TLC unions in B.C. rebuff new Hall group Following a report from the Trades and Labor Congress vice-president Birt Showler, delegates to last week’s TLC provincial conference voted “full confidence” fresh raid on the autonomy of Canadian unions being the Frank Hall group. (Frank Hall, vice-president of the Ber erie of Railway and Steamship Cite Congress executive last summer for arranging the hangin’ of was suspended by the Trades a Seafarers’ International Union charter on Pat Sullivan’s Great Lakes scabs. Reinstated at the Trades Congress convention, he was overwhelmingly condemned for his challenge to Congress autonomy, and his boss-backed move to sup- plant Bengough collapsed.) The conference action was an answer to Hall’s setting up last week of “the Canadian Association of Internationa] Union Represent- atives.” a group of roadmen with marching orders from south of the line to fight “Communism” in the TLC. Translated out of boss language, “fighting communism in the TLC” is understood to mean using the red bogey to establish AFL-boss control over the Canadian, member- ship. Officers of Hall’s group include Sam Finlay (International Broth- erhood of Boilermakers), AL R; Johnstone (Hotel and Restaurant), Martin takes court action Gordon Martin, UBC law student banned from practicing law be- cause of LPP membership, is tak- ing court action against the ban. _ His solicitor, Garfield King, will seek a mandamus writ to wipe out ‘the decision of the Benchers, exec- utive of the B.C. Law Society, who ruled he was not of “apparent fit- ness” or “good repute.” A stormy session of the Law So- ciety narrowly defeated a motion to provide Martin with funds to contest the case. Prominent legal figures are said to be willing to make individual contributions. The case has aroused nation-wide protest as a threat to the status of all basic professions and a basic violation of civil liberties. Attorney General Wismer and MLA’s are un- der pressure to have the Legal Pro- fessions Act amended” at the next session to prevent such political bans. EAST END TAXI UNION DRIVERS HA. 0334 Fully 24-Hour Insured Service 618 East Hastings, Vancouver Grand Loggers’ Dance CLINTON HALL : }. «2605 E. Pender St. SATURDAY, DEC. 18 Refreshment Tickets, 75c. Proceeds to Organization Fund Local 71, WIUC F.O. Vancouver Branch on labor legislation unanimously in Congress president Percy Bengough. This was a rebuff to the made by the AFL, ieadership througs Bernard Shane (International La- dies’ Garment Workers’ Union), Arthur D’Aoust (Internationa] Bro- therhood of Papermakers), Robert Hewitt (Brotherhood of Railway Workmen), A. G. Hearn (Building Service Employees’ Union). These men are all international vice-prgsidents or international representatives of their unions in Canada. They are chosen in the United States. Observers estimate that a minority of their member- ship supports them in Canada. The London (Ontario) Trades and Labor Council has warned AFL officers not to interfere in the Trades Congress, while in Montreal, Congress vice-president Elphege Beaudoin blasted “mis- guided men”, men who charge that national and federal unions chartered by the Congress are “Communist-dominated” and men- ace AFL international unions, The November issue if the Trades and Labor Congress Jour nal brands as “distinctly untrue” and “ill-advised” statements made by AFL executive council members that the TLC is “in the hands of Communists”. The TLC is schéduled to discuss jurisdictional problems at a forth- coming AFL council meeting in Miami, Florida. The Journal says stories fed the AFL council are “phoney” and made up by certain persons “to cover up their own shortcomings”. For the AFL to repeat them is “in- jurious to the prestige of both na- tional and international unions Strike firm in capital —VICTORIA, B.C. Victoria building trades workers this week moved to strengthen the strikes of the United Brotherhood ef Carpenters and Joiners (Local 230). Building Trades Council here has agreed unanimously that all picket lines will ke respected. This bars roofers, plasterers, plumbers and other tradesmen from working on struck projects, which vary from houses to the Hudson’s Bay Com- pany and provincial government buildings. Carpenters are out to enforce the award of a second conciliation board granting them a 15 cents in- crease to boost their pay to $1.55. Builders’ Exchange seeks to hold them down to 7% cents, but some eontractors have already signed. Electricians had already struck 14 contractors and pickets from both locals have been posted on “hot” jobs. Meanwhile F. J. Bevis, electrici- ans’ business agent, pleaded in- nocent in Victoria police court, individually and on behalf of the union, to charges of calling an illegal strike last October. The carpenters also face charges be- cause they respected electricians’ picket lines at that time. Victoria Building Trades Council recently initiated a widespread movement for suspension and re- and ...a stupid thing to say. peal of the present ICA Act. Taft-Hartley salute There’s no mistaking this Workers (CIO) were arrested for limiting picketting. picket’s eloquent nose-thumbing gesture