Fishermen hit by cold war
policies, warned reliance
on U.S. market ‘illusion’

Maximum unity in every action to maintain and advance the living standards of its, 7,651 members
was stressed in the officers’ report presented to the opening session of the’sixth annual convention of United
Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union, held in Fishermen’s Hall here this week. The report was signed by
George Miller, president, Homer Stevens, secretary, and Alex Gordon, business agent.

Market prospects for fish products during 1950 are poorer than in the past year, the report warned.
Total purchasing power of Canadian workers has declined, unemployment is growing, and the export mar-

ket for fish products is anything but

Referring to “the serious illu-
sion” of reliance on the United
States as a chief export market,
the report comments:

“The fact that the United States
is a large fish producer herself, and
in some respects a very large ex-
porter, has been well established.
The American fishermen within
the IFAWA consider the importa-
tion of foreign fish to be a burning
issue, This is borne out by the fact
that at their last convention in
January a resolution was introduc-
ed recommending a one-day stop-
page of all fishermen and shore-
workers regardless of affiliation as
a protest against the importation
of fish and. fish prosducts from
foreign countries.

“When we say, therefore, that
it is meecssary to fight for
changes in the foreign and trade
policies of the federal govern
ment, we do so because the wel-
fare of our members and the wel-
fare of the industry in British
Columbia is at stake. We must
continue our efforts to expand
trade with all of the British Com-
monwealth markets, with the new
Republic of China and with all
other countries.” ‘

Careful budgeting during 1949 en-
abled the UFAWU to register an
pared to a corresponding surplus
of $2,448 for the previous year. The
Fishermen’s Hall Society was in-
corporated during 1949, and pur-
chased the union hall and a new
boat.

Referring again to the tie-up be-
tween market prospects and the
cold war policies of the Canadian
government, the report says:

“Why is it that four years after
the end of the war we were threat-
ened with and in some cases sub-
jected to lower fish prices, instead
of the increasing prosperity that
was so solemnly promised during
the wartime period? The operators
tell us it is a question of shrinking
markets over which they have no
control.

“Our traditional markets for can-
ned salmon in British Common-
wealth countries has been virtually
eliminated with the exception of

stable.

ALEX GORDON
United action is decisive

severely reduced with further re-
ductions threatened unless new
trading policies are fostered.

“Potential trade with the other
countries dominated by the Mar-
shall ‘plan is subject to approval

namely, the big business interests
in the United States. Vast markets
in other parts of the world are cut
off due to the existing ‘cold war,’ in
the prosecution of which the Cana-
dian government follows subser-
viently behind Wal] Street.

“The fact is that our economic
welfare is vitally linked to issues
of foreign policy and all too often
at the present time trade agree-
ments are based, not on the needs
of our citizens and industries, but
on the strategy of the boastful ‘cold
war experts.’

*

“We cannot accept the premise
that there is no solution to the dif-
ferences that exist between the so-
cial systems except by another
world war, just because the spokes-
men for big business are handing
us such a propaganda line. The
misery and horrors of war always
bear heaviest on the workers who
have to pay first for the arms by
getting smaller pay cheques, and

that-in Britain, which has been

the battlefield, while monopolists
reap huge profits.

“There is an alternative providing
we are prepared to make friends
instead of enemies. We can stop
threatening war by spending mil-
lions for peaceful construction in-
stead of building planes, tanks and

guns.

“Instead of exporting arms to
the corrupt, reactionary regimes
such as Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuo-
mintang, we could ship salt her-
ring and salmon to the New Re-
public of China. Rather than
spending money for military op-
erations to Alaska we could be
planning for developing barter
trade with the Soviet Union and .
all other countries which require
the goods which our own people
cam produce.

“In short, we should “substitute
peaceful trade with higher living
standards for the people, for the
present eold war policies....

“If we convince the operators that
our membership refuses to carry
the Joad for the bankruptcy of pres-
ent trade and foreign policy, then
they may turn in other directions
to maintain their operations and
extend their markets. In any case,
®")if our membership is filled with
of those who control the dollars, |the will to fight, the operators will
have to look to other sources than
our pockets to maintain their pro-
fits.’

The report dealt with salmon tie-
up last year, which resulted in im-
portant gains, and the fall strike
over the issue of chum prices.

A proposal to extend the work
of women’s auxiliaries and to es-
tablish a council of auxiliaries in
Vancouver was put forward. This
council would be represented on the
union’s executive board.

An important brief on the Work-
men’s Compensation Act has been
prepared for presentation to Chief
Justice Gordon Sloan, the report
announced. For a decade the UF-
AWA has been seeking to extend
compensation coverage to all bona
fide commerciai fishermen.

tion was addressed by Jack Stev-
enson, president of the Vancouver
and District Trades end Labor

then have to shed their blood on

Opening session of the conven-

The cold war is freezing fishermen out of markets

UFAWU PRESIDENT GEORGE MILLER AND SECRETARY
HOMER STEVENS

SYMPOSIUM OF CANADIAN MUSIC

ought to know.

