McCarthyism denounced by city meeting — , More than 800 people attended E meeting in Pender Auditorium unday night this week to ap- f ud a panel of speakers who : Tongly condemned McCarthyism. th € meeting was sponsored by e a branch of the Lea- ¥ Ee for. Démocratic Rights and fatured Roscoe S. Rodd, QC, LDR national chairman. ae a distinguished trial law- ie Tom Windsor and an outstand- . expert on British jurispru- nce, delivered an eloquent plea ot freedom: a ae us sponge from our laws a ‘adlock, Act restrictions upon edom and democracy; let us delegates By MARK FRANK TORONTO I met them hurriedly in one of the break periods during the re- cent fifth national convention of the Labor-Progressive party here— Manuel Terrazas, 30-year old editor of La Voz de Mexico and member of the central committee of the Communist Party of Mexico, and Mario Silva Jonama, who, at 28, is a member of the secretariat of the Guatemalan Party of Labor. Unassuming and modest; their presence as fraternal delegates was given the most thunderous wel- come at the convention it has Purge from our Criminal Code all been my experience ever to wit- Tepressions and draconic penalties; aa Write into our constitution ill of Rights which will forever Protect us in our fundamental lib- erties, which will free us from all ; inequalities, which, instead of silencing our repression and fear, will | 4scriminations- Sha nations: and People by pamulate them to exercise their ee rightful and democratic €rogative of full and free € day. Let us appeal to reason and not to, Con” cor the House of Commons this Cd the clauses in the Criminal 5: ati amendments dealing with CCR lon were all passed, and a toy Senet to reduce the penal- ed, 53 ve from 14 years was defeat- as to 9, with Conservatives and al Credit members siding with © government.) Seeieatgae a forthright condem- Wilens of McCarthyism, Stanley Way Ox, ,President of Street Rail- abe Union, Division 101, i ed that “in this country there ® growth of reaction.” ae Yr. Barnett Savery, of the UBC Partment of philosophy, charged that the LDR had never complain- na alee 8 “undemocratic practices a Soviet Union or the People’s earns” and that its outlook er th ased on Soviet ideology rath- 5 an Western tradition. bonne went on to voice his op- ae, ton to communism, but con- al ned McCarthyism as a politi- culed tlosophy. “MeCarthy ridi- et aC the rules of fair play,” he ohoph He subscribes to the phil- con y of guilt by association. He fire A to think it is better to in- +s pe innnocent people rather ~th et one guilty person go free ing 1€ Opposite of our way of think- eos Phillips, local secretary of his R, complimented Savery for des PPosition to McCarthyism. He ne ctibed the LDR as - “a non- nae national organization con- fend solely with helping to de- Gq and extend democratic rights In Canada.” é ‘ Dearly purchased, ' Stavely threatened’ NANAIMO, B.C. urch, — how dearly a fased and how gravely threat- gc 2. Commented Roscoe S. Rodd, tien he traced the history of de- breve. from Magna Carta to the ate “nt day, speaking at a meet- by oe peters Hall sponsored Rights, eague for Democratic erp caling with the fight for demo- cha : in Canada and_ proposed tem 8es in the Criminal Code, Rodd pened that “we had passed ithe tes two world wars without eq Or the sections now propos- it. What a tragedy,” he said, “if Burt this attempt to make re wilization less, and ‘not Write, democratic. Let us rather Bil inte our Constitution a full of Rights which will ensure and free discussion.” p “Our liberties Ben dis- Sslon of the urgent problem of ness—an outpouring of Canadian solidarity with brother parties in two Latin American countries. Lifted shoulder-high at the con- clusion of their magnificent addres- ses, they were carried around the convention floor, hugged and kiss- ed by delegates, to constant ap- plause and cheering. : The spectacular demonstration of the delegates marked the be- ginning of a new stage in Cana- dian-Latin American relations — the opening up of a united strug- gle to realize “a democratic front of the entire hemisphere” against U.S. domination, as described by | national LPP leader Tim Buck. Warning against the growing of- fensive of U.S. imperialism in the Americas as shown in the recent Caracas conference, where open military intervention against pop- ular regimes was approved, Manuel Terrazas called for “a mighty bul- wark” from Canada to Tierra del Fuego on which the US. plans of war aggression and colonization would be broken. He described Mexico’s econ- ‘omy as dominated by the U.S., its agrarian reforms betrayed by the native capitalist class and its independence being sold for U.S. dollars. ~ : The dramatic story of Guate- mala’s struggle to defend itself from open military intervention bby the U.S. was told by Mario Silva Jonama. : He described a country with three