"Req

Thibault
fine-Mill Union

heads

ROSSLAND, B.C.

Meeting in the historic hall built here in 1898 by Western
tation of Miners, the Canadian constituent convention of

i 3ternational Union of’Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers estab-
: d an autonomous organization in this country, elected a

_ “ational executive to replace tne former council, and unani-

¥ Pa Passed an emergency reso-
‘, a Pledging “fullest support’
ee members in the Sudbury
Port Colborne districts who
Now in a battle with Interna-
‘onal’ Nickel over changes in the
Pension plan.

pelegates ' representing , 32,000
Gal Members decided to re-
mene an immediate $5 per
sion er assessment as “an expres-
ah si support” to: the Sudbury
decla ort Colborne workers and
ae pee that “this fight that Inco
wwive Feing on our brothers, their
fish and children, is a fight that
Ves all of us.”

Wag fter weeks of negotiations on
Ynatinn and pension plans: Inter-
Prone Nickel rejected all union

4 eis and called for the estab-

Which of a conciliation board,

to.) 1s now in session in Toron-

D

Baie tin 5
que ng with the all-important

Stion of world peace, the con-

NELS THIBAULT

wine greeted the unfreezing
“cold the last few months of the
the ar” and sent a cablegram
Prog © Big Four meeting then in
Saeed extending greetings and
e “ssing “sincerest wishes for
end Success of your meeting in its
ravors to achieve world peace.”
“© Convention noted that the
haq ; fra” of peace has already
a economic effects:
ae Sale of wheat and butter
Oland and Czechoslovakia will,
rove tine the Canadian farmer,
adj beneficial to the entire Can-
Bpor,  nOmY, said the officers

a x
one nese ‘sales, however, are
is Ya Very small fraction of what
‘e Possible with an end to the
Mor War.’ We say, again, that
tries trade with all the coun-
bea of the world in a climate of
ing © means jobs and higher liv-

ip. andards for our member-

to

ashy SPite the fact that our in-
“of the has been an important part
; War economy, we know and
€mphatically that our securi-
Tealiz Prosperity will only be
vad é through peace, world
“dig, 22d the development of Can-
‘dup ; dustry. The use of uran-
tement: World at peace opens up
‘ dustry Ous possibilities in our in-
a Pana ccuary: and Canada as

_ Stat
<e

ang Vile the prospects for peace

Ontinn easing, we still must
Ure 4,0 bend our efforts to
baer’ nothing will prevent
a § achieved. Our program
bannin €nd of the arms race,.the
Ons aks of atomic and other weap-

Sti] gt and’ negotiations must
Peace 22d until finally won and
eigns on earth.”

Peanet
o ‘ablishment of Canadian aut-

onomy “will strengthen the union
in every phase of its activity,”
said the report. ~

“It places on us the responsi-
bility to play a leading role in
the fight that must be waged by
Canadian workers in defense of
the independence of our coun-
try. We cannot sit idly by as
Canadian unionists while Canada
is being exploited ‘and colonized
economically, culturally and poli-
tically by United States inter-
ests.” "

Merger of the Trades and Labor
Council and the Canadian Congress
of Labor “is a step towards all-
inclusive unity’ but more work
and struggle on the part of the
rank-and-file of all unions is neces-

sary “if we are to achieve the kind].

of labor unity which will benefit
the Canadian working people.”

Mine-Mill has always fought for
and has always desired to be part
of a united trade union movement,
the report stressed.

“The fight for labor unity must
mean, in addition to the unity of
labor in Canada, unity with our
brothers in the British Common-
wealth, the United States, and
trade unionists throughout’ the
world.

“The exchange of experiences
between the Mine-Mill member-
ship in Canada and the workers
in mines, mills and smelters of
South America, Europe, Australia,
Asia and Africa will aid in develop-
ing a deeper understanding of
each other’s problems, and aid us
to overcome these problems,” said
the report. ‘This understanding
js the first step toward unity of
workers throughout the world.”

Other important sections in the
officers’ report dealt with union
organization, bargaining, legisla-
tive and-«political action, civil lib-
erties, press and education and
ladies’ auxiliaries.

_ Newly-elected officers of the
Canadiah union were sworn into
office .by John Clark, international
Mine-Mill president, at the closing
session of the convention.

Nels Thibault of Sudbury is
president; Harvey Murphy is
western vice-president; William
Kennedy is eastern , vice-presi-
dent; William Longridge of
Toronto is secretary-treasurer.

» Ken Smith of Vancouver was
elected board member of district
No. 1, western Canada; R. L. Stev-
enson is board member of district
No. 2, eastern Canada.

-Members of the canvassing com-
mittee are G. A. Burnett of Brit-
annia,' B.C.; W. B. Sproule, Sud-
bury and J. A. Brown of Calgary.

HARVEY MURPHY

A section of the crowd of
to hear Paul Robeson (right).

CANADIAN TOUR PLANNED

more than 10,000 People gathered

at the Peace Arch last Sunday

10,000 hear Robeson

By TOM McEWEN

at Peace Arch Park |

“I travel as an American in the interests of peace, uniting the’ peoples for peace,
and I stand always on the side of those who toil and labor. As an artist I come to sing, but
as a citizen I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this.”

a

These words were spoken last Sunday by the great American and world artist, Paul

Robeson, at the fourth annual Peace Arch concert, sponsored for him by the International
Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union, to an audience of well over 10,000 people.

Perhaps nowhere in North Am-
erica can a more beautiful natural
setting for a concert be found
than Peace Arch Park. There on
Sunday the green lawns and land-
scaped hillside gardens reechoed
Paul Robeson’s rich resonant bari-
tone voice, sending it rolling out
over the placid waters of Semiah-
moo Bay.

