Page Four

THE PECGPLBEB’S

ADVOCATE

December 16, 1938

THE PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

Published Weekly by the Proletarian Publishing Association, Room 10, i163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. Phone Trinity 2019.

One Year —__.______ $2.00 Three Months ____-- $ .60 Half Year ——.__- $1.00 Single Copy --—--——- $ .05

Make All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate Vancouver, B.C., Friday, December 16, 1938 i

Blubber Bay and Bill 94

ND of the trials of 15 Blubber Bay strikers this week and the conviction of 12 of their number serves to emphasize more sharp- ly than before the urgent meed of further drastic changes in the Labor Conciliation and Arbitration Act.

The Blubber Bay strike, in progress since last June 2, has served as the biggest indict- ment of the Pattullo gsovernment’s labor leg- islation.

There have been other occasions during the past year when Bill 94 has been exposed in all its union-busting nakedness—notably in the case of the short-lived BC Box strike and the Chanticleer Lammch dispute—but the experi- ences of the Blubber Bay strikers have left no shred of doubt that Pearson’s legislation was passed primarily in the interests of BC’s open shop industrialists.

As a matter of fact it was the very weak- nesses in the act, its failure to provide strong enough penalties against employers who failed to observe its provisions, that forced some 120 Blubber Bay workers to strike in the first place.

Having won the award of the arbitration board established under Bill 94, then wit- nessing the Pacific Lime Companys refusal to abide by its terms, the workers could do nothing less than strike to uphold an award which the government itself refused to carry out.

The things that followed later—scabherding by police, then open and provocative attack on picket lines with tear-gas and clubs, were the logical results of the weaknesses in Bill 94. Colin Cameron .and other CCF legislators were justified in their claim that the act was a piece of bosses’ legislation.

So it’s not too early now to begin a renewed campaign for more amendments to the act. The trade union movement's success in fore- ing changes in Clause 5 is an augur of suc- cess. With a little more heat on the depart- ment of labor and the cabinet, labor can and will get labor legislation with teeth in it.

Lessons From France “

VER two weeks have passed since French

labor downed tools in a 24-hour general strike, news of which was so effectively sup- pressed both in France and in Canada.

Facing the Premier’s mobilization of the regular army and the Mobile Guard, driven in many cases, such as in transport, to return to work at the point of the bayonet, hampered by a stifling censorship on the press, telegraph and radio which gave reaction an opportunity to spread wild rumors of defeat, the millions of workers of the General Confederation of Labor struck work and make it stick. And in doing so they stopped Daladier in his tracks, saved France from fascism once more.

That is why the pro-fascist Premier sup- pressed the news in France. That is why Can- ada’s own reactionaries suppressed or distort- ed the news throughout the country.

Those millions of CGT members knew what they were up against. They had right on their side. They could see fascist measures cloaked under the so-called emergency decrees for saving the country’s finances. They were warned by the threats to outlaw the Socialist and Communist parties. In addition, they were defending their hard-won economic and political rights—the 40-hour week, collective bargaining, holidays with pay. And when they acted they left no doubt as to who were the real defenders of democracy, the real patriots.

Since that time the stream has turned against the pro-fascist premier, as evidenced by the narrow majority given his government in the Chamber of Deputies. The courageous action of the trade unionists brought heart to the millions of middle-class people, stiffening their opposition to Daladier’s policies which were driving France to fascism.

Canadian labor can learn much from the present struggle in France, and of paramount importance is the lesson of unity. Without one united trade union movement, without the Popular Front, Daladier would have won two weeks ago, just as the Daladiers of Can- ada will surely win if our labor movement fails to organize its ranks.

With the rest of the workers of Canada and: the world, then, here’s our greetings to the French people and their Front Populaire. Armed with so powerful a weapon as labor and people’s unity, Daladier and reaction is headed for defeat.

By heaping long-planned Italian fascist de- mands on France, Mussolini, like Hitler against Czechoslovakia, expects to obtain an smmediate understanding from Daladier at the expense of loyalist Spain. And just as Hitler’s drive on Czechoslovakia, with the Maunich outcome, resulted in undermining French national security, so any concession to Mussolini with respect to Spain will further weaken France in the face of fascist war plans.

“Jews Pushed Deep Into Isolation as Christ- mas Festivities Begin,” says a Berlin headline. Celebration of Christmas, under the circum- stances, has a rather hollow sound.

Reaction Plans A ‘Putsch’

ernment ?

What’s behind the latest open break between Mackenzie King and Hepburn—the plot to re- move the Premier from fteadership of the gov- Maiccim Bruce answers these im- portant questions in the following timely article.