million people, 75 percent of them illitétate, which broke a feudal dictatorship in 1944, set up unions of the workers of industry and farm into one central labor body—the General Confederation of Labor — and organized 2,000 local groups of peasants. At LPP convention Latin American 4 acclaimed ists—the Party of Labor—was born in 1947, entered the public arena in 1949 and today has five times as many members as it did in De- cember, 1952, when it adopted a new program spelling out the character of Guatemala’s demo- cratic revolution of a new type, in which the working class is playing a leading role. Some of the victories of the Guatemalan people which produc- ed the threatening actions of the U.S. at Caracas were outlined. Some 248,000 hectares of land have been distributed to the peasants, of a total of 440,000 expropriated. Of this 150,000 were taken from the U.S. United Fruit Company with headquart- ers in Boston. : The government has also taken over the U.S. Bond and Sheare Company and the Yankee railways temporarily, showing the public their excessive profits. On January 29 this year, docu- mentary evidence of plans for arm- ed U.S. intervention was presented to the world. A rebel army officer under United Fruit Company spon- sorship and with direct assistance of a U.S. colonel training saboteurs in Nicaragua, were to have led the attack. A vital movement of solidarity with Guatemala has sprung up. “There is a Society of Friendship for Guatemala headed by Senator Pedro de Alba, former president of the Pan-American Union,” Jon- ama fold me. He pointed out that “public opin- ion is what is holding up the U.S. from executing its plans” and urg- ed an alignment of all democratic forces in the Americas against the US. plot. ‘ Messages of protest should be sent the U.S. and the UN, with solidarity greetings to the Gen- eral Confederation of Labor, 43 West 90th Street, Guatemala City, and also fo the Casa de la Cultura, 4-20, 90th Street West, Guatemala City. A political coalition of the Com- munists exists with three parties of the new bourgeoisie and’ the fight is on to form a solid Demo- cratic National Front to resist U.S. intervention and advance the social needs of the people. Calling for solidarity of the Americas, Jonama said: “There is an unjustified separa- tion between us, between the peo- ples of Latin América and Canada, Charge BCElectric ‘empire building’ VICTORIA, B.C. A Vancouver Island CCF member has accused the BCElectric of attempting “empire-building” in its from the Mainland to the Island. construction of a submarine cable Robert Strachan (Cowichan-New- castle) asked Premier Bennett in the legislature for assurances that the on short of power and “be backed into Strachan pointed to extension of BCElectric operations in the Fra- ser Canyon area, where it took over from the B.C. Power Commis- sion, and its recent acquisition of lighting plants at Asheroft and Spences Bridge in support of his empire-building charges. Strachan quoted a statement of Tom Ingledow, BCElectric chief engineer, to the effect that the BCElectric had its plans laid out until 1965 and charged that these plans included acquisition of the Power Commission holdings on Vancouver Island. ; “That would be a sad day for the people of Vancouver Island,” he observed saying that the Power Commission had every- where reduced rates while the BCElectric was increasing them. “Don’t give the BCElectric the whiphand on Vancouver Island,” he pleaded. “The contracts (for Buttle Lake) must be called almost immediately. Will the premier give us the assurance that Buttle Lake Dam or alternative proposals will go ahead so as not to weaken the Power Commission?” Earlier Premier Bennett had as- sured the House in reply to a simi- lar question from CCF leader Ar- nold Webster, that the government ‘intends to proceed with increased vigor in the policy of public pow- en? Bennett said however, that there was. room for both public and private’ power and that the com- petition between them would be good for the people of B.C. He assured members that the new commission would review all pend- ing projects immediately. although we have a common enemy. ... In strengthening our relations with the great Soviet people, the great Chinese people and the peo- ples of the socialist sector of the world, we must at the same time develop friendship between the peoples dominated by Yankee im- perialism.” : ied Commission would be enabled to start “almost immediately” e Buttle Lake Dam or alternative plans so that it would not be Meet calls for PUC gas probe Some 250 citizens attending a meeting in Pender Auditorium on Wednesday this week unanimously passed a resolution demanding a Publie Utilities Commission probe into the question of gas production, distribution and installation at the earliest possible date. : A delegation will present the re- solution to city council at 10 am. Monday, April 12, and ask that compulsory installation of gas safe- ty devices be delayed until after the public inquiry is -held.