New Party Branches

Live In

-By EFFIE JONES Organizer, Housewives’ League bé I DON’T tell my friends

where I live any- more!”

That is the statement members of the BC House- wives’ League have listen- ed to time and again since we began our house-to- house canvas recently to get the ‘Jowdown’ on Van- couver’s housing problem. And the saddest part of it is that the women who admit- ted to us that they were posi- tively ashamed to live in the kind of accommodation they were forced into were respect- able, clean people, whose only “crime” was that they were the wives of war workers who had answered our gsovern- ment’s call for help on the home front. Coming to Van- ecouver's vast industrial center, these people found that the city had made little effort to find homes for them. After a desperate hunt for decent quarters, they had to make shift in cramped, rat-ridden “suites.’ empty stores, and renovated sheds.

e He are seyeral examples of the kind of housing Ca-

nadian war workers are of- fered: In a woodshed facing a

dark alley between Hamilton and Homer Streets we found a night shift aircraft worker trying to sleep while his wite papered the ceiling. The wom- an confessed that her three- year-old son couldn't take an afterncon nap because of the rats which scurried across the floor from the alley. There are five suits upstairs and four on

joining building. All the occu- pants share one bathtub.

The landlord of a ° store building on West Fourth pays $96 a month rent for the whole block. He sublets each of the 16 suites for $12.50. There are no sinks or taps in any of the rooms, and for all cooking, washing and drinking water, the tenants of all 16 suites suites must find their way down a dark corridor and staircase to the far end of the pbuilding. There is no bathtub.

At another West Fourth building two families live in six rooms. There is no bath, and no sink. There is one tol- let on the back porch.

e

HESE are only a few of

the many deplorable situ- ations we found in the 350 houses we visited. In a city the size of Vancouver, such condi- tions must be brought to an end.

In the meantime, what is the attitude of the city fathers to the problem? Perhaps the pre- vailing attitude—which is one of unconcern for the children who will be Canada’s future

citizens—is illustrated by one case Housewives’ League members discovered.

In a Vancouver building

the ground floor of the ad-_

Must Our Workers

Slums ?

where a number of families live there is only one bath and three toilets—two of which are not in working order. Ten- ants were paying rents of $9 monthly for “suites” in this dilapidated building. However, the landlord appealed for per- mission to increase his rents to $17.50, because he is sup- posed to have made improve- ments on his property. He has now been granted an official document. signed by a Vancou- ver judge, which authorizes him to raise his rents. This permit states that the landlord has installed six baths, added a staircase, paid for general and electrical repairs.

But from tenants whose rent will be raised beginning the middle of August, Housewives’ League representatives learned that all the landlord in ques- tion had done was to clean out an old shed and install the single bathtub. The shed is un- heated. Any tenant wanting to use the bath must ask per- mission and borrow the key.

e HILE many authorities are apparently closing their

eyes to these conditions, con- tagious diseases are spreading among war workers’ children. And in a time of national emergency, absenteeism grows in vital war industries, be- cause cramped living quarters

make sleep practically impos- sible for night shift workers. At the same time, worry about those at home lowers morale of mes on the job.

In evacuated Japanese sec- tions, a young generation is growing up under conditions that should shame every Can- adian. Juvenile delinquency is increasing, because of lack of supervised» government -spon- sored playgrounds, nursery and recreation centers.

e@

HAT is the solution to the

problem? It is agreed that if intelligent planning had pre- ceded the influx of war work- ers there would be no serious housing problem today. How- ever, there is no course open except to find an immediate— if temporary—solution.

At the last meeting of the Housewives’ League this ques- tion was seriously considered, and it was decided to frame

a resolution asking municipal,

provincial and federal authori- ties to take the necessary steps for the immediate construction of low rental homes to relieve the situation in congested areas.

~ These homes could be of a

type such as those erected in auto camps.

This resolution will also be forwarded to National Housing Administrator F. W. Nichols.

We believe, and I am certain that our belief is backed up by organized labor, that the problem of housing for war workers is one which must be solved—and solved at once. It is the task of every Canadian to press upon government au- thorities for action so that nei- ther our war industries or the lives of our growing children will be endangered.

jconmnuel

Socialism

ate them as public-ownea agencies, thus cutting out speculation and manipulation, which have proven injurious alike to producers and consumers.”

“Public ownership of transpor- tation facilities” has been an ac--= cepted practice in BC and throughout Ganada for decades. We have such outstanding ex- amples as the PGE in BC which has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars. Then there is the Canadian National Railways which for years cost the taxpay- ers of Canada $30,000,000 or so annually in deficits, but since it was “publicly owned” and the in- terest payments met at the ex- pense of the public, the bonds of this previously bankrupt railway system increased in price some 400 percent. No wonder the Capi- talists who owned the bonds be- came ardent advocates of “public ownership.” There are also sev- eral “publicly owned” street rail- way systems. :

As regards “publicly owned com- munication systems’ in Canada we already have the Canadian Nation- al Telegraphs, the postal system, the provincial government tele- phone system, and last, but not least, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, so that in practically every sphere of communication ana transportation public ownership has existed for years.

