aaa casas ~ * OWEN WALTER S. Profile of a red-baiter AR open call for big business intervention in the British Columbia trade union move- “ment: was sounded before the recent convention of the B.C. Truck Loggers” Association “in Vancouver. by. Walter S. Owen, K.C., a corporation lawyer who has made inbox ett: ing his avocation, The combination is by no means a fortuitous one, Owen prefaced his call by at- .tributing many of labor's recent .atruggles to “Communists,” list- tng & number of B.C: trade union 5 ° ficials as belonging in’ that ca- ” tegory. .. _Agnoring | the fact, that unions “elect their officials by “filly © “democratic votes, ha ex- Plained the existence of Com- munist leadership in local unions -&s .the result. of “expertness in parliamentary tactics,” “abuse,’ rough stuff”, and “goon squads.” “qhe® type ‘of. labor - activities _which, he indicated he would take ~ action against .as Communist-in- .Spired .included the. defense by cthe .IWA..of. Canadian independ- ence and living standards against vthe designs.of the Marshall Plan, the: struggle of deepsea deck, ra- dio and engine-room officers for ‘pay’ iticreases, and the ‘fight of ‘Vancouver building service work- ers “to eliminate sub-standard geass and conditions, . “This was sufficient background “tor his call ‘Action is required.” %. “Unless. you and I and the rest of the people of this community are, prepared to get behind the “more. decent elements of labor “we are going to find them swept “r ht off the map,” he said. “The meaning of this call was -gléar from its context and from the. ‘personal - corps of Walter Owen. “."Yous and I?” .... Owen and the big boss. logger monopolists Who, now dominate the truck log- “the. rest of the people of this ‘ommunity!” ..., shades of the “Citizens’ ” League! ; “The more decent elements of labor?” ... almost the very words used by Thomas Noble, personnel “Manager of Bloedel, Stewart and “Welch, in his exposed attempt to buy labor. spies and disrupters mahin the IWA last spring. “This call was given two col- “umns by the Vancouver, Sun. The only thing new about it was the heightened boldness with which this _ spokesman ‘for big lumber Operators | and other monopolists “stepped up the red-baiting cam- ‘paign | “aimed at using the “more decent’ é elements of labor to con- = .C.'3 powerful unions into “subservient appendages of man- agement, The operators want to. keep the workers “co-operative — and loyal” (to use one of Owen's expressions) in the interests of eyen greater super-profits at the expense of slashed living stand- ards. ae AWEN resigned April 30, 1942, from the relatively humble po- sition as crown prosecutor in the County Court, a position he had held for nine .years, to become a ‘legal’ anti-union specialist. As counsel for MacMillan In- dustries Limited, he appeared be- fore an arbitration board in Aug- ust to defend the discrimination practiced by the Plywoods divi- sion of that corporation. With the Nazis pounding at the gates of Stalingrad and. production the need of the hour Owen went on record as ‘stating, “It will be a sorry day for trade unionism when employers are forced to sign union contracts with any union.” Already Owen, the MacMillan corporation counsel, was mas- ‘querading brazenly as a cham- pion of “trade unionism” against signed contracts with the emPloy- : ers! Since that time Owen has ap- peared in the headlines ten times with viciously anti-labor speeches at business luncheons and con- ventions—almost all in the guise of a champion of labor—and an additional seven speeches in which not “labor” but only the “reds” in labor were his special target. His record in finding ‘legal ways to thwart unions by January 11, 1946, won from the Sun the title, “B.C.’s outstand- ing employers’ counsel in labor- management disputes.” Today he has the misfortune to represent employers in. all the industries which, to judge from his state- ments, he finds most honeycomb- ed. with “Reds.” These statements are typical of his approach to labor: January 11, 1946: “Unions un- dey proper leadership could do much good,” but he opposed the closed shop