DIED AT WORK Malcolm McLeod led labor for 20 years Thousands of workers throughout British Columbia felt a sense of personal loss this week when they learned of the sudden death of Malcolm McLeod, secretary of both the Marine Workers’ and Boiler- makers’ Union and the Ship- yard Genera] Workers’ Feder- ation here and a_ provincial committee member of the La- bor-Progressive Party. One of the most respected trade union leaders in this pro- vince, McLeod was known to workers in almost every indus- try, for in the course of two deeades of devoted service to the Iabor movement he had been in turn an organizer for the Workers’ Unity League, a leader of the Relief Project Workers’ Union and an organ- izer for the old Communist Party. But it was as the elect- ed spokesman of the shipyard workers during the war and post-war years that his rich experience as an organizer and his intimate knowledge of the shipbuilding industry combin- ed to produce a militant, prin- cipled leadership which work- ers in the industry he fought to save from post-war depres- sion could ill afford to lose. The quiet, soft-spoken union leader, whose practical experi- ence of the trade he learned on the Clyde as a youth made his an authoritative voice in any discussion of shipyard ques- tions, died at his work. On ‘Monday night he was attend- ing a meeting of his Marine Workers LPP club, at which the problems of Vancouver’s hundreds of unemployed ship- yard workers were to be re- viewed. He left the meeting, complaining of feeling unwell. On his way home on the bus, he collapsed, and he died be- fore he could be taken to hos- pital. ‘ Born 46 years ago in the lit- tle Scottish mining town of Dreghorn, Ayrshire, and raised in Renfrew, Malcolm McLeod and his five brothers all serv- ed their apprenticeships in the eside yards where their father worked. From their fa- .ther, a left-wing trade union- ist, they learned too of labor’s history and battles, of the - relentless struggle between the left wing, constantly fighting to advance the workers’ inter- ests, and the right, striving to hold them back. “When the Russian Revolu- tion came in 1917 the whole family knew where its sym- pathies lay,’ McLeod used to remark. And it was as a fight- er for the-progressive policies of the left wing that McLeod established his leadership of the British Columbia workers he helped to organize in the 20 years following his coming to Canada in 1928. In the Prince Rupert ship- yards, where he got his first job at his trade in this country, _ McLeod joined the Boilermak- ers’ Union, and when he lost his job in the depression he turned to organizing the thou- sands of young men who, like himself, found themselves dis- possessed of their right to work. From the fighting spir- it and determination of such men as McLeod, who refused to be consigned to uselessness and stagnation in relief camps, sprang the Relief Project Workers’ Union and its mili- tant campaign for work and : Workers’ Unity League, help- ing to organize among fisher- -men—he was out on the fish- in grounds during the 1935 _strike—and among miners. In 1936 he was appointed B.C. dis- trict organizer for the WUL and he held the post until the _ organization was disbanded. — McLeod's experiences during these. bitter years of depres- sion deepened his understand- MALCOLM Mc LEOD ing of the socialist theories he had first heard expounded in Glasgow by Willie Gallacher, convincing him that only through socialism could the economic crises of capitalism, the insecurity of boom-time jobs and the misery of depres- sion-time unemployment, be eradicated. That understand- ing found its logical expression in his becoming a member of the party that fought for social- ism, the Communist Party, in 1931, Six years later, he was an organizer for the Communist Party in the Fraser Valley, on Vancouver Island in Vancou- ver. When the Second World War broke out McLeod returned to work in Vancouver shipyards that in peacetime had found no use for his skill, not because ships were not needed but be- cause profits had been placed before Canada’s need of a mer- chant marine as again they are being placed today. He joined the Boilermakers’ and Iron .Shipbuilders’ Union ~ and in two years’ work as a rank-and-file member and then shop steward earned the post of secretary to which he was elected in December, 1941. But then, as now, there were top officials in the Canadian Con- gress of Labor who used red- baiting to confuse the issues, who disrupted the trade union movement by resorting to arbi- trary method$ to preserve their positions. From the struggle that fol- lowed the CCL top leadership’s refusal to recognize a referen- dum election and its appoint- ment of a board to administer the union’s affairs, the new leaders of the Boilermakers’ Union emerged triumphant be- cause they took the real issue —the issue of their policy of production for victory—to the membership and the member- ship forced the CCL leadership to withdraw. New elections re- turned McLeod as business ag- ent, and he held that post un- til formation of the Shipyard General Workers’ Federation in 1943, when he became its president, and later its secre- tary. [ In 1943 also, McLeod was a member of the provisional com- mittee formed in this province to elect delegates to the found- ing convention of the Labor- Progressive Party in Toronto, and when that party held its first B.C. convention he was elected a member of its