There remains of the CCF pro- gram “a public monopoly of brew- ing and distilling.” The distributive end of this industry is already “publicly owned” in the form of

the “BC Liquor Cohtrol Commis- sion” which constitutes a “public monopoly.”

@

OMMUNISTS have no particu-

lar objection to “the extension

of public ownership” when it can be shown the common people could secure lower prices as a result. If a CCF government should be elected, and the principle of “pub- lic ownership” extended to the manufacture of beer and liquor as they propose, as well as handling the wholesaling and retailing as the present government is already do- ing, and by means of “borrowing” while floating another bond issue for the purpose by means of bor- rowing, there could be no objection provided it could be shown the working man could secure cheaper beer.

Communists are not opposed to the “extension of public own- ership” if the working people will benefit as a result. However, we do object when such a pro- gram is presented as being that of a “revolutionary government,” as a “revolutionizing of our sys-

tem,” as ‘socialism,’ as Mr. Winch does. Such statements are pure demogogy, and Mr. Winch knows it.

Such “pseudo-socialism” has nothing In common with social- ism at all. It is merely a further

extension of state capitalism. Socialism is an economic and social system which excludes capi- talists and the exploitation of man by man, based on the principle of “he who does not work, neither shall he eat.” Only one country in the world. as yet, has succeeded in establishing such a system, and that is the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. And when Mr. Winch accuses Tim Buck of “betraying the working class of Canada” be- cause he is now forming a political party of working people which will advocate such a system, he is only making himself appear ridiculous

vincial Initiative Committee.

“So far more than 800 applica- tions have been received, and by all appearances the new party will have a membership of 2,000 before the end of the year in Vancouver city alone,” said McKean.

To date eleven clubs have been set up in Vancouver and district, and have established committees to secure permanent clubrooms. Five branches are

being established in Vancouver Center, and members are already discussing resolutions to be sent to the provincial convention, August 11, to which all branches will send delegates.

The provincial convention will

shave three main responsibilities:

to consider resolutions submitted by branches pertaining to the con- stitution, program, structure, poli- cies of the new party; to elect a provincial executive committee; to elect a minimum of ten delegates to attend the National Constituent Convention of the new party, August 22-24, in Toronto.

Branches which had elected executives at the time of going to press include:

Hastings East Branch: chairman, Lawrence Anderson, business agent, Amalgamated Shipwrights; vice-chairman, Helen Mathieson; secretary, Vi. McCrae; financial secretary, Nellie McKean; educa- tional director, Jack Douglas. Next meeting, Friday, 8 p.m., Odd- fellows Hall, Hastings and Kam- loops.

North Vancouver Branch: chair- man, Ed Simpson, business agent, Boilermakers’ Union, Local 1; vice- chairman, Vie Hansell; secretary, Dorothy Lynas: financial secretary, Damon WBisman; educational direc- tor, Charles Saunders, president,

Dock and Shipyard Workers’ Union. Next. meeting Monday, August 2

Bast End Braneh: chairman, J.

HAst. 0240 766 E. al Hastings Steam Baths;

Vancouver, B.C. Always Open — Expert Masseurs? in Attendance | 2 a.m. to li pm... . 40¢ and 50c E

7S r

Form B00 Apply Ke PlaceInRanl

Since Tim Buck’s visit to Vancouver to discuss with wing labor movement here the formation of a new party of Canadian Communists, applications for me in the proposed party have been pouring into Communis | quarters here, reported Fergus McKean, secretay, of th

-Spegun. Next meeting, Ay

Chitrenky; vice-chairman, — calak; recording secreta | Harodnik; financial secret; ’ Chowsky; educational dire

South Vancouver Branch man, Al Parkin, acting edit) People; vice-chairman, Leary, president, Vancouve) | Council; secretary, Marian | financial secretary, Audrey ] educational director, Bill 7 Next meting, August 2, ° Road Community Hall, 43 Victoria. :

Kitsilano Branch: cham :

Buckley; vice-chairman, Stewart, president, Boiler | Union; secretary, Betty I

financial secretary, Ruth educational director. John { Next meeting, August 4 West End Branch: ch Minerva Cooper, business m The People; vice-chairmar Goss; secretary, Bill Turner ! cial secretary, Edna Shear cational director, Charles Next meeting, August 3; Jol Studio, 641 Granville. Branches have also been in Grandview, Mount P Vancouver Center and in dale and New Westminster | New Westminster Branch: man, Roy Lavigne: vice-ch Bert Sampson; secretary, M osod; financial secretary, - Greenall: publicity directc Griffin, editor, The People meeting, Wednesday, Aug — Russell Hotel, New Westm

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Who Stands | Socialism?

Communist-Labor Total Committee

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