Letters vie Letters Military, not RCMP shot Goodwin The CBC radio news from B.C. at 8:20 a.m. on Sunday, May 28, carried a story that must be challenged and corrected. It was about Ginger Goodwin being honoured on Vancouver Island and went on to announce how he was connected to union Organization in Trail in 1917, became a draft dodger and was shot dead by the RCMP, causing B.C.’s first general strike. lam not particularly noted for coming to the tescue of the RCMP but in the case of Ginger Goodwin the record should be set Straight. Many of your readers will Tfemember the pamphlet about Goodwin published by the Pacific Tribune and dis- tributed at the smelter gates in Trail by Belanger, Scott, Weed and Noakes — four Consolidated Mining and Smelting Workers — in about 1947-48. These four workers were promptly fired and Local 480 took their case to arbitration. They lost the case on the archaic law, the Masters and Ser- vants Act — but the Tribune was not sued for libel. Here is where the RCMP don’t come in (they killed three striking miners with revolvers in Estevan, but that was 14 years later in 1931). Ginger Goodwin had been classed unfit for military service due to tuberculosis, ulcers and bad teeth, according to an article on Ginger by Eric Jamieson which appeared in Canadian West, fall 1988. Through some miracle (divine interven- tion?) he became later re-classified as fit for military service during the 1917 Trail strike led by the International Mine Mill and Smelter Workers Union. °° The strike was lost and Goodwin was working a claim on Vancouver Island near Cumberland when he was shot in the neck on July 27, 1918 by special constable Dan Campbell of the Dominion Military Police. It seems that Campbell had arrived in the Comox Lake vicinity in the spring of 1918 and he knew where Ginger was. He led Inspector W.J. “Mickey” Devitt and a Lance-Corporal Rowe to arrest Ginger for draft evasion. Devitt and Rowe claim not to have witnessed the shooting and Campbell claimed self-defence as Ginger had a .22 rifle. Devitt might have been telling the truth but then he sent Campbell out to get the Provincial Police, Dr. Millard and cor- oner Joseph Shaw. However, the coroner refused to hike out to the scene — which Keeping heat The downward direction that neo- conservatism is taking Canada manifests itself in the Wilson budget. If we are to have any perception of what this budget and the deficit is all about we have to understand to whom the money is owed and the political significance of the 300-odd billion dollar debt. The fact is that the bulk of this money is owed to the ultra- rich and the political significance is that pressure on government as a result of the deficit enables the wealthy to get inordi- nately high returns on their money through usurious interest rates. Not only that, the deficit becomes one more ploy used by the wealthy to exploit the general public. Hence we have the spectacle of neo-conservatism dealing a death blow New definitions? The opposite of communism is grabitalism. Wright Balfour, Vancouver Former Mine-Mill activist Barney McGuire (1) and Mine-Mill Local 5 Naa ay iss os 98 president Ric! Griggs at wreath-laying at Ginger Goodwin's grave on Workers’ Memorial Day June 21, 1986. spiked Devitt’s plan to have an autopsy, inquest and burial away from the public — and Ginger was brought into Cumberland. No one knows why the Trail workers went on strike in 1917 — after all, they were getting $2.50 a day, 365 days a year, credit at the company store and a bag of coal at Christmas! However, Ginger had to go. But in this case, the RCMP were innocent — in fact, they were still the North West Mounted Police and I don’t think they were in B.C. The procession for the funeral that was held in Cumberland for Ginger Goodwin is still known as the longest in B.C. history. The workers outrage and grief was understandable — hence the general strike in 1918. Campbell did not give evidence at the © on the budget to unemployment insurance, handing over public resources to friends through “‘privat- ization,” cutting back on health and educa- tion services, eye-balling pensions and so on. In fact, through the deficit, Wilson’s budget capitulates in every way to the whims of the very rich at the expense of the rest of us. The shocking part is that all of this comes on the heels of handing over the economy, as well as the political direction of the coun- try, to the Americans under the guise of “free trade.” As a nation, if we don’t want third world status we need to wake up and put a stop to neo-conservatism. This means, first of all, co-ordinated action right across the land against the Wil- son budget. A start will be made through peoples organizations, co-operatives, labour groups, pensions, and so on. Great pressure must be brought to bear on members of Parliament and MLAs as well. The Wilson budget is a scam. The sub- stance of this budget has been submerged by the dust-up over the leakage. Fred Pearson, Comox inquest but Justice Northcott did think there was sufficient doubt to commit him to stand trial for murder. The trial was held in camera before a jury during the fall assizes of 1918. But the case was dismissed and no record has survived. Nobel Binns was head of the local mil- itary tribunal in Trail that reclassified Gin- ger as fit for military duty. Devitt had been the City of Trail’s first clerk, its first police officer and a friend of Nobel Binns who had a store and was police magistrate. It was said that S.G. Blaylock, the gen- eral manager of Consolidated Mining and Smelting, had been appointed to the con- scription board. That way he could say who stayed and got the lead from the smelter in their bones and who went to war and took the same lead elsewhere. In the interests of historical truth, no one knows for sure if Blaylock was officially on "the conscription board — but it’s a moot point. Ironically, it was the U.S. union lead- ership’s refusal to support Ginger’s actions in the Kootenays that brought the strike at Trail to an end, resulting in the loss of unio- nism there until 1945. But it launched the fight for Canadian autonomy. On June 24, a previously unnamed peak on Vancouver Island will bear the name of Alfred “‘Ginger’’ Goodwin, born in Barnes- ley, England May 10, 1877. As far as I know, there is no Mt. Blaylock. _ Al Warrington, Trail Fraser Institute target of rally The Fraser Institute is back at it again. This right-wing think tank is sponsoring a conference in Toronto on the privatization of Canada Post. This conference has high level backing. One keynoie speaker is Harvie Andre, the Minister in charge of Canada Post in the Mulroney government. A second speaker is Don Lander, the current president of Canada Post Corporation. This conference envisions a fragmented, privately-run post office. They want a post office that is operated by companies like 7-Eleven and Dolphin Delivery. They want a post office that only cares about providing services for big business, and ignores the needs of ordinary Canadians. In B.C. we know too well about the dangerous antics of the Fraser Institute. We are worried. Canada Post has already embarked on an aggressive program of selling off the post office piece by piece. The new federal budget will only accelerate that process. Now we have the Fraser Institute advocating a privately-run post office. It is not a good future for either postal workers or the Canadian public. It will lead to a much more deteriorated postal service, more “supermailboxes,” and longer line-ups. It will also lead to more unemployment, and to postal workers eking out a minimum wage living. We, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, do not want a post office that is run according to Fraser Institute guidelines. We are the people who sort and deliver your mail. We want a post office that meets the needs of both the Canadian public and postal workers. We need your help. On June 23, 1989 we are holding an anti- privatization, anti-Fraser Institute demonstration. The demonstration is scheduled for 3 p.m. and will be held in front of the Fraser Institute at 626 Bute Street. Please join us. Brian Charlton, President, Vancouver Local CUPW I see our latest financial standing in the paper and I hope every member of our clubs is as concerned about our paper as much as I am. I am forwarding another cheque for $200. I am not an affluent person as I had stated before. I receive a pension of about $800 per month and I also have A challenge to dig a bit deeper living costs. However, I am offering some criticism and a challenge to the various clubs. I have raised half of the Nanaimo press club’s target myself. Sometimes one has to dig a little deeper and maybe still a little more deeper to achieve our goal. Ed Skeeles, Cedar Pacific Tribune, June 19, 1989 « 5 a