Page Four

B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS

September 25, 1936

The Y.C.L. Offers

The youth of Canada have featured in many struggles of the
working people for increased living standards. Their contribution
to these efforts has been great indeed. The financial interests have
likewise, realized the importance of influencing the youth and
using them against .he forces of labor. During the longshoremen’s
strike and other struggles since, we have seen to what advantage
sections of misinformed youth have been used by the big indus-
trialists to smash trade unions. All this and much more has indi-
cated the necessity wf the labor movement taking steps to win the
young people for the cause of labor.

There is no other cause which has more justification for the
support of the masses of young people than,has the labor movement.
Capitalism means only increased exploitation, poverty, disillusion-
ment and war for the young generation.

Our movement, on the other hand, is the only movement which
holds high the demands of the young people for a better life and
through it alone can the ambitions of youth be fulfilled.

Communists are most seriously concerned with finding the
ways and means of winning the youth for the labor movement.
It is because of this fact that the recent Provincial Executive
meeting of the Young Communist League was watched with keen

Canadian Youth A Field For Progress

anticipation, expecting that it would give a lead in the organization
of the youth.

After considerable discussion on how the Young Conmimunist
League can assist in bringing larger numbers of employed youth
into trade unions; how to work toward the building of a broad
socialist youth movement and the means of uniting that move-
ment; the assembled delegates arrived at the conclusion that with-
out a large and more influential ¥.C.L. our efforts in winning the
young people will be greatly hampered.

Anyone who is acquainted with the activities of the Young
Gommunist League, whose initiative and assistance in recent
months has been a factor in the organization of a number of pro-
gressive youth clubs and in the formation of the socialist Youth
Gouncil, will know that the decision of the Provincial Executive
of the Young Communist League to build and extend their organiza-
tion has been completely vindicated by their achievements.

There were those in our movement that mistakinsly interpreted
the decision of the 6th Congress of the ¥.C.L., to bring into being
a United Youth Leazue as meaning that we willnow do away with
the ¥.C.L. and build in its place the new youth organization. These
people failed to take into consideration that Such a united youth

movement does not come of its own accord but must be fought for.
Youth must be convinced of the absolute necessity of building

such an organization.

Any steps that tend toward the weakening of the Young Commu-
nist League, which is pledged to carry out this task, will be weaken-
ing our entire efforts toward the building of this movement. With-
out a more powerful Y.C.L. the merging of the Socialist Youth into

one organization will be impossible.

Before this fact was realized, however, much damage had been
done to the Young Communist League.
League was allowed to fall away until a disgraceful situation had
developed which was not conducive to the best interests of the
youth