—PARIS 7. HAT Friday morning a rumor had spread through La. Pallice harbor and reached La Rochelle. The ship Falaise had been signalled. On the previous day we had noted on the North Quay a, stack of crates labelled “Hanoi” Armaments! “Tt’s begun,” said Raoul. Raoul is a docker. He is one of those responsible for all the walls of the harbor being covered with chalking, posters and stickers stating that La Rochelle-La Pal- lice will never be used as a har bor in an anti-Soviet war, that not an ounce of war material will be loaded for Indo-China. : “Pas de travail pour la guerre” —“No work for the war”, they read. “The time has come,” said Ra- oul, “to prove that our acts live up to our words. These crates will not be loaded!” The dockers warned the facto- ries, the shipyards, the railway depots. At a meeting the previous Sunday, Yves Farge of the Figh- ters for Peace and Liberty had appealed to all workers to uphold the dockers. “Peace with Viet Nam” was the slogan that morning. At 11:30 am. work was stopped in one place after another. Every other minute the phone rang at the police station — the prefect of police — the police commissioners were on hot bricks. We were at the harbor beside the covered shed opposite the sub- marine base, awaiting events. “{ was paid off last week on the Pas de travail pour la guerre! By PIERRE FLANDIN South Quay,” said Raoul. “T've potatoes to eat. been out of work for six days. That makes ten days of work this month. One can’t go far on that. The rest of the time I’ve only the dole on which to feed the kids. $1.10 a day for 50 days each quar- ter. That means nothing but I haven’t been able to touch a cent since last Qctober, There wasn’t a cent in the house and we had to buy food on credit. But we’ve had to tight- en our belts. “Now hardly any cargo boats are sent here. They want poverty and hunger to force us to unload their arms.” _ He stuck out his jaw. “They'd better think again.” “But won't you lose the dole if you refuse to unload a cargo?” “Who cares? Just rely on the solidarity of the workers.” Well, don’t. worry. You won't starve. There are still enough decent people in France .. .” “Oh, we're not afraid!” _ That afternoon the workshops were silent. At 1:30 a procession_ wound its way into the harbor. - - “Peace with Viet Nam,” “No work for the war.” the banners said. And the strains of the Marseil- - laise resounded over the water. _ The workers made their way to the North Quay. ' There came a murmur from the Falaise which resolved itself in cheers. The seamen applauded the dockers and proclaimed their solidarity. It was a moving scene when the delegate from the engine _ room came down to the quay and _ shook hands. A meeting was or- _ ganized on the spur of the mo- ment with the speakers hoisted _ onto the crates of armaments. the much applauded slogan. © . - * ‘At any time now the first loads of Yankee arms are duc to arrive. _ Everything seems to indicate it at La Pallice, Warehouses are being feverishly prepared, some 250 million gallons of gasoline are - waiting for tanks and army lor- ries, the local pipeline that was supposed to be condemned is now _ being reopened because it leads to the biggest arms depot in Fran- ce’ = 13 A fortnight before, the chief transport engineer rang up Per- cheron, secretary of the Dockers’ Union, about the resolution passed by the union’s general assembly on January 6 to prevent any un- loading of war materials. “Do you intend carrying out this resolution?” “Of course. We mean what we say.” “And if the cargoes are unload- ed by others?” “We shall then let you know.” Since then the prefecture of police hag asked the teachers of La Rochelle to organize evening classes for foreign workers. The teachers immediately understood that the intention was to replace the dockers by DP’s. Supported by all the inhabitants of the town, they intend to prevent this plan from being realized. M. Dulin, senator for the Charente- Maritime made a serious mistake when he declared that “All the “conditions have been carried out” to turn La Pallice into a war har- bor. The people will not allow it. e On Saturday La Pallice was in a state of siege. The police had installed anti-tank guns and barb- ed wire entanglements round the quays such as they had not been since the days of the Nazis. The police, armed to the teeth, proved to be too casual a guard, and were _ replaced by the CRS (Special se- curity troops). The authorities had been oblig- ed to call in the troops to load the ship. The women