herding to Herr Duplessis

a Labor-Progressive Party,
to communists), had planned
celebrate the 100th anni-

vi
‘aan of Karl Marx by seiz-

mg the city h
vineial y hall and the pro

Br police headquarters.
a eh of this dastardly ‘plot’ is
~—ined in a ‘coded chart’

ee Beer ssie, police are al-
oe © have seized in a raid
aa a Montreal LPP offices
ee he Montreal-Cartier by-
ae = Said offices are describ-
aS 2 he commercial ‘free press’
ou eco atlst hideout.’ Makes
ons

a Piracy’ s in-
ister, icy’ sound more sin

; an ‘coded chart’ (with key
as is f attached) purports to
a ae 100 Reds were de-
eulis © seize the city hall,
se oe slightly stronger force

. ; are detailed to take over
Donte Prefecture of provincial
fon, The balance of Quebec’s

as a communists (the figures
ae Sy Duplessis’) were to at-
ee © the taking over of the
of the province. Mon Dieu!

er Duplessis’ ‘revelations’
i Pecne in a speech before

ee oe, supporting the
icc. of _Andre Laurendeau
“Populaire) to outlaw the

f.

(Qu € d Lacroix, ‘independent’

ty €bec-Montmerency) is now
°re the House of Commons.

ae latest ‘Reichstag fire’
ae cooked up by Duplessis
as St the LPP and the work-
5 people of Quebec is only one
a, in his all-out drive
ae St the communists. On sev-
Bae cons he has threatened
ae ec citizens, communist and
“communist alike with the in-
ee ‘Padlock Law, which
‘amps a virtual Gestapo rule
ee

Duplessis cooks new
‘red plot’ in Quebec

18 ES ROUGES! sacre’. Herr Duplessis, premier of Que-

_bec, has discovered a ‘communist plot’ to

eae’: He gave the Quebec Legislature a rough sketch
the ‘plot’ on April 25, and will give the ‘Chambre des
Ommunes’ the full details ‘in due course.’

set Progressive Party in Que-
« A similar motion by Wil-.

May Day Greetings

from

J. O. Witherspoon

VANCOUVER
LABOR
COUNCIL

(CCL)
=

EXTENDS
MAY DAY
GREETINGS
and Pledges Its Full Support
for a HIGHER STANDARD
of LIVING for” the
CANADIAN WORKERS

seize his

on what men and women read,
think, and do. Recently Duples-
sis barred the University of
Montreal from showing. the
French film, ‘Les Enfants du
Paradis’, a picture of the un-
derground Resistance.

Behind all Herr Duplessis’
anti-communist fulminations and
conspiracies lies the fact that
Quebec labor during the past
year is effectively challenging
the exploitation of the big tex-

PREMIER DUPLESSIS

tile, shipping, and other monop-
olists. Big Business, concentrat-
ed in James Street are demand-
ing action to break the growing

unity and_ struggle of the
French-Canadian workers for
a higher standard. of life.

Noblesse oblige! Herr Duplessis
assumes the soiled mantle of
Hitler, and his latest ‘revela-
tion’ indicates that it fits him
well.

Coupled with. Duplessis’ anti-
communist hysteria is the fact
that Adrien Arcand, leader of
the fascist, National Unity Party
declared two weeks ago that
‘this fascist’ movement had
grown tenfold’ and intimated
that an increase of fascist ac-
tivities could be expected in
Quebec in the near future.

May Day Greetings
fom: >
Renfrew LPP Club

May Day Greetings

from

*

| Kirk's Clothes Shop

301 West Hastings

j

WEFETU calls for

May Day unity

PARIS—A call to every
worker in the world to op-
pose the anti-labor plans of
international reaction and to
join the 71 million members of
the World Federation of Trade
Unions “in the interests of de-

mocracy and peace” was issued
by the WFTU on the occasion

of: May Day, 1947.

Calling on world labor to “de-
fend your trade union rights,”
the WFTU statement puts for-
ward the following immediate
demands: :

@ An end to exploitation “and
to social and economic discrim-
ination: in all its forms, whether
of race, religion or sex.”

@® Equal pay for women work-
ers.

@ Full employment and wage
minimums which will ensure a
decent standards of living for
the workers of all countzies.

@ Paid vacations in countries
where they are not now granted.

@ Freedom of speech, assem-
bly, press and organization.

® The rooting out of fascism
“ander whatever form it shows

“itself.”

@ The real denazification of
Germany and democratization of
Japan.

© Full support to the peoples
of Spain and Greece and “all
cther oppressed peoples who are
struggling to win their demo-
cratic and trade union rights.

“It was the solidarity of the
peoples of the United Nations
. , that assured victory on the
field of battle’? in World War
Il, the WFTU says, adding that
“continued .cooperation and
friendly relations between. the
peoples of the United Nations,
as well as the indestructible
unity of their governments, still
constitute the only guarantee of
a stable and enduring peace.”
In the postwar world, however,
reactionary business interests
“inspired solely by greedy mo-
tives of profit” are seeking “to
sow discord between countries
and to prevent the peaceful
settlement of the problems in-
volved in world reconstruction,”
it says. To gachieve this, the re-
actionaries “seek to weaken the
forces of ‘democracy and, above
all, to deprive the workers of
their rights.”

