Jobs — a top priority Switch on the light

HE time has passed when gov-
ernment or other statistics
can serve to minimize the growing
crisis of unemployment and its
disastrous effects upon the econ-
omic and social standards of the
community.and nation.
Even in mid-summer of this
year when, according to the “sea-

- sonal” oracles, things are supposed

to “pick up”, tens of thousands
have already been added to the

- jobless army, already well past
. the half-million mark. By the end

of the year and the first months of
1961, Canada faces the possibility
of a jobless army well over one

_ million. Almost one in every four

wage earners is deprived of the
right or opportunity to earn a
livelihood.

Obviously no piddling “fix-it-
yourself - winter - work” panaceas
are sufficient to meet this grow-
ing jobless crisis. Nor are the
specious “promises” of the polit-
ical yesmen of big business, be
they Socred, Tory or Liberal. As
for the CCF top brass, whose main
desire is to show that they can
run capitalism better than the
capitalists do, the jobless can
searcely wait for that auspicious
occasion to materialize, since they
and their families (and their com-
munity) have to eat meantime.

The prime question confronting
every jobless worker and every
community (and still not answer-
ed by the specious “promising”’ in
this election campaign) demands
an answer. Are maximum mon-
opoly profits and criminal nuclear
arms spending, both at their high-
est level in Canada’s history, going
to have continued top priority over
people’s welfare, thereby pauper-
izing workingclass and community
life?

Politicians’ “promises”, before
and after elections, won’t answer
that question. It can only be an-
Swered by orgarization and mil-
itant struggle, united and directed
against parties and policies which
rob the people of their inherit-
ance; against policies which give
preference to monopoly greed for
profits and criminal spending for
nuclear war, instead of peaceful

Pacific Tribune

Editor —- TOM McEWEN
Assaciate Ednor — MAURICE RUSH
Business Mgr. — OXANA BIGELOW

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construction and social progress.

With each month adding its
menacing quota to an already
grave unemployment crisis, de-
cisive organization and united ac-
tion cannot be much longer delay-
ed. When parliament opens in
Victoria and Ottawa (and the ur-
gency of special sessions is already
apparent), mass delegations rep-
resenting Canada’s dispossessed
and jobless army should be on the
House doorsteps to remind the
“promisers” of their promises;
and remain there in ever-increas-
ing numbers until something more
than promises and patchwork. is
forthcoming.

This issue is not just a growing
army of workers deprived of a
job, but a nation with a speedily-
shrinking payroll, bringing suffer-
ing, hardship and destitution to
every community. And all because
its rich resources are criminally
exploited by. profit-hungry mon-
opoly, and criminally squandered
on armaments by the _ political
henchmen of the same monopoly
gang.

Whatever the outcome of Mon-
day’s elections, one fight must go
on; to win jobs, security and peace
for the working people. They’ve
had the “roses” in the politicians’
“promises”. Now they demand
the “bread” through prompt ac-
tion — and on a big scale.

HE revelation by Soviet News
. TASS that a former command-
ant of a Nazi

in Winnipeg on the wealth stolen
from the victims of his mass ex-
ecutions, is deeply repulsive to
know, but not surprising.

Since the TASS exposure this
Nazi ghoul has been’ heard from
through the medium of the Cana-
dian press, but wishes to keep his
identity “secret”, to which our
“free press” has seemingly agreed.
As the chief “defence” of every
nazi murderer’ is “anti-commu-
nism” it is not too difficult to
understand this ready agreement
by the press. :

It is no secret, however, that
from the first days of the coldwar,
U.S. imperialism and its dollar
satellites saw the necessity of
saving the skins of as many of
these nazi killers as they could.
Hence literally thousands of these
nazi beasts of the , Eichmann
specie were helped out of Germany
and given asylum as “landed im-
migrants” in the “free West” of
their choice.

It is known that Canada took in
her quota of this scum in accord-
ance with U.S. desires. Our RCMP
and Federal Immigration Depart-
ment provided the _ necessary
“screening’’, with the “screen” so
adjusted that nazi executioners,

prison camp in.
Estonia, is now living comfortably"

“freedom fighters” and all the
filth of the European nazi gutter
had no difficulty getting through.
The main thing was, then and now,
that no Communist or person with
progressive ideas, should get
through its fine RCMP mesh.

