Steelworkers leader rapped

As these steelworkers returned to work, the Metal amd Engin-
eering Trade Unions International, a department of the World
Federation of Trade Unions, condemned David McDonald, secre-
tamy-treasurer of the United Steelworkers (CIO), for his refusal

of their offer of financial assistance during the strike.

The in-

ternational only learned through the press that McDonald had dis-

missed their aid as “a, political gesture.”

Terming this a “mean

pretext,” the internaticnal commented acidly that “certain CIO

officials *.

. . have no need of funds collected by the workrs.”

Railroaders demand
firm stand by leaders

—TORONTO

A number of rank-and-file railroaders here are demanding a stiffer
attitude by their union leaders to current wages and hours demands

now before federal conciliation boards.

A leaflet issued by rank-and-

filers urges increased activity by the ‘membership of the AFL Brother-

hoods and the CBRE and warns
that current. conciliation proceed-
ings may be used as they were
last yeaii — “to cut down our de-
mands”.

The current demand of the AFL
Brotherhoods is for a 40-hour week
without loss in take-home pay plus
a seven cent an hour increase. The
CBRE is asking for 10 cents an
hour.

The rank-and-file. leaflet points
out that the conciliation procedure
was followed without either the
government or the companies hav-
ing felt the full weight, the strength
and determination of the railroad
membership.

“Under such circumstances,”
Says the leaflet, which was wide-
fy distriputed, “iUs a sign of

weakness to rush to conciliation.

There is plenty of reason to be-
lieve that the officers of the rail-
road unions led by Frank Hall
of the Railway, and Steamship
clerks, have gone very soft. They
are quite liable to go along with
the companies’ lawyers and such
smocth' operators as the new
CNR president, Donald Gordon.”

The leaflet reminds railioaders
that the companies have been given
the juicy plum of two freight rate
increases inside a year and stres-
ses that propaganda about not be-
ing able to “afford” a 40-hour week
won’t hold up when the super-pro-
fits are examined.

A reminder that the rank-and-
file showed its real spirit when
it voted almost 100 percent last
year for strike action is coupled
with the fact that the demand for
rea] action was frustrated by top
union leaders who settled for less
than half the original wage de-
mand.

STANFTE LDS
} indhrinkabte

UNDERWEAR

Keep Warm - Keep Healthy

STANFIELD’S

comprwarioxs .... °6,00
$3.50

BLUE LABEL

SHIRTS AND $3 715
: es

DRAWERS, Each...

SHIRTS AND
DRAWERS, Each ...

MAIL ORDERS PREPAID

45 E. Hastings St. - Vancouver

PMP PT Th Tern Tear

Former fascist believed
defeated in Yellowknife

Official returns in elections held here Monday this week were stil]

.

—YELLOWKNIFE, NWT
unreported at Pacific Tribune

press time, although unofficial counts indicated the defeat of Charles B. Crate, leading figure in the Nation-

al Union of Fascists before the war and one-time editor of the pro-Nazi

Thunderbolt in Toronto.

Crate; now a CCF member, was one of 14 candidates nominated for five seats on Yellowknife

Administrative Council.

School Board.

Two candidates, Les W. Hurt and Ole Her nansan,
Local 802, International Union of Mine,

strong vote for the council.

In addition, there were five candidates for three vacancies on Yellowknife

endorsed by Yellowknife Miners Union,
Mill and Smelter Workers, were believed to have polled @

This year however, the union withdrew its "support from Fred Henne, former union member
who has twice won election to the council with Mine-Mill support.

z . sage t
Ciate, whose ativities as a leader

of the Canadian Union of Fasists
before the war were denounced by
labor organizations throughout the
country, advanced a program re-
flecting his more recent CCF affi-

liation — at the first annual elec-
tion of officers to Yellowknife CCF
club during Harold Winch’s visit
last January, Crate was. named
publicity chairman and delegated
to draw up a CCF program for
Mackenzie District.

But word of his fascist record,
his connections before the war with
John Ross Taylor and other pro-
Nazi and anti-Semitic spokesmen
for fascist groups in Toronto and
Montreal, followed him to Yellow-
knife.

In a letter published by the News
of the North in its November 18
issue, Crate brazenly attacked the
Pacific Tribune for publishing a
‘libellous ‘and malicious article”
about him and dismissed his years
of fascist activities as “my share
of mistaken opinion in the thirties
when we were all looking for a
quick way out of the depression.”

