Review

EDITORIAL PAGE
Unity always wins

Keep this lad out

ast week the Civic Non-Part-
isan Association (NPA) of
Vancouver selected its “slate” of
civic candidates, including alder-
man Bill Rathie as its mayorality
Standard bearer in the coming
civic elections.

Rathie, one of the most reaction-
ary in an assorted job lot of NPA
incumbents at City Hall, announc-
ed he will run on a “sound busin-
ess-like administration” platform,
the hardy perennial of years of
‘NPA domination of civic affairs.

One of his prime gems of “sound
business” was his attempt a few
months ago to set up a “free-enter-_
prise” garbage disposal company
then move in city council as a
“measure of economy” that gar-
bage disposal in Vancouver be
turned over to this company. Boot-
ing out several hundred civic
workers (taxpayers) from their
jobs didn’t disturb “businesslike” -
Rathie one iota.

The NPA council was compelled

to vote down the motion of their
colleague, not on principle grounds
of course, but on the “ethical”
pretext that aldermen shouldn’t
profit from civic enterprises?

Closely associated with, and
long a recognized pillar of Big Bus-
iness, alderman Rathie is bitterly
anti-labor and never misses an
opportunity to clamor on behalf
of his NPA cabal for “strong
measures” against organized la-
bor. -

His virulent opposition to a

ward system of aldermanic. re-

presentation in Vancouver is also
expressive of his contempt for the
needs of workingclass ratepayers
and his devotion to NPA big bus-
iness dictatorship at City Hall.

Between now and the civic

. elections organized labor and the

working people generally have a
job to do; to mobilize that degree
of unity needed to keep NPA’s

Rathie out of the mayor’s chair.

Editorial comments . .

B i Municipality of Kent bylaw
prohibiting the trekking Sons
of Freedom Doukhobors from
entering the municipality on their
way to Aggassiz, passed with the
approval of Socred attorney-
general Robert Bonnor, is present-
ly before the courts having its con-
stitutionality tested. ;

In this legal hassle to deprive

Canadians of the use of public
highways by the RCMP, our A-G
«~ Stands out like a modern “Dr.
.. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”.
_ When first introduced this un-
democratic decree had the A-G’s
full “approval”. Later, when public
indignation began to boil up the,
A-G changed his tune and began
to “question” its legality. Now
he is reported to be outright
_ “opposed” to the measure and has
become, in the venacular of tte
day, “a good guy”?

Thus it is exit Mr. Hyde, enter
Dr. Jekyll, but that is small com.
fort to close to 1,500 Canadians
subjected to hunger and the rigors
of winter in an open campsite at
Hope, while the “powers-that-be”
“good guys” and all, contemplate
the fate of this sorely oppresed
- people. :

= * > “s

Back in his heyday before the
New York Civic Federation took
him to their bosom, the late
president of the AFL Samuel
Gompers declared; “the only way

. Pacific T
nanecEa tg FO

to fight injunctions is to ignore

them”.

With anti-union injunctions in:
B.C. as thick as fleas on a dog,
that would seem to be very timely
advice, even if a bit “dated’’.

* * * ce

In the early stages of the U.S.
blockade of Cuba a snappy “die
now — pay later” promotional
sales card outlining the advant-
ages of “prepaid” funerals arrived
in the mail. No doubt the under-
taking monopoly smelled a “kill-
ing” from U.S. atomania?

oe lesSons stand out crystal
clear from the recent Marine
Workers’ strike at Allied Engin-
eers. One is that with the fine
measure of trade union unity

‘mounted by the B.C. Federation

of Labor and its affiliates in sup-
port of the Marine Workers, the
infamous Socred anti-labor legis-
lation known as Bills 42-43 can be
nullified on every picket line.
Given a like unity in building
united labor political action
through the New Democratic Par-
ty, Bills 42-43 and those who sired
them can be swept into the politi-
cal discard come the next election
in B.C. The NDP leadership miss-
ed a golden opportunity during
the Marine Workers strike to
align itself publicly with the
BCFL in this highly desirable ob-
jective.
_ In this strike, as in others, these
Bills show up for what, they really
are; legislative instruments de-
signed to enable the combined
forces of government, employers,
the courts, massed police (and
now: police dogs), to smash effec-
tive trade union organization, and

; to. promote organized scabbery
and. violence in the process.

In
essence, the lawless enforcement
of “law”, seeking always to put
the onus of its violence upon labor,

a slander as old as the capitali:
system itself. E

The Marine Workers Unio
(as with others) complied wit
all the legal technicalities requil
ed under these infamous Bills:
gotiations, conciliation, supervis
ed strike vote, etc., with strike a
tion only as a final resort.