as cops arrested him and 22 other union members outside the American Zinc Oxide Co, at Columbus, Ohio. members of the Internation Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter The pickets, defying a Taft-Hartley injunction vention with United Farmers ization which would speak for Nothing is more desirable than that the farm movement should be united but because the two groups differ a great deal from the view- point of the interests they serve, it is of great: importance that a number of questions be answered in respect to the merger. © ! Will what they do make the new body a more powerful force in outstanding civic figure. Westminster, Clark, backed by for a taxation policy which will light- en the burden on home-owners by compelling big business to pay its just share. Clark’s fight against the “soak the home-owner” policy of the present council goes back. over a period of years and has won him a large and growing body of support in this industria] center. He has consistently campaigned against a high mill rate based solely on land which bears most heavily on the small owners and leaves entirely free of taxation the big business enterprises which have grown up in Westminster. He points to examples where land on which homes are built is taxed at the same rate as adjoining land on which theatres or other concerns are doing a thriving business. While the present city council is agreed on introduction of a gen- eral improvement tax, Clark’s pro- gram proposes no improvement tax on homes and a lowering of the general mill-rate by improvement taxes on the premises of the big: STANTON BARRISTERS, SOLICITORS, NOTARIES Vancouver Office 501 Holden Building 16 East Hasting Street MArine 5746 & MUNRO Nanaimo Office Room 2, Palace Building, Skinner Street 1 1780 i Land taxes, BCER fought by Clark in New Westminster _NEW WESTMINSTER Progressives in the Royal City are confident that this year labor will have a repre- sentative on the city council through election of Hugh Clark, veteran trade unionist and Challenging city center and “family compact” control of New a determined election committee, is waging a strong campaign ~ HUGH CLARK firms who do millions of dollars worth of business in Westminster. At the same time, he points to the need of protecting small business through a re-organized and gradu- ated business tax. . Second major issue on which Clark is campaigning is opposition for the BCElectric which will be decided by a plebiscite vote. Charg- ing that the BCElectric’s appetite for profit can never be satisfied, Clark urges that the franchise be kept open for municipal owner- ship or other transportation pro- posals which can provide better service at lower rates, Hugh Clark was the runner-up for council last year, polling a big MA 8 Ki class areas and by only 200 votes. is assured of a supply and , services have friends. Simi- has been end 01 of the Packir and has. strong the Army and N ciation, of whiel to the proposed 20-year franchise dent. Alberta farmers to unite in one group By KATE FOUNTAIN January 7 Alberta Farmers’ Union will meet in joint con- of Alberta to take steps for merging the membership of both bodies into a new organ- a record number of farmers. battling for the interests of the majority of the farmers, attract the still unorganized farmers and forge a closer link with the trade union movement? These questions are vital to the small “dirt’\ farmers who have been the body and soul of the Al- berta Farmers’ Union. The UFA, on the other hand, while having some bona fide mem- bership (with which the AFU is rightly anxious to amalgamate), is dominated by the “commercial wing” of the farm movement, name- ly, the consumer and producer co- ops. It also represents the wealthy land and mechanized farms, Con- servative and reactionary, they neither fight with nor support the small farmer (as evidenced in the non-delivery strike of 1946). This clash of interests is bound to come up sharply in the joint convention, but the progressive forces are by far the largest group. They need not be forced, through mere formal unity into compromises that would scrap all that the AFU has stood for ‘and fought for over many years. In accepting responsibility ~ for merger delegates can at the same time see that it is based on a con- stitution, policy and program which will unite and strengthen the farm. movement, The link with labor must be maintained. The rising costs of pro- flected in the fabulous profits of the big monopolies, (not in the wages ‘of the. industrial workers), the increasing costs of consumer goods bought by workers and farm- ers alike, and above all, the men- ace of another war—these are the common issues on which workers and farmers can stand together. Alberta farms stand on a, poten- tial battleground. They don’t want war; therefore, the fight for peace —without which there can be no security—has an important bear~ ing on the coming convention. It is a convention which can very well provide a means to rally the whole farming population in de- fense of peace and the peaple’s fu- ture security. farmers who own large areas of” ‘ duction on the farms that is re- - ° i