- A second resolution endorsed by the meeting condemned city coun- cil for allowing the B.C. Electric to operate without a gas code. Speakers at the protest meeting were Mrs. Effie Jones, J. Fergus- son, Harry Rankin and George Ed- wards. . Bo Labor supporter killed in crash . -NOTCH.HILL, B.C. The progressive movement lost a staunch worker when Mrs. Alma Nash, 65, of White Lake, was killed instantly in a ear collision near Salmon Arm on March 27. ; Mrs. Nash, a long-time support- er of the labor movement and the Communist pasty and its succes- sor, the Labor-Progressive party, is remembered for her work dur- ing the Hungry Thirties and. dur- ing the Spanish war. She was well . liked and respected in the district and community and her tragic death came as a shock to the many people who knew her. : Her husband, Claude, died of eancer less than a year ago. Her son, who fought on the side of the Republic in Spain, was driving the car at the time of the fatal acci- dent and is now in hospital: report- ed to be recovering from his .in- juries. Interment took place in Notch Hill cemetery on Thursday, April 1. Guatemala’s party of Commun- Redistribution expected at this session VICTORIA, B.C. Work on the problem of redis- tributing the provincial constitu- encies is now well under way in the legislature. Redistribution to bring constitu- encies more in line with changes in population during the boom of the last ten years has been under con- sideration for some time now be- cause the last changes were in 1937. A committee was set up by the first Social Credit minority gov- ernment during the spring session last’ year but it only met twice be- fore the government was defeated. The redistribution committee has made much more progress at this session. It has met and ‘set up sub-committees, one each ‘for the Island, the Lower Mainland and the Interior. These commit- tees have been actively at work and are expected to present their reports before the legislature 1s prorogued. There has been general agree- ment on two important questions concerning the alteration of con- stituency boundaries. First of all, it has been agreed that the multi- member seats must go—all future B.C. ridings will be single member seats. (There are now three two- member. constituencies, Vancouver East, Centre and Burrard, and two three-member constituencies, Van- |couver-Pont Grey and Victoria, making a total of 48 members for 41 constituencies.) In addition, it thas been agreed to follow the boundaries of federal constituen- cies which were remapped in 1952 following the Dominion Census of 1951. Tt has also been agreed that it is desirable to hold the number of new seats to be created to four or five, which would increase the num- ber of members of the legislature from the present 48 to 52 or 53. The most difficult problem is likely to be presented by the ques- \ ver, especially when compared with , representation for the urban areas of Victoria and district. - For historical reasons, Vancou- ver Island, and especially Victoria has been over-represented in com- parison to Vancouver. This arose from the equality of representation granted the Island when the two colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia were united in 1866. The Island now has a total of 10 seats, and the sub-committee dealing with the redistribution on the Island proposes to keep the same number of seats, by cutting one seat from Victoria and dividing up the suburban area of Saanich. This would give the Island, 10 seats with some 15,000 electors each.. ; If the same figuring were applied to Vancouver, it would be entitled to about 16 seats, instead of its present 9. But using the federal tion of representation for Vancou-' constituencies as a pattern on the . Vancouver to have more seats basis of two ‘provincial seats te one federal seat, Vancouver would only get 12 seats, This would mean that each Vancouver member would represent 25,000 voters com- pared to a Victoria area member representing 15,000, ~~ It seems certain that Vancouver members. are not going to agree to this serious discrimination against Vancouver and a fight is in prospect. : ; The likelihood is that Vancou- ver members will ask for all the additional seats to be allocated to Vancouver and surrounding suburban areas, such as Burn- aby, which,. with some 70.000 population, is entitled to at least one more seat. - No attempt is being made to bring the number of voters in the up-country ridings into line with those of the Island or the Lower Mainland. Only changes contem- plated there are constituency boun- daries to eliminate some of the more glaring inequalities. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 9, 1954 — PAGE 7