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% Vancouver’s new public library a’, Burrard and Robson
is a busy place these days.
teading room before it opens for the day.

Photo shows the newspaper
Number of people

using the facilities of the library is increasing from week to

Week,

Buck brings greetings

to people

of USSR

MOSCOW

. “In the name of the Labor-Progressive party and all peace-
Oving Canadians I extend to you warmest fraternal greetings

evolution.
People.”
With these words Tim Buck
pened his speceh to 50,000
Soviet citizens meeting in the
Oscow Sports Palace on No-
vember 8 at which delegations

Through you I

from over 60 countries were

Present.

His speech reported in
Pravda has been translated
from the Russian. He continu-
ed.

“This anniversary is_ truly
historical. Overcoming  ob-
Stacles which seemed insur-
Mountable, you the oviet peo-
Ple, under the leadership of
the Leninist party — ‘the
Slorious Communist party of
the Soviet Union have achieved
8 epic transformation in sci-
€nce technique and culture,
Tom the wooden plough to

€ first man-made earth sat-
elite. You have convincingly
Proved the superiority of soc-

Jalism over capitalism.

_ Our party, the Commun-
Ist Party of Canada was born
Under the slogan ‘Hands off
Soviet Russia!’ This was the
Slogan of all leading sections
9f the working class in all
Countries. And now the Soviet

Nion stands at the head of a
Mighty world system of social-
‘St states, a system which by
Us firmness, its policy of peace
nd fraternal cooperation cre-
tes new and more favorable

~SOnditions for the growth of

Socialism.

“In the course of these 40
Years the revolutionary work-
s and farmers of Canada fol-

9 the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Great October

greet all the heroic Soviet

lowed your struggles with
great attention, lived through
your hopes and rejoiced in
your achievements.

‘Tt is true that in Canada
and the USA many people be-
came victims of war hysteria
and lying propaganda. How-
ever it is also true that today
many of these are reconsider-
ing their opinions.

“These people were repeat-
edly told that the standard of
living in the Soviet Union was
not rising. But now from the
reports of the journalists “of
the capitalist press they are
learning that ‘for the first
time in history the standard of
living of the peoples of the
Soviet Union is higher than
the standard of living in the
capitalist countries of western
Europe.’

“Many people believed the
propaganda of the U.S. state
department that the United
States had ‘so far exceeded’
the Soviet Union in the devel-
opment of science and tech-

nique ‘that the Soviet Union

would never catch up’.

“In dispelling this myth you
have strengthened the demand
for the stopping of thermonu-
clear tests, prohibition of
atomic weapons and the rec-
ognition of the necessity of
peaceful coexistence for the
peoples of North America.

Transfer of Canadian National -
Ships blasted by Labor Council

If Ottawa allows the transfer of Canadian
to break a five-month strike on the east coast,

and B.C. shipping’ companies

National ships to Trinidad registry in order
there will be nothing to prevent Great Lakes
using the same tactics in a strike situation, delegate Norm Cun-

ningham (SIU) told Vancouver Labor Council on Tuesday this week.

Western farm unions
prepare for parley

By NELSON CLARKE
During the first two weeks of December, western farm
unions will be meeting in their annual conventions.
They will be able to record one victory at least partially
won. After years of struggle, cash advances will be paid on
farm stored grain. although the new legislation still falls short

“Our union and every other
waterfront union is very con-

cerned,’ said © Cunningham.
“We den’t want to see foreign
scabs brought in should we

be engaged in a strike over
wages and conditions.”

VLC delega‘es endorsed a
union proposal to wire protests
to Transport Minister Hees,
Public Works Minister Howard
Green and Prime Minister
Diefenbaker; to ask the Cana-
dain Labor Congress to take
up the cudgels on behalf of
the SIU; and to encourage
council affiliates to protest the
transfer of the CN ships to
Trinidad registry.

Delegate Eddie Apps pointed
out that Works Minister Green
had stated, prior to the last

federal election, that “we (the.

Conservatives) will see that
Canada does have a merchant
marine:”

Said Apps: “There is a di-_
vergence between that state-
ment and the goverhment’s
actions.”

