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_FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1954

Simpson-Sears picketed

A score of pickets paraded before the big Simpsons department
store in downtown Toronto recently, protesting U.S. dumping of
textiles into Canada. Members of the Textile Workers Union of
America carried placards demanding reinstatement of 26,000 unem-
ployed textile workers across Canada. “Imports Are Taking Our
Jobs” one poster read. U.S. Sears-Roebuck recently, bought a con-
trolling share of the Simpson mail order outlet, now called Simpson-

Sears, which is building over 40 department stores to merchandise
dumping textiles and garments from the U.S. shuts

EDITORIAL

End NPA control

THIS coming Wednesday, December 8, Vancouver voters

go to the polls to elect a mayor, four aldermen, five
school trustees and four parks board members.

With extension of the franchise to all citizens over

the age of 21 who have resided in ‘the city since January

1, an additional 47,000 names have been added to the

voters’ list.

This means that more persons will cast —

ballots this year than in any previous civic election.
The wider vote gives citizens a better opportunity
to end ‘the rule of the Non-Partisan Association — that
reactionary coalition of Liberals and Tories which has
dominated the political life of Vancouver since 1936.
To ensure the defeat of the NPA, it is essential that
every progressive voter go to the polls. This year YOUR

vote may be decisive.

Your civic duty is not only to

vote yourself, but to see that your friends and neighbors

also cast their ballots. «

The advance poll will be held this Friday and Satur-
day, December 3 and 4, from 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at city
hall. Anyone who will be out of the city on business
December 8 can vote in the advance poll.

_ The Pacific Tribune recommends an anti-NPA vote
all down the line. We especially urge our readers and
supporters to vote for aldermanic candidate Effie Jones,
‘indefatigable champion of the people, whose battles on
such issues as cheaper transit fares, lower telephone rates,
cheap natural gas, expansion of Vancouver’s harbor, hous-
ing, sewers, parks and playgrounds have won broad

popular support.

This is the year to end NPA rule. This is the year

to elect Effie Jones to city council. It’s up to YOU.
out and cast your ballot on December 8.

Get

LPP petition motorcade
marks Nanaimo centenary

NANAIMO, B.C. paper products locally to ensure

A car cavalcade to launch an
LPP petition calling for develop-
ment of British Columbia’s na-
tural resources to provide new
jebs wound its way through the
streets.of Nanaimo on Saturday
last week, coinciding with the
city’s pioneer centennial celebra-
tions. =.

Speaking over a microphone
from the lead car in the parade,
Mrs. Grace Tickson, LPP candi-
date for Nanaimo-The Islands,
explained the need for establish-
ment of a coal-chemical industry
and the need to manufacture

employment in the area.

The cars carried banners with
these slogans: Stop the U.S. Grab
~f our Natural Resources; Build
an All-Canadian Gas Pipeline;

Cheap Fuel gor our Homes; Stop

the Export of our Jobs.

At every cavalcade stop peti-
tioners secured names for the
LPP petition calling upon the
provincial government ‘“‘to see
that British Célumbia’s natural
gas and water resources are de-
veloped under Canadian control,

and used in the interests of our

people and for the industrial
growth of our province.” .

Liberals say Quebec
‘valet of Washington’

.

By NORMAN NERENBERG

MONTREAL

“We have no economic autonomy in Quebec and we are the valet of Washington.
There are fantastic developments taking place in Ungava, but we, in Quebec, derive no

benefit from them.”

This was the charge advanced against the Duplessis government in the Quebec leg-

islature by Liberal MLA Emilien Lafrance during the Throne

(A letter from provincial LPP
leader Gui Caron to all MLAs
calls for nationalization of the
U.S.-owned Gatineau Power Com-
pany and repatriation of all nat-
ural resources.)

Growing anger and resentment
on the part of the people of

French Canada in face of the sell-
out of Quebec’s natural resources
to U.S. trusts forced its way
through into the rarified atmos-
yhere of the Duplessis-run legis-
lative assembly.

Another Liberal MLA, George ,
Cournoyer, expressed a_ wide-
spread sentiment in his reference
to last July 30, when the first
shipment of Ungava ore was sent
to the U.S., as a day of national
mourning. He said that Quebec
would soon be the owner of the
“greatest excavation” in North
America” unless something was
done immediately.

“The government did not even —
require that a smelter be built
in the province, a step that
would have cost between $10 and
$15 million more,” he added.

The shame of this national be-
trayal’' was heightened by Mines
Minister W. H. Cottingham. He
boasted that mining production in
Quebec had gone from $2%% mil-
lion in 1900 to some $290 million
in 1954. But in listing these ad-
vances he also, was compelled
to indicate that the companies
controlling this vast wealth were
cll giant U.S. corporations.

