CCFers and LPPers have cooperated in a common Cause on many occasions in the past. One such was the Nanaimo laundry workers’ strike in 1947 which helped to bring about the downfall of the Liberal-Conservative Coali tion government. This picture shows Sam Guthrie, then CCF MLA for Cowichan-New castle, addressing an open air meeting. Nigel Morgan, LPP provincial leader, stands at left rear.

~ Can CCF and ©

LPP cooperate ?

HE present election gives one considerable food for thought about the future of

Canadian labor in politics. ~

When I was a lad of seven- teen in Winnipeg I heard a speech from a _ soap-box in Market Square by H. M. Bar- tholomew, a witty Irish Can- adian socialist _who always held his audience by his pene- trating remarks.

“Do you want to know what.

unity means? asked Bart. “Tl show you!”

He took a bunch of short sticks from his. pocket, and,

separating one from the rest, snapped it in his hands/ “That’s what happens when a worker is alone,” said Bart. “But here’s what happens when he stands together With

his “fellow workers.” The lanky speaker tried to snap the bunch of sticks, and failed. “That's... unity,” he said: “Never forget it!” To use Bart’s customary words to the joyful wage-

earners standing around, “Tll bet a bottle of Cocoa Cola to a corn cob pipe”’ that his par able stuck in their minds dur- ing many a harsh struggle in the Hungry Thirties ten years

later. *

It was working-class unity that helped to change the face of this country over the past twenty-five years.

When Bart was speaking on Winnipeg’s Market Square it

By LESLIE MORRIS

was. only two years since po- lice and imported thugs had shot and killed striking work- ers during the 1919- General Strike.

The Winnipeg workers had teft their jobs in May to en- force their right to bargain collectively with ‘the employ- ers.

Today, because of such unit- ed labor struggles, the right of collective bargaining is not only on the statute books in the provinces, but, what is

Kenya

HE British-dominated Ken-

ya government has replied

to growing African demands *

for equal rights and indepen- dence by clamping harsh new restrictions on all African po- litical meetings in the colony.

Special licences wiH have to be obtained for all political meetings and further special permission for any collection to be taken.

African: members. of the Legislative Council may be re- stricted to speaking in their own constituencies—and then only with the government’s lic- ence. The authorities have the power to ban all guest speak-

more, is enforced by a trade union movement five times bigger than it was in 1919.

There was.no unemploy-

ment insurance then. In Win- ,

hundred other when the econ- omic crisis struck in 1929, if the breadwinner was out of a job the family could turn only to the municipal council or charity.

Municipal councils went broke trying to pay miserly relief. Like Oliver Twist the people asked for. more and received little or nothing.

In dead of winter they were

nipeg and a communities,

sent to the municipal wood-,

yards to buck-saw wood while

°

ers.

Some- meetings will be’ re- corded on tape recorders, as an extra intimidation to speak- ers.

Announcing these new re- strictions the government. threatened to deal promptly

with any sign of “incitement to undermine or defy author- ity.”

The action by the govern- ment —' composed largely of European settlers — shows that it fears the success of a

campaign waged by African members since their election to the Legislative Assembly

last. March. w the eight elected African

‘ eration

gas saws rusted nearby, to “prove” they were ‘willing to

work” if the non-existent job turned up. And the family kept | together

and soul I

ans, while the young men and girls wan- dered. over the land with no- where to lay their head and no prospects job

roni ana &

on m

ithe battle for unemployed eral, ‘Tory,

Because of

fe l

and

Communist voters and often with no poli at all —un- employment insurance was

vrung from an unwilling and often violent government by the devotion and stubborn- ness of hundreds of thousands of unknown and unsung work- ers and their family.

Unemployment insurance is on the law books. It wasn’t handed down ona silver. plat- ter, it was won. by thé working people. ikewise, the fering’ when. eggs dozen fora quarter butter was cheaper grease and wheat piled up unsold, sick at heart when the children ran about in gun- ny sacks, they. forced the gov- ernment through farm strikes and hunger marches. to give at least some assistance.

What happened in the Hun- gry Thirties was that the st was ‘compelled by workers’ and farmers’ united actions to recognize its: responsibility for standards of living. Up to that time the state’s responsi- was largely limited to collecting taxes, puting you in jail if you broke the law and were caught, and making sure you landed in Potter’s Field if you died a-pauper.

The CCF was born in the middle of all this in. 1932.

*

United popular action has changed the face of the coun- try. It is not only that an in- dustrial boom has lasted for several years now, but that the people have won conces- sions from the employers and

suf- two

farmers, were and .when than axle

ate

bility

the government.. Even in a boom the workers would not have collective bargaining

rights and other reforms un- less they fought for them. The people of this country defended their democratic as well as their- economic rights. Nineteen hundred and thir-

members — among them Tom Mboya, 28-year-old general secretary of the Kenya Fed- of Labor have de- clared their opposition to the 1954 Lyttelton plan for Kenya, and refused all government posts.

1

Instead they declared: “We shall fight to build a govern- ment and society in which all enjoy equal rights and oppor- tunities and no one enjoys privileges or a privileged po-

Sa § Ee SEAT $ition.

Under the tion Europeans occupy 38 seats out of a total 59 in legislative council, and have 12 ministers as against five non-Europea

present constiut- 9

ty-five was a great year. for uinadian democracy because s of Canadians support- ed the demand to take the H -like Section 98 (passed in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike) off the statute

and freedom of speech and association.

‘

They rose in such numbers to win their social and econ- omic demands that in 1935 they threw out the last Tory government eyer to hold pow- er in Ottawa — the Bennett “Tron Heel” . government — and elected Mackenzie King and the Liberals on _ their pledges to restore a measure of democracy and provide re- forms.

books

res .ore

In every one of these. in- stances, people’s unity was to be seen. Bartholomew’s. par- able of the bundle. of sticks was proven to be a very great truth.

This is the truth. It was the

united struggles in French- and English-speaking. Cana;- da, the sacrifices and efforts

of millions from the Atlantic to the Pacific shdres that built Canada’s labor and farm move- ments over the years.

These are only -a few ex- amples. There are others which the*reader can multiply from his own experience. As the union song says

Solidarity, forever,

For the union makes us

strong! 3

Unity is so vital for the la- bor movement that it can be said that divided, the strength of the working class is feeble; united, it is invincible.

The wage-earners in the trade union movement found this out when, after many

years of divisian between CIO and the AFL, their good sense prevailed and the two labor congresses were united in the United States and Canada. When the unions came to- gether in the memorable con- vention in Toronto and joined forces to bring over one mil- lion organized workers into the new Canadian Labor Con- gress, their ~— strength was greater than the simple addi- tion of two former congresses: it was multiplied many times because of unity. ® This is the first of a series of three articles by Leslie The second will appear next week.

Morris.

Africans want their full rights.

3ut the population of Kenya has six million Africans, 125;- 00 Asians and Arabs — and only 30,000 Europeans. -Of the Africans only about 126,500 had the right to vote in the March election.

Mboya and other African leaders hit at the ban on meetings, pointing out that Kenya has the same right to ¥ independence as. Ghana, and demanding that African rep- rasentation on the Legislative be raised from eight to: 23.

They have also been oppos- ing the proposal to establish a big’ British military base*in ish military base in

MAY 31, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 12