and checkoff and called for “readjustment” of log- ging wages to bring them “into line” with other industries. He objected to the labor code al- ee @ = The world in review ) A Quen pm 2 f Hu Tle f HS UIN a fi} itt} i Hh A ue r ay A aa i it avyeshinnn rapids tsttanst | i a Briday, ae 30, 1948 ~The U.S. meddles i in Britain's tions ....Page 10 e Labor and the coming elections by Tim Buck e : The bean: symbol of deraocracy * by Anna Louise Strong DT thule erage t unions.) ‘BC. Page pee fh cap 2S RMR NNR UN UNH BO NATAINR lowing carhiniontion through unions obtaining a 51 percent ma- jority. “Unions could use strongarm methods to obtain the 51 percent.” June 4, 1946: He urged proSetu- tion of the IWA leadership during the industry-wide strike. . . “You would not sleep so well in your : a ye BRUCE MICKLEBURGH “beds if you Knew what (the Com- munists) advocated and planned in their. meetings.” . April, 1947: (to Rotary lun- cheon): “What I have to say is not palatable to a number’ of people but I hope to arouse your interest to the crying need for something more than armchain methods in the treatment of this subject.” (“‘Communism” in gt Walaa ie responsibility to democ- racy can be judged by his at- titude to the preservation for the people of the forest wealth of In 1945 he told the Sloan Forest Conseryation Commission the government estimate of 155,- 000,000,000 feet of timber avail- eble for cutting in B.C. forests was all wrong. -His estimate was 230,000,000,000, but he would set- tle for H. R. MacMillan’s “edu- cated guess” of 200,000,000,000. On this basis he urged that the an- nual cut of timber should be in- creased from 65,000 acres a year ‘to 125,000 acres for the next 60 years. He argued against. compulsory conservation regulations, said the cut could be established on a sus- tained basis voluntarily set by the operators. _ He complained bitterly that the forestry department was operaing ‘as a tax-gathering agency; since it “only” returned to the operators 27% percent of the revenue: col- lected from the current aang of our forests, Such is a sample of the record of Walter S. Owen, K.C. Even sa conservative a trade union offi- cial as Birt Showler, OBR, presi- - the. bosses’ dent of Vancouver Trades and Labor Council, was forced on February 6, 1946, to condemn statements made by Owen as “derogatory” to labor and “creat- ing friction.” This is man who makes a hand- some living finding “legal” means to boost the soaring super-prof- its of British Columbia’s labor- hating captains of industry. But he never tells the world that this is the purpose of his business. Instead he always parades as the champion of “trade union- ism,” of “the decent elements in labor,” of “the employees” against “outside influences”, of “unions under proper leadership,” against , “strong-arm methods, of “the rank and file of workers” who are “the victims of circum- stances,” of “fine unions with good leadership which need pro- tection from the machinations of irresponsible leaders,” of “trade unions” which “need to be saved from their friends,” from those — “who seek to create disruption - and those who allow themselves to be used by the disrupters.” This line of argument leads to the point reached by Germany on May 2, 1933. The great German trade union movement was smash- ed with brutal Nazi terrorism in the name of a “Committee for the Protection of German Labor.” The Nazi labor front head, Doctor Ley, proclaimed ‘two days later, “The chapter of Marxist incite- ment of the workers is closed.” e RRS COLUMBIA has al- ready travelled part of the way towards that end-point of repres- sion of free trade unionism, Al- though united and militant action on the part of the unions won the main demands advanced in 1947, double - breasted straight jacket for labor—Bill 39 _~remains on the statute books. The government has. recently. _ betrayed commitments made to organized labor and the CMA is conducting a province-wide pro- paganda drive as part of its ‘counter-offensive aimed at keep- ing, and if possible worsening, the main anti-union provisions of Bill 39. Again, the CMA propa- ganda does not