The absence of any red-baiting
in the Throne Speech and the
complete lack of any reference
whatsoever to communism in
this governmental policy, state-
ment was noteworthy. This un-
doubtedly reflects the growing
unpopularity of such tactics in
the face of the mounting prob-
lems of the people such as un-
employment, low wages, and
high taxation. :

An echo of this was heard in
the legislature chamber when
Rene Hamel, Liberal member,
charged the Duplessis govern-
ment with using the autonomy
issue to cover up its failures and
claimed that social conditions in
the province were inferior to.
those of any of the other Can-
adian provinces.

Hamel referred the recently
published survey issued jointly
by the Canadian Congress of
Labor and the Catholic Syndicates
which showed that Quebec work-
ers receive an hourly wage 15 ~
cents less than their counterparts
in Ontario. ;

This represents a reduction in
purchasing power of $300 per
\.orker or an annual loss of $200
million for the people of Quebec.
I*.meant “so many millions less

_to build houses, purchase autos,

electrical appliances, food sand
clothes,” he said.

Pressure of the mounting crisis
was felt in Hamel’s speech when
he pointed out that in 1954 there
was more unemployment in Que-
bee than in any other province.

He dealt with the burden of
taxes upon the people and he
said, “from 1944 to 1954, the
Union Nationale government has
imposed more taxes than all the
other regimes from 1867 to 1944.”

°

o
SEES

He oe
MRS. MONA MORGAN

MRS. AGNES MURPHY
School candidates

} i

Two women candidates, stand-
ing as independents, are chal-
lenging the NPA in the school
board contest this year, Mrs.
Mona. Morgan and Mrs. Agnes
Murphy. Both are active in com-
munity affairs and both are

‘strong contenders, having polled

big votes in past years.

ee su
Sommers won’t

: , Kies ae
disclose pact

Lands Minister Robert Som-
mers this week refused to make
public the controversial agree-

and Kaiser Aluminum of the
United States, despite the fact

that he had promised to do so’

only last week.

Somers reneged on his promise
to release copies of the Kaiser
Dam agreement on the grounds
that he now considers it should
be submitted to the legislature
first. j

In his statement he also chang.
ed figures he had given previous-
ly, in an obvious attempt to
strengthen his case for the power
giveaway the government plan-
ned. t :

He did say that the Columbia
River basin development advis-
ory committee had approved the
plan, but neglected to add that
‘the committee, ‘which met last
Friday, has a majority of Social
Credit members on it who have
voting control.

Speech debate,

Continued

JOBLESS

ere also more people not work-
ing.”

. “This.meeting signalizes the be-
ginning of our fight for jobs,” de-
clared another painter, George
Kassian. “We learned a bitter
lesson during the last depression
and we are determined not to
Jet such conditions come again.”

“Prime Minister St. Laurent
doesn’t seem very interested in
our problem,” commented mach-
inist Jack Hawthorne. “For him
there is no unemployment. But —
there sure is for us.”

“The Social Credit government
is asking American companies to
come in and take our natural re-
sources at wholesale prices,” said
Herb Welch of the IBEW. “We
should. develop our own re-
sources, and block the Kaiser
Tam sellout.”

-Jim Barton, Plumbers’ business
agent, also took a shot at the
provincial government, “Plans to:
counteract this problem should
have been made last summer,”
he contended. “This situation is
not seasonal, despite what some
people say.” :

Boilermaker Lorne Hathaway
spoke bitterly of the influx of
American workers brought in by
U.S. companies. “They only come
here to work, with no intention

of settling in Canada, and they

take all the money and spend it
in the United States.”

Ottawa’s policy of shipping iron
ore to foreign countries, instead
of building a steel industry here,
also came under fire. “Now the
new post office construction work
is at a standstill, waiting for
steel to arrive from overseas,”
said a speaker from the floor.
“Steel made from the iron ore
we shipped out.” |

a * * *

Meeting with the provincial
cabinet on November 26, the ex-
ecutive board of the B.C. dis-
trict, International Union of
Myne, Mill and Smelter Workers,
stressed the importance of gov-
ernment action to ease unem-
rloyment and urged establish-
ment of the 40-hour week.

The union also suggested the
building of a custom smelter to
‘make possible operation of many ~
mines now shut down. Premier
Bennett said the government was
driving for the completion of this

ment between the government Proiect. y

Unemployment benefits were

_ criticized by the Mine-Mill spokes-

men, who asked the government
to join them in urging the fed-
eral government to increase pay-
ments to at least 65 percent of

earnings, to continue as long aS

the worker is unemployed. ;

The union also stressed the
necessity of a moratorium to pro-
tect jobless who had _ incurred
debts on homes and household
appliances, and had now, through
no fault of their own, lost the
means of continuing payments.

* * *

Unemployment across Canada.
increased by 11 percent in Octo-
ber over September, the bureau
of statistics in Ottawa revealed
this week. , sia

‘Unemployment insurance claim-
ants on October 29 numbered
209,099, compared with 187,745
on September 30.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 3, 1954 — PAGE 12