CUPW, solidarity committee
focus of 4th Slim Evans LP

A Time To Stand Together/Le Temps de
S’‘Unir. Slim Evans Records and Tapes.
Co-produced by Julius Fisher and Gary
Cristall. Various Artists. At the People’s
Co-op Bookstore and other outlets.

The headlines herald the sorry details.
Across the country, locals of the Canadian
Union of Postal Workers are being fined
thousands of dollars as the full weight of
state power descends on those who have
faced court injunctions in their fight for
survival.

The recent fine levied against CUPW’s
Vancouver Local underscores the impor-
tance of supporting the fourth album of
music from Slim Evans Records and Tapes.
Called A Time To Stand Together, this
most ambitious project from the label with
the working-class and progressive view-
point was released in part to help finance
postal workers suspended or fired during
the bitter strike against privatization of
Canada Post last summer.

Julius Fisher understands the situation.
A trade unionist himself, the Vancouver bus
driver and rock musician has played at
benefits for trade unions and community
groups for several years. In the past two
years, he has turned his energies towards
producing albums of songs by both local
and nationally acclaimed Canadian artists.

The aim is the same in both cases: to
support the efforts of groups ranging from
the strikers at the Edmonton Gainers plant
to the Canadian Farmworkers Union.

So far it appears to have been worth the
trouble. Total sales for 1987 totalled some
$16,000. Slim Evans Records and Tapes,
named after the famed British Columbia
labour leader of the Twenties and Thirties,
is seeking incorporation as a non-profit
society.

Until release of A Time To Stand
Together, Slim Evans’ output was in the
form of cassette tapes. The new album,
however, is also available in vinyl.

But for Fisher, the triumph is more than
a new format.

“We've included artists from coast to
coast, and from both English-speaking
Canada and Quebec. With this album,
we've gone truly national,” he’says:

And, Fisher notes, the album was co-
produced with Gary Cristall, director of the
Vancouver Folk Music Festival. The festi-
val has lent support to earlier projects,
allowing the use of tracks from its Aural
Tradition label. But Cristall’s active invol-
vement in this project meant professional
recording and remixing for what Fisher
promotes as “the best labour album we’ve
done.”

A Time To Stand Together takes its
name from a document that is a kind of
manifesto for a national coalition formed
last fall. Called the Working Committee on
Social Solidarity, it groups together the
Canadian Labour Congress, the Confeder-
ation of Canadian Unions, major churches,
Native groups, community and women’s
and other organizations.

The regional representative of the com-
mittee, Jean Swanson of End Legislated
Poverty, joined CUPW national president
Jean-Claude Parrot and local union leaders
in the official launching of the album during
the Mayworks festival earlier this month.

Proceeds from the sales will be divided
between the committee and CUPW.

The record version of A Time To Stand
Together contains 13 tracks. The cassette
tape includes two additional selections.

A Time is unique in that it is not only a
compilation of labour songs, but is also
bilingual. Quebec artists Pierre Fournier,
and Andree Lemieux and Isabelle Gusse,
contribute original tracks. Fournier, who
sings “Tu N’Etais Pas dans Mes Souliers”’
and “Un Accident,” is a recognized labour
singer whose efforts were funded by the
Quebec labour central, CSN. An additional
track is on the cassette version.

Other tracks are taken from previous, or
to be released, albums. Stringband, a
favourite of many Canadian audiences, re-
release their popular “Mail Sortin’ Man,” a
tongue-in-cheek John-Henry takeoff (with
a little Hank Snow thrown in) ona worker’s

fight against automation that appeared on

the now deleted Thanks To The Following
album.

Eileen McGann relates her experiences as
a telephone installer in a memorable tune,
““Man’s Job,” from her album Elements.
Clifton Joseph tells of “Lookin’ For A Job”

in a selection for his upcoming Oral Trans-
missions LP.

The venerable humorist and _ topical
songwriter Nancy White contributes ‘““Good
Girl,” about finding a militant spirit after a
life of yes-sirring. “Our World,” from
Arlene Mantle’s upcoming LP On The Line
for the Canadian Auto Workers, links the
picket line fight with international solidar-
ity.

Black Canada comes on strong with
Toronto’s Lillian Allen and her dub
poetry — in this case, “Why Do We Have
To Fight?” And from Halifax the women’s
group Four The Moment, who entertained
on behalf of the downtown eastside evictees
during Expo 86 in the Malkin Bowl concert,
contributes “UI Line” — but only on the
cassette version.

Two of the tracks by local performers
have appeared on previous Slim Evans
releases: ““Heather’s Song” by the women’s
a cappella group Aya and “No Contracting
Out” by Phil Vernon. But the title song, by
Ginger Group, was recorded for the album.

A TIME TO STAND TOGETHER
LE TEMPS DES'UNIR

Lillian Allen
Pierre Pournier
Clifton Joseph

Arlene Mantle «
Stringband °

* Aya

* Ginger Group
* Andree Lemieux
Eileen McGann
Phil Vernon « Nancy White

A Time To Stand Together has the usual
eclectic mix of styles that typify earlier Slim
Evans releases. The rock buffs in the labour
movement may not have the same pale .
others might for the acoustic tracks, 2n@_
vice versa.