Bernie Keely (Marine Work-
ers) declared that all ship-
yard workers were greatly con-

cerned by the government’s
action in scuttling Canada’s
merchant marine.

Bill Stewart (Marine Work-
ers) charged that Ottawa is
taking jobs away from ship-
yard workers who would nor-
mally do répairs on these ships,
and secondly, is smashing a
strike- and throwing seamen
permanently out of work.

Mine closure
now shelved

Threatened closure of Bri;
tannia Mine, which would have
thrown 800 men out of jobs
just before Christmas, has
been temporarily averted.

This week in New York the
Howe Sound Company deferr-
ed the shutdown in the ex-
pectation that the Canadian

government would take some

action to enable the mine to
continue operating profitably.

The 800 miners support a
population of 1,700 and clos-
ing of the mine would have
turned Britannia into a “ghost
town.”

Ottawa may pay a $37,500
subsidy to the mine, on the
basis that a shutdown would
cost some $800,000 a month in
unemployment insurance paid
to the jobless miners.

The battle to keep the mine
operating was lead by Mine-
Mill.

of the farm union proposals.

But undoubtedly there will
be in the conventions deep
concern over the fact that so
little has beén done on the big
questions of market, and the
cost-price squeeze on farmers.

Canada has on hand today
almost enough wheat to sup-
ply the entire world market
for an entire year. Yet the
Conservative government ap-
pears to have no plans for an
expansion of wheat markets.

National Resources Minister
Alvin Hamilton, from Qu’ap-
pelle, Saskatchewan, is speak.
ing of the possibility of raising
Canadian wheat exports to 356
million bushels, but this rep-
resents nothing more than an
acceptance of the limited mar-
kets of the past number of
years during which Canadian
wheat sales have been gravely
affected by U.S. wheat dump-
ing.

Latest news is that the trade
mission to China is not achiev-
ing big results. This could not
be expected when the Diefen-
baker government refuses to
recognize the Chinese govern-
ment.

At the same time there is no
indication that the Tory gov-
ernment is doing anything to
regain the markets in Euro-
pean socialist countries where
Canada sold 45,000,000 bushels
of wheat two years ago.

There has been a wide de-
mand for government action
on the problem of falling farm
prices and rising farm costs.
The’ Inter - Provincial Farm
Union council as an emergen-
cy measure has called for a
20 cent deficiency payment
from the federal treasury to
make up losses on last year’s
crop. But Tory Trade Min-
ister Churchill has now pub-
licly spoken out against what
he choose to call “subsidies to
the western wheat growers.”

It is clear that the farm
unions have a fight on their

hands, and that despite the

fine pre-election promises of
the Tories little can be ’ex-
pected from them without the
most determined and most
united action by the farmers,
acting together with labor and
Westerf business circles.

Undoubtedly, the coming
farm conventions will speak
out very clearly again for new
trade policies with all coun-
tries, based on acceptance of
sterling, and on long term
credits to those countries need_
ing our wheat. It is to be
hoped that good emphasis will
be placed on sales to socialist
nations. The demand for parity
prices will be renewed.

Along with the hammering
out of a sound farm policy, it
will be important to consider
what steps can now be taken
by the farm unions to back
up that policy with bold and
effective action. It has long-
been an opinion of many farm-
ers that the time is past due
for another march on Ottawa,
similar and even larger than
the big delegation which the
Wheat Pools lead in 1942 win-
ning big gains in the price of
wheat.

There is also a good deal
of thinking being done these
days about how organized
farmers can play a stronger
role in political action.

What can farmers do through
their unions in cooperation
with labor to guarantee the
defeat of the candidates of the
monopoly parties, and the elec-
tion of men and women who
will fight in the House of
Commons for the long term
interests -of all the -producers
in this country?

Labor is grappling with this
question now across the coun-
try, with a lively discussion
taking place about the best
ways of developing indepen-
dent political action and edu-
cation. It is 4 problem which
must also begin to receive the
closest study by the organized
farmers.

November 22, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 7

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