Soviet artists mest Canadians

High praise for Canadian ballet came from the two Soviet ballet stars when they visited back-
stage at the National Ballet Company performance in Toronto.

Above, Elizaveta Chavdar, Leonid
Zdhanov, and: ballerina Sophia Golovkina, exchange

greetings with Miss Celia Franca.

into the bleacher sections.

cloudy skies and a constant threat

of rain, thousands of Vancouver
citizens saw and heard May Day
speakers in a CBUT television
broadcast Sunday evening — the
first time that 4 May Day rally has
been on TV in Canada.

“This is a day when the working
class of the world meets as one
army, under one banner and with
one aim—to build a better world,”
guest speaker A. A. MacLeod of
Toronto, former Labor-Progressive
member of the Ontario legislature,
told the audience.

Standing on a flag-draped plat-
form, MacLeod reminded his lis-
teners that four of the founders of
May Day stood on another kind of

platform, called a scaffold, on No-
vember 11, 1887, and were hanged
in the first major “red scare” in
American history, whipped up fol-
lowing the throwing of a bomb at
a Haymarket Square meeting in
Chicago the previous year.

MacLeod quoted the last words
uttered by August Spies, one of the
hanged, who said before the noose
was placed around his neck:
“There will come a time .
silence will be more powerful than
the. voices you are strangling to-
day.” —

“Spies’ prophecy is being ful-
filled before our eyes right now,”
said MacLeod. “The eight-hour
day exists, even though it is not
yet universal. But look at the
world today—the working class
is in control or areas where one-
third of mankind. lives. Millions
of workers are celebrating their
advances this May Day. What a
wonderful sight it would be if
we could see them marching past
this grandstand.

“In the last century Jay Gould,
one of the great Robber Barons,
contemptuously said, I can buy
one half of the working class to
kill off the other half.

“In our day we have John Foster
Dulles thinking he can buy half the
people of the world to kill people
in the other half.

“Dulles is just as mistaken to-
day as Jay Gould was in his day.

“One half of the world will make
common cause with the other half
to usher in a better world for their

- Our:

‘Ban H-bomb tests’
says May Day rally

A call upon the federal government “to speak out against any further H-bomb tests, and to take a

forthright position for the banning of hydrogen weapons” was endorsed with a mighty “Aye!” by par-

ticipants in the May,Day rally who jammed’ the main grandstand at Brockton Point Oval and spilled over

In addition to the crowd which attended the Sunday afternoon

meeting in Stanley Park despite

children and their children’s chil-
dren. os

“We in Canada need have no fear
for the role that the peoples of the
Soviet Union, the Republic of China
and the New Democracies will play
in helping mankind march forward
to a better life.

“We have one concern in Canada
in 1954. What role are we going
to play? What is going to happen
to our lives, our jobs, our free-
doms and liberties and rights?

“An attempt is being made in our
country to destroy the labor move-
ment and to introduce McCarthy-

ism. The labor movement must
fight back.

“Bill 7, in its original form,
would have set the clock back
~600 years. Public pressure forc-
ed the government to introduce ’
‘saving clauses’ to make the bill
more palatable. Yet in its pre-
sent state it has been described
by a noted lawyer as ‘shocking-
ly dangerous’ and ‘not only a
step towards a police state, but a

final step into a police state.’

“This Bill 7 was passed in the’
House of Commons a few weeks
ago — with 200 of the 265 mem-
bers absent when the vote was
taken.

“The bill is now before the sen-
ate. Trade unions, progressive or-
ganisations and all citizens should
write senators protesting passage
of the bill in its present form.”

MacLeod spoke passionately
about the section of Bill 7 dealing
with treason.

“No one here defends treason,”
he declared. “For my part, 1
would like to see a section on
treason which would guarantee
that the maximum penalty would
be imposed on those people who
are undermining the sovereign-
ty of Canada and selling our
country to the United States.

“But Section 46, as it now stands, |.

makes thinking a crime, reason a
crime, patriotism a crime! Labor
must unite to defeat it.”

Chairman Harvey Murphy, be-
fore introducing the speakers,
castigated Vancouver City Coun-
cil for banning a parade this year

and predicted that next year work-

‘

ers would march to Stanley Park in
the traditional manner.

Homer Stevens of the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers
Union spoke on the effects of H-
bomb explosions in the Pacific
and declared that “the labor move-
ment must protest against further
Lests;@

“We must put a straitjacket of
public opinion on these H-bomb
madmen,” said Stevens.

Bill Stewart of the Marine Work-
ers and Boilermakers called for
trade with all the world to ease the
growing unemployment situation.

“The fight for trade is the fight
for jobs, and also ‘the fight for
peace and friendship,” he said, urg-
ing that government trade missions
be sent to all countries willing to
trade with us.

