- AULA! I anh ale le ca SLIPS ; ECD Eo ik as or hare CAHMADA Peace meet in Sault _ SAULT STE. MARIE — Speaking at a public meeting Feb. 10, Dr. John H. Morgan, president of the Canadian Peace Con- gress, warned of the danger of the Cruise missile blurring the distinction between conventional and nuclear conflict and there- by lowering the threshold to nuclear war. The Cruise, he said, also make verification of weapons possessed by the USSR and the USA impossible, and therefore threatens the possibility ofa nuclear arms reduction agreement. By agreeing to test the Cruise in Canada the Government of Canada would be participating in a dangerous escalation whose outcome could well be a world nu- Wa 1 Me 8 Jet atl RRS" kT Sem BA | Clear holocaust, he said. Morgan exposed, as well, the devastating effect of military Spending on the economy, since dollars spent on military produc- tion buy fewer jobs than dollars € program included a screening of the film, If You Love This Planet. The meeting, which attracted more than 140 people, was Sponsored by the Sault Ste. Marie Peace Committee, the Catholic Action Council, and the Congress of Canadian Women. | discussion session following the meeting demonstrated to Organizers that an increasing number of people are becoming alarmed at the threat of nuclear configration. spent on civilian products. ees Seeking cooperation, Nicaragua tells Ottawa Special to the Tribune S OTTAWA — Putting the facts Taight at the start, Father Miguel “Scoto, minister of foreign af- ae of Nicaragua, told a press Onference here, Feb. 15: ‘“‘We are not here to beg with a hat . .. We are here to seek, through sOgue, mutual understanding 80 that relations between our two ‘ountries deepens _ and Strengthens.”’ Speaking at the conclusion of a thr €e-day official visit, including a two-hour meeting with his Cana- lan. counterpart ‘Allan MacEachen, Descoto saw posi- lve achievements to his visit. He said he was told by acEachen that information on . Nicaragua in the hands of Cana- dian Officials came essentially om U.S. sources. Its basic mes- Sage was that Managua is embark- MZ on a path contrary to ©mMocratization. He denied such acusations. He said he briefed Eachen on the profound his- Teil causes of the Sandinista €volution and the reasons behind ie hostile attitude of the U.S. ‘Ward his country. Scoto denounced U.S. milit- bl and economic support of the 20dy Somoza dynasty, a Nientmare of 70 years’’ for the the waguan people. ‘‘We made Tevolution because we wanted feey” he added. For the Tst time the people of Nicaragua a have a right to education, to work, and to health services. Workers have the right to organ- ize; political parties are officially recognized and are functioning. On the question of elections, the foreign minister recalled the government’s promise to hold democratic elections in 1985, and denied allegations that the San- dinista government would break that promise. The election issue was discussed immediately after the revolutionary victory, he said, but some conservative forces and parties at the time rejected the possibility of holding early elec- tions, knowing very well that the Sandinistas would have won a landslide victory. . Responding, finally, to con- cerns about the alleged military build-up in Nicaragua, Descoto restated the fact that his country is facing daily incursions by counter-revolutionary forces from Honduras, financed and trained by U.S. advisors. ‘Washington has poured over $19-million into CIA activities in Honduras,’’ said Descoto, ‘‘and this is publicly known. The ob- jective: destabilizing Nicaragua and eventually overthowing the Sandinista popular regime. The Government of Nicaragua, con- sequently, has a responsibility to protect and defend the sovereignty of the country’’, he said. PHOTO — GLENBOW ARCHIVE My THE ON-TO-OTTAWA TREK : B.C. relief camp workers formed union for decent wages In the mass unemployment, privation and politi- cal oppression of Canada in the 1930s, working people organized to fight back, and some of their actions led to the On-to-Ottawa Trek. This is the first of a series. By ALEX MCLENNAN The first government-operated relief camps (cal- led slave camps by Canada’s unemployed of Canada in the Thirties) were established by the British Columbia Government in September, 1931. The camps were located in isolated areas of the province, and single, unemployed men were used in the construction of roads, airports and parks. At first, the B.C. Government paid $2 a day, less a daily deduction of 85 cents for board, leaving $1.15 aday. In October, the camps came under the joint administration of the federal and B.C. governments, and wages were reduced to $7.50 a month, plus board. On July 1, 1933, the camps were taken over by the Department of National Defence (DND) under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal govern- ment. New camps were opened up extending throughout the rest of Canada. Wages were re- duced still further, to 20 cents a day. Meals were included and the workers received some clothing, but they were required to work a 44-hour week. Against this background, the relief camp work- ers of western Canada decided to organize them- selves into a union to fight for the right to live and work as free citizens and for decent wages. According to Arthur (Slim) Evans, of the Work- ers’ Unity League, the B.C. Relief Camp Workers’ Union was established at