1 7 1a] : “ ey i. . git D8 AEM AEM MOMMA TLE AG AN IVED tovanee AE Adee yd P Vancouver, British Columbia, Friday, May 20, 1949 CSU issue before voters OTTAWA EXPOSED AS L_STRINEBREAKER The St. Laurent government, through Labor Minister Humph- rey Mitchell, has ‘brazenly declared its strike-breaking role in the : : Canadian Seamen’s Union's struggle to preserve decent wages and 4 es conditions on Canadian ships. : Now it’s up to the public, the working people who are the public, as to declare their attitude to every Liberal candidate, at election meet- ings, by letter and phone. Senator Ian Mackenzie is in Vancouver full of his usual bombast about a “Liberal victory.’” On what does he base his claim? On the St. Laurent government's labor record? On its use of police, courts and strikebreakers against seamen conduct- ing a legal strike? The working people, especially organized working : people whose unions may be next to experience government-supported union wrecking, have a right to. know. They should ask Senator Mac- kenzie. a4 Fisheries Minister R..W. Mayhew is also on the coast, seeking 4 re-election in Victoria. Does he too, resort to the un-Canadian smear : tactic of pleading a phoney “‘anti-communism” to justify his govern- ment’s patent connivance with profiteering shipowners to destroy a@ union which has the full support of organized labor? Is this also part of the record to which Prime Minister St. Laurent points with pride? To Canadian workers it is a shame that seamen who sailed their country’s ships under Nazi fire should find their reward at the ay end of an RCMP club or a strikebreaker’s bullet. Bi This is one of the real issues in this election. This is the St. : Laurent government’s policy in practice as opposed to its promises from the platform. Every Liberal candidate must be forced to face Price Five Cents id The issues in the Canadian seamen’s scruggle are being carried to the AVOrKers ha ene bis Port cities of the world, and here, crew members of a Canadian ship are shown parading through the streets of Liverpool 8 Srp ye Here are the facts. Read them s_68 < a8 —and act. Shipowners want slave conditions back CSU officials and government oa i ion heads were consulting in Ottawa What seamen’s conditions whose port of registry is Hali- There were 14 men in one Cab- some seyen weeks ago, prior to the ’ | a ‘ees Ship will revert to if fax. She flies a poe pese aed pa ene piaterrnses nal hoe strike, on a formula to settle the S a S ive of eresent world-wide strike but operates in g a) a oe _ ae i peyee dispute. A. MacNamara, deputy ior © Canadian Seamen’s Un- Bra ppould be defeated were Wey. cally illustrated this in a report sent to CSU che uarters in Vancouver by Bate Se Henderson, union dele- 1 on the S.S. Lake Kam- PS, now in Colombo, Ceylon. Mates oTson and several ship- freighter nt, Visit to the Shter Haligonian Duchess, Pe headg only, and carries a crew of Las- ears, with British and Polish officers. “Only a couple of the crew aft could speak English, but they showed us around the quarters (if you Can call them that),” reports Henderson. “There were only two fans aft, one in the bosun’s and one in the quartermaster’s cabins. some prefer to sleep on the deck. They had no bunk-lights, water, cooler or refrigerator, and the quarters were in very bad need of a paint job. They made a galley for the crew where the firemen’s messroom Continued on page 7 See SEAMEN Wi —PORT ALBERNI B.C. s ee candidates now in light thi Alberni holds the spot- Proving, week as one of several the eee constituencies where Conca, eee between Liberals and. the Tvatives for top position in to th, ®alition has broken out in- ie 0 Tn t Morgans key riding where Nigel int LPP candidate, is lead- Coalitig tty’s fight against the thine Ta) 3 eiieag issue has been fur- nks €d by a split in CCF ig which has now led to the Coalition, CCF ranks are split in Alberni riding entry into the field of Jack Maus- del, former CCF provincial coun- cil member and until recently an active member of the CCF. The division within the ranks of the Coalition culminated on Saturday last week in a major upset pi James Mowat, sitting Coalition-Liberal member. In a Liberal nominating convention marked by fisticuffs, hair-pulling and face-slapping, Mowat was defeated,,129 to 109, for renomin- ation by Tom Christie, who is known to be opposed to continu- ation of the provincial Coalition. As a result of dissatisfaction over conduct of the nominating convention, now asserted to have been a carefully rigged affair to which many long-time Liberals were refused admission, Mowat is entering the campaign as an In- dependent candidate, relying on Conservative opposition to Chris- tie’s anti-Coalition leanings. Commenting on the divisions within the ranks of his opponents, Morgan said this week: Continued on ‘page 6 See ALBERNI labor minister, left the room to have the proposals typed, and, ac- cording to his own statement, ““dur- ing my visit to my general office I received word that some sort of an agreement had been signed with the Seafarers’ International.” The SIU never had any mem- bers on the East Coast. It had never applied for certification. The CSU has been the legally certified bargaining agent since 1946, During the past seven weeks of strike CSU seamen have been club- bed, beaten, jailed, fined. This week Ottawa exposed its strike breaking’ role when federal Labor Minister Humphrey Mitchell released a weasel-worded five-page document blaming the CSU for the strike, thus stepping into the spot- light as a confessed enemy of the seamen and every legitimate trade union. T. G. McManus, CSU secre- tary-treasurer, replied with an open letter ripping into Mitchell’s sordid activities and accusing him of “‘mix- ing half-truths with untruthful statements in an attempt to bring Continued on back page See CSU in tents’ By MINERVA MILLER —LANGLEY, B.C. Threatened by high Fraser River waters, 90 anxious res- idents of Albion and nearby districts held an emergency meeting last Sunday under auspices of Albion Ratepay- ers’ Association to demand government assistance in evacuation and compensation if they suffer flood losses, Every resident expressed anger at the persistent rude- ness of provincial Mines Min- ister, R. C. McDonald, Coal- ition-Conservative candidate for Dewdney, who flatly de- nied any government respon- sibility in the present crisis. McDonald declared that the situation must be handled entirely by the Red Cross, which had offered to house the people in tents. Residents countered this with a strong demand that the government pay rentals for other houses | during the duration of the flood. Continued on page 7 See ALBION