Fraser Wilson gave a brilliant
“chalk talk” and his caricatures of
Churchill, St. Laurent, Eisenhow-
er and McCarthy drew prolonged
applause. '

Resolutions on the H-bomb and
unemployment were unanimous-
ly endorsed. The resolution on
unemployment called upon the
federal government to extend
benefits to cover all workers re-
gardless of occupation; pay bene-
fits for the full period of unem-
ployment; and increase the bene-
fits to 75 percent of earnings as
a measure toward adequate pro-

vision for the needs of jobles
workers, :

"ZENITH CAFE

105 E. Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C.

UNION HOUSE

PACIFIC ROOFING

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CE. 2733

2509 West Broadway
N. Bitz - B. Kostyk

Progressive party, is dead.

Until worsening health com-

at the Labor-Progressive party’s
fifth national convention in March,
Navis had been a member both of
the LPP national executive and
national committee. :

A tribute to his lifelong work in
the cause of socialism, issued here
by the LPP national executive,
stated:

John Navis came from Western
Ukraine to the United States in
1909, where he worked in the
Pennsylvania coal mines, laboring
on Tailway construction, and as a
cowhand in Texas.

In 1911 he came to Canada with
his close friend, the late Matthew
Popovich. The two young men im-
mediately became the leaders of
the Ukrainian workers in Winni-
peg, the centre of the vast immigra-
tion of that time.

In A911 they founded the first
Ukrainian workers’ Paper, the fore-
runner of the strong Ukrainian

workers’ and farmers’ press in
Canada. ~

They were members of the Social
Democratic Federation, and devot-
ed all their energies to political
and cultural activities among the
Ukrainian workers and farmers.
John Navis, Matthew Popovich,
Matthew Shatulsky and John Boy-
chuk Were the founders of the
Ukrainian - Labor-Farmer Temple
Association, the forerunner of the
Association of United Ukrainian
Canadians.

John Navis reared a generation
of accomplished leaders of the
working class.. He was a talented
organizer whose influence stretch-
ed far beyond the Ukrainian-Cana-
dian movement in ‘Winnipeg.

In the 1919 Winnipeg strike the
printshop which he managed pub-
lished the bulletins of the Winni-
peg Strike Committee.

When the Russian Revolution of
1917 occurred; John Navis, who
was then working in the Alberta
coal mines, and persecuted for his
views, at once took the side of Com-
munism, and against the right So-
cial Democrats who opposed the
first victory of socialism. He was

pelled him to relinquish the posts’

TORONTO

John Navis, a nationally known figure in “the progressive labor ~
movement for more than 40 years and one of the founders of the Labor-
In poor health for the past few years, he
died in mid-Atlantic on April 25 while returning to Canada from a
visit to the Soviet Union. He was in his 70th year.

a founder of the Workers’ Party
of Canada and elected to its first
national committee. 4

Through all the years since that
time, John Navis was at his post, as
the chief organizer of the Ukrain-
ian labor movement, as the champ-
ion of its press, as the teacher and
advisor of countless people. He
was truly a mass figure, known in-
timately*to thousands of Ukrainian
working people and their families.
He was a Communist candidate in
elections, and an organizer of gen-
ius in electoral battles.

He suffered internment during
the Second World War for his so-
cialist activities. His beloved son,
Zane, was killed in action overseas.
This was a heavy blow to John and

Mary, his wife, and Borden, his
other son.

During the past several years,
John Navis lived and worked in
Toronto and despite growing ill-
health, labored as he had always
done, putting in hours of work
which amazed all who saw him.

Truly he was a titan of energy, a:

man of great vision, whose faith
in the love for the people glowed
in his eyes and in his every word.

Our party from coast to coast
mourns his loss. We extend our
profound condolences to the mem-
bers of the Ukrainian-Canadian
labor and farmers’ organizations
and to his closest fellow-workers
there who will miss him beyond
words.

To his wife, Mary Navis, an
active worker in the cause with
John all through the years, to the
bereaved family of the late Zane
Navis, and to his son Borden and
his family, the Labor-Progressive
party extends deep sympathy.

The cause for which John Navis
gave all his marvellous talents is
triumphing throughout the world.
In his last messages from the So-

viet Union he displayed his joy and

fervor in the accomplishments of
the Soviet Union.

Our party will never forget him.
We shall always look upon his life
as a model of devotion to the cause
of peace, democracy and socialism.

.

The UJPO Drama Workshop _

Presents

‘THE DYBBUK’

FAMOUS YIDDISH PLAY /
IN ENGLISH

THE YORK

May Tl and 12 -- 8:30 p.m.

TICKETS: ALma 2991-L

THEATRE

LPP pays tribute -
to John Navis