Pas NDER the title “People of the Potlach,’ one of the largest. and most representa- tive exhibitions of Pacific Northwest Indian art and cul- ture ever assembled will’ be on display-at Vancouver Art Gallery from April 10 to May 6 The ‘exhibition, eighth in a special “series organized by the gallery, is designed to show the close link between the social organization and art forms of the Pacific Northwest Indians. The University of British Columbia, which is coopera- ting with the gallery in ar- ranging the exhibition, will contribute a display of the artifacts taken from the Mar- pole Midden last summer by Dr. Charles E. Borden. Other exhibits are being contributed by Vancouver City Museum, Provincial Museum, Washington State Museum and Portland Art Museum. ‘People of the Potlach’ DR. CHARLES E. BORDEN BOOKS . British Columbia labor pioneer writes story of turbulent life EORGE HARDY’S autobio- graphical Those Stormy Years, reviewed here by Wal Hannington, has just been pub- lished in Britain by Lawrence and Wishart. It has a particular interest for the British Colum- bia labor movemént because of the author’s work in this prov- ince. When the book is obtain- able here next month, the Pacific Tribune will carry a second re- view by Tom McEwen dealing more fully with Hardy’s Cana- dian experiences. tt % os N° MAN can take a leading part in the industrial and political battles of the workers on five continents — America, Australia, Africa, Europe and Asia — without having a great ‘many exciting memories. George Hardy, that veteran working- class fighter has given us those memories in his book Those Stormy. Years. Here are recorded 50 years of intense international activity in Novel on ‘dirty war’ in Viet Nam is Graham Greene’s best work 5 apie there is no neutrality. The towers of disinterested observation are being aband- oned throughout the world. This is a challenge of our time which everybody must meet. “Sooner or later,” says a character in Graham Greene’s ~ latést novel, “one has to take sides, if one is to remain human.” That, I believe, is the. all- important core of The Quiet American (obtainable here at the People’s Co-op Bookstore, 337 .West Pender Street, price $3). It is the challenge which faces not only Fowler, the dis- illusioned English journalist who narrates the story, but ‘Greene himself “and millions more. =, It will be interesting to note, incidentally, what Catholic spokesmen will make of this story. Greene’s frequent excur- sions in theological. discussion in earlier novels have brought reb' from that quarter. Now the author, a Catholic convert, has abandoned religion — save as an undercurrent — of a vital, contemporary theme. It is a book about a nasty war; ' the war in Viet Nam. And it is a book angry with that war. The people don’t want commun- ism, argues Pyle, the quiet American. But Fowler tells him: “They want enough rice. They don’t want to be shot at. They want ‘one day to be much the “ema as another. They don’t want o white skins around telling thelh — they want.” For the first time Greene is as much concerned with im- portant ideological conflicts as he is with personal relationships. Pyle, the naive U.S. agent full of glib platitudes about “democ- racy” and “the role of the West,” believes that a “Third Force” will solve the problems of Viet Nam. He supplies a bandit general with explosives to launch the campaign. But dozens of women and children are killed in the in favor ' first big incident. Walking through the human‘ debris blood oozes on to Pyle’s shoes. “I must get them cleaned be- fore I see the minister,” he says almost in a stupor. But no re- gret. To Fowler, the cynical, middle-aged, opium - smoking English journalist, who has lost his girl to Pyle, the incident sparks off an intense confilct._ Now he must take sides. Now he must stop Pyle before more bombs are exploded and more innocent women and children are made the victims of a fal- lacious “Third Force.” He does so by collaborating in arranging Pyle’s murder. It is a typical Greene twist to a far more typical story told with the special brilliance that makes Greene stand out among con- temporary authors. None is more modern than he in expression. Few have his ability to define character and evoke a scene with a single short, sentence — like an all- seeing film shot. Take away the brooding Catholicism from Greene’s earlier works and you are often still left with an absorbing — if hardly uplifting — story. Now he has written a novel in which the ideas are as important as the action. It is by far his best novel to date. LEON GRIFFITHS which he led many strikes, was several times imprisoned and deported and tested in the fire of uprisings and revolutions. Here is real history! History revealing the stark, naked