of La Ro- Chelle then went to speak to the soldiers. These fully understood that they were being made to do an unworthy task and the load- ing proceeded very slowly. The Falaise was already some 48 hours late. The authorities tried to per- suade the crew to lend a hand with the loading. They refused to a man, A collection was made in the town to help the dockers, Shop- keepers gave freely to the battle for peace. And the dockers will stand firm. In the town hall, which is a gem of 13th century architecture, you can see a hole in a marble- topped table. “The story is that . Jean Guiton pierced it with his poignard, saying that he would do the same to any man who dared suggest yielding up the beleagu- ered city. % The defenders of peace in La Rochelle are as resolute today as Jean Guiton was yesterday. Byrnes backs Mi OTTAWA MIITANT defense of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Work- ers in the House of Commons by James A. Byrne (Liberal, Kootenay East) has aroused the ire. of *Angus MacInnis (CCF, Vancouver East), who overlooks the basic issues in- volved in the Steelworkers’ raid » on Mine-Mill at Trail and sees the struggle’ as between “‘Har- ~vey Murphy and Pat Conroy.” “The member from Kootenay East should clearly state where he stands, with Harvey Mur- phy or with Pat Conroy,’” Mac- Innis snapped peevishly. ‘“When he makes statements such as the one I quoted (that Mine- Mill was thrown out of the CCL because the union “‘stead- fastly refused to become a part of or to join the political ma- chine of the CCF’) he is par- roting Harvey Murphy.” Byrne hadn't pulled his punches when he spoke on the work of Mine-Mill and the gains the union had made for Kimberley and Trail workers. As a union member, he knew whereof he spoke. Here is what he said, in part: “T shall not take the time to trace developments of the union at Kimberley, except to say that through tireless efforts the union has reached the stage where it commands respect of the com- munity and the company and at present operates under the best collective bargaining agree- ment’ in Canada. “Prior to organization the work week was 56 hours, with no consideration for statutory holidays; and, in, general, con- ditions were such as would be found in any unorganized camp. .- - “I shall run through quickly some of the other features in this agreement. There is an ex- cellent seniority system. This system gives seniority to vet- erans returning from the ser- ‘vices, regardless of whether they have had previous services with Consolidated Mining and Smelt- ing Company, the operators of this mine. .. . “We have a labor-manage- ‘ment committee which works in an advisory capacity, a joint safety committee, which has done excellent work. .. . “We have a good arbitration procedure for the settlement of disputes. We receive overtime ‘pay for all work performed in excess of eight hours. We re- ceive pay for statutory holidays when not worked, and double time if worked; two weeks’ va- cation with pay; and we have the check-off of union dues. “Last, but not least, we have wage rates ranging from $1.09 plus a shift differential of four and eight cents to $1.53 per hour for safety dition each employee custome ily receives $75 as a Christmas” bonus. Also ‘a non-contributory » pension plan which, at the pres-~ ent rate of pay for a miner with a lifetime of service, would amount to between $90 and $100 per month. ... “T have omitted many of the details and accomplishments of miners. In ad-. a ne-Mill in House Local 651 of the Intemational Union of Mine, Mill and Smel- ter Workers, because of lack of time at my disposal. Through this entire period of accomp- lishment I have been closely as- sociated with and a leading of- ficer of that organization. Let me add that these gains have been made entirely as a union bargaining collectively without the blessing of any ‘political party. “Recently in the debate, the hon. member for Vancouver East (Angus MacInnis) inti- mated that the union to which I belonged and of which I was an officer—since. coming to this house I have resigned that of- fice—has .been thrown out of the Canadian Congress of La- at: bor. That is quite true. If the hon. member meant what .he said when he pointed out it was for ideological purposes, that was also quite true; the ideo-— logical reason bemg that my union steadfastly refused to be- come a part of or join political machine of the CCF. Socialist party.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 7, 1950 — PAGE 4 —— me .