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TOM McEWEN, Editor — HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business Manager.
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ee

Tom |
McEwen

Psy centuries before the American
r labor movement adopted May Day
ca day of international labor unity
Solidarity between all toilers, this *
A ny day was celebrated in many lands
th by many peoples in diverse ways,
‘ Mostly as a semi-religious festival,
eee: of spring and the creativeness
“ new life; of all nature pregnant with
new birth of abundance.
ae his massive work on human evolu-
Nin The Golden Bough, Sir James G.
ae recreates the hopes and aspira-
Sa of peoples far apart in racial and
ohe ee differences, but united on
Mest tea —that their symbolic rituals to
4 er Nature on May Day would bring
aegis measure of life, security and
me €ing during the coming year.
an ehind the long history of May Day
ce its adoption by American Labor
eas ago, the titanic struggles and
a Onstrations for international work-
8 class solidarity and unity to win a
sete Measure of progress, wellbeing
Ma Peace, go on unabated. Each
a Day records new victories for labor,
life ee new goals to be attained, new
Or organized labor through greater

» Unity. Defeats, yes; on May Day labor ,

'SO reviews its defeats—and learns
vie lessons in in preparation for new
ories ahead.

oe ee es

: ne main job remains from every
i oaetee to tell new thousands of
the; €rs about the struggle; how to win

™m for labor’s marching battalions;
ee put in simple written words the
of tation to build the fighting ranks
2 Militant labor movement.

ies this, the great American socialist,
aaa Victor Debs, wrote 50 years
Oe the life-breath of the labor

vement, the press, is paramount to,
* Other agencies and influences, and
Progress of the press is a sure index
€ progress of the movement.”
what Gene Debs was very sure of just
“The Press he was speaking of and for;
labor Working man who wants to read a

A ably, honestly and fearlessly speaks
to’ st € working class, will find it safe
with fer clear of those that are loaded
_ 4," Capitalist advertising, and make
Selection from those that are nearly
Quite boycotted by the class that
be and thrives upon the. slavery and
Tadation of the working class.”
Bibs meat great struggle labor has en-
>d in during the past century, the
Beate en in the minds of its pro-
Work ve leaders was how to tell the
just €rs how to promote and maintain
Whisk oe a paper as Debs spoke of,
Work Would speak the language of the
om ing class in its struggle for econ-
socks betterment, progress, peace and
1alism,
“ae Problem is answered on this May
ing ig the Pacific Tribune; by increas-
culatic effectiveness ‘with greater cir-
fight; on; by donating to its required
Py. ng fund of $18,000; by making the
labo € family journal of all progressive
t in British Columbia. _ ;
Bross. task of building a powerful labor
and to expose the lying propaganda
distortions of the venal commercial -

the

or
live

a is always on the “unfinished busi-
ing Po May Day; always the job dur-
of th € coming year, as part and parcel
ar chalking up of new victories on
Ree May Days. : x '
. 228 the way to victory for labor
t aed Peace on May Day by making
Die acific Tribune your guide to hap-
T tomorrows.

Paper with the true ring, one ~

fhe

.streetcar completed its last run.

Upset this shameful deal

Pee abject capitulation of the

B.C. Power Commission to the
B.C. Electric in the Powell River
hydro deal brings into sharp per’
spective the role of the Social
Credit government — that of a
poliitcal broker for the monopolies
in disposing of our provincial re-
sources.

Premier W. A. C. Bennett and
members of his cabinet have denied,
of course, that they influenced the
B.C. Power Commission to with

draw in favor of the B.C. Electric.

Their denials will not stand exanmy
ination.

All the facts point to one con’.

clusion. The government plotted
this deal with the B.C. Electric and
the Powell River Company while
the legislature was still in session.
And behind the B.C. Electric
stand powerful U.S. trusts which
are interested in control of B.C.
power for their own use.

Had the Bennett government
not been party to engineering this

betrayal of the people’s interests,

it would never have permitted an
issue of such far-reaching import:
ance to come before a Public Utili-
ties Commission which, in the eyes
of the public, is completely dis-
credited.

The B.C. Power Commission's
cabinet-dictated surrender to the
B.C. Electric not only constitutes
a decisive setback to establishment
of a publiclyowned hydro-electric

_ A chapter in Vancouver's

development was clo: wi st
When the chapter opened, Hastings and Cambie was

grid system — with all that public
power means in lower rates — but
it gives the private power mono-
poly access to the power sites of
Bute Inlet and other coastal areas.
It. eliminates the B.C. Power Com-

mission from a part of the prov

ince which has great hydro re
sources and virtually gives those
resources to the B.C. Electric.