truth - about the ruthless exploitation, injustice and individual brutality . committed against the workers by the capitalist class, and the courage of the workers fighting back, often under conditions of extreme adversity. It is history written not by an outside observer but by one who was. an actual participant in its tragic and its glorious episodes. at t x George Hardy emigrated from England to Canada in 1906 and soon became involved in the class battles of the Canadian. teamsters and loggers. Later he went to the United States where he became a leading figure in the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). As an organiser for the IWW, Hardy gives us a vivid account of that ill-fated organisation, which fought so many bitter battles against the American employers and their gunmen, stoolpigeons and spies. He describes the arrests and the famous trial of the 112 leaders, including himself, which took place in Chicago in 1918. It lasted four months “and 26 days. The defendants and their counsel exposed the whole dis- graceful record of frame-ups, terrorism and murder which the American bosses and their strike breaking gunmen had used over many years, including the shocking murders of Joe Hill, Frank Little, Wesley Everest and many others. But it produced no. leniency in the judge, and at the end of the trial savage sentences were imposed on all defendants, 16 of them receiving sentences of 20 years each. Even so, Hardy recalls an amusing incident when Ben Fletcher, The Italian actress, Anna Magani (left) has been awarded an Oscar as the best actress for _ her performance in The Rose Tattoo. Oscar for the best actor was awarded to Ernest Borg- nine for his performance in Marty, which was adjudged the best film. a Negro defendant, calmly exclaimed as he was sen- tenced to ten years: “The judge is using terribly bad English this morning—his sentences are far too long!” 53 xt 5o3 But for.all its grand fighting” qualities, the IWW had serious weaknesses in policy. It eschew- ed any form of political action. It regarded all politics’‘as a dirty _ business and all polincans as, scoundrels. It believed only in strike action and rejécted the idea of a workers’ state —- even after the Russian Revolution. Hardy is able to give us a very interesting account of the ideo- logical conflicts that went on inside the organisation, because for several years he was organ- iser and then general secretary. He broke with the IWW in 1921 because it trejected affilia- tion to the Red International of Labor Unions after he had at- tended the first congress of the RILU in Moscow. He met Lenin and gives a most” interesting account of that interview. xt xt In 1923 Hardy left the United States and became secretary of the seamen’s section of the RILU, with its headquarters in Haan burg. It was a period of acute dis- tress for the German people; the aftermath of the First World War in which the economic chaos of capitalism had ‘plunged the working class into the low- est depths of poverty. It was-a period of revolution- ary -upheavals. Battles raged nightly on the streets of Ham- burg culminating in the capture of a big part of the city by the workers. But the victory was short- lived because of the failure of” the revolutionary movement in other centres. I personally wit- nessed some. of the scenes des- cribed in this chapter because I was also in Berlin and Ham- burg in that’ period. After the Hamburg insurrec- tion Hardy’s office was raided by armed police and-he had to go into hiding for a time. He then returned to England after an absence of 18 years and became an organiser in the militant activities of the National Minor- ity Movement leading up to the General Strike of 1926. In -1927 he left England again for a hazardous sojourn, this time into the revolutionary tur- moil of China. Through the treachery of Chiang Kai-shek to the national liberation move- ment thousands of Chinese trade © unionists, democrats and Com- munists were being arrested and executed. Hardy was requested to go to Hankow to take charge of the illegal Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat. Conscious of the danger in- volved he went and his book gives us a graphic description of his experiences and the heroism of the Chinese with whom he worked. He was there three ‘years in the midst of civil war | in which many of his closest friends lost their lives. But in 1951 at the age of 67 he had what he describes as “the ~ supreme happiness” of return- ing to China with a British dele- gation and witnessing the tri- umph of China’s liberation. : This book is undoubtedly 2 most valuable contribution to- working-class literature and should be widely read. WAL HANNINGTON MARCH 30, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE ;