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National organization formed

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Jobless on way to see cabinet

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Arriving in Victoria to lobby the governm
neouver Unemployed Action Association C
Colowing a two-hour session with the provincial cabinet,

Slumbia cities and towns formed a province

march

WOMEN’S RIGHTS BILL
‘AIM OF NEW COM

—Victoria Times photo

ent on a “Work and Wages” program, members of the
through the streets on their way to a union hall.
jobless delegates from a dozen British
ial organization of unemployed workers.

ss, national convention of un-
Ployed will meet in Ottawa

tl 27-28-29, the Toronto
oe of Unemployed Workers

Re announced, Fred Collins,
er of the Victoria trek of
Bene said this week the
ploye a organization of unem-
will di ere will meet soon and
Iscuss sending one or more

tc leeates from B.C. to’ the Ot-
Wa parley,

tidh ay to the national conven-
empl € Toronto Union of Un-
ys Re will lead a delegation
mae Ontario government to de-
. Public works projects or
aa cash relief at $15 for
He jaemployed, $20 for mar-
tee $2.50 for each child.
Re €se demands are similar to

€ Presented at Victoria by

€legations from many parts

Unemployed will hold
national meet in April

of the province.) ae
Despite government - inspired

newspaper stories of great “‘back-

to-work’’. movements, nearly half

‘a million Canadians are still with-

Official figures place
the number of B.C. unemployed
at 66,000. The real figure is
undoubtedly much higher.
The Toronto Union of Unem-
ed Workers set up a provi-
sce national committee when
it lobbied Ottawa for jobs and
cash relief February 27. The par-
ley in April wy ae a per-
jonal boay.
yee close to 135,000
unemployed and_ the Montreal
Council of Unemployed is circul-
ating a petition demanding _ that
Premier Duplessis immediately
undertake 2 large-scale public
works, program and that he aid

out jobs.

the municipalities to pay cash re-
lief.

Six unemployed = Montreal
workers are in jail for 18 days.
They were not arrested for vag-
rancy; not for holding an illegal
meeting; not even for distributing

leaflets. They were arrested and

sent to jail for the “‘crime’” of
having circulars in their possession
on the street, without a permit.

Under the police-state regime of

Premier Maurice Duplessis, it is _

a crime to transport leaflets from
one place to another.

Montreal Civil Liberties Union
has taken up the case and an-
nounced it will carry a_ protest
to municipal authorities against
the use’ of this bylaw. Support
of trade unions and other organ-
izations is also being sought. by

the CLU.

GRESS

By HELENE WASSER

TORONTO

An event of exciting significance took place in Toronto last week-
end when, for the first time in Canada, there was formed a national
organization to advance and fight for the rights of Canadian women.

The conference of the Congress of Canadian Women, which was
attended by nearly 300 delegates representing most of the large cities
and many small towns and farm communities across the country, fash-
ioned a Bill of Rights for Canadian women that will become a historic
document in the fight for equality and security for Canadian families.

The opening session on March 9 heard two inspiring keynote ad-
dresses delivered by Congress president Mrs.» Rae Lucock and Mrs.
Libbie Park, delegates to the recent Women’s International Democratic
Federation meeting in Moscow. Both speakers stressed the need for the
women’s Bill of. Rights for Canadian women. This Bill formed the
basis of discussion for the entire conference.

“‘We maintain,” the Bill states in the opening paragraph, “that
without the full equality of women, no human rights can be fully real-
ized.’ Adopted unanimously by the Congress, its main points are:

1—The right to a livelihood.

2—The right to motherhood.

3—The right to health and security.

5—The night to individual development.
6—The right to peace.

Discussion on these basic questions gave ample testimony to the
need long felt by women, to sweep away their inferior status and to
fight to achieve full social, political, economic and legal rights. The
interesting conclusion derived from each speaker’s contribution was that
not-only have women much to gain from the attainment of full rights,
but unless and until they do so, men’s own democratic rights are in
jeopardy and cannot be fully realized.

The welfare of the entire family is at stake in this struggle against
injustice. And because women are “the mothers of the race,” as one
woman put it, it is their keen and sensitive appreciation of the neglect
of their families’ welfare that is going to be one of the deciding factots
in making governments serve the people.

U.S. interference and domination in Canadian affairs, with our
own government’s assent, came in for sharp criticism. Mrs. H. Stewart
of Toronto referred to the “‘stealthy way in which our Canadian herit-
age is being stolen from us.” Mrs. Angeline Johnson of Fort William
spoke of iron ore being shipped from the Lakehead cities to U.S. for
$7 a ton, and coming back as the finished product for which Canadians
have to pay highly in U:S. dollars. ““Let’s establish our own steel mill,
and give jobs to our own boys,” she said.

Foreign domination was once more the theme in Lil Marcus’ re-
marks on our cultural development, which is being crushed under the
weight of anti-social, anti-democratic, across-the-border material through
radio, press and films.

An eloquent account of life on the farm, “no different for women
today than it was when the land was first cleared,” was given by a
pioneer woman, Mrs. Helen Berezowski of Saskatchewan, mother of
three. “A farm woman still werks 18 hours a day, 24 if she has small
children,” she said. ‘“‘My children have to walk five miles a day to
school, the same as I did myself as a child.’’ Mrs. Berezowski’s home is
20 miles from the nearest hospital.

Mrs. R. McCutcheon of the Quebec Association for the Rights of
Women asked the Congress to support the fight of the women in Quebec
for their municipal franchise. ‘The inferior position in which women are

_ kept in that province was sharply delineated in her description of the

« almost total lack of rights of married women, who lose even ownership

of their own property. Another Quebec delegate, Mrs. Ann Moss of
Montreal, representing the UJPO, sharply protested the recent padlock-

Continued on page 6 — See WOMEN