By MALCOLM BRUCE

IN[C2= of the workings of the sinister _Hepburn-Duplessis alliance has come to light with the exposure by two federal cabinet ministers of a Canadian “Cliveden” conspiracy to oust Prime Minister Mackenzie King from the leadership of the Libéral party and bring about the downfall of his gov- ernment as a prelude to the setting up of a government of a

reactionary cabal.

In order to cover up the real forces behind the plotting against democracy in Canada, the Hepburn apostasy has been pictured, until the recent flare-up, as a personal quarrel hbe- tween Hepburn and King, as a minor difference within the

Liberal party.

Recent developments show, however, that the statement made two years ago by Hepburm that he was not a Mackenzie King Liberal was merely camouflage for the final break which would come when, with Duplessis and other reactionaries and pro- fascists—all backed and directed by the real power, St. James St— he would be ready to go over openly to the camp of reaction as Chamberlain went to the Rome-Berlin alliance.

e

T HAS been apparent, ever since

the mear eclipse of the Con- servative party in the 1935 elec- tion and the diehard control of the last Tory nation#l convention, that Canada’s financial rulers could not hope to gain control at Ottawa under the banner of the discredited Tory party. A new front and political concentration therefore had to be formed of all the reactionaries wherever they could be found, and especially from corruptible elements in the Liberal party.

The vain and weak spendthrift, Hepburn, proved an easy mark for the millionaire owner of the ob- scurantist Globe and Mail and the wealthy stock broker and banker mine owners of Northern Ontario,

The

“IN THE answer to questions

which I am going to give I am in full agreement with the Fuhrer’s ideas.

“Some Hotspurs among us are rather inclined to urge the Fuhrer to exterminate the Catholic and Protestant Confessional Church- es, just as we did with the Bol- shevist parties. Apart from the fact that the prohibition of these parties has not by far been equi- valent to the extermination of Marxism from the thoughts and feelings of our population—we notice it daily—you must keep in maind that the international posi- tion of the Catholic Church cem- pels us fo be very cautious in our tactics towards the Church. Every attack on the Church is inter- linked with internationai rela- tions and can aggravate our posi- tion which has been already diffi- cult enough.

“T do not hesitate to say, and I believe that I can speak in the Fubhrer’s- name as well, that the Catholic Ghurch and the Protes- tant Confessional Church as it is today will have to disappear from the life of our nation. But if the various groups of so-called Ger- man philosophy (Weltanschauung) think it convenient to display a sort of wild radicalism in their publications, I must tell these gentlemen that by doing so they not only harm the prestige of the government but at the same time strengthen the martyrdom among the followers of these Churches.

“We have been able already to penetrate German youth consid- erably with National Socialist philosophy (Weltanschauung). The splinters of Catholic youth move-

“Those Who Pay the

FRUITFUL topic of discussion

is that of broadening the

base on which income tax rests

and bringing within its scope

those wage earners and low sal- aried workers now exempt.

Supporting this argument, Sir Edward Beatty in a recent ad- dress to the Vancouver Board of Trade, stated:

“The way to make taxation less of a burden is to lower it. The way to lower it is to make people realize they are paying it .---

“Jf there is any greater delusion than that the poor Man pays no taxes because the tax collector only goes to the rich man, Tr do not Know it. Tt would be an actual benefit to the people in the lower income brackets if no income in Canada were free of taxation. It would be a benefit, because it would bring home to the people of this country the fact that they are paying taxes.”

While not prepared to accept the remedy suggested by Sir Hd- ward Beatty( we do agree that it is not generally understood the extent to which taxes are collect— ed from others than the rich.

Information given by Hon. Charles Dunning, minister of fin- ance, to parliament during last session, showed that over $70,000,-

and soon the blatant boor was bel- lowing their propaganda and mak- ing war on trade unionism and the whole working class. They had

Duplessis in their bag two years ago.

The reactionary tie-up of the two provincial premiers for block- ing national unification and pre venting the enactment of social legislation has already wrought great mischief and constitutes a major menace to the people of Canada. And directed by big inter- ests behind the scenes in Toronto and Montreal, they have been reaching out to bring more into their camp, extend their influ- ence, and undermine and wreck any and all organizations, includ- ing the WTiberal party, which stands in the way of control at Ottawa by a reactionary concen— tration directed by Canada’s fifty wealthy families as the Krupps and Thyssens of Germany direct Hitler.

The situation is further compli- eated as far as Ontario is con- cerned, by the selection of the notorious pro-fascist Col. Drew as leader of the Conservative party in that province, With the demagoguery characteristic of re— action today, Drew, recopnizing the great public demand for na-

War on the

Not all the rabid speeches of the Nazi overlords reach the columns of the German and foreign press. That there is good reason for this can be seen in the followimg secret address delivered by MHerr Rosenberg to a recent Nazi party rally. Rosenberg, who is responsible “for political education im Germany, was brutally frank regarding Hit- ler’s policy with the churches, and allowed only slight refer- ence to his remarks in the press at the time.

ments which are bustling about will be absorbed in the course of time. The Hitler Youth is lke a sponge which sucks everything without resistance. And, further, the curriculum of all categories in our schools has already been so far reformed in an anti-Christian and anti-Jewish spirit that the generation which is growing up will be protected from the black swindle.