Then the bosses (who also 0
the plants) applied to the co
for injunctions restricting,
Straining, or prohibiting u
picketing, while they hire scab
man the plant, and the services
mass police and dogs to herd th
scabs in and out of the strut
plant. In B.C. today there
approximately 164 court injun
tions against union official:
and even unspecified union mem
bers just blanketed as “Joh
Doe”, with the forces of govert-
ment and state ready to back
these violence-inciting injunctior
with lying excuses or police club

or both. ;
These injunctions and theil

results are the evil fruits of Bills
42-43, designed to cripple trad
union organizations and make i
easy prey for the mounting at
tacks of state-monopoly capital 1
its mad drive for substanda
wages and spiralling profits.

When Socred spokesmen like —
deputy labor minister Bill Sands
tries to tell organized labor B
42-43 were designed to “support”
and “protect” labor, organiz
must tell Socred Sands that bl
43 “supports labor much t
same way as the hangman’s ro
support the victim’, mean
building the trade union and
unity needed to get rid of si
“support” — for good.

See =F =
ibune ©
McEWEN - |.

Ex Canadian Jewish Weekly

‘Vochenblatt’ recently report-
ed a gathering held in Toronto to
honor the memory of a group of.
courageous’ pioneers who have
passed away in recent years. Men
and women whose dedicated life’s
work has left a priceless heritage
to the generations which follow
them. -

Since the work of those whose
memory is so honored was not
confined to Toronto alone, but
to all Canada, it is fitting that
labor papers worthy of the name
should also add their meed of tri-

- bute to those pioneers whose names
are enshrined in the history of
Canadian workingclass struggles.

In many of the most exploited
and ynorganized industries in
Canada, and perhaps more es- —
pecially in the “sweated” needle
trades, these pioneers were tire-
less and courageous builders of

if today, many of these same
unions have been temporarily
stripped of their once fighting
traditions by burocratic dictum,
it is

-trade union organization. _ And, |

because the matchless ex- .

given by these pioneers has also
been arbitrarily silenced.

Nechama Yanovsky, Freda
Shoichet, Bessie Bisgould, Harry
Shapiro, David Chudnovsky, B.
Zaretsky, these and others like
them were the pioneer builders
of militant unions, in the shop, in
the union hall, on a_ thousand
picket lines.

They it was whose struggles
added greatly to the proud tra-
ditions inherent in Canadian
unionism; traditions which others
of this era, less worthy, boast of
—but do little to enhance.

But fighting unions were not
all that these pioneers built. With
great sacrifice, effort and de-
votion to their own Jewish people,
they built ‘schules’’
where their children and all other
young folks could share in the
golden treasure of Jewish liter-
ature, culture and the arts; for the
enrichment of their people and
their Canada,

_ Class rooms in the Toronto
Winchevsky Centre are now to be
honored with the names of these
pioneers; names not only of humbl>
Jewish workers, but of truly great

_ Canadians. Names that symbolize

the imperishable heart and soul
of Canadian labor. ;

One of these grand pioneers wc
remember with deep love and
gratitude, Bessie “Ma” Bisgould.
Somewhere in the bible of Gentil>
and Jew alike it says something
about “I was hungry, and ye gave
me to eat”. That was ‘‘Ma” Bis.
gould’s life credo.

(schools) eo

unending duties and her own too
often dire poverty, this matchless
woman fought hunger tirelessly;
not only to provide food for her
own large family, but to fill the
hungry bellies of countless hun-
dreds of R.B. “Iron Heel” Ben:
nett’s “Hungry Thirties” victims
who came to her door. “Ma” al-
ways sent them away, their hunger
appeased and their spirits up’
lifted.
This writer and his own little
family can be added to those count:
less hundreds who came. to “Ma’s’
door, and who would have know”
the pangs of hunger more often if
those days, had it not been for
“Ma” Bisgould’s great heart and
her seemingly bottomless soup pot
It was the parable of the “five
loaves and two small fishes’ re~
written in the bitter reality of
the class struggle by an indomit:
able fighter. Ea
Many wondered how
managed it. A “miracle”? NO, |
“Ma” didn’t believe in miracle:
only in people’s unity and struggle
and the great heritage it wi
someday give to all humanity.
In these glorious names b?
stowed upon their class rooms, th
“kinder”, the students and us
patrons of the Toronto WinchevskY
Centre have set themselves tl?
greatest goal mankind can strive
for: the emulation of noble lives:
dedicated to the peace, happines>
and well-being of all humanity:
Dedicated, as Abraham Linc’ —
said “to that cause for which *h¢
gave the last full measure of
votion”.

ample of sacrifice and devotion
= em ‘ 5

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In the midst of all her othew

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