But side by side, the folkies and the
rockers, French-speaking Quebeckers and |
Anglophones, symbolize the unity the
album represents. And its a solid addition to
one’s library of progressive music. .

Album of Soviet rock
woos Western listeners

GLASNOST. A compilation of Soviet rock
artists. Intrepid records. 1988.

Music is the international language of
emotion and feeling, and some say that
English is the vernacular of rock and roll.
Glasnost is a compilation album of Soviet
rock and roll tunes which tries to dispel this
common belief.

The line-up of talent on this album is
pretty impressive. There are two songs by
Alla Pugacheva, one of which, Find Me,
could easily be a hit single on our AM radio
stations. Pugacheva has sold more than 250
million records world wide, making her the
biggest selling solo artist in the world. In
1981 she was awarded a bronze medal by
the World Peace Council for her commit-
ment to world peace.

Another group on the album concerned
with peace is Autograph, a group that has
already played in Canada with our OWN”
Glass Tiger, and in France with Southside |
Johnny and The Communards. Theil Syn-
thesized sounds are reminiscent of the old .
Genesis.

Other groups on the album, such as
EVM and Creators, are new to the Soviet
recording industry, but their commitment
to rock and roll is quite evident.

This is not an album that one Can-
instantly fall in love with, especially if one
does not speak Russian. But after 4 few
revolutions on the old turntable, it becomes -
evident that these musicians are for real,
and that rock and roll has managed once -
again to cross cultural and geographic bar-
riers. — Pance Stojkovski —

Financing
Dangerous
Patriots —

Few Canadians know that several of
their countrymen were held behind bars
by the federal government during the early
years of World War II. Even fewer would
make the connection between that past,
when Communists and other left-wingers
and labour activists were incarcerated,
and the current battles against wage cuts
and privatization.

The Labour Film Project hopes to
change all that, with the release of a drama
called Dangerous Patriots. Inspired by the
book of the same name which detailed the
accounts of Ben Swankey and.others con-
cerning the government detainment camps,
Dangerous Patriots will feature the per-

sonal search of a fictitious striker from the .

Gainers Meats plant in Edmonton for her
roots in Canadian labour history. (We
wrote about the project in the Tribune’s
Aug. 26 issue last year.)

To raise the needed funds — estimated
at $500,000 — the Labour Film Project

has been asking trade unions — several of
which have already supported the film,
along with several provincial federations
of labour and the Canadian Labour
Congress — and individuals. They note
that even a small donation of $25 will be
helpful. And organizations can be listed as
endorsers of the project even without a
financial contribution.

To help put Canada’s labour story on
screens around the country, send dona-
tions to — or ask for more information
from — the Labour Film Project at P.O.
Box 4936, Station E, Ottawa, Ont., K1S
5J1.

NB, Andean
music lovers

Lovers of Andean music — the real
folky Latin American sounds from the
mountains of Chile, Peru and Bolivia —
can look forward to the appearance of
Illapu in Vancouver next week.

Illapu wield an assortment of bamboo
pipes, drums and stringed instruments,
and they’ll undoubtedly play them all dur-
ing their concert at the Vancouver Techni-
cal secondary school auditorium, 2600 E.

Broadway St., on Saturday, June 4, 8 p.m.
The concert is presented by the Chile
Information Office, and the tickets, $12 or
$10 advance, are at all VTC/CBO ticket
centres and at La Quena coffee house,
1111 Commercial Dr.

Testament
in re-run

Several films a few years back helped
convert thousands, if not millions, to the
cause of nuclear disarmament by warning,
in often gruesome visual detail, about the
aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. Notable
were the U.S. TV movie, The Day After,
and the even more graphic Threads from
Great Britain.

Testament, another U.S. offering, pres-
ented its tableau with virtually no gore,
but its heartwrenching story of personal
loss in the weeks after the bomb was no
less effective. Those who missed the tale of
a suburban San Francisco mother who
sees her children and neighbours gradually
succumb to the effects of the bomb, and
anyone else interested, can catch it on
KCTS, Channel 9 next Wednesday, June 8,

Folk festival |

at 11 p.m. Closed captioned for the heat-
ing impaired.

NFB series

Economist John Crispo of the Council
of Canadians and scientist David Suzuki
are two of the personalities featured in a
five-part. National Film Board series
beginning Sunday, June 5 and running
weekly from then on KCTS, Channel 9.
Reckoning: The Political Economy of Can-
ada was produced by James Laxer and the
first hour-long installment is “In Bed With
The Elephant, dealing with the history of
Canada-United States relations. It airs at5
p.m. each week.

This is a reminder that the | 1th annual
Vancouver Folk Music Festival is set for
Jericho Beach Park in Vancouver July 15-
17. The line-up features Katari Taiko, The
Real Sounds of Zimbabwe, Nancy White
and some 200 other performers. Take note
that the Early Bird weekend tickets are $47
until June 18. After that, the price for the
three days rises to $55.

~ + 10 Pacific Tribune, May 25, 1988