iil) | pete trast Dief got job, but where are jobs he promised workers? asks Effie “John Diefenbaker got his job as prime minister by promising there would be jobs for everyone. But he hadn’t been on the job very long before thousands of workers lost their jobs. And there are other thousands of workers, right now, who are wondering just how long their jobs will fast.” Applause from an audience of unemployed in Pender Audi- torium here last Sunday greet- ed Effie Jones when she made this reference to Prime Mini- ster Diefenbakers® oft - quoted pre-election promise that not one Canadian would suffer if his Conservative government won office. Mrs. Jones was one of three ~speakers at a meeting called to demand action at all levels of government on the growing problem of unemployment. Don Guise, business agent of Vancouver Civic Employees (Outside Workers) cited the Financial Post’s prediction that there will be one million unemployed in the country this winter, of -whom some 200,000 will not have even the protection of unemployment insurance. The minimum need of the unemployed was full unem- ployment insurance benefits for the full period of their un- employment, he said. But this did not satisfy their need for jobs. “We have slums in all our major cities. We need high- ways. Where is the national program. to undertake this work and provide jobs for our people? “We hear plenty about the need for millions to be spent on defense,” Guise continued. “But defense of what? Our jobs? Thousands of workers are losing them. Our homes? The mortgage companies will be seizing them if we can’t make the payments. Our living standards? Big business is at- tacking them. “What we need is a con- structive program to defend the people’s. standards.” Guise ridiculed the federal government’s offer to pay half the labor costs of municipal projects undertaken in winter instead of summer as “a, penny ante proposition” which at best would employ tens of men when thousands were out of work. One means of creating jobs in this province , he declared, lay in developing large-scale trade with China, which need- ed lumber, pulp and fertilizers. But the government thus far, despite pressure from labor and sections of big business, had bowed to U.S. dictates. Mrs. Mona Morgan, Vancou- ver aldermanic candidate, said the real contrast at the present time was between the huge profits of the big corporations and the growing total of un- employed, between the fantas- tic sums spent on defense pro- jects and the sums spent on projects to improve. the peo- ple’s welfare. “The daily papers do not attempt to hide the fact that there is increasing hardship and want in this city and in the. province.” she said. “Some of the stories they print are a scathing indictment of our system. But they don’t intend them as an indictment. They print them only to justi- fy their plea for bigger dona- tions to charity. “What the unemployed want is not more charity, however grateful they may be for help when they are desperate. They want jobs — the right to a useful place in society. “The fight for jobs is the fight of all workers — em- ployed and unemployed alike. And the workers have a right to expect that the labor organ- izations they have built will lead that fight.’ Native Indians had six projects VICTORIA, B.C. — Six Na- tive Indian bands in the provy- ince undertook Centennial pro- jects under the provincial goy- ernment’s cost-sharing plan, and Native Indian organiza- tions participated in projects in 18 communities, the B.C. Centennial Committee’ report- ed this week. Native Indian bands under- taking their own projects were the Cowichan, Squamish, Bella Bella, South Vancouver Island, West Coast Allied Tribes and Haida (Massett). Among the projects under- taken ‘was construction by the Squamish band of-a_ long house, 60 by 100 feet, at a cost of $20,000. ‘Convenience flag’ boycott successfu The four-day boycott’ of ships flying “flags of conveni- ence,” which ended at mid- night on Thursday last week was fully successful, according to a statement issued by the International Transport Work- ers Federation. The federation, which organ- ized. the boycott in_ protest against low wages and bad working conditions, said the boycott had been operated in 17 countries and 200 ships were known to have been directly involved. It applied to. ships flying. the flags of Panama, Liberia, Honduras ,and Costa Rica . The statement said: “One re- sult is the reported action ‘of the Costa Rican government to terminate the facilities in that country ‘for foreign «ships to be registered -there. Another is the reported attention given by the Greek government to ships owned by Greek nation- als but registered abroad.” (In Vancouver last week, the boycott halted loading of five Liberian freighters with lumber and grain after ‘long- shoremen refused’ to cross pic- ket lines set up at the entrance to the docks. Plaeards carried by pickets protested conditions, wages and safety standards on flags of “convenience” ships. (The boycott had the support here of the B.C. Federation of VANCOUVER PICKET Labor, Vancouver Port Council and Seafarers International Union.) End US. says labor parley NELSON, B.C.—New trade trade policies with all coun- tries, including China, and a national portable industrial pension plan covering ll workers in every type of em- ployment were among de- mands advanced by the second Kootenay trade union confer- ence here last Saturday. The resolution on trade, in- troduced by Mine-Mill Local 480, called on the federal gov- ernment to “shake off the shackles of United States trade domination” by adopt- ing new broad policies that would enable this country to develop trade with all coun- tries. The resolution said: “Trade commissions, both government and private, have indicated al- most unlimited possibilities existed in China and that the needs of the Shanghai area alone could absorb the entire fertilizer production of Trail, and that pulp and paper and other forest products are in like demand.” Asserting that the main ob- stacle to extended Canadian trade with China was the “‘dic- tates of parent companies in the U.S. which adhere to the trade policies of Washington,” the resolution called on the Ey, “igfederal government to take measures to prevent companies in this country from being “dictated to by their counter- parts in the U.S.A.” in filling export orders. The resolution supported its demands by pointing out that one in every five jobs in this country depends upon export trade and that forest products and mining account for 73 per- cent of export trades. Proposal for establishment of a national portable indus- trial pension plan came from Trail Civic Workers Union. As outlined in the union’s resolutién, employees, employ- ers and the federal govern- Labor loses supporter by death of Cornelius. Baas * The progressive labor movement has lost a strong porter and former active worker by the sudden death of nelius Baas, who was stricken by a heart attack at his } here on December 1. Born at Amsterdam in the Netherlands in 1899, Cornelius Baas emigrated to this coun- try as a young man in his twenties. Here he followed his trade as a carpenter, working his way across the country to make his home in Vancou- ver. : During the thirties, he took a leading part in the struggles of the unemployed, organizing block committees and neigh- borhood councils and serving g! December 12, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PA? dictates ment would pay contributio® into a central fund, ft A which, at the age of 60, evi! person covered or a nail in beneficiary would draW “|, adequate pension. The Pi» ie the resolution outlined, sh0lé, . be designed to cover all Wo?” ers in every type of empl) ment, | The resolution pointed om that there was now a Ja” number of private, provindl hs and municipal pension plans! by effect, in addition to the # to eral old age pension plat Ma Workers covered by such pla® th however, lost their pensi/®l rights if for any reason ti ™ had to sever their employme” 4 H. W. Herridge, CCF MPS Gj Kootenay West, said that a Mi CCF parliamentary group I iy constantly urged such a P™ Ihe able pension plan in the Hol ii of Commons. He felt the # position to the plan could overcome, but only by a stro campaign conducted by ™ i trade unions themselves. VN Another resolution adopt toy by the conference called ding the federal government to) tablish a penal institution ™ = the Fernie area as soon # ti possible. 4 Supporting the resolutil® ly John Savage of the Brew? le Workers, said that clos tty down of the coal mines pil by deprived Fernie of its one” aus dustry and left the city’s B ) jor working force unempl0Y” ity “It’s essential that an ind ay try or a government inst} «|My tion be located near Fernlé | the city is to survive,” he # | clared. jl The conference extended ih support to the Internatia ’ Woodworkers in its strike i | tion against Interior ope | tors at several points in ra Kootenays. Delegates that the IWA was “fully J¥ fied” in its demand for Pe wage scales with Coast oP® | tions. ity Op ig j hin i Qa) su hy Com ity ome ios in various capacities 1? i ‘y Single Men’s Protective r sociation. In the same period hé 7" if) ed the old Communist party 4s Canada and for some yea! oe I its organizer in Vanco \& Centre constituency. : i He is survived by his © ya) XN Mary, in Vancouver and 1st sisters in the Netherland Ne, Funeral services were | Mil Monday this week at Rosel® sy Funeral Chapel followed be cremation. ' joi”