the
mood and dropped several
oratorical passages from his
prepared script.

He began by sticking close-
ly to his notes (copies were
given to the press), to wit:

“Grateful for reception . ..

“Crowd an encouraging and
hopeful sign...

“Liberalism —
and responsible —

resurgent
vigorous

but despite the bally
off the ground her

try based on the needs of
trans-Pacific commerce,” says
an article in the current issue
of Ship and Shop, official or-
gan of Marine Workers Un-
ion.

“Our union now has 800 un-
employed members, roughly
one-third of our total mem-
bership,” Says the article.

(The union has set up an
unemployed committee which
meets every Wednesday to
deal with members’ prob>\
lems).

“The industry on which we
are’ primarily based, ship-
building and ship repairs,

_ Suffered from needless neglect

in the national planning,” the
article continues.

“The liquidation of our
merchant marine by the fed-

. eral government represents a

By BERT WHYTE

but not vain — ready to serve ©

Canada again with progress-
Ive forward-looking ideas...”
Then he went on to speak
In shopworn Liberal terms -
about trade and jobs.

He favored trade with
China and other Asian coun-
tries “except in strategic goods
with Communist ~ countries.”

But, he contended, we must
realize that“the United States
1s, and is likely to remain
Our best customer, A trade
war with her would certain-

LESTER B. PEARSON
Liberal bow ties and U.S.
halters

« band played “For He’s A..->»
t lapels, ushers distributed tracts P*
hoo Liberal leader Lester B. Peatso?
e Monday night.

February 28, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—P4

“Instead of acceptiNe
Dulles-Eisenhower th
only good can flow a
West, and only evil #f gf
East, would it not
realistic for our
make’ its own ©
based on its own nee

“The -prospects held i
acceptance of cold wat of
ogy can lead only
derstanding and Wal i

“The prospects peld “is?
an acceptance of thé a
of non-capitalist gover
can lead to friendsi®
and jobs for Canad!

“Only a Canadian
based on an acceptance
Asiatic neighbors 8
Pacific offers the P!® 1
full employment £0
ion members and thé
ofeR se’

is

rally

” nul

ly cut off our nose ™
improving our face.”

The Liberal leader ©
ed to Tory criticism t! 7

Liberals when in pow?!

not. stand up to the |
cans” and protect Cg
interests. (“You a
shouted a heckler).

But Pearson, one a
architects of NATO ,
nothing wrong with j
grated defense” (Yank y
itary control over i
He only wanted a mor
grated economic set-UP’

“Washington must
that they cannot
Canada part of a cont (|
unity for military a
and separate — when it d
them—for economic deft

Half an hour before ?”,
cluded his address ™%
of the audience pes
trickle towards the exit®
ing the last 15 minut
crowd visibly melted:
Pearson’s final words 4
delivered to a stream of
ing backs.

“Nothing to worry #4
said a Liberal organize!
crowds do the same th)
hockey games and w=”
matches.”

cor