pro- vincial committee, a post he held until his untimely death. McLeod leaves a wife, and four - year - old daughter, Shonet, and a brother, Donald, in Vancouver; one _ brother, Murdo, in Philadelphia; two brothers, Allan and Alec, and a sister, Jessie, in Scotland. Funeral services were to be held Thursday this week at Boilermakers’ Hall with cre- mation following at Ocean View Crematorium. Dr. Williston tells peace rally China Communists effect reforms A peace rally attended by some 800 citizens at Pender Auditorium here Thursday this week heard Dr. Frank Williston, director of the University of Washington’s Far Eastern Studies’ department, declare that wherever Communist influences have perietrated China, land and other reforms have followed. The rally was held under the auspices of the Vancouver Peace Council set up last summer, other speakers including Dr. Norman ‘McKenzie,president of the University of B.C., Elmore Philpott and Rev. James Melvin. “We haven’t yet understood the simple elemental fact that where- ever Russia has entered the Far East, she has brought land re- forms. The Chinese peasant un- derstands this, and to him land reform is the all - important thing,” stated Dr. Williston. “We in the West have given Asia economic and industrial gadgets, including the Sears and Roebuck catalogue, but not goodwill and un- derstanding—the only thing that can bring peace to the Orient.” The essence of Dr. Williston’s address was an appeal to Canadians to help the United States get out of the present grave situation fac- ing it as a result of unpopular for- eign policies, In a critical reference to these policies, he depicted the U.S. as having suffered sharp re- verses in all major spheres of ap- plication, in Greece, Western Europe and the Far , East. Dr. Norman McKenzie laid em- phasis on the defination of peace and the difficulty of reaching wide sections of the people to assure a common concept. “There are iron curtains,’ he said, “and I don’t care which side you think they are on. The main thing is to win the community and the nations for tolerant un- derstanding in mutual effort to- wards this objective.” Elmore Philpott stressed the danger of war “as very near,” pointing out that war is the logical conclusion of a wild armament race, The speaker expressed agree- ment with the “Atlantic Union,” and thought Canada should be in it as “a measure of defense.” If the democracies could “apply in fact the things they are supposed to believe in theory, that would be the best weapon against commun- ism,” he opined. ‘Dr. Melvin outlined a 9-point program for the Vancouver Peace Council, inviting active individual and group membership as a means of strengthening the organization’s work. — “ rare Season’s Greetings To All Our Friends LOTUS CONFECTIONERY 445 Abbott Sawdust ‘UNION FUELS FA. 7663 A MERRY XMAS and ae HAPPY NEW YEAR D. J. SNELL Jeweller \ 34 E. Hastings, Vancouver DEDEDE DR DMRS Bea RE his first bid for ley’s Ward One. The other was his mother-in-law, Mrs. Donald, popular Langley PTA lead- er, standing for re-election to the school board. \ When nominations for council, British Columbia cities and municipalities were closed last week two progressive candidates in Langley were returned by acclamation. Iwo progressives given acclamation in Langley school board and other offices in One was Frank Ayres, young Second World War veteran, making council in Lang- Mayme Mc- In Fernie, where his son How- ard has been nominated for coun- FRANK AYRES cil, Tom Uphill, Labor MLA for the constituency, candidate for the mayoralty, a he first successfully contested more than 30 years ago. last-minute post was a- Only other progressive candidate NEEM EAE MERU EP EMCI EME NEM ME ENE VERE N. SMILE TAILORS DRY CLEANING SERVICE. Phone: PAcific 4418 594 Richards St., Vancouver MEME ASPEN MERCURE EPR PMCRE IRE EME NOREEN XMAS GREETINGS TO OUR PATRONS Tom’s Grocery 600 Main Street TEPER MEMES ME UE NER NEN NE DE REDE DE MEME UL HERE to be returned unopposed was O. Eliason, CCF member, who will serve a one-year term on Cran- brook City Council. In Nanaimo, where Park Com- missioner Archie Lewis, president of WIUC Local 81, is standing for alderman, his candidacy has been endorsed by Nanaimo local of the United Mine Workers. The local also endorsed John Unsworth, who is seeking re-election as park com- missioner. Other progressive candidates nominated for office are: Alberni:‘ Mike Praisley council), eo Burnaby: Harry Ball (for coun- cil); Elizabeth Brewer and '‘Eliza- beth Wilson (for school board). (for Coquitlam: Rene Gamache (for council). Delta: Nick Stevens (for coun- ceil). Maple Ridge: John Larsen (for council). New Westiiineter: Hugh Clark (for council). North Vancouver: Damon Eisenman and J. McC. Hall (for council), Surrey: Tom Boyes (for coun- cil, Ward 2). re GREETINGS TO OUR FRIENDS FRASER FURNITURE | FR. 2233 JOE HERBIE. } AVERS © - AVERS WRIA T WR NEUEN MEME RENE NEE MERE IENELENE NE NEN VERE VERE UE MEV ME NEME NERDS 1 1 VHD EE ME ME HEHE SEASON’S GREETINGS LOVES CAEE 779 GRANVILLE STREET “We Never Close PEPEMENC ELLE SME VENC NEN ELE NEE HENNE A Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to All HASTINGS STEAM BATHS 766 E. Hastings St. HA. 0340 PEL LENE RENN MERE EDC NHN MEEVEE REMERON HIGH QUALITY LOGGERS AND WORK BOOTS HAND- JOHNSON ‘S BOOTS 63 West Cordova Stret - - -- =. - Phone MArine 7612 MADE PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 17, 1948 — PAGE 2