Al 6} a DAN eee SN a es mest oe ed > tic DEMAND GROWS FOR MERCHANT MARINE VICTORIA FIGHTS LAYOFFS IN SHIPYARDS, MILLS Faced with threatened mass layoffs in the shipbuilding, lum- ber and construction industry in B. C.’s capital city, a strong public campaign is developing to Save Victoria’s industry and jobs. According to Victoria Machin- ery Depot general Manager H. S. Hammill, about 300 men will be laid off unless new. contracts are fortcoming. A similar threat exists at the large Yarrows Ltd, yard, About 2,200 men in Victoria depend on the shipbuilding indus- try for their livelihood. The Victoria Daily Times re- Cently ran a series of three ar- ticles by its columnist Pete Lou- don, which came out strongly in Supoort of building a Canadian merchant marine, In the first of the articles, featured on page one under the heading, ‘‘Of all the ships loading in B.C. ports, not one is Cana- dian,’’ Loudon says the strange thing about the crisis threatening Victoria’s shipbuilding industry is that ‘‘it comes at a time when Marine traffic has never been heavier,”’ a Loudon says that of all the vessels scrambling for our lumber and grain, not one is ope- rating under a Canadian flag, with a Canadian crew.’’ The Victoria Times writer Said: ‘Today Canada is the fourth largest trading nation in the world but she sends her goods abroad in foreign bottoms. “On any given day one can see Ships of foreign nations loading 8rain, lumber and general cargo at B.B° ports. Vancouver last year was the busiest commercial ‘Of All the Ships Loading in B.C. Ports, Not One Is Canadian (First of a three-part series) By PETE LOUDON An unemployment crisis so severe it threatens to blight the whole economy of Victoria is rapidly approach: ing in the West Coast shipbuilding industry. Strangely enough, it comes at a time when marine traffic has never been heavier. West Coast wharves are crowded with busy ships—so busy that many of them can’t berth, But of all the vessels scrambling for our lumber and grain, not one is operating under a Canadian flag, with a Canadian crew. B.C. tradesmen who proved their ability as shipbuilders during the Second World War are being told to expect layoffs. At Victoria Machinery Depot last week, general manager H. S. Hammill, grieving at the indicated cancellation of a $5 million cruise ship construction, esti- mated that about 300 men will be jobless unless other con- tracts appear. Similar worries haunt Yarrows Ltd. + Louden All of the 2,200 men whose livelihood and that of their families depends on the shipyards can only gaze with puzzled looks on the constant parade of foreign vessels. They wonder how long it will be before their jobs are on the line. Their unions have taken a lead in protesting the situa- tion. So far, other sections of the community haven’. come to grips with it. But it isn’t hard to visualize the effect on Victoria if yard payrolls diminish. Every type of business would be affected and everyone would feel the pinch, VMD president Harold Husband estimates the ship- yards here have a gross annual payroll varying between $15 and $17 million, “Unless something comes to sight soon, a large part of that is threatened,” he told the Times. John Wallace, general manager at Yarrows Ltd., esti- mates the shipyards pump $2 million a month into Vic- toria. "Tf these people become jobless, they have to leave the community in order to follow their trades,” he states. The tragedy of this is that when a similar situation oc n_ the aircraft construction industry, gnle left Canada to make new the then minister of veterans’ affair who said the merchant marine would be maint expanded. The marine workers’ union recently repri his remarks: . “The ships you built will carry Canada’s trade to the ends of the world, creating employment and opportunity to Canadian workers.” But after the war it was The companies, For several years vessels were operated at a profit because of a world shortage of ships. Soon, however, faster, more modern ships were launcied by other trading countries and the wartime ships built in Canada no longer could compete. The entire fleet wes sold to foreign buyers. y Canada is the fourth largest trading nation in H is represented ships that visit nted the marine 0 shipbuilders and to > men who work in the yards, aft!’ to the politicians who fleet was released by the government to private shipping P ‘them in Ottawa. (To be continued.) Above is a reproduction of the Dec. 3 issue of the Victoria Daily Times dealing with the crisis in the shipyard industry. The article by port on the Pacific Coast. ‘“«fvery maritime nation in the world is represented except Ca- nada. Of allthe hundreds of ships that visit yearly not one is Cana- dian, ‘¢Why in the name of good sense are we not building another mer- chant fleet?’’ asks Loudon. * * * As if the crisis in Victoria’s shipyards was not enough it was announced a few days agothat the Moore-Whittington Lumber Co., mill announced it would close down due to lack of peeler logs, throwing another 126 men out of work. The Victoria Club of the Com- munist Party has distributed a leaflet to industrial plants and communities urging action to save the city’s industry and jobs. Charging that ‘fone U.S.-con- trolled monopoly, the CPR has choked the Moore - Whittington Lumber Co., to death and another big U.S. monopoly, B.C. Forest Products, has devoured the corpse,’’ the leaflet asks why nearly all independent Canadian lumber operators have left south- ern Vancouver Island. The Victoria Communist Party leaflet charges that these opera- tors have been forced out of busi- ness by the CPR cutting off their log supply from Esquimalt, Na- naimo Railway Lands because the ¢¢CPR had decided to log and mill the lands itself because it is too profit-hungry to pay the B.C. goverment the 25 percent sever- » ey lw Pete Loudon asks: ‘‘Why in the name of good sense are we not building another merchant fleet?”’ ence tax instituted in 1946 on E&N timber sales.”’ The leaflet states: *‘The Communist Party, rate- payers and others have advocated for a long time that the E&N lands should be taken over bythe govenment without compensa- tion and the timber made availa- ble to independent operators at reasonable rates, : ‘¢The takeover should be with- out compensation because the CPR has obviously made too much out of the grant. (The CPR has already made about $100 million out of E & N timber sales alone.) They still only pay one cent per acre per year land tax and no school tax!’’ Charging that. B. C. has become the battle-ground for profit hung- ry U.S. lumber monopolies and that our independent B. C. opera- tors and the woodworkers have become pawns to be sacrificedin the search for super profits by U.S. monopolies, the Communist Party proposes the following: * Until the E&N timber lands are publicly owned, the CPR must make timber available to existing Canadian operators at reasonable stumpage rates. * That B.C. Forest products must keep Moore - Whittington operating and guarantee every man his job in theirinterests and in the interests of our city’s ec- onomy as a while,”’ The leaflet urges all citizens to support these demands and ur- ges that the fight to protect Vic- toria’s and B.C. industry and jobs be taken up with city council and MLA’s. This week one of Victoria’s al- derman called for a conference of labor, industry and govern- ment to work out ‘‘concrete pro- posals’’ to meet the crisis shan- ing up in the capital city. End public polemics urged by Soviet CP A renewed call for an end to Public polemics between Com- M™unist Parties was made last Week by Pravda, the Soviet CP Organ, This ‘would create more fav- °rable conditions for calling a new conderence of Communist and Workers’ Parties and pre- Paring for it carefully and thor- Oughly.’? Pravda said in a long €ditorial article on the anniver- Sary of the 1960 81-Party state- Ment, “Our party proposes that dis- CUssions of disputed questions be Conducted through the usual chan- Nels of inter-party relations so that it may concentrate all its attention on the main tasks - Strengthening the economic and Political might of the socialist System, fighting against imper- ism for peace, democracy and Socialism, “Common struggle, the }} Practice of this struggle, will Set us a common basis for over- Coming those differences which Awe be removed merely by Ological polemic alone. Public polemic has gone too i » Warns Pravda, ‘‘and in ae instances overstepped the ‘. Ms for relations between fra- : ES Parties, But neither should Hh Situation be dramatized and Sarded as irremediable. ha Lenin taught, differences be Nand between political par- are usually settled not only *! Ee acipled polemic, but also he developing course of poli- al life itself,’ Was obligatory upon all Com- gest Parties that they should stry Upport but should resolutely ay against factionalists who €d proclaiming their own : © be revolutionary” Arties, , Reviewing events of the past three years, it declares that ‘im- perialism was on the defensive,”’ and that ‘‘the forces of the world liberating movement, despite all the difficulties, are beginning an offensive along the whole front of social struggle.”’ The Kennedy assassination showed that the reactionary and fascist forces were increasingly active. ‘‘They stop at nothing, they strike not only against the revol- utionary forces but at bourgeois statesmen who soberly assess the disposition of world forces. *