BRITISH COLUMBIA

Trekker Bob Jackson (left) addresses
crowd at rally in Victory Square Apr.
23. Right, some of the trekkers and
relief camp workers who joined the
rally to mark the anniversary. Front,
rtol, Jack Geddes, Ray Wainwright,
Walter Gawrycki, Vern Brimacombe;
back, John Yurichuk, Willis Sha-
parla, Stan Lowe, (two at far left
unidentified).

t

MAY DAY
GREETINGS
from
Organization
of Unemployed
Workers,
Port Alberni

May Day Greetings
for peace
and disarmament

United Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union
Local 15, Nanaimo

It was a far different Vancouver land-
scape April 23 as On-to-Ottawa trekkers
from 1935 joined the unemployed and trade
unionists in Victory Square to mark an his-
toric struggle 50 years before. And the proc-
lamation from the mayor was not a hostile
ultimatum but a message of goodwill to the
unemployed.

But virtually every one of the 300 people
who gathered in the square last Tuesday
was aware of the grim parallel between the
unemployed crisis in the ’30s and the crisis
that has gripped the country in the 80s. For
all of them, former trekker Bob Jackson’s
message had a new resonance.

“They say that 1985 is the year of
youth — but the outlook for youth today
for getting a job is just as bleak as it was for
our generation,” he told the crowd.

“We were promised that prosperity was
just around the corner — and the urem-
ployed are getting the same bullshit today,”’:
he declared, emphasizing that the jobless;
would have to organize and fight as they did
in the 1930s.

The rally was organized by the On-to-
Ottawa Trek Committee to mark the 50th
anniversary of the reading of the Riot Act
by Vancouver mayor Gerry McGeer —
dubbed “Jeremiah Jesus McGeer”’ by the
relief camp strikers — on April 23, 1935.

On that day, a contingent of relief camp
strikers had marched into the Hudson’s Bay
store, following their tactic of publicizing
their plight by parading through depart-

_ ment stores.

They stopped on the main floor while a
speaker addressed shoppers about their
demands. But within minutes, more than
100 police were inside the store, facing the
demonstrators. After a brief standoff, they
waded in with batons, driving the strikers
from the store and touching off clashes that
spilled out into the street.

As the men gathered for a quickly-
organized rally in Victory Square, Police
Chief W.W. Foster summoned Mayor
McGeer from city hall. From up on the
Cenotaph, he read the Riot Act, a draco-

~S

Greetings to our friends
and supporters in the fight

30s jobs fight ‘needed again’

nian piece of legislation that immediately
suspended all civil liberties and carried with
it the threat of life imprisonment.

“The altercation in the Hudson’s Bay
store was provoked by police — but it was
used by McGeer as the pretext to strip away
the civil rights of anyone who demonstrated
that day,” charged Lorne Robson, chair-
man of the On-to-Ottawa Committee and
the son of a trekker. ‘

“We need to learn from the same broken
promises of the ’30s that the federal and
provincial governments of today are follow-
ing the same line,” Kim Zander, co-
ordinator for the Vancouver Unemploy-
ment Action Centre, told the rally.

“The Conserva- f
tive government in
Ottawa wants to
cutback on unem-
ployment insurance.
And why? — because
Finance Minister
Michael Wilson says f*
that it will force
people to fill the
jobs”, she said. uN

“But there are no KIM ZANDER
jobs to fill — and there won’t be until
something is turned around.”

Warning that if they were to win a better
life, “the unemployed had better get
together and soon”’, Zander told the rally:
“We know from the ’30s that governments
and employers use unemployment to scare
people.

“But we also know from the ’30s that we
can fight back — and effectively.”

Vancouver and District Labour Council
secretary Frank Kennedy urged trade union-
ists and the unemployed to “‘see very clearly
the relationship between the money being
drained out of the economy for military
budgets and the problems we’re facing with
unemployment.

**We’ve got to make it clear to the moon-
struck star warriors that we don’t agree with
their plans and we want Canada out of the
arms race,” he declared.

Later, former trekker Willis Shaparla

_ and Jackson’s son Larry, a tradesman. who

has been unemployed for most of the last
two years, laid a wreath at the cenotaph to
honor the On-to-Ottawa trekkers and those
who died in Spain and in the second world
war fighting fascism.

A dramatic change from 1935 was the
proclamation from city hall, read on behalf
of Mayor Michael Harcourt by Harry Ran-
kin who was flanked by the other COPE
aldermen.

It noted that the unemployed in the 30s
had petitioned governents, for work and
wees but that mayor McGeer “responded
to the demands of the unemployed by read-
ing the Riot Act.”

Declaring support for the demand for
work and wages, it proclaimed April 23 a
“day of goodwill to all unemployed.” It also
offered the On-to-Ottawa trekkers “‘peace
and goodwill and the successful symbolic
completion of the 1985 On-to-Ottawa trek.”

A delegation of ten, made up of trekkers,
young unemployed and trade unionists is
slated to leave for Ottawa June 5 to symbol-
ically complete the 1935 trek that was
stopped by police in Regina and to place the
renewed demand for a program of work
and wages before the Mulroney govern-
ment.

The delegation plans stops in both Cal-
gary and Regina for further commemorative
events before proceeding on to Ottawa.

The April 23 rally was the first of several
events leading up to the delegation’s depar-
ture. On May 18, the committee wil stage a
symbolic occupation of the Carnegie Cen-
tre, formerly the museum which camp
strikers occupied in 1935 to press their
demand for relief.

A gala banquet is set for June | to honor
the trekkers and introduce the delegation
going to Ottawa. It will be in the Ukrainian
Hall, 805 E. Pender Street, the former
headquarters of Division 3 of the relief
camp strikers.

Coming in

IRIBUNE

the May 29

A special eight-page supplement
on the 50th anniversary
of the On-to-Ottawa Trek.
A unique historical account with
interviews with trekkers,
photos and documents.

for a life with dignity
For decent Jobs And Incomes Now

Join us in the struggle

The Vancouver Unemployment Action Centre
138 E. Cordova, Vancouver, V6A 1K9
688-9001, 688-9083

6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MAY 1, 1985