Wins

“INR.

Hara lNerasesien

asuseveanitdl

Wistcamers women fight French

These women fighters are on their way to an internment camp
after being seized by French troops seeking to destroy the demo-
cratic Republic of Vietnam and restore brutal French colonial rule.
French seamen at Marseilles recently refused to man a vessel
loaded with military supplies for French forces in Vietnam. (See

story on page 3.)

Mahoney

hides

‘sale’ of charter
to Steelworkers

Plump, pink-faced William Mahoney beamed at delegates to the
sixth annual convention of the B.C. Federation of Labor and proudly
told them how his boss, Charlie Millard of the Steelworkers, was plan-
‘ning to raid another union, Mine-Mill, in the name of “‘unity.”

The Steelworkers have been given jurisdiction in the field formerly

occupied by Mine-Mill,” said Mil-
lard’s boy. “We intend to provide
a place within the ranks of or-
ganized labor for the miners and
smelter workers.”

Mahoney has plenty of gall —
but he didn’t have enough to tell
the delegates that Millard bought
“jurisdiction” by paying $50,000
in cash to the Canadian Congress
of Labor.

A CCL circular letter to its
affiliates gives details of the
dirty deal, but omits mention of
the amount paid. Mahoney didn’t
have the guts to read this com-
munication to the convention
delegates, either. Here it is:

“The (CCL) council was in-
formed than an application had
been made by the United Steel
Workers of America for the jur-
isdiction formerly held by the
International Union of Mine, Mill
and Smelter Workers, which had

been expelled from the Congress —

at the 1949 convention. The
USWA proposed to reimburse the
Congress for the expense incur-
red in organizing the workers in
this jurisdiction during the past
year. On the recommendation of
the executive committee, it was
decided that this application
should be approved, subject to
_ determination by the jurisdiction-
al committee of the Congress of
_ the jurisdiction covered by the
- transfer.”
- Mahoney also failed to men-
_ tion that the powerful United
_ Mine Workers of America voted
against the “jurisdiction to raid”
- going to the Steelworkers.

Nor did Mahoney tell delegates
the story of how the CCL, after
having itself taken “jurisdiction”
away from Mine-Mill and the
‘Steelworkers a year ago, spent
thousands of dollars in abortive

raids against Mine-Mill at Port
Colborne and Timmins, only to
fail miserably in attempts to
destroy the miners’ union. Sale
of “raiding rights” to Millard.
was a deal to recoup some of the
CCL cash which had been poured
down th¢ rathole.

Rank-and-file steel workers can
well ask why Millard and his
right-wing group don’t use the
funds now being spent to raid
Mine-Mill and the United Elec-
trical workers to organize the
thousands of unorganized in
basic steel plants.

Ball calls for
better transit

Harry Ball, candidate of the
Municipal Improvement Associa-
tion in the Burnaby municipal
byelection race, is determined if
elected on February 18 to work
tor better transportation facilities
for citizens living in Central
Burnaby.

Recently BCElectric cut tram
services on the Burnaby Lake
line from one-half hour to hourly
runs. Ball is campaigning for
better tram service plus an in-
creased bus service on Grand-
view Highway.

Substantiating his pledge to
fight at the municipal hall for
the work and wages demands
of unemployed Burnaby citizens,
Ball spoke to a meeting of job-
less at Capitol Hill Community
Hall ‘this week, declaring that
“the united efforts of all pro-
gressives are needed to offset the
effects of the crisis, of which any
worker may become the next
victim.” :

= : i TWTRUBESHNIET TUTE

-off the Cultural

Duplessis’ padlock on
Jewish Center spurs

~ Bill of Rights demand

MONTREAL

A mounting wave of public protest against the Padlock Law and its use to close the cae ee caine
of the United Jewish People’s Order is swelling and gaining ground in Quebec and across the country.
The LPP, the Quebec CCF, civil rights bodies, McGill students, and Ottawa and ‘Toronto newspapers,

and others, have joined the protest movement.

“The truth cannot be padlocked,”’ Morris Biderman, UJPO national secretary,

here last weekend. “We are go-
ing to take this case to the Can-
adian people. We will stand on
our rights as Canadian citizens
and we will not rest ‘until the
padlock is removed and the Cul-
tural Center is reopened.”

Biderman announced that the
UJPO was setting up a National
Fighting Freedom Fund to raise
$15,000 for an all-Canada cam-
paign to have the padlock taken
Center. In a
militant spirit, undaunted by the
gestapo-like assault, the meeting
collected $350 to start the fund
on its way.

In a public statement, distrib-
uted in thousands of leaflets, the
UJPO national executive de-
clared: “Duplessis is using the
old Hitler bogey of ‘Bolshevism’
to justify his action. The general
Social activities of the UJPO
have earned it the respect, love,
and prestige of Jews and non-
Jews alike in Canada. The cry
of communism is just a Duples-
sis alibi. Today it is the Cultural
Center. Tomorrow it can be any
other organization which incurs
Duplessis displeasure, No demo-
cratic, progressive Jewish insti-
tution is safe as long as this
crime is condoned,”

The UJPO executive called on
all democratic Canadians to flood
Duplessis with protest motions
and bring to bear the wrath of

public opinion against his fascist
methods,

“An evil thing,” is the way the
Quebec section of the CCF char-
acterized the Padlock Law in a
statement issued over the signa-
ture of provincial secretary R.
Boisvert,

The CCF condemned “the pre-
sent campaign of repression” of
the Duplessis government. This
campaign, they said, included
“restrictions on films distributed

_ by the National Film Board, the

refusal to prosecute the kidnap-
pers of two Jehovah’s Witnesses
from Joliette, the denial of bar-
gaining rights to the ‘Catholic
Teachers’ Alliance of Montreal,
and the arrest of four persons
who were merely seeking signa-
tures to a petition.”