For everyone in the great gath-
ering it was a glimpse into the new
world Paul Robeson’s songs open
for them — the folk songs of all
the world's toilers, which have be-
come classics to all who hear them
in his voice.

Four times during these past
three years since the U.S. State De-
partment decided, against the will
of millions of progressive people
everywhere, to prohibit Paul Robe-
son from leaving his native land to
sing for them, the Canadian Mine-
Mill union has brought thousands
of Canadians and Americans to-
gether at the Peace Arch to ex-
press their protest and their tnity
with Paul Robeson, and to give
living content to the symbol of the
Peace Arch, “Brethren Dwelling
Together in Unity.”

Because of this living unity, the
Robeson concert this year had a
special significance. Just a week
before the concert, the U.S. State
Department announced that Robe-
son would be permitted to leave
the U.S. and travel in those coun-
tries where ho passport was re-
quired — to travel in Canada if
he so desired.

' In his introductory remarks,
chairman Harvey Murphy, first
vice-president of the Canadian
Mine - Mill union spoke of
“~.. the great news on this oc-
casion that Paul Robeson will
again be able to sing to audiences
-all over Canada. The whole
world owes a great, debt of
‘gratitude to its outstanding Am-
erican artist for his courage in
standing up and fighting for his
people.”

The veteran Mine-Mill leader
welcomed the Geneva Big Four
peace conference, noting that “the
cold war is warming up into a good
peace,” to which’ Paul Robeson
added, “They are sitting there be-
cause the common people of all
lands are imposing peace upon
those who would make war.”

* * ~

Robeson’s concert repertoire in-

cluded many of his most beloved

and world-renowned songs, Water
Boy, Old Man River, That’s Am-
erica to Me, Glory Glory, Halle-
lujah, Canada and Home, and the
immortal song of the hard-rock
miners, Joe Hill.

He also sang many of the songs
of struggle of the peoples in their
native German, Russian, Yiddish
and French. ‘

His opening Song of Peace (Beet-
hoven); his interpretative rendi-
tion of Moussorgsky’s The Flea, a
story. of royal fleas and how to
cope with them, were cheered to
the echo by a responsive audience:
So was his rendition in Russian of
a hungry little boy of the Tsarist
era asking for a piece of bread
(Moussorgsky), which moved the
audience intensely.

Moving around this sun-baked
park and watching the various
family and other groups comé to
pay tribute to their beloved Paul
Robeson, one saw. the vibrant pas-
sion of his songs on their rapt
faces.

Here a group of Chinese-Cana-
dians sat, as if in a temple, while
the vibrant challenging voice sung
the battle songs of the New China.
And beside them a group of min-
ers and longshoremen listened
intently, some wiping away a tear
while pretending to blow their
noses as the deep rich voice softly
ended the song Joe Hill... . “I
never died. said he’ — «a truth
borne out by last week’s Canadian
constituent convention of a great
union in Rossland in an old hall
filled with the tradition and strug-
gle of the Western Federation of
Miners. forerunner of the fight-
ing Mine-Mill.

Paul Robeson spoke of the min-
ers of other lands, of the African
miners, of their centuries-old lang-
uage and culture, of their similari-
ties with all miners born out of
struggle against, exploitation and
for human dignity.

In ‘this the Robeson concert was
the living proof, if such proof is
needed, that all men are brothers
regardless of nation, creed or color,
for when Paul Robeson sings he
brings the whole world into the
hearts of his audience,

His were the songs of the Welsh
miners of the Rhonnda Valley; of
the deathless Jewish fighters of the
Warsaw Ghetto; of the new Am-
erica marching to the old stirring
song of 1776, Glory Glory, Halle-
lujah.

And to hear Paul Robeson sing-
ing that historic song is to remem-
ber the best sons and daughters of
the American working class who
still rot in prison upon the trump-
ed-up perjuries of professional
stool pigeons; to remember Ethel
and Julius Rosenberg, Sacco and
Vanzetti. To hear Paul Robeson
sing that song is like seeing the
march past of a great historical
|pageant, not as a spectator but as
‘a marcher; seeing the world’s peo-
|ples “Trampling out the vintage
‘where the grapes of wrath ate
stored” towards the parliament of
man Robeson’s great artistry and
his struggle epitomize.
| * * * ‘

Nels Thibault, newly elected
[president of Canadian Mine-Mill,
greeted Paul Robeson on behalf of
‘his union, stating, “Mine-Mill is
proud that such a champion for
the rights of the world’s people
| should be our guest, and the great
achievements of our union for
autonomy, Canadian independence
and peace, is in no small measure
a tribute to the great inspiration
received from Paul Robeson.”

At the conclusion of his brief
address the Mine-Mill president
presented Robeson with an auto-
graphed copy of Dyson Carter’s
new novel, Fatherless Sons, an
epic story in which the strug-
gles of the hard rock miners of
Canada and their families is the
central theme.

During recent months Robeson
has received many requests and in-
vitations from workers, unions and
cultural circles in many countries
of Europe, Asia and Latin Am-
erica to sing for them. The “eas-
ing up” on his travel rights by the
U.S. State Department indicates
that this may soon be possible.

Meanwhile Robeson plans to
visit Canada in the near future
on a coast-to-coast concert four
for which already there have
been many requests.

That Vancouver daily papers
have little intention of ending
their cold war policies was indicat-
ed by the Vancouver Herald,
whose knightly chess player, Sir
Michael Bruce, in reporting the
concert reduced the audience to
“nearly a thousand.” I hope he
did better at his chess than in his
nose counting, otherwise it must
have been hard*‘on many of his
readers who attended this out-

standing cultural event!

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 29, 1955 — PAGE 3

e