a conference of camp ey! é Challenging CRTC Same area. eee - Across Canada > Irving mecia empire FREDERICTON — The Irving family corporation which owns all of New Brunswick’s daily newspapers, plus radio and V stations is wadergoing scrutiny by the Canadian Radio- elevision and Telecommunications Commission as it seeks to Thos its license “or television station CHSJ-TV in Saint John. € Irvings went so far as to seek an injunc CRTC fot holdiag a hearing on the day set, Feb. 15. The confrontation grew out of recommendations of the report of the Royal Commission on Newspapers, headed by Tom Kent, Which was published July 1, 1981 and recommended that news- Paper owners be barred from owning electronic media in the tion preventing the ami semcsil workers at Kamloops, B.C., in July, 1933. The following month, at a second meeting, they re- ceived a charter from the Workers’ Unity League ‘in the name of the Relief Camp Workers’ Union. The name had been changed to allow for the possi- bility of forming a national organization. Disqualified from Relief © On their return from the conference, the dele- gates were blacklisted, branded as troublemakers and evicted from the camps. Their registration cards were stamped, ‘‘Evicted from Camp’’. Since ‘everyone had to produce a card to enter camp, or apply for relief in the cities, the eviction im- mediately disqualified the men for any kind of re- lief. It was an attempt by the R.B. Bennett federal government to starve them into submission. In Moran, B.C., the entire union executive of the camp was evicted in this way. Arthur Evans (later the recognized leader of the relief camp workers’ movement) relates: ‘‘After the Department of National Defence took over the ‘camps, it carried on a more vicious campaign of blacklisting than ever before. I went around the camps myself. I know people who were arrested and charged with stealing government property, this property being the clothing that had been is- sued to them in the camps. There was a very vic- ious campaign of kicking anybody out who talked organization.”’ In their excellent history of that period, Work and Wages, Ben Swankey and Jean Evans Sheils explain that the constitution of the Relief Camp Workers’ Union (B.C. Section) as amended in Au- gust, 1934, specified that it was open to all workers in relief camps, “‘regardless of race, creed, color or political opinion.” Its aims were: To organize all relief camp workers “‘into a militant union’’ and to lead struggles for higher living standards, relying on the strike weapon to achieve this end. To campaign for social insurance, adequate old age pensions, compensation for disability and sickness and non-contributory unemployment in- surance. To carry on in the spirit of “‘international pro- letarian solidarity’? against ‘‘capitalist ex- ploitation’’ and to engage ‘‘in the final struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a workers’ government.”’ Unemployed Strike The newspaper of the Union was called the Re- lief Camp Worker. Its headline on October 31, 1934, was ‘‘Down Tools on December 4’’. It called on the workers to strike, and to elect a committee ~ to go to Victoria to present a list of demands to the provincial government. At that time, the camp workers had just been denied the right to vote by the Bennett govern- ment. In December, 1,500 single unemployed men struck, in the first general strike of camp workers. On December 7, a delegation headed by Matt Shaw (later to be charged under Section 98 of the Crimi- nal Code) arrived in Victoria and presented the following demands to the provincial government: 1) Work with wages of 40 cents an hour, a seven- hour day and a five-day week. 2) The camps to be taken out of the control of the Department of National Defence. In April, 1935, women in Vancouver organized in support of striking relief camp workers. 3) Compensation for injuries sustained on the job. 4) The right to vote in elections, both provincial and federal. : The delegation also protested the blacklisting and eviction of workers for trade union activities. The government’s reply was to evict more than 1,000 of the strikers. These men gathered in Van- couver, and were joined by others who had been previously blacklisted. According to Swankey and Sheils (Work and Wages, pp. 80-81): “‘The provincial government, under the pressure of the union and the public, agreed to give scrip (vouchers) to the men presently in Vancouver, to provide them with food and lodg- ing at the Salvation Army. This was rescinded on December 15, because of the personal intervention of Prime Minister R.B. Bennett.”’ _ The men agreed to call off their strike on the condition that B.C. press Ottawa to investigate the relief camps, and that blacklisted men in Van- couver get provincial relief. They called off their strike on December 28. Blacklisted men were given relief. The Canadian prime minister refused an investigation, however, demanding that “‘the agitators be dealt with by the attorney-general’s department, as provided by law.”” : Alex McLennan left school at age 14, and spent many months riding across the country on railway boxcars in search of work. Back in Hamilton, he Joined the Young Communist League and helped to organize unemployed youth. He was a member of the advance guard of the Ontario section of the On-to-Ottawa Trek in 1935. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 4, 1983—Page 7.