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End NPA domination!

EDNESDAY of next week can

be a banner day for Vancou-
Yer. With a united and solid labor
Yote in support of Labor’s candi-
dates in the civic election, the long-
fndured domination of the NPA

j at City Hall can be ended.

That the Vancouver Labor Coun-
cil Should field three official trade

j) Mon candidates as a first decisive
/*’p towards independent labor po-

ltical action is an important step
‘ward, and provides an opportu-
ity to all progressive citizens to
‘Weep the NPA machine out of civ-
Politics.

Whe decisive factor for labor on
. ember 11 is to get out the work-
Ng class vote, and first and fore-
Sst, the tremendous voting poten-
al of organized labor. In_ this
Vorkingclass voters can learn a lot
‘om past NPA performances. El-
tions are won by votes, and labor
88 more than enough to turn the
Nde of civic administration into
Mstessive channels. The prime
19) is to get out the vote; for labor
x eee rtinded electors to
i; or their own labor candidates,
¢; Make sure that labor’s voice at
"Y Hall will be heard, not through
i ftoakings of NPA or CVA
abor” selections, but through
Sha fide labor representatives!

These candidates have fought la-

’
be battles in years of wage nego-
5 Ons; in anti-monopoly struggles;
dy TOMote tulk employment for
Yo perhing people; to\ give our
foe . People greater opportunities
fig, 'CAtion, culture and fecrea-
ca and to win for our senior citi-
thei Ennons commensurate with
try -tVices to their city and coun-
€se candidates can render

greater public service as
@dministrators.

. Duc
Ctyj, ic

10)
bt af Wednesday mark your ballot
dermanic candidates Sam Jen-

hi
ae addy Neale, and Charles La-

ae
Pacific Tribune

. Phone: MArine 5288
Nooo; titor — TOM McEWEN
‘ate Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
Subscription Rates:
One Year: $4.00
Six months: $2.25
Rooe ublished weekly at
om 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouver 4, B.C.

i 0
toyy etdian and Commonwealth

Me , °S (except Australia): $4.00

‘nq Ang Australia, United States ~

u Other countries: $5.00 one

year.

marche, civic standard bearers for
the Vancouver Labor Council, and
veteran campaigner Effie Jones of
the Civic Reform Association. Back-
ed by a solid labor and progressive
vote, that aldermanic combination
can write finis to NPA rule in Van-

couver.

No less important as far as labor
interests are concerned is independ-
ent candidate Harry Rankin for
school board. A war veteran and
prominent lawyer, Rankin is cam-
paigning on an educational program
that not only fits the times but the
needs of this changing generation
—changes which the Tory-Liberal
NPA can neither see nor cope with.

Vote a solid progressive ticket
on December 11 for Jenkins, Neale,
Lamarche, Jones and Rankin, and
give Vancouver a long overdue new
administrative deal!

Centennial bungling

THERE ARE MANY community
~ evidences of a centennial spirit
Columbia.
Proud of their province and its cen-
tury of labor achievement, people
in many centres are planning big
things to mark the event; things
which will serve as an inspiration to

abounding in British

future builders.

Unfortunately this is not so in
B.C.’s leading city of Vancouver.
Here the prime feature of centen-
nial “planning” to date is visionless
bungling. The fiasco of the project-
ed marine museum (now reduced to
a “cheap” job from the original
plan) is only one of the shining ex-
amples of a cheese-paring Cham-
ber-of-Commerce mentality in lead-

ership.

In Vancouver there is neither
centennial spirit, vision or leader-
ship, and what of the latter there is
seeks to cover up its bankruptcy and
bungling by berating Vancouver ci-

tizens for failing to “respond.”

Respond to what? In numerous
fields of activity there is quite a
lot going on in preparation for our
centennial year, but most of it on
the initiative of public-spirited citi-

zens who have probably got tired
waiting for a non-existent central
leadership.

There is a basic reascn for this
absence of dynamic leadership at
the top. All progress, from a bour-
geois viewpoint, must be measured
on a cash register. The great latent
talent of our people, the mighty
achievements of workers and farm-
ers in a century of building, are
relegated to the background. They
are not a good “drawing card” for
gate receipts.