It was with a view to rectifying, |

to bring the most significant event | set.

to a successful conclusion.

If the performance uncovered a
wealth and variety of talent that

particularly on this continent.

As was to be expected, we heard
some faint echoes of the music that
was being written in Britain and
France in the earlier years of the
century, and more than enough of
the arid cerebrations of the clever

Council.

Ruddell charges 60,000 votes
blocked by city business lobby

Action of the provincial legisla-

ture this week in denying votes to

_ wives of property owners in Van-

' ceouver was roundly condemned by

Elgin Ruddell, Civic Reform alder-

manic candidate in last year’s ci-
vie elections.

“When I appeared before the
Private Bills Committee of the le-
_ gislature to support the passage of
the bill to extend the franchise to
include spouses it was clear that
the big business lobby headed by
the Board of Trade were the voices
which made policy for the commit-
tee,” Ruddell said.

‘Tt was clear, too, that Vancou-
ver city council was acting dis-
honestly. They pretended to pub-
licly support the measure, while in

fact indicating to the committee
that it was only a political maneu-
ver, and they were depending on
the committee to ‘pull their chest-
nuts out of the fire’.” '

Wiping out of the charter amend-
ment by the Private Bills commit-
tee deprives at least 60,000 Van-
couver wives of a vote in this year’s
civic elections.

Civic Reform Association intends
to fight back against this discri-
minatory treatment by conducting a
huge “get out and register’ cam-
paign among working class voters
during the summer months. Thou-
sands of eligible voters are “acci-
dently” dropped from the rolls each
year by city enumerators.

ELGIN RUDDELL
_ Big business blocked 60,000 votes

boys and girls who have scrabbled
for inspiration in the wastepaper
baskets of Schoenberg, Nilhaud,
Stravinsky, et al.

for whom these scenic wonders are
but a backdrop.

than at annual festivals.

tures do not apply is John Wein-
zweig, whose masterly works bas-

No lack of talent,
but direction needed

‘By: JG.

Speaking at the final session of the First Symposium of Contemporaly —
Canadian Music, held in this city March 12-15, John Weinweig: de ©

clared that ‘Canadian composers are the most unperformed, the most ur

published and the most unpaid in the world.’” As the most outstanding
composer writing in Canada today, assured command and a glowi0s ft
and probably one of the busiest, he |humanity which might well serve —
as an example to creative artist?
throughout the Dominion.

to some extend at least, this dismal The panel discussion which —
state of affairs that Jacques Singer | brought the Symposium to a close |
conceived the Symposium, and with |and which should have been the |
the, help of Alec Walton of thejhigh point of the occasion :
Community Arts Council was able |neatly sabotaged by the University |
They talked about everytbiné |
in the history of Canadian music except the music heard; ft
apout themselves.

What Professor Adaskia of
UBC was doing in this. gatlery
was hitherto unsuspected, it also jis difficult to surmise, as up to
revealed a lack of direction and an opening concert our leading cu
avoidance of issues which aré€jtural institution had betrayed
symptomatic of most of the artistic Olympic disdain for the pr

effort in the Western world today, ings in general. The professor of
fered some items of ill-digest
textbook information, and a spaw™
ing of sub-aqueous
which, it appears, comes under the
head of occult philosophy.

The most specious exampl
the later was the assertion
audiences are by natire and
ing incapable of deciding what

musically good for them; such oe |
cisions being reserved for the °
What was surprising and grati-|ordained experts, among which
fying, however, was the amount of | Professor apparently included
music presented that was genu- | Self.
inely Canadian in content, music |transferred to politics, is oné

that could only have been compos-|Which we have been tdo long
ed by musicians bred to the Cana-/|Miliar under the generic name
dian scene. The weakness of much | fascism.
of this music, with all its origina- | Sense,
lity, was similar to that noticed in |Should emanate from a Cana
Canadian painting; a preoccupation | University, is, in this day and
with mountain and prairie and sea |More a matter fo
to the neglect of the human actors | Prise.

spat
trai”

This attitude of mind W

That this sinister
in a cultural

r shame than i

Discounting these drab un%
: : tones, it can be emphatically
When composers like Howard |that, as far ag it went, the *

Cable, Harry Somers, Andy Twa,!S

; ‘8, ,|Symposium of Contemporary
Edwin Collins, Alexander Brott,|nadian Music was a ae bat
Leonard Basham and Dorothy Cad-|success, and for that the #

zow Can apply their flexible talents | of all Canadian musicians
to’'more than brilliant scene paint-|go to Jacques Singer.

ing, they will have things to say |Sym :
posia should take place-

that the people of Canada and else- | ally, either in Wanecuver in

where will want to hear oftener|er centers, it is to be hoped “

room will be found for the

A notable exception in this re-|sion of the folksongs and @
gard, and one to whom these stric-|of the various national grouP™,
which a compreb®

el on Eskimo and Indian themes| Picture of the Canadian scene
and his string quartet revealed an not be drawn.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 24, 1950 — P“

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