Continued from page II

for the 9-hour day

ployers a wild chorus: “We
will. We will!”

*

But on this same day, too,
labor struck another resound-
ing blow. On Thursday, April
18, the Ontario Workman,
Canada’s first labor paper be-
gan publication, with J. S. Wil-
liams, founder-secretary of
the Toronto Trades Assembly
as its editor and publisher

And in the very first issue,

there appeared the following
extract from Karl  Mark’s
Capital, published five years
earlier:

“Suddenly the voice of the
laborer, which has been stifl-
ed in the storm and stress of
the process of production,
rises: The commodity that I
have sold to you differs from
the other commodities, in that
its use creates value, and a
value greater than its own.
That is why you bought it.
That which on your side ap-
pears a spontaneous expansion
of capital, is on mine extra
expenditure of labor-power

. .. You preach to me con-
stantly the gospel of ‘saving’

- and ‘abstinence’. Good! I will

like a sensible saving owner
husband my sole wealth, la-
bor-power, and abstain from
all foolish waste of it...I
demand, therefore, a working
day of normal length, and =I
demand it without any special
appeal to your heart, for in
money matters sentiment is
out of place... The thing
that you represent face to

face with me has no heart in_

its breast. That which seems
to throb there is my own
heart beating. I “demand’ the
normal working day because I
like every other seller, de-

‘ mand the value of my com-

modity.”

This was the clarion call of
modern militant trade unidon-
ism, founded ‘on a scientific
basis.

In the months that followed
the Ontario Workman appear-
ed every Thursday, an attrac-
tive eight-page weekly. This
was something that had never
happened before in Canada, a
: i

ROOFING

Duroid, Tar .and Gravel
Gutters and Downpipes
Reasonable

NICK BITZ PA, 6031

SIR JOHN A. MacDONALD

workingman’s newspaper, la- -

bor’s own, a little David chal-*
lenging the Goliath of the
commercial and business press.

The Ontario Workman did
much to hearten the working
men at a time when they were
hard-pressed and fighting for
a great principle.

*

The following day, Friday,
April 19, labor moved again.
Delegates gathered at the
Trades Assembly Hall in Tor-
onto to consider the great ev-
ents of the week. They drew
up plans for continuing the
fight. They decided to call
another great mass meeting.

Speakers proclaimed their
determination to fight the
Nine-hour Movement to vic-
tory. John Hewitt said:

“So long as capitalists try
to take advantage of labor,
so long will the need for or-
ganization exist. Trade unions
are a product of the age. The
working men have found it
necessary to combine in de-
fense of their rights against

capital. Working men are los-
ing their local and sectional
feelings. Throughout the world
they are becoming connected
What combined efforts of ca-
pital throughout the civilized
world have failed to do,
George Brown and his satel-
lites have now undertaken.
They will fail!”

As the meeting concluded,
a workman cried: “Three
cheers for the Nine-Hour
Movement!” And the resound-
ing hip-hip-hooray which
came from the assembled
thousands, reverberated
throughout Canada, and joined
the call of hundreds of thous-
ands of working men in Brit-
ain, the United States, France
and other countries, who had
combined in this great fight
for the emancipation of the
working class.

*

Eighty-five years have gone

“by.

The road to working class
emancipation in Canada has
turned out to be longer, hard-
er, than the pioneers of 1872
believed.

But in the process too, the
workers of this country have

‘gained experience in_ thous-

ands of organizing strike and
electoral campaigns.

The ranks of the organized
workers have grown from the
pioneer few thousand of 1872
to:over a million.

And from the countless
struggles of the workers has
come a Communist political
party, founded on Marxist-

Leninist principles, a party.

which stands for the complete
economic and political eman-
cipation of the Canadian work
ing class, the Labor-Progres-
sive party, tested now in 35
years of battle.

Along with the building of
the mass trade union move-
ment, now with its one great
centre in the Canadian Labor

Congress, this is the greatest

single achievement of the
our time.

FILMS

When labor fought Screen gives Gogol

fresh perspective

HE 1953 Mosfilm version of

Gogol’s famous play, The
Inspector General, receives its
second local engagement this
Thursday, Friday and Satur-
day at Hastings Theatre. In
Russian with English titles, the
film’s 130 minutes faithfully
cover the whole play.

The Inspector General was
writen in 1836 and only by the
accident of fortune was able
to get by the Tsarist censor-
ship.