His letter stated:

e pT eae

‘SHORT JABS’ ABSENT

Bill Bennett ill,
appeals for aid
to Christmas fund

“Short Jabs,”

the column which first appeared under the byline

Ol’ Bill, in the B.C. Workers’ News of February 1, 1935, to become

one of thé most popular features of that paper and its successors, 35

missing from this issue of the Pacific Tribune.

been in poor health since last sum-
mer when he was obliged to enter
hospital for six weeks, i!2luctantly
consented ‘this week to miss his
first deadline in 14 years.

Even during the time he was in
hospital Ol’ Bill continued to dic-
tate his column and he has main-
tained it with increasing difficulty
until now. However, in view of
the strain it placed: upon him, the

"| editorial board persuaded him to

“The one rumor I have traced
back to individuals at one time and
probably, still stooging for the LPP
(Communist party), is that I am a,
‘fascist’. This story is bolstered by
a libelous and malicious article
from the Stalinist publication, the
Tribune, of some time ago. Though
I have always opposed the Com-
munist party as an intentionally
destructive force, the other rumor
accuses me of being a Communist.
Of course, I can’t be both...

“While I held my share of mis-
taken opinion in the thirties when
we were all looking for a quick way
out of the depression,I can’t be ac-
cused of lack of sincerity or lack
of national loyalty. Had I any
illusions on the subject, my resi-
dence in the Territories has con-
vinced me we have too much dic-
tatorship already. I am not a fas-
cist and not a Communist. _I he-
lieve that we must have social
changes, but on strictly democratic
lines.”

Crate’s attempt to discredit well
documented evidence of his fascist
past by alluding to “rumors” of
communist sympathies, his facile
relating of dictatorship which he
once upheld in the columns of the
Thunderbolt to his “strictly demo-
cratic” opposition to long-distance
government of the Northwest Ter-
ritories from Ottawa, failed to im-
press Yellowknife voters, however.

Henne, one-time international
representative of the International
Union of Mine Mill and Smelter
Workers, who first won election to
Yellowknife Administrative Dist-
rict Council with the union’s sup-
port, was not endorsed this year by
the union, of which he is no longet'
a member.

take a rest in the hope that, if his
health permits, he will be able to
write his personal story for the
Pacific Tribune — a personal stolly
which is also the story of the labor
movement to which he has given a
lifetime of service.

Ol’ Bill’s concern is not for him-
self, but for the competition with
Betty Tarnowski, wife of Sid Zlot-
nik, which he initiated through his
column a few weeks ago. For Bill,
his column has not only been~a
means of replying to labor’s ene-
mies and broadening” his readers’
understanding of the struggle foi!
socialism by drawing on his own
wealth of experience; it has also
been a personal link with friends,
old and new, throughout the pro-
vince. He has used it to raise
money for his paper as he planned
to do again, this time to raise
a Christmas fund for the Pacific
Tribune.

Now he’s worried that in the ab-
sence of his column the fund will
not grow as it needs to if the
Pacific Tiibune’s continued publi-
cation is to be assured. Donations
have been coming in, from ag far
away as Saskatchewan, and Ol
Bill's appeal to his readers is to
keep them coming in.

“T don’t care so much whether
they’re sent to me or to Betty Tar-
nowski, so long ag they’re sent,
though, mind you, I want to hold
my end up in this competition,” he
says.

To which Betty Tarnowski adds,
“We're both sending out letters,
with our ‘Christmas socks’ en-
closed, and we're sure they’ll get
a weal response. Whoever wins,
the PT will be the real winner.
That’s the main thing.”

Chinese airlines’ U.S pilots will operate
under agreement with new people’s government

—HONG KONG

All 45 American pilots employed
by the Chinese National Aviation
Corporation have decided to con-

tinue serving the company under
the new Communist-led People’s
government. The CNIAC and the
Central Air Transport Corporation,

China’s two major airlines, de-
clared for the new government on

November 9 after their 4,000 Chin-
ese and foreign employees declar-
ed they belonged “not to Chiang
Kai-shek but to China’ and top
company officers flew to Peking to
formalize the deal.

The CNAC was 80 percent Chin-
ese owned, the remaining 20 per-
cent of the stock being held by
Pan-American” Airways, while the
CATC is purely Chinese.

Bill Bennett, who has

OL’ BILL BENNETT
His column missing ... .

a

BETTY TARNOWSKI
but not the competition.

Copper settlement
goes before union

A recommended settlement on a
new union contilact for 1200 hard
rock miners at Britannia and Cop-
per Mountain will be put before
Mine-Mill members, regional’ direc-
tor Harvey Murphy said this week.

Proposals: for a new agreement
were the outcome of talks between
union leaders and company officials
of Britannia Mining and Smelting
and Granby Consolidated.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 25, 1949 — PAGE 6

STA ACTOTT A077 ATH 101 FW A NN Pe ERENT 0 REEDED EET EEE

ee