openly proclaim union-smashing to be: its objec- tive. The theme is “Why Bill 39 is labor’s bill of rights!” Unionists can easily recognize the close similarity between Owen’s language as given prom- inence in the Vancouver Sun and the language of those “decent ele- ments of labor” who are Owen and all the bosses’ best friends * cite , unions, defend the .workens’ witness: the open . éditorial:‘cam- inside the labor movement, The bulk of the established unions of B.C. cannot be openly broken by the bosses’ company unions, that old traditional method whereby the boss used to bargain “with himself through his stooges across the table. Today the boss seeks to utilize the frenzied ‘red-baiting’ of the commercial press and radio, as well as that carried on by the “decent’! elements ‘of labor, to in- workers to fight their Communist fellow-workers in rather than to. unite against the boss... He. seeks to influence: union elections’ to have “cooperative and loyal” workers * placed in charge of union, affairs instead © ‘of those. ‘who. resolutely interests— paign of the Vancouver Sun ‘against the ‘re-election of the ew "tablished | district leadership ot _ the IWA, @ union which has-been in. the forefront. ofall Canadian ‘labor in ‘championing its mem- ‘Bers’ ‘interésts. * The ‘boss seeks to ‘convince the public that. labor is. dominated by foreign agents 7780. that whe can have legislative shackles fastened . onthe -entire trade. ‘union, movement. . i Hts big’ ‘business. ” ‘its. worth “hundreds. of thillions of ‘dollars. in “super profits, But labor. can .an- ‘Swer ‘this threat. ss eae eae ‘Labor can defeat thé’ red-baiting es of Owen and‘ the people he “and his‘ ilk: represent ‘by’ ‘uniting Solidly -to ‘lead ‘all thé’ people of British Columbia in q’ great . campaign. to: roll. back sky-rock- eting prices—a campaign ‘which will..do -its part in bringing down the red-baiting, profiteering gov- ernment .of Mackenzie King “at Ottawa. Labor can close its ranks solidly to mobilize a great. labor- . People’s lobby to. Victoria which can compel action to. democra- tize Bill 39, win decent old-age pensions, health insurance, hous- “ing and all thé things so. el urgently agen by the People of this prov- nce, _Each eat can rate, its mem- bership and. find unity:. with ‘other unions to. win. big wage gains to restore living standards, to cut hours, better, conditions and strengthen union . security. A great campaign Such as this on the part of labor, coupled. witn unfailing and consistent exposure ' of red-baiting will meke it clear to all that the enemy is not the Com- -munists but the plundéring prof- iteers and their mouthpieces such as er ‘Owen. - Story from Ruritania - a OO", at the United Ese a 'story’s going the rounds which is credited to Polarid’s delegate, Dr. Julius Katz- - Suchy. Don’t stop me if you've heard it; maybe grt else has not. ¥ ‘It seems that the cabinet of- Ruritania, 2 aie co in Europe, decided to ask fo: But the U.S. Secretary of Sta r aid from the United’ States. te replied that He couldn’t t give any aid to Ruritania since there were no ‘Ruritamian, Com- munists to “threaten it.” _ Whereupon, the premier of this small country made. the rounds of Europe to borrow some Communists. . In. Paris, the French premier said he couldn’t spare any ,.Rrench Com- munists; there were 1,000,00 party members..and each’ one _was worth $328 in stop-gap aid, and ‘much. more later: The Italian premier, de Gasperi, made a’similar caleulation, and replied: “No soap” (in Italian): . The Ruritanian premier then went to Marshal Tite, “who replied that the Yugoslav Communists were very | valuable. “They are rebuilding railways, increasing food production. Not one of them can be spared.” So the poor Ruritanian went back to his» cabinet. and held a midnight meeting, and all but: gave up the idea of getting anything out of ‘the Marshall Plan, until one wise old man spoke up and said: “I have it!” (in Ruritanian). “Let’s go to Western Germany, and borrow some Commun- ists from there. After all, Germany will get Marshall Plan — aid whether she cane any Communists or not.” - JOSEPH ‘STAROBIN