“Do not forget that inside the Churches unright Germans who are deeply devoted to National Socialism are working as priests. With their help we shall clear the last. and I admit very firm, posi- tions of the Church.

“We have another means of pressure, and that is finance. We shall proceed 2autiously but very systematically, and cut the veins of finance to the clergy whom we can win by no other means.

In this editorial appearing in a recent issue of the Con- gress Journal, P. M. Draper, Trades and Labor Congress president and editor of the Journal, raises thé important issues of taxation, points to the burden on the worker and farmer, concludes they should have the right to “call the

tune.” Se

000 of the $102,000,000 paid in in- eome tax during the fiscal year 1936-37 came from those on re— ceipt of $10,000 and over per an— num.

It would be falacious, however, +o assume from this that the bulk of taxation raised by the Domin— jon was collected from those best able to pay.

In the same fiscal year other taxes which came almost entirely from the consuming Masses ac— counted for more than the in- come tax.

These included $112,832,000 from the sales tax; $83,771,000 customs import duties and $45,957,000 ex- cise taxes, totalling in all $242,- 560.000.

tional

unification im order to make possible social legislation,

has come out clamorously for “na—

tional unity.”’ But the national unity Drew seeks to attain is the unity of all forces of reaction and the establishment of a reaction- ary coalition government at Ot- tawa.

@

Communist party has long been warning the people of Canada of the Gangers lurking in the Hepburn-Duplessis alliance. The revelations consequent upon the open rupture between Hep- burn and King furnishes addi-

tional proof of this danger.

The people of Canada must be Shaken out of their complacency and made aware of the dark plot- ting of the enemies of the Cana- dian people. It must effect the unity of the progressive people, and oppose the democratic front of the people to the national unity of reaction if the Canadian peo- ple are to sscape the fate that overtook the people of Germany, Austria, Italy and Czechoslovakia. And in bringing about this unity, there is no time to lose, for time may well be the decisive factor.

Cross

“As far as the charges of im- morality is concerned, my opinion is that they have not had much effect in the old Reich and that in future denunciations should be carefully checked. You know that the Jewish world press

watches very carefully and starts

a wild campaign against National Socialist Germany if a charge against the clergy cannot be proved.”

With reference to the special position of the Church in Austria, Rosenberg declared:

“Circumstances are very differ- ent in Austria. If we start action there a terrible swamp will appear on the surface, but it must be left to our command to decide when this is to happen. There is no reason why we should, provide the, world with the spectacle of a d&moralised clergy, and we shall

settle these things in our own house. Reasonable men, as, for example, Gardinal MInnitzer,

though I do not yet trust him very far, will have to submit to the National Socialist command under the pressure of facts.

“Tt is a very great success that already a wide gulf exists be- tween the Austrian and the Ger- man bishops, and I hope sincerely that we shall be able to extend this gulf throughout the whole of German Catholicism and thus deal the death-blow to the worst enemy of National Socialism. But we must not make the same mis- take as Bismarck, for we have to face a cunning adversary whose means of fighting we must meet by better arms.”

Piper. .”’

This, with the $32,000,000 re- sidue of the income tax, shows that over 60 per cent of the total taxes raised come directly or in- directly from the pockets of far- mers and workers.

On the other side of the ledger, it is shown that out of a total ex- penditure of $387,112,000, about $140,000,000 or close to 40 percent went for the payment of interest on public debt, cost of loan flota- tions, premiums, discounts and exchange.

While the bulk of the taxes are, therefor, paid by those of small means, they are by no means the largest beneficiaries.

Workers demand social secur- ity in the form of unemployment insurance, adequate pensions when they reach the declining years of their lives, health and sickness insurance, etc., and, on the principle that those who pay the piper should have the right to call the tune, there would seem to be no valid reason why more of the taxes they pay should not be returned to the masses in the form of desirable and necessary

social services.

_#rom the Congress Journal.

SHORT JABS.

A Weekly

Commentary

By Ol’ Bill

= The judicial treatment of the

In This Case Blubber Bay pickets in every

ease yet heard in the police,

county.and Assize courts, does not bear out the

contention of Blaylock’s defence at Trail when he was on trial for intimidation.

The Blubber Bay pickets were railroaded in regu- lar Kangaroo court fashion. Their witnesses were practically denounced as perjurers and liars. The real criminals, the police and company officials responsible for all the trouble at the strike area, were defended and supported by all the types of judges and government ministers and officials in- volved since the arbitration board made its award.

