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By MAURICE RUSH
ditor, Pacific Tribune

ada’s Pacific coast province will
Ederation years since it entered Con-
tillio al July 20. Nowhere in the
official words pouring out from
. al Centennial Committees,
; the a or from public officials
Ought ee ea tions of 1871 being
<8 entry in i
4 Wa Ty into Confederation was
noted in B.C.’s history and an
that the vent for Canada. It ensured
thetoh ens Canadian nation would
© the Pacific Coast. It was
€ bourgeois democratic re-
ght out in each part of the
alf of the continent between
The out Of reaction and progress.
tish Coly Come of the struggle in Bri-
Tee between the entrenched
8ed classes and progressive
Thether “ joined around the issue
leration not B.C. should enter Con-
Victome” The decision to do so was
ida "Y for democracy and for Can-
bitte, cosa only after long and

Yoluti
ty 10n fo

the forces

Mua th, the establishment in B.C.
ttions Rp: to obliterate the real tra-
‘un oa 1871. They are, trying to
Peyrbp into a circus and
B to turn bing affair. They are try-
boty of their backs on the real his-
Xaditions at Period and to destroy the
Roy, men the fight for responsible
te Y et against annexation to
Muggie ; Ch was at the heart of the
, today 1871.
big aM Socred government and
muties a backers continue the
lua of iat reactionary ruling
‘Y are ¢ 1871 in new conditions.
wotraey, = ing to destroy popular de-
1 big Stablish the unbridled rule
Vinee to noPolies, and sell out our
- Monopolie new annexationists, the
ty ets, The 1€s and their Canadian
Cans’, Breat Y have sacrificed the fight
Doe €r British Columbia and
ws €ir new God: maximum
athens.
te to gees Such as these it is not
noe Xious aay the powers that be
lytic avoid recalling the de-
ti? revi Patriotic traditions of
ods Pula Public pride in ‘these
V's rulers, be embarrassing to
t ;
ing Hat it Catliest days of settlement
DOE the °w B.C.—from the grant-
Hudson Bay monopoly

River. This

i thercld

ol RS kos SP
gai, The wd Painting depicts a typical miner panning fo

s Miners spearheaded the fight, for respons!
‘>. annexationists which led to B.C. joining Con

SCOTT CC

right up to 1871—two major issues do-
minated the territory: the fight for re-
sponsible government and whether

the U.S. would succeed in annexing ‘

the territory. The struggle around
these issues divided the people politi-
cally and came to a climax in the deci-
sion whether or not to join Confede-
ration.

The reactionary social .classes in
B.C. before Confederation were the
Victoria merchants and the colonial
ruling’ clique. Victoria was then the
largest city and the main trading
centre as well as the seat of power of
the colonial clique. The merchants pro-
fited from extensive trade with San
Francisco and other U.S. seaports.

They wanted B.C. to be taken over
by the U.S. so that their profitable
trade could continue. They took an
active part in promoting their econo-
mic and political interests, sponsoring
petitions favoring annexation, and
played an active role in the election
campaigns of the day to defeat candi-
dates who opposed annexation and
who stood for responsible government.
(Elections were held for assemblies in
which appointed members were the
majority.) The merchants heavily
financed the campaign for annexation
to the U.S.

In July, 1867 the merchants of Vic-
toria circulated a petition to the Bri-
tish government demanding that it
“assume the debts of the colony, or
permit the colony to become a portion
of the United States.” Again in 1869
a petition was circulated by the mer-
chants which opposed union with Can-
ada because “it cannot open to us a
market for the produce of our lands,
or forests or our waters.” The petition
was officially presented to U.S. presi-
dent Grant on December 29, 1867.

The threat of annexation was a real
one with which the colony lived from
its earliest days. The U.S. slogan of
“54-40 or fiight” and other outspoken
annexationist demands heard in the
U.S. caused grave misgivings among
settlers and later gold miners who
flocked to the mainland with the dis-
covery of gold in the Cariboo.

It is interesting to note that when
the mainland was declared a colony
the choice of Fort Langley as capital
was rejected because it lay on the
south side of the Fraser River and
could not be defended in the event of
a US. attack. The city of New West-

RTS

r gold on the Fraser
ible government and
federation in 1871.

GUOSUCUEOUUOUGUECOOUOUOORSOSOGULSCOONEOOEND

Mtn =
LUTTE

minster was -subsequently chosen
as the capital for the mainland
colony because it lay on _ the
north side of the’ Fraser _ river
could be more easily defended. By
1867 the U.S. had purchased Alaska
and this gave a spurt to the annexa-
tionists to step up their campaign.
The Victoria merchants were allied
with the reactionary colonial ruling
clique in their opposition to Confede-
ration. The colonial clique opposed
Confederation because they were

against granting responsible govern- ©

ment to the people whom they consi-
dered a mob and not yet ‘ready for
self-government. They fought bitterly
to retain their privileged position and
right up to the time the colony joined
Confederation, they opposed granting
the people the right to a fully elective
assembly.

