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“EDITORIAL PAGE +

Labor must coordinate its campaign, LOO

DURING th

+ the weeks ahead
of ead many
“Ountry We large Unions across the
Negotiating for new
Berne, ae the
: an ied Work-
tonal Wun) and the Interna-
(CLc) Sdworkers of America

are gettin
§ set to secure
creases,

lefe ae ising living costs have
to lg other alternative than
With « = stantial wage increases-
ate Deg fite €W exceptions, corpor-
high He Femain at their all-time
ehouncern And despite optimistic
is 4 ini ents that unemployment
it still ng, the cold fact is that
acing Stowing, with thousands

f

° term) .

MSUtance 1. tuo” Of unemployment
€ benefits,

. Bai .

ing Salnst this background of grow-
attack ig b 4 concerted nation-wide
Bahized Lg fing launched against or-
Wages +. © by big business, High
for tts ar :

MG ' existin
logs” 4

5 high Prices and for
trbuting

Sieg and are a con-
or to unemployment.
acy fie argument is bein used
in a ea Country by big business
do er nting campaign to force
It ig the Standards, Coupled with
abor les} Eecston for restrictive
ton cies ation to outlaw strike ac-
Raining _ ““IPPle the existing bar-
Machinery of the unions:
Industrial Relations Ltd.,
tthe Presents the boss loggers
y ce eaining table has al-
blames ed its first bulletin. It
Or Wage gains in 1957
“isin teased Mibetiployiment,” for

c ”
Matkets sts and for “our loss of

. Ores

SO ome
hg use Ptisingly, this is the line

Chamber . a? spokesmen, for the

Commerce and Cana-

Some of aufacturers

ong of

Association.
© more brazen, like Ralph

labor’s collective
ifa Or wage increases. From
‘lamo ‘ to Vancouver employer
° rowing for dog-collar

Pacific Tribune

P
Sig MUtual 5-5288
Manapi ‘or — TOM McEWEN.
"S Editor — HAL GRIFFIN

’ Subscription Rates:
One Year: $4.00
Six months: $2.25

Room, olished weekly at
8 — 426 Main Street
c aNcouver 4, B.C.

County wlan and Commonwealth

ORE year (CxCept Australia): $4.00

Md ay .,,Australia, United States
her countries: $5.00 one
year,

Sued, are responsible

“compulsory arbitration” to head-
off wage increases, Encouraged by
the return of a Conservative gov-
ernment to power with 1 top heavy
majority, big business hopes to
throw the whole burden of an ec-
onomic crisis of its own making
onto the backs of the common peo-
ple, and in the first instance upon
organized labor, by threatening Jus”
tified wage increases with judicial
reprisals through so-called “labor
courts.

In its news bulletin of February
27 the Canadian Labor Congress,
fully cognizant of this nation-wide
attack upon organized labor, alerts
its membership to the dangers, and
particularly the efforts of the em-
ployers to “defeat the purpose of
true collective bargaining.’

With two big B.C. unions moving
into wage negotations, the recent
strikes in the pulp and paper and
electrical industry for wage increas-
es point up one paramount lesson
the need of greater labor unity

in action through the medium of
wage coordination committees.

In preparation for their concerted
attack upon organized labor, the
employers have established active
coordination from coast to coast.
The sameness of their anti-labor
propaganda makes this clear.

Organized labor must enter, the
1958 wage struggle in the same

manner, united, working together,
and determined not to be chopped.

down - piecemeal to provide a
Chamber of Commerce “prosperity”
at the expense of labor’s living stan-
dards.

To the lay observer, fishermen
and loggers may be different voca-
tions, but the same coupon-clip-
pers who extract fat profits from
the labors of both are now aiming
to destroy the collective bargaining
effectiveness of both. Only maxi-
mum labor unity to win wage in-
creases can meet the employers’ at-
tack and defeat the threat of indus-
trial feudalism.

Hit food
profiteers

wet employers want to seal

pay envelopes with
their present contents, food and
other prices continue skywards.

