CCFers and LPPers have cooperated in a common Cause on many occasions in the past. One
such was the Nanaimo laundry workers’ strike in 1947 which helped to bring about the
downfall of the Liberal-Conservative Coali tion government. This picture shows Sam
Guthrie, then CCF MLA for Cowichan-New castle, addressing an open air meeting. Nigel
Morgan, LPP provincial leader, stands at left rear.

~ Can CCF and ©

LPP cooperate ?

HE present election gives
one considerable food for
thought about the future of

Canadian labor in politics. ~

When I was a lad of seven-
teen in Winnipeg I heard a
speech from a _ soap-box in
Market Square by H. M. Bar-
tholomew, a witty Irish Can-
adian socialist _who always
held his audience by his pene-
trating remarks.

“Do you want to know what.

unity means? asked Bart. “Tl
show you!”

He took a bunch of short
sticks from his. pocket, and,

separating one from the rest,
snapped it in his hands/
“That’s what happens when
a worker is alone,” said Bart.
“But here’s what happens
when he stands together With

his “fellow workers.” The
lanky speaker tried to snap
the bunch of sticks, and failed.
“That's... unity,” he said:
“Never forget it!”
To use Bart’s customary
words to the joyful wage-

earners standing around, “Tll
bet a bottle of Cocoa Cola to
a corn cob pipe”’ that his par
able stuck in their minds dur-
ing many a harsh struggle in
the Hungry Thirties ten years

later.
*

It was working-class unity
that helped to change the face
of this country over the past
twenty-five years.

When Bart was speaking on
Winnipeg’s Market Square it

By LESLIE MORRIS

was. only two years since po-
lice and imported thugs had
shot and killed striking work-
ers during the 1919- General
Strike.

The Winnipeg workers had
teft their jobs in May to en-
force their right to bargain
collectively with ‘the employ-
ers.

Today, because of such unit-
ed labor struggles, the right
of collective bargaining is not
only on the statute books in
the provinces, but, what is

Kenya

HE British-dominated Ken-

ya government has replied

to growing African demands *

for equal rights and indepen-
dence by clamping harsh new
restrictions on all African po-
litical meetings in the colony.

Special licences wiH have to
be obtained for all political
meetings and further special
permission for any collection
to be taken.

African: members. of the
Legislative Council may be re-
stricted to speaking in their
own constituencies—and then
only with the government’s lic-
ence. The authorities have the
power to ban all guest speak-

more, is enforced by a trade
union movement five times
bigger than it was in 1919.

There was.no unemploy-

ment insurance then. In Win- ,

hundred other
when the econ-
omic crisis struck in 1929, if
the breadwinner was out of
a job the family could turn
only to the municipal council
or charity.

Municipal councils went
broke trying to pay miserly
relief. Like Oliver Twist the
people asked for. more and
received little or nothing.

In dead of winter they were

nipeg and a
communities,

sent to the municipal wood-,

yards to buck-saw wood while

°

ers.

Some- meetings will be’ re-
corded on tape recorders, as
an extra intimidation to speak-
ers.

Announcing these new re-
strictions the government.
threatened to deal promptly

with any sign of “incitement
to undermine or defy author-
ity.”

The action by the govern-
ment —' composed largely of
European settlers — shows
that it fears the success of a

campaign waged by African
members since their election
to the Legislative Assembly

last. March.
w the eight elected African

‘ eration

gas saws rusted nearby, to
“prove” they were ‘willing to

work” if the non-existent job
turned up. And the family
kept | together

and soul
I

ans, while
the young men and girls wan-
dered. over the land with no-
where to lay their head and
no prospects job

roni ana &

on m

ithe battle for
unemployed
eral, ‘Tory,

Because of

fe l

and

Communist
voters and often with
no poli at all —un-
employment insurance was

vrung from an unwilling and
often violent government by
the devotion and stubborn-
ness of hundreds of thousands
of unknown and unsung work-
ers and their family.

Unemployment insurance
is on the law books. It wasn’t
handed down ona silver. plat-
ter, it was won. by thé working
people.
ikewise, the
fering’ when. eggs
dozen fora quarter
butter was cheaper
grease and wheat piled up
unsold, sick at heart when
the children ran about in gun-
ny sacks, they. forced the gov-
ernment through farm strikes
and hunger marches. to give
at least some assistance.

What happened in the Hun-
gry Thirties was that the st
was ‘compelled by workers’
and farmers’ united actions to
recognize its: responsibility
for standards of living. Up to
that time the state’s responsi-
was largely limited to
collecting taxes, puting you in
jail if you broke the law and
were caught, and making sure
you landed in Potter’s Field
if you died a-pauper.

The CCF was born in the
middle of all this in. 1932.

*

United popular action has
changed the face of the coun-
try. It is not only that an in-
dustrial boom has lasted for
several years now, but that
the people have won conces-
sions from the employers and

suf-
two

farmers,
were
and .when
than axle

ate

bility

the government.. Even in a
boom the workers would not
have collective bargaining

rights and other reforms un-
less they fought for them.
The people of this country
defended their democratic as
well as their- economic rights.
Nineteen hundred and thir-

members — among them Tom
Mboya, 28-year-old general
secretary of the Kenya Fed-
of Labor have de-
clared their opposition to the
1954 Lyttelton plan for Kenya,
and refused all government
posts.

1

Instead they declared: “We
shall fight to build a govern-
ment and society in which all
enjoy equal rights and oppor-
tunities and no one enjoys
privileges or a privileged po-

Sa § Ee SEAT
$ition.

Under the
tion Europeans occupy 38 seats
out of a total 59 in legislative
council, and have 12 ministers
as against five non-Europea

present constiut-
9

ty-five was a great year. for
uinadian democracy because
s of Canadians support-
ed the demand to take the
H -like Section 98 (passed
in the 1919 Winnipeg General
Strike) off the statute

and freedom of speech
and association.

‘

They rose in such numbers
to win their social and econ-
omic demands that in 1935
they threw out the last Tory
government eyer to hold pow-
er in Ottawa — the Bennett
“Tron Heel” . government —
and elected Mackenzie King
and the Liberals on _ their
pledges to restore a measure
of democracy and provide re-
forms.

books

res .ore

In every one of these. in-
stances, people’s unity was to
be seen. Bartholomew’s. par-
able of the bundle. of sticks
was proven to be a very great
truth.

This is the truth. It was the

united struggles in French-
and English-speaking. Cana;-
da, the sacrifices and efforts

of millions from the Atlantic
to the Pacific shdres that built
Canada’s labor and farm move-
ments over the years.

These are only -a few ex-
amples. There are others
which the*reader can multiply
from his own experience. As
the union song says

Solidarity, forever,

For the union makes us

strong! 3

Unity is so vital for the la-
bor movement that it can be
said that divided, the strength
of the working class is feeble;
united, it is invincible.

The wage-earners in the
trade union movement found
this out when, after many

years of divisian between CIO
and the AFL, their good sense
prevailed and the two labor
congresses were united in the
United States and Canada.
When the unions came to-
gether in the memorable con-
vention in Toronto and joined
forces to bring over one mil-
lion organized workers into
the new Canadian Labor Con-
gress, their ~— strength was
greater than the simple addi-
tion of two former congresses:
it was multiplied many times
because of unity.
® This is the first of a series
of three articles by Leslie
The second will
appear next week.

Morris.

Africans want their full rights.

3ut the population of Kenya
has six million Africans, 125;-
00 Asians and Arabs — and
only 30,000 Europeans. -Of the
Africans only about 126,500
had the right to vote in the
March election.

Mboya and other African
leaders hit at the ban on
meetings, pointing out that
Kenya has the same right to ¥
independence as. Ghana, and
demanding that African rep-
rasentation on the Legislative
be raised from eight to: 23.

They have also been oppos-
ing the proposal to establish
a big’ British military base*in
ish military base in

MAY 31, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 12