(The Legislative Council of B.C. was
made up of 23 members, nine elected

‘and 14 appointed by the governor.)

A description of the two reactionary

classes. which constituted the major
block to progress in the colony came
at the time from a public meeting held
in Victoria on January 9, 1868. One of
the organizers of this meeting was
Amor de Cosmos who best expressed
the progressive and social demands of
his day. The meeting elected a com-
mittee of six to send a “memorial” to
the Canadian government in which
they said that public opinion in the
colony was ovewhelmingly. in favor of
Confederation and there was only “a
small party in favor of annexation to
the United States” and another small
party, other. than annexationists, to
which “nearly all the office-holders of
this colony are allied.”
’ Popular resistance to the annexa-
tionists and the swelling demand for
responsible government united the
overwhelming majority- of the people
against the two reactionary forces,
who often found common cause in op-
posing the settlers, gold miners, and
rising small capitalist elements. The
merging of these two issues doomed
the annexationists and the colonial
clique to defeat.

The main driving force for represen-
tative government and against annex-
ation to the U.S. were the Cariboo
miners who organized a spirited cam-
paign to have the colony join the rest
of Canada in Confederation. A resolu-
tion adopted at a mass rally of miners
in Barkerville on July 1, 1868 con-
demned the conduct of the -colonial
government in seeking to block Con-
federation and charged that its policy
was contrary to “the declared wishes
of the people of this colony.”

The popular forces in the colony,
made up of the Cariboo miners, set-
tlers and small capitalists, convened a
representative convention at Yale on
September 14, 1868, which brought to-
gether 26 delegates elected by mass
meetings in all parts of the colony.
This gathering was organized by the
newly-formed Confederation League,
which in effect became the main poli-
tical organization of the progressive
forces in the colony. The conference
affirmed that “the government of B.C.
does not exist by the free and just
consent of the governed and is there-
fore a despotism.” In another resolu-
tion they demanded that “representa-
tive institutions and responsible gov-
ernment be inaugurated forthwith.”

Despite all their maneouvers, the
Victoria merchants and the colonial
ruling clique were unable to frustrate
the popular demand for responsible
government and for joining Confede-

ration. The progressive social forces
‘united in the Confederation League

were similar to the social forces in
Eastern Canada whose struggle led to
the 1837 rebellions, and to the Metis
and settlers on the prairies whose
struggle for democracy led to the Riel
Rebellions. s

Despite all the imperfections and
reactionary compromises contained in
Confederation, and the fact that today
these reactionary features are. being
challenged with popular demands for
a new Canadian constitution, the’ suc-
cess of the colonists in B.C. to join
Confederation in 1871 represented a
decision of historic importance.

B.C.’s. entry into Confederation de-
feated the reactionary classes, blocked
annexation to the U.S., and broadened
the. base of responsible government.
It opened the .way for the economic
development of the province an
strengthened the fight to build Canada
from coast to coast.

Following the defeat of the Victoria
merchants and the colonial clique the

. Confederation League disintegrated

and new class relationships camé into
being. After construction of the rail-
way B.C. expanded rapidly with- the
growth of capitalist industry and the
growth of a mass working class. Some
who were former supporters of the
Confederation League now merged
with other capitalist elements to be-
come. the forerunners of the monopoly
capitalist cla3s exploiting the province
today in -partnership with foreign
monopolies.

The hundred years of capitalist rule
since Confederation have been marked
by intensive exploitation of the work-
ing class, gigantic giveaways of the
province’s resources, and in recent
years, the U.S. takeover of a large
part of B.C.’s economy. The new class
contradictions called into being by
events after B.C. Confederation has
been, and still is, the struggle between
the capitalist class and the working
class. The outcome of that struggle in
B.C. and Canada for a socialist society
is a task that must be resolved in the
present historic period.

Today the working class of B.C. is
the driving force for progressive
change in the province. The struggle
they wage today for democracy and
against foreign domination is a con-
tinuation of the struggle of the gold
miners and settlers of 1871 in the con-
ditions of 1971. :

Fragile-seed,.
implanted in the gravel
wern from mountains
when the race was young,
ne. with. the rhythm _
of the moon and tides,
the circling of the earth,
sun,

‘the wheeling of the. galaley:

inyou we see
the cycle.of ourselves.

Upthrust with green of ‘spring,
“eyed protoplasm grown

to substance

sentient silver in the stream,
drawn by-the magnet of the sea
to wander ‘in salt pastures

set by boundaries

as vast :

as orbits in the solitudes

of space,

moved by what chemistry

at last to seek :
the source from which you came.

No barriers,

not walls of water
reared on polished rock,
not torrents weaving
nets of tangled roots,
can stay the need

that two and two return
of thousands spent

to consummate anew
the ritual of rebirth;
only man

exulting in your grace,
your strength,

threatens your race —
and.his.,.... -

_HAL-ORIFEIN'

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1971—PAGE 7.

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