Public pressure can still thwart
this giveaway and compel the gov-
ernment to place the people's in-
terests in public power above the
grasping demands of the private
power monopoly.

CCF and Social Credit MLAs
supported by the people of this
province, can muster sufficient
strength in the legislature to reject
this shameful deal. They have the
strength to compel the government
to restore the authority of the B.C.
Power Commission as the custo-
dian of the people's interests in
public power. They have the
strength to compel dismissal of the
present Public Utilities Commis
sion which, in effect, has become
an agent of the B.C. Electric main-
tained at public expense.

The people, by representations
to their MLAs, must see that this
strength is exercised. Like the now
defunct Coalition, the Socred gov-
ernment must be ‘taught that it

cannot give away the people’s re-

sources wih impunity.

- the centre of town, the first four-wheeled streetcars ran east only to Cambie and then
turned down Cordova, and oxen were still a familiar sight on the streets, as shown
by this picture taken at Hastings and Cambie in 1890. At left is the Inns of Court
building and at right the old wooden Arcade. The streetcars have gone, but the
B.C. Electric remains. Now grown to become one of the most powerful monopolies in
the country, its influence reaches into every level of government and dominates the

city council.

The new chapter in Vancouver’s development begins with the demand

for public ownership finding ever broader support.

.

Hal
Griffin

HERE I live in Burnaby the bus runs

once an hour and if you hope to get
anywhere on time, you don’t miss it.
That was how I came to know Vera, al-
though that wasn’t her~real name, a
Czech emigre. We used to catch the
same bus every morning and little by
little over the months she told me her
story.

She had worked in the Czech under-
ground during. the Second World War.
But for her the liberation of Czecho-
slovakia from the Nazi occupation had
always meant restoration of the country
as it had been before Munich. ‘

The struggle between those who want-
ed to restore the old pre-war Czecho-
slovakia and those who wanted to place
their country on the path to socialism
was, decisively determined in 1948 when
the People’s government came to power.
For Vera it meant an end to the priv-
ilege and position established by her
family’s wealth. It also meant new op-
‘portunities for achievement, to earn for
herself a place in the new society.

She blinded herself to the new and
could see only the old. She left Czecho-
slovakia and came to Canada, but she
was not happy in this country. She want-
ed to go back. At some point, whenever
we talked about it, she would burst out,
‘Tt hope there will be another war soon
and then I can go home.”

2 % 5o3 bos

I was reminded of Vera jast week
when I read about the 200 Czech emi-
gres who prevented the holding of a
ceremony in London. At this ceremony
plaques were to-'be presented to a
Czechoslovak delegation to mark the
sending of 7,000 rose trees to Czecho-
slovakia for a memorial rose garden in
Lidice. ae

The roses were the gifts of people
throughout Britain, people of little min-
ing towns and great cities who share
with the people of Czechoslovakia a
knowledge of war’s horrors and the de-
termination to save ‘peace: The plaques,
to be plaééd in the garden at Lidice,
were. presented by coal miners.

As Arthur Horner, general secretary
of the National Union of Mine Work-
ers, thundered at the screaming Czech
emigres who made holding of the cere-
mony impossible: “Our Welsh and Brit-
ish miners gave £70,000 to help the
victims of Lidice, and you are the crim-
inals tonight.”

One member of the Czech delegation
was Helena Leflerova, member of the
Czechoslovak assembly for Lidice.

Heléna Leflerova lost every member
of her family except her mother during
the Nazi occupation. Her father and
her young husband were shot when the
Nazis killed all the men of Lidice on
June 10, 1942, levelled its cottages,
school and church, and even destroyed
the tombstones in the churchyard to
erase the village from the earth.
Helena’s. grandmother died in Ravens-
bruck concentration camp, to which all
the women of Lidice were sent, and her
14-year-old sister died in the gas cham-
bers there. aS |

But Lidice did not die. Today it lives
again, “We have 120 children now,”
Helena said the other day. “Their lives
will be incomparably better than ours.
Can you understand how strongly we
feel about peace?”

Like Vera, the Czech emigres are prev-
ented from going home only by their
own hatred — or guilt. Not love, but
hatred of country obsesses their un-
happy lives. :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 29, 1955 — PAGE 5