Now we learn that this particu-
lar nazi executioner of the Esto-
nian-people, living on the spoils he
stripped them of at the death oven
door, and whose “identity” is so
well guarded by the powers-that-
be, is now “a civilian employee
with the Tory department of na-
tional defence.” ;

That indeed should make Cana-
dians blush with shame; to know
that they had an Eichmann on
their “national defence’ machine-
ry. Heil Diefenbaker!

This disgraceful situation needs
remedying in the only way. it can
be remedied; the arrest and de-
portation of this Estonian Eich-—
mann to Estonia, where the peo-
ple, as in Israel, will bring him
before the bar of world justice for —
his heinous crimes. And the air of
Canada will feel less polluted.

(At press time the identity of
this Nazi killer, responsible for
the torture and death of over 3,000
Czech and German citizens, was
revealed as Alexander Laak of 272
Guilford Street, Winnipeg, an
that he had committed suicide on _
September 6.)

HATEVER the makeup of the
W vex British Columbia legis-
lature as a result of this election,
one seat long representative of the
enduring ruggedness of B.C. labor,
will be filled by a poor substitute;
the seat held by the veteran Labor
MLA, 86-year-old Tom Uphill of
Fernie.

This grand old champion, still
young in spirit, has held his seat
in the B.C. legislature for over 40
years, an unmatched record in the
Commonwealth, and a lasting trib-
ute to the Welsh-Canadian coal
miner who held it, and with it the
confidence and trust of the work-
ing people of Fernie who sent him
back election after election.

“Why isn’t Tom Uphill running
in this election?” is a question often
heard these days. Well, as Tom
would probably say, politics is a
fickle Jade at best, and in this
age of political careerists, office
seekers and run-of-the-mill oppor-
tunists, more unpredictable than
ever.

Some people think Tom was ‘“‘too
old” to run again, which shows
how little they know Tom Uphill.
Others, like jackals waiting in the
background for a courageous old
lion to expire so they could feed
on his laurels, connived to secure
his seat for their own, soothing
their political “conscience”? mean-
time with the pretext of winning
him a “pension” on his pressurized.
“retirement.”

Tom Uphill should have been in
this election, un-opposed (at least
by so-called ‘labor’), as a_ final
tribute of the working people of
his constituency to a_ lifetime of
effort given in their service; a
tribute which would have had the
approval of the majority of work-
ing men and women of British
Columbia.

The glamor of his accomplish-
ments, excelling many and equal
to most during these long 40-years .
may be dimmed by the changing
times, but his dynamic personality.
and deep sincerity in the cause of
his fellowmen, were as much a fix-
ture in the B.C. legislature as the
Speaker’s chair.

In or out of the legislature, Tom
Uphill is a ‘workingman’s man.
With Tom there is none of that
MLA snobbery and uppity-upness,
too often characteristic of the ave-
rage parliamentary member be-

tween elections. Tom isn’t a ‘glad-
hander’, reserving his joviality to
cadge votes, but a man of the
people, frank and _ open at all
times, possessed of the rich genius
of provoking a hearty laugh in a
glum atmosphere.

A worker visiting Victoria ‘with
a political ‘beef’ on his chest might
approach other partisan MLA’s
with a feeling of timidity or a
sense of ‘inferiority’ with the
“sreat man” inside, but never with
Tom Uphill. This man, despite his
40-years an MLA, never lost the
warm handshake, the friendly
greeting, the frank and honest
friendship of a humble coal miner.
To the worker, Tom Uphill has al-
ways remained “our ’ain folk.”

Who the people of Fernie nomin-
ate or elect is strictly their own
business, but working people in
many other parts of B.C. feel a
deep sense of loss. in the absence
of Tom Uphill. Without him the
House will seem empty and forbid-
ding, and:the one seat Labor could
always depend on—not vacant, but
full of emptiness.

Men of Tom Uphill’s mould are
not much in evidence in this elec-
tion, and for the common people,
more’s the pity. Tom Uphill’s great-
ness lies in the fact that in all the ~
years he sat in: Victoria, he never
forgot he was a working man. $0
many do!

wd

September 9, 1960—-PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pase 4