At McGill University, where
Jast week students voted over-
whelmingly to condemn the Pad-
lock Law, a civil rights commit-
tee’ was set up this week to map
a program to alert the campus
to the danger facing civil liber-
ties in Quebec today.

The Civil Liberties Union also
girded for a hard-hitting cam-
paign. In a letter to all its mem-
bers and to organizations
throughout the province the CLU
declared: “The padlocking of
this building is an outstanding
example of how the most elem-
entary freedoms of speech, press,
assemply and organization, are
being suppressed by the use of
the Padlock Law. Mr. Duplessis
should be told that such laws
do not meet with the approval of
democratically minded Canada-
ians.”

But, with public indignation
against the attack on a minority

group in Quebec running high,
the local big business press re-
mained silent. Ever eager to
plead the cause of the million-
aire “free press”, the. local news-
papers shamefully said nothing

editorially against the Padlock
Law.
Instead the Montreal Star,

owned by the wealthy J. W. Mc-
Connell, refused point-blank to
print a $300 paid advertisement
by the UJPO setting forth that
organization’s side of the public
case, i

The Standard, also controlled
by the McConnell interests, re-
jected the advertisement as well
without stating any reasons.

But the Ottawa Citizen appar-
ently had more courage and in-
tegrity. In a strong editorial the
Citizen declared the Padlock Law
is “objectionable”.

“Frequent infringements of
civil liberty in Quebec lend»
Strength to the case for a Can-
adian Bill of Rights,” said the
Citizen. “Free speech has been

told a meeting of 300

frustrated, premises have been
padlecked, and petition bearers
arrested ... Over these develop-
ments hangs an unpleasant odor
of intimidation by high author-
ity,

“Tf Canada is to respect the
United Nations Declaration of
Human Rights, all provinces
must cooperate. Otherwise, the
demand will grow for the inclu-
sion of a federal Bill of Rights
in the constitutional changes
that are now under consider-
ation.” :

Saturday Night, influential
Liberal weekly edited by B. K.
Sandwell, also let go a broadside
against the padlocking of the
Cultural Center. Under the Pad-
lock Law, Duplessis is ‘“police-
man, prosecutor, judge, sheriff
and hangman,” said Saturday
Night, and warned that Duplessis
could “close the palace of the
Anglican archbishop of Quebec,
or the Anglican cathedral for
that matter, and nobody could
say him nay.”

TLC delegates bounce

Showler as

president

Birt Showler’s long reign as president of Vancouver Trades and
Labor Council came to an abrupt end this week when a ballot-box
revolt by long-suffering delegates bounced the Teamsters’ boss out
of office and placed Jack Stevenson, head of the Building Trades Coun-
cil, in the president’s chair for 1950.

Delegates cheered for five min-
utes when counting of a second
ballot showed Showler defeated,
148 to 127. On the first ballot
Showler had secured 129 votes,
Stevenson 104, and a third can-
didate, Harry Foster, Machinists’
Union, 32, with 133 required for
election,

Foster supporters swung be-
hind Stevenson in order to get
vid of Showler, the man who
claims to represent labor yet
functions in city council as a
Non-Partisan alderman; who
earned the scorn of fellow work-
ers by ordering his teamsters
across Daily Province picket
lines every day during the three-
year-long strike; and who has
“never missed an -opportunity to
knife progressive members of his
union.

Angered by his defeat, Showler
used the last hour of his regime
to name two progressive can-
didates as LPP members and de-
clare them “ineligible” for coun-
cil office.

Refusal of Showler to accept
the nominations of Tom Parkin,
organizer for the Fishermen and
Allied Workers’ Union, and
George Gee, business manager of
the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, Local 213,
turned the meeting into an up-
roar, with delegates shouting,
protests at Showler’s arbitrary
ruling. Climax came when more
than a third of the delegates
walked out.

Ald. R. K, Gervin was re-elect-
ed. as secretary-treasurer, de-
feating Orville Braaten, Pulp and
Sulphite Workers, 159 to. 104.
Tom Alsbury defeated Harry Fos-

BIRT SHOWLER
Delegates cheered his defeat

ter for the vice-presidency, 193 to
70. .

Jack Eaves, Painters, was re-
elected statistician by a .vote of
167 to 89 for Orville Braaten.

Other officers, elected by ac-
clamation, are: Frank Carlisle,
Plumbers and Steamfitters, war-
den; Sandy Bevis, Vancouver
Typographical Union, chairman
of legislative committee; Hugh
Bird, Fire Fighters, chairman of
press committee; Ernie Cook,
Ironworkers, chairman of organ-
izing committee; George John-
ston, Amalgamated Meat Cutters,
chairman of the grievance com-
mittee.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 10, 1950—PAGE 12