At this moment Pacific National
Exhibition officials are in Chicago
trying to sign up “big names” for
the centennial PNE. Better to gear
our centennial to a “name show”
of high-priced Yankee “culture”
than to promote things and people
resplendent of a century of build-
ing! :
The Vancouver PNE centennial
committee is suffering from a “big
name” disease, best described by its
utter disregard for the province’s
real builders, and a bungling con-
cern on how to promote the leeches.
Happily the rest of the province
is not so afflicted.

Tom
~ McEwen

a

A LOT OF changes have taken

place since the days of mass
unemployment in the Hungry
Thirties.

On the other hand there are
some things that just don’t
change. For instance an unem-
ployed worker, the bread-winner
of a family, has still the same
old problem of providing food,
clothing and shelter for his little
flock. No amount of statistical
verbiage’ can get around that,
since, as is well known, statistics,
no matter how attractive, are a
voor substitute for pay envelopes
and porkchops.

Another thing which hasn't
changed much during the past
century is a Tory politician. Dur-
ing the Hungry Thirties a Tory
windbag prime minister held to
the “theory” that unemployment
was largely the result of lazy

shiftlessness, and himself the
paragon of “hard work’ and
thrift.

The Diefenbakers of our day
have changed this Tory yodelling
just a teeny-weeny little bit. In-
stead of bearing down heavily on
the “thrift” note, they dabble in
phoney statistics.

“Today,” they say, “since there

are twice as many workers in
industry in 1957 as-there were
in 1936, the number of unem-
ployed at present is not serious,”
and.therefore nothing to get het
up about. At last week’s VLC-
sponsored rally on unemployment
this was the theme of Tory MP
John Taylor (Burrard-Vancou-
ver), much to the disgust of his
workingclass audience. He was
eloquent on the “nice weather,”
the Grey Cup finals, and typic-
ally Tory on the growing jobless
crisis.

All of which brings us down to
the nub of the question, the
right of a working man to his job.

We are informed every hour
of the day by some media of pub-
lic misinformation. or other, that
this free-enterprise-way-of-life of
curs is the “best” yet devised;
that it must be preserved; and
that those who would put an end
to it are “Moscow agents” or
worse.

For the sake of argument let
us assume that it is the “best”
and pose a question. Why are a
great number of its really use-
ful members periodically de-
prived of their right to a job,
and the livelihood conditioned
upon that job?

In the Socialist sector of the
world there are no capitalists, no
monopolists, no landlords, no
stock exchanges, no unemployed.
The Tories and their kind of
course have a ready answer to
that one. “Ah,” they say, “that
only proves that labor—under
socialism isn’t free, whereas
labor under our free-way-of-life

. them a hunk of this capitalist

’

enjoys full freedom,” etc., etc.

Just let some jobless worker
land home on what should have
Leen a payday, and tell his good
wife and the kids that instead
of a pay envelope, he has brought

“freedom” with which to meet
the family bills. I can see the
kids looking at their-old man with
amazement in’ their innocent
eyes—and the wife reaching for
the skillet.

Much has been said about
“labor’s responsibility” in our
free-enterprise scheme of things.
Responsibility, like charity, must
begin at home. Labor’s prime
responsibility at the moment is
to see to it that not one single
employable worker is deprived
of the right to work, just be-
cause some’ soulless. corporation,
menopoly, or industrial tycoon
hasn’t learned that 1957 is not
1936, and that in a changing
modern civilization the wellbeing
of a working man must and will
take precedence over profits.

The children of working men
and women cannot survive on a
diet of Tory statistics. Nor do
Tory (or Liberal) promises serve
as any kind of substitute for a
regular pay envelope — or a
working man’s future, In this age
of sputniks the worker and _ his
job take on a new importance —
which the VLC’s rally (and pro-
gram) on unemployment clearly
demonstrated. It also showed the
cld-time political apologists of
hig business have still a lot to
learn and soon.

December 6, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5