ANNIE BULLER

-GURALNICK

“an outstanding agitator and
propagandist, an organizer of

trade unions and of the

unemployed, a Communist...”

The following tribute 'to An-
nie Buller was delivered at her
funeral, January 21, by William
Kashtan, general secretary of
the Communist Party of Canada.

We have come here today to
pay our last respect to a remark-
able -woman, a warm hearted
human‘ being, an _ outstanding
agitator and propagandist, an
organizer of trade unions and of
the unemployed, a Communist
who devoted all her life, her
talents, energy and passion to
the cause of socialism in Can-
ada.

Such a woman was Annie
Buller Guralnick, who, after a
prolonged illness, passed away
on Friday, January 19 at the age
of 77.

Annie leaves behind, her son
Jimmy, her daughter-in-law and
grand-daughter. She leaves be-
hind countless comrades, friends
and admirers all over the coun-
try who remember her warmth,
her singleness of mind and of
purpose, her great courage, her
“flaming heart,’ to use the
phrase of one of her many ad-
mirers.

Annie was born on December
9, 1895 in Chernovtsy, then part
of the Austrian Empire, and now
a thriving cultural-industrial
centre in the Soviet Ukraine.

She was brougt to Canada as
a child and from her early youth
involved herself with the pro-
gressive forces in Montreal
where she lived, worked to
make Canada a land of peace,
progress and plenty for all.

It was in Montreal that she
served her apprenticeship in the
progressive movement.

During World War I she, to-
gether with Mike and Becky
Buhay, Bella Gauld and others,
went house to house, distribut-
ing anti-war literature, spoke at
meetings against conscription
and for peace. This work helped
to spark the mighty -anti-con-
scription movement in Quebec in
1918 which brought together the
socialist and labor circles with
the anti-war and anti-imperialist
movement of the French Cana-
dian people.

Annie, together with Bella
Gauld and others helped to estab-
lish the Labor College in Mont-
real, through which socialist
ideas were brought to an ever
widening group of people. In-
deed, it was out of the Labor
College that many oustanding

people came to. Marxism and to--

the Communist Party of Canada

when it was formed. Annie was
one of those pioneers of the
Communist Party. As she said
more than once, this was the
proudest and most significant
moment of her life.

Annie saw membership in the
Communist Party as a challenge
and responsibility, as a badge of
honor to be worn proudly. And
she wore it fearlessly all her
life, never flinching from any
responsibility the Party assigned
to her, always ready for work,
always optimistic, always striv-
ing to help the working class
understand its historic mission
as the driving force for funda-
mental change of society. For
many years she was a member
of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party.

When the Communist Party
undertook the great task of help-
ing to organize the unorganized
workers in the sweat shops and
company towns of Canada, An-
nie was amongst: those who
volunteered their services to this
task.

She became an organizer for
the Dressmakers’ Union of To-
ronto, and was identified with
their efforts to organize the un-
organized and to achieve a bet-
ter life for themselves and their
families on and off the picket
line. She was no less identified
with the struggle of the coal
miners of Nova Scotia and
Alberta.

It was precisely this identific-
ation with the miners and their
struggles that led Annie to
Estevan, Saskatchewan, where
the miners, under the leadership
of the Mine Workers Union of
Canada, an affiliate of the Work-
ers’ Unity League, were on

strike. These miners were pro- —

testing their miserable condi-
tions of work, their poor pay and
long hours of work.

Annie at that time was in
Winnipeg helping to organize
the needle trades workers for
the Workers’ Unity League, she
received an invitation from the
miners to come and address a
mass meeting on Sunday, Sept.
27, 1931. At that meeting it was
decided to organize a parade
from Bienfait to Estevan on
Tuesday, Sept. 29 so as to bring
the issue involved in the strike
to the attention of the public
and win their support.

That peaceful parade was at-
tacked at the outskirts of Este-
van.» Cars: and trucks were

smashed. The fire brigade was |

used to turn their hoses on the
women and children. The Chief
of Police began to shoot, joined
by other officers. Three miners
were killed, over 50 were wound-
ed and 16 leaders of the miners
were arrested and charged with
“rioting.” Not satisfied with this
barbarous attack on the miners
they sought to arrest Annie but
the miners and railway workers
helped her to get away.

Annie and Jim Forkin went to
Winnipeg to rally public support
for the strike. Then she went to
Toronto where she was arrested.
For her efforts to help the min-
ers and their families Annie was
sentenced to one year in jail and
a $500 fine.

During her trials Annie con-
ducted her own defense and
what she said then, stands as a
monument to her and to her life.