The plot turns on mistaken
identity. An impoverished
traveller from St. Petersburg
is mistaken for a high govern-
ment official in a small provin-
cial town through which he is
passing. The corrupt local offi-
cials, typical of the Tsarist
bureaucracy, outsmart them-
selves in their rush to ingrati-
ate themselves with the sup-
posed investigator.

Adapted to the screen by
Vladimir Petrov, the film’s ac-
tors were drawn from the
Moscow Art Theatre, long fa-
mous for the style of outland-
ish . characterization Gogol’s
world demands. The many
complex roles are filled with
complete understanding; from
the Mayor (T. Tolubeyev) and
“Inspector General Khlesta-
kov (T. Gorbachev), to Osip
(A. Gribov) and the bit parts.

The film will be a revela-
tion to those who know the
play, and an uncommonly
pleasing experience regardless.
But it is recommended that
you read the play first since
all the considerable dialogue
cannot be given in| the titles.

The film is weakened by an
overall staginess, despite skil-
fully conceived local color with
exterior shots and set.

An associated flaw is the
failure of the camera really to
get into the midst of the action.
Too often unusual camera
angles are substituted for gen-
uine adoptive cinema art.
(This is not intended to imply

that a play of character and
dialogue like The Inspector
General, could or should be di-
vorced from its stage atmos-
phere.) ‘

Despite these shortcomings
this beautiful color film with
its many brilliant caracteriza-
tions stand as an outstanding
interpretation of ‘Gogol’s de-
lightful play. See it!

5g % og

| Seen iia for members of film
societies, British Colum-
bia audiences never get the op-
portunity to see Czech films,
which include some of the fin-
est screen art of our times. Yet .
Czech films are a regular fea-
ture of movie programs in
many Latin American coun-
ries — Uruguay, Brazil, Peru,
Chile, the Argentine and Ven-
ezuela. .

Such films. as. Conscience,
Wild Barbara, The Trap, The
Show is On and Krakatit have
been particularly successful.

Peru has just contracted for
seven features and ten shorts.
and six Czechoslovak features~
are currently running in Bra-
zil. In Chile, where a Festival
of Czechoslovak Films is plan-
ned, three features have been
released, and in Argentina Old
Czech Legends and The Show
is On had their premier last
December in four of. main
Buenos Aires theatres.

The largest number of Czech-
oslovak films has been shown
in Uruguay. During ‘the last i
three years, 20 features and
30 puppet-films and cartoons. ‘
Recently the Uruguay Televis-
ion Studio bought 30 Czecho-
slovak documentaries.

N. E. STORY

Japanese documentary shows H-test horrors

FILM from Japan now be-

ing shown in Britairm gives
added . meaning to protests
against the H-tests.

It may help to stop the tests
altogether. Following on the
previous Japanese film Chil-
dren of Hiroshima, it is entitled
The Shadow of Hiroshima.

Its 22 minutes’ running time
and simple, direct commentary
ery out the urgent message of
today.

The film tells the story. of a
small group of survivors from
Hiroshima, of their striving to

live aS well as the bomb and
its after-effects, 12 years later,
allow them.

It has a terrifying simplicity.
No “effects” are necessary to
bring us face to face with death
and worse — a lingering, suf-
fering life that is nearly death
anyway.

There is a young girl who
sends a plaster cast of her
hand twisted and deformed as
a result of the Hiroshima bomb
to an anti-H-bomb exhibition.
“That others may be moved
to act.”

We sce also the effect of the
Bikini Atoll tests in 1955—the
fishermen and their wives, and
the radio-active fish, together
with shots from the. great Con-
gress of that year where near-
ly 100 foreign and 3,000 Japan-
ese delegates attended to pro-
test at H-tests.

It is a newly adapted ver-
sion of the Japanese film
Still it is Good to Live, and is
being distributed by Contem-
porary Films Ltd.

The money it earns will be
sent back to Japan, to help al-

leviate the sufferings of those
who appear in the film and
the thousands of others sim!-
larly afflicted.

It is a remarkable film from
many aspects — its tremen-
dous yet modest sincerity, its
subject matter taken complete-
ly from life, and its intensity.
without the use of emotional
settings. But more.than these, ~
perhaps, for its simple mes:
sage: “The people of Hiroshima
do not ask for your pity of»
for your sympathy — they
want your action.”

MAY 10, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 12