Last week the Bureau of Statisties

reported an increase of six-tenths
of a point in food prices,

The Bureau of Statistics describes
this latest jump in food prices as
“unusual”. What is “unusual” is
not the increase in prices but the
fact that nothing is done about it.
If Ottawa showed the same’ alacrity
in utilizing the Combines Act against
food and other price manipulators
(for which the act was originally de-
signed), as it did in utilizing this
instrument to cripple the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers Un-
ion, that might be “unusual,” but
it might have a salutory effect in
holding down prices and keeping
them somewhere near in line with
family incomes.

Tom
McEwen

S READERS can see by

following the weekly score-
poard in our annual financial
drive to keep this paper rolling,
we are still a very long way
from the required minimum of
$15,500. In terms of time we are
nearly half-way through the
drive, but in terms of results,
only getting started.

Let’s take a look at the situa-
tion. We’ve had a general elec-
tion, ending with a top-heavy
Tory government. That political
catastrophe poses 4 question:
Will history repeat itself with
another round of the Hungry
Thirties? The best assurance that
it won't is a widely circulated
hardhitting working class paper.

There is an old saying that the
people, deserve what they vote
for. That doesn’t hold good any
more. The people didn’t vote for
Diefenbaker because they had all
suddenly become Conservative in
their thinking, but because they
wanted a change, wanted to get
thingy done, wanted to see an
end to depression, war tensions
and perpetual uncertainty.

On these issues the Tories
made a lot of promises. Now
they'll have to deliver the goods.

One of the best ways in seeing
that they do is to keep Pacific
Tribune rolling with the
dollars needed to meet publishing
costs, and with increased circu-
lation in every B.C. community.

The commercial press, as al-
_ ways, plays a big role around
election time in shaping what
it calls ‘public opinion.” Com-
mercially it cashed in hand-
somely during. the recent elec-
tion. on both Liberal and Tory

contenders, but gave the weight.

of its editorial blessings (this
time) to the new Tory “messiah.”

Obversely it contrived an almost
complete blackout or those -can-
didates on the Left, and particu-
larly LPP candidates, who alone.
raised the’ real issues around
which the elections should have
been fought; jobs for three
quarters of a million unem-
ployed, markets in .all countries
ready and willing to trade with
us, and peace through a sum-
mit conference and agreement of
the big powers, desired by the
common peoples of the whole
world. These vital issues and the
candidates projecting them got
the ‘silent treatment’ from the
editorial moguls of the com-
mercial press.

The obvious conclusion to be
drawn from such _ treatment
(which is not unexpected in a
class society) is not to waste
time bemoaning these monopoly
manipulators of public misinfor-
mation, but to build, extend, and
financially support a fighting
labor paper through which the
common people of factory and

farm can say their own piece
without having to depend upon
the ‘free press” of big business.

In round figures the PT needs
approximately $13,000 between
now and May 15. Big. business
spent more than that in one
hour’s advertising of the Tories
and doubtless considers it money
well spent, because having paid
the tune from Ottawa!
the tune, from Ottawa!

With a real effort on the part
of all PT readers and supporters
the amount still needed should
be easily realized. It is just a
matter of getting going. “Gold,”
said the experienced prospector-
miner, “is where you find it,”
meaning that if one kept on

, digging around, even in the most

unexpected places, the object of
the search might prove fruitful.

So it is with the Pacific Tribune.
The possibilities for new readers,
new supporters, are limitless,
simply because their economic
worries and fears find the widest
and most direct expression in
the columns of the PT. More-
over since working class papers,
unlike the daily monopoly press,
have no reason or cause to hide,
twist, or suppress the truth on
any issue affecting the well-
being of the pecple, papers like
the PT possess a reliability, an
asset totally foreign in the mon-
opoly press.

The first job between now and
May 15 is to make sure the PT
drive goes. over the top — to
keep this paper in the forefront
of the struggle to win the
changes the people voted for
on March 31..

April 11, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5