At Blubber Bay the union had no rights, and its members and those who sympathised with them were looked upon as lawbreakers and social out casts. The judges and prosecution dealt with all the evidence from the Same angle. Intimidation, which the union pickets were falsely charged with, though it was disguised in other legal terminology, “iliegal assembly, rioting, etc.,” was interpreted by - the prosecution as a criminal offense according to Pearson's so-callea trade union act and this inter— pretation was supported by the judges.

JOIN OL’ BLILL’S INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE? And In That lock, representing the Consoli-

dated Mining and Smelting, was charged with “intimidation” (and should also have been charged with inciting to violence), the prose- cution claimed and were supported by the judge, that Blaylock’s phoney-boloney company committee

(mot union) could use intimidation and be wathin their rights according to the Pearson act

Blaylock’s defense may have been true, but on the face of it it looked like perjury. The defense claimed that Blaylock circulated the copies of the fascist MeBadden Liberty magazine which was an intimidation and incitement to violence, at the re- quest of a company stooge, Tim Buscomb, chairman of the so-called workmen’s committee. The guilt was admitted, but since it was done at the request of this individual, Blaylock was found not guilty by the learned magistrate, who at the same time expressed hypocritical concern for the union.

By this same forensic logic, if Blaylock had gone out and clubbed Slim Evans to death with a meat- axe and then pleaded that Tim “‘Buscomb had re- quested him to do it, he would have been found not guilty also.

The explanation of the different results of these two legal battles is very difficult for those who do not use the correct measuring stick — the class struggle, the conflict of class forces.

JOLIN OL’ BILL’S INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE!

Artists Tn ter Winchell and the publicity agents Politics have painted Hollywood, but their Hollywood is like a rococo front ona Greek temple, a false face of scandal, dissipation, divorce and slack morals, that hides the real Hollywood.

The Hollywood that chased out the Mussolini brat who boasted of the thrill he got out of bombing helpless Ethiopians; the Hollywood that poured its money into ambulances and food for the Spanish people in their struggle against fascist barbarism, is the real Hollywood and the Hollywood that is in the news.

Fifty movie leaders, including Edward G. Robin- son, Fred Astaire, Robert Montgomery, Gale Son- dergaard, Claudette Colbert, Paul Muni, Ginger Rogers, Joan Bennett and other top-notchers, are solidifying the tradition that grew in Hollywood with the building of the umions and the advance of the CIO, by launching a moyement to request the President and Congress to sever economic relations with Nazi Germany.

In the Trail case where Blay-

Hollywood is again in the news. Wal-

Of course there is the other Hollywood, but there is not much of it left for Jimmy Fidler and Louella Parsons to work on. So Hitler’s girl friend, Leni Riefenstal, need not expect to get very far with her Nazi propaganda.

JOIN OW’ BILL’S INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE!

Tales of Moscow gold are still Ill-Got Gold told by the more ignorant scribes and penny-a-liners of the capitalist press—and- the nondescript following of Trotsky. If this latter revo- lutionary-phrasemongering group of allies of fas- cism had any sense of shame they would refrain

from any further references To the Communist parties being financed from Moscow.

The trials of the Trotskyite-Zinoviev-Bucharin traitors proved that unprincipled Trotskyite groups throughout the world were financed with money stolen from the Soviet workers. Again in the trials of the POUM Trotskyite scoundrels who attempted to make easy the way of the fascists in Barcelona, evidence proved beyond any doubt that they had stolen art treasures ang money belonging to the Spanish people and sent it out of the country to finance heir reactionary friends allied to fascism in other countries.

Closer to home we see Trotsky selling bis counter- revolutionary writings to Hearst and the porno- zraphic Macradden. This money, too, goes toward providing the sinews of murder and counter-revo- lution. :

And right at home in Canada only a few months ago, “Red” McAuslane exposed the source of some of the funds of the Trotskyite leadership of the Canadian Federation of Labor, money paid to them by the Saskatchewan coal barons to defeat a strike of the miners.

Some of their funds is Moscow gold—stolen. Some is Spanish treasure—stolen. Some is the price of treason from Hearst and MacFadden, and some of it is the wage of betrayal of Canadian workers.

JOIN OL’ BILL'S INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE!

5 Statements issued from head- Labor Spies quatrers of the RCMP during the past week denying that members of that yel- low-striped organization do not engage in labor spy- ing do not tally with the announcement from Otta- wa by the same officials a month ago that reserve units are to be formed in Winnipeg and later in three or four other cities. These reserves are to be organized among the staffs of large firms and to be trained in police work.

“i

The only difference between the proposed “re-

serves”: and the existing set-up is that the “re- serves” will be cheaper. They will still be spies on the workers in these “large firms” Garge firms like Bloedel’s and the Consolidated M & S). :

JOIN OL’ BiLl's INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE!

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