Summing up her defense, she
said: “I am not guilty of this
charge. I have said before and I
say again that it is not Annie
Buller who is on trial here. It is
the capitalist class which stands
in the prisoner’s dock. No one

‘realizes more than I do the

forces against us are very great.
But gentlemen of the jury, re-
gardless of the outcome of the
trial, I am going to remain loyal
to my class, the working class,
the builders of the future,” '

Annie’s life, all her activities,
no matter where and in what
capacity, is living proof of that.
She always remained loyal to
the class, the working class, and
to the cause of socialism. She
remained loyal of her class in
good times when things were
easy. She remained loyal to her
class and to her Party when
times were difficult, when sacri-
fice was required.

All through her life Annie
never wavered. She never allow-
ed temporary, transient pheno-
mena to get in the way of her
understanding of the underlying
nature of capitalism, the inevit-
ability of the victory of so-
cialism.

The one year sentence Annie
served in Battleford Jail was not
wasted. Out of the struggle of
the miners and of many other
Struggles, the groundwork was

laid for a massive and success-

7
'

3
4
4
u
:
a
\

ful organizing drive in the mass
production industries. And if
today the trade union movement
has the strength it has, if the
workers today are able to stand
up with dignity and do not have

to bend their knees to the cor- °

porations, no small cause for it
lies in the self-sacrificing strug-
gle of Annie and of many other
Communists.

It is worth noting that today,
trade unionists doing research
work on the struggle in Estevan,
are compelled to acknowledge
Anrie’s role in that epic strug-
gle. '

It was Annie’s intense drive
and passion for social change
which made her appreciate the
written work and to strive to
spread it in every possible way.

Annie was an outstanding
propagandist and agitator.
Words are also a weapon and
she used them to enthuse people
and imbue them with confidence
in their own strength and in
their struggle for a better future.

Annie understood the power
of the word and how it could
be a mighty weapon of the work-
ing people in their struggle. She
not only spoke at countless
meetings throughout the length
and breadth of the country, but
when the Party assigned her the
task of manager of the working
class press, she used her organ-
izational abilities and drive to
build the paper, to bring it into
trade union locals and wherever
working people gather.

And when the Party assigned
her to the task of organizing the
distribution and sale of Marxist-
Leninist literature, she threw
herself into this task with the
Same passion and energy she
showed in all her activity.

Because Annie understood the
power of the written word, An-
nie and Harry left a modest sum
of money for the Party, to be
used to publish working-class
literature. We shall do this and
find some appropriate way to
signalize it.

There are not many people
who had so varied an ability to
be a public spokesman for the
Party, an organizer of the unor-
ganized and of the unemployed,
to give attention to the problems
of working women and help in
the preparation of material and
pamphlets for the Party on ques-
tions relating to the rights of
women, to do all these things
well,.and-on top of that, be a de-

voted _wife_and mother, Anni

was able to do all this, plat
revolutionary movement |
of everything else, an if
same time bring up het
as part of the progressiv@™
of our country.
Yes, Annie’s life was ‘i
and varied one, a full
voted to the cause of ty
being of the people, #
cause of socialism. cat
Annie was a staunch i
tionalist and this was e*?)
in everything she did, Phy
work.amongst the forele. /
in the working-class aM |
union movement, in het #
in the progressive Jewish
ment. :

From its very inceptidy
throughout her life AM”
mained a consistent st
of the Soviet Union in Wey
saw that great force for ly
for democracy, indepe
and socialism in the Wi.
was a matter of great Jj
her when she and her Lis |
Harry visited the USSR
years, as it was a joyour. ,
sion when both went tO “i
slovakia for a few years. §
socialism was an inspira
source of strength to he!

Patriotism and_interm
ism ran through all. of
activities. In truth Ant?
part of the living history ¢
labor movement, a part
history of Canada. vil

We have a responsibli
make that history know?)
younger generation of “7
for socialism, to the wom
are today striving for “%
of rights, to the workef® it
trade union movement ne
those who work for a M@_
and humane society. '

Annie was one of ie
Girls of Canada about wi
Hill wrote when he refet
Elizabeth Gurley Flynt
USA. i

We shall remember the)
Girl and hold her memory
Annie will always 0c
place of honor among sh
fighters for peace, prog!
socialism, among all th?
strive for a better life. ‘

To her family and fri@j.
her comrades, to the 4° 4
which she was a life-lone,
ber, we say: Annie is me
a memory. She is an-
ment of all that is be
working class. We shall ®
get her.

dbve Ann rel?