“In certain countries,
trade union organizations are
prohibited or dissolved. On ac-
count of their trade union ac-
tivities, union leaders and active
members are thrown into prison

and tortured. Sometimes they
pay with their lives.” :
Despite this anti-labor on-

slaught, the WFTU “now em-
braces the vast majority of the
... workers of the whole world”
and world labor in general “is
making progress and gaining
new strength.”

“On the occasion of the First
of May, International Labor Day,
the WFTU requests all its af-
filiated organizations to throw
all their strength into the
struggle against reaction, in
-order to insure complete protec-
tion for the interests and legiti-

mate rights of the workers.”

Short Jabs by Ol Bill

free

A COUPLE of weeks ago the Montreal Gazette launched a scathing
broadside against the pulp and paper industry in Canada. The
moguls of that almost-monopoly were accused of gouging the users
of newsprint, that is, practically everyone in Canada, to the extent
: ; of “all the traffic would bear.” Profits in the
277 percent industry during the past year for the leading
firms in the newsprint pool were shown to
range anywhere from 145 percent to 369 percent, averaging an over-
all 277 percent. Spokesmen for these profiteers were burned up and
were quick to advance the argument that their profits are not ex-
orbitant and that they are only getting back some of what they
lost in the ‘hungry thirties.’
Such an argument, if put forth by the Canadian workers in a
demand for increased wages would be laughed out of court (arbitra-

tion court) but would be of gteat validity from a moral point of
view. ‘

On November 1, 1944, Harold Foley, president of the Powell
River Company, addressed the Vancouver Board of Trade. In the
course of his remarks he said: “We,must be assured that our post-
war economic system will provide for the creation of capital goods
by individuals and corporations who are willing and able to spend
for current consumption, or to distribute dividends less than they
earn ... But we require a greater equity in our present earnings
so that we may be prepared to institute our complete program of
investment at the very instant deflation and unemployment becomes
apparent.” : :

Although the Powell River Company was not listed among the
greed-afflicted companies referred to in the Gazette, it is impossible
to imagine that firm foregoing any of the advantages of. such a
market as prevails today for their sole products, pulp and paper,
when as they admit in their annual report, sales are limited only
by the company’s ability to produce.”

According to the 1945 Consolidated Balance sheet of the company,
the 1,344,695 issued shares of no par value represent an investment
of $7,396,025.00 but the value of their holdings in mills, hydro plants,
townsites, timber holdings, logging equipment, tugs and scows, is
listed at over 40 million dollars. ;

We might contend with good reason that it has been a very
good system, for them, that has, so far allowed for ‘the creation
of capital goods’ in the measure the Powell River Company has
profited from it. : :

They are now getting the ‘greater equity’ Foley demanded. How
are:they using it in, their ‘program of investment’? A dock built
and paid for by the Dominion government and previously used by
the people of Powell River, Wildwood Heights and Cranberry has
been grabbed by the company and closed against the people who
own it, so that they are now forced to use another government
dock two miles away and spend hard-earned dollars on taxi fares.
That, of course, is an added inducement to buy at the company
‘pluck me’ store.

Shylock only wanted his pound of flesh—the paper barons want
277 pounds. ee EOS BEES , :

HAVE often wondered how the judges who award the Oscars for

the best pictures, and the other American committees who pick
the ‘ten best,’ etc., arrived at their decisions. Now I know. I saw
two pictures almost in the same week, the Hollywood prize-winner,
a 2% ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ and ‘Open —
Stone Flower’ City.’ Without any time lag it was not very

difficult to see why the Hollywood picture

placed first and the Italian one, second. The answer was ‘the home
town team must win.’ In Ontario when a hockey match is staged
between teams from small towns, or in Scotland where ‘fitba’’
is the ruling passion and teams of the same kind meet, the referee
goes in fear and trembling. It is his business to see that the
home town team wins—or else. ;

That is the only basis on which these two films could place
as they did. The American picture had the edge technically but
in every other way it was faded. Supposedly dealing with the
re-establishment. problems of the returned men it did not even |
‘effleurer la question, to borrow a phrase from Marx. It was
saved from being an utter flop only by the artistry of the old
troupers, Frederic March and Myrna Loy. ~ : .

There are other places besides Hollywood and New York where
selections of the best pictures are made. From the International
Cinema Festival at Cannes comes. the first feature-length Soviet
colored picture, judged at that festival as the best colored picture
of the year, ‘Stone Flower.’ This choice was not made on the
same basis as ‘Best Years’ since it certainly was not a home
town picture in France. ‘

The superiority of the Soviet color process is so marked that
some explanation has to be found for it, so it is rumored in Holly-
wood that ‘the Russians got it from the Germans as a war prize.’
See it for yourself at the Lyric Theatre next week!

Day Greetings
from

Campbell River

LPP Club .

j May May Day Greetings

go FLOM poxe
Copitol Hill LPP Club |

-

President, N. MacLean “

Room 19, 163 W. Hastings St.

MAY DAY GREETINGS to . . .
CANADA‘S WORKERS
Industrial Local No. 1

AMALGAMATED BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
: of Canada :

B.C.
Sec.-Treas., J. C. Barrett

Vancouver,

‘MAY DAY GREETINGS
TO OUR MEMBERSHIP and ALL READERS
Forty Dollars for 40 Hours in 1947 for everybody ix
\ logging operations.

: O se
IWA Local 1-71, 204 Holden Building

Bee Sees
>
re

* genes

FRmay, MAY 2, 1947

; PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5