Pr eT aera TT eae otto TT LABOR FRONT By WILLIAM KASHTAN The end of the five-month strike at the A. R. Clarke Company in Toronto brings to mind again how hard the workers will fight, at great sacrifice if need be, to build and defend their trade unions. Anti-union elements don’t understand this and sometimes progressive- minded workers tend to forget it. Yet the his- tory of the working-class movement is full of such examples in which workers placed ahead of immediate monetary gains what they con- sider more important and more lasting—the de- fense of their union. The A. R. Clarke strike had some of this quality. The workers faced a company with many yearg of experience in union busting. Having been successful at it in the past, the company was determined to do it again this time. The basic issue involved in the strike, jae wag not whether the company would pay the five cents-an-hour increase proposed . by the conciliafien board but whether the workers could compel the company to recognize and deal with their union. - The company was finally compelled to do so once the workers and the union understood that to break the back of the injunction and win, they had to move over to mass forms of solidarity action. * * * As in the case of the recent strikes in British Columbia, it is this that began to change the picture in favor of the workers. To have fallen into the morass of excessive legalism wou'd have broken the backs of those strikes. However, once the workers understood that labor unity and labor solidarity was the working-class answer to the union busting in- junction and began to apply it, the effect of these injunctions was seriously lessened. Is there any doubt that, in Toronto as in B.C., the massive turn out on the picket line of workers representing unions in and outside the Congress wag a determining factor in these strikes? Is there any doubt that the solidarity displayed by U.S. and British longshoremen and dockers in connection with the A.R. Clarke strike, Wag equally a determining factor? ca * * Bearing thig in mind it is hard to understand how Max Federman of the Amalgamated Butchers and Meat Cutters Union could play up the role of this or that politician in bringing about a settlement while by inference, playing down that which was decisive—the effect of labor unity and solidarity in deciding the outcome. Such an approach shows that the lessons of the present period have not yet been fully digested in some quarters and that a good beginning may be reversed—ii the right wing has its way. The workers, however, having seen the great value of labor unity and labor solidarity in Toronto and in British Columbia are likely to draw the opposite conclusion—that what is needed is to make labor unity and labor solidarity a permanent feature of the life of the trade union movement from one part of the country to the other. In any case, these examples offer hope that a new chapter may be opening up for the trade union movement—a chapter which puts an end to internecine warfare and to divisions within the trade union movement fostered and made use of by monopoly—and makes it possible for the workers to unite their forces so as to advance their aims in the economic and political arena. A good place to begin would be aroundthe fight for the 35-hour work week without reduction in take-home pay. Another good place to start from would be in the drive to organize the unorganized. To be successful on both these fronts will require all the unity the trade union movement can muster. Season’s Greetings from HASTINGS EAST CLUB Communist Party of Canada Greetings and Best Wishes to all our Friends from THE BLAKEY FAMILY LOOKING FOR UNUSUAL BUYS -AT POPULAR PRICES? | We have an interesting choice of goods from the U.S.S.R., Czechoslovakia, China and Poland. TEA AND CONFECTIONARY FROM U.S.S.R. — CHINAWARE _ — GLASSWARE — LINENS — TEXTILES — EMBROIDERED GOODS _ - — SOVIET WRIST WATCHES — CERAMIC FIGURINES eT ead We specialize in arranging tourist visits to the Soviet Union cn a UKRAINSKA KNYHA 2643 East Hastings Street Vancouver 6, B.C. Telephone ALpine 3-8642 Open 9-5:30 Daily Closed Wednesday 9-9:00 Friday GIBSON ELECTED IN POWELL RIVER DOROTHY LYNAS ELECTED TO NORTH VAN. SCHOOL BOARD Dorothy Lynas, popular community leader in North Vancouver District, and former school trustee, was again elected to the school board with an over- whelming vote in _ last Thursday’s civic election. Voting took place through- out the province in B.C.’s municipalities on December 6 as voters elected hundreds of civic officials and deter- mined the fate of inumerable by-laws. Despite the efforts of cer- tain Vancouver newspapers to stir up a red-baiting campaign against Dorothy Lynas in North Vancouver District, she was elected with twice as many votes as she received _in 1960. Two years ago her vote was 1,700. In Thursday’s voting she rolled up 3,361 votes. Mrs. Lynas was a member ~ of the North Vancouver school board for five years until two years ago when she was defeated. She has’ lived in North Vancouver for 22 years during which time she has played a prominent part in community propects and various organizations. In a letter delivered to ev- ery home in North Vancou- ver District prior to the elec- | tion, she pledged to fight to have Victoria increase the ed- DOROTHY LYNAS ucational grant from 50% to 60%; to press for Federal ex- Senin of its offer on voca- tional schools beyond the 1963 deadline; and to press for working out a cost shar- ing program with Ottawa that will guarantee an educa- tional program to meet the need of the day. Mrs. Lynas took exception to the introduction of the Merit Rating systems in North Vancouver schools. In her let- ter she charged that the “Mer- it Rating can lead only to disunity in the teaching staff and to a system of patronage in the school with our child- ren the chief victims.” She told an_ enthusiastic crowd Saturday night, which met to celebrate her election, Condemn fish treaty in postcard campaign The United Fishermen and Al- lied Workers union has charged that their rights are being sold out to Japanese interests. The union held a meeting of B. C. fishermen last Saturday, Dec. 8, in Steveston, to protest a recent decision of the International North Pacific Fisheries Commis- sion permitting the Japanese to fish near the Queen Charlotte Islands. The fishermen have decided to launch a postcard campaign ad- dressed to federal fisheries min- ister J. Angus McLean and all B.C. Members of Parliament. The postcard, which has been printed in thousands of copies, proposes three steps which will protect the future of the fishing industry in Canada: ® It calls on the government to refuse ratification of the decision allowing the Japanese to fish off NEW METHOD BARBER SHOP 600 East Hastings Vancouver 4 G. GLOWA, ae Prop. Season’s Greetings to the PT from FEDERATION OF RUSSIAN- CANADIANS 600 Campbell Ave. Vancouver 4, B.C. - the Queen Charlottes and in the Eastern Bering Sea; ® Urges the immediate con- clusion of a 4-power treaty (Can- ada, U.S., Japan and the USSR) which would eliminate mid-ocean fishing and thus aid the con- servation of fish; ® Calls for the establishment of a 12-mile off-shore limit instead of the 3-mile limit now in force. that she was looking for eagerly to her coming on school board to fight } progressive policies which put forward in her lette the voters. Two labor candidates North Vancouver District polled large voters in ~ first bid for public “offic John Puff polled 752 vé Nicholas Podovinnikoff, 6 around’ the’ -province 1 votes were polled by prog sive and labour candida In Powell River long tim progressive civic figure } Gibson, was elected council" with 810 votes, being on three elected with six in race. In Burnaby labor Ca! dates fell short of ele but rolled up sizeable vol James Dailly received 3,3 votes; R. E. Hicks, 3,234 A. Erickson, 2,226; and A Hansen, 2,248. Progressive candidates Ha old Pritchett and Marie God frey brought ‘forward the issues of the Burnaby paign. Running for cou? Pritchett polled 1,081 vot Marie Godfrey _rolled: 1,699 votes for school tru In Kamloops labor cal didate, Cecilia E. Mcinne running for council polled 5? votes, while the other 1a? candidate, Lance Randle, ning for alderman in N' Kamloops polled 255. : In Port Alberni progre candidate George McKnile polled 453 votes, and in La™ ley the trade union bae candidate B. Hansen poll 439 votes. : SEASON'S GREETINGS To All Our Friends ; “DUSTY” and BET? GREENWELL © Jobless Meet The Vancouver & District Unemployed Council has an- nounced that it will be hold- ing a mass meeting on Thurs- day, Dec. 20, 1 p.m, at the Pender Auditorium, 339 W. Pender St. The main point. on the meeting’s agenda will be the coming opening of the pro- vincial legislature and unem- ployed action in that connec- tion. SUN., DEC. 16 - 2 P.M. LABOR DRAMA GROUP MEETING IPENDER AUDITORIU CANTEEN - (B.C. Peace Council Office) 339 West Pendel All Interested Perso™ Welcome . Season’s Greetings from PT. GREY CLUB Communist Party of Canada Xmas Greetings SAVOY ROOMS (Upstairs) ~ 258 East Hastings ‘Hot and Cold Water Reasonable Rates ee Best Wishes to all ® Ukrainian Friends BILL BENNET! _ CLUB Communist Party — of Canada Season’s 1424 Commercial Drive 3, TRANSFER & FURNITURE STORE Greetings to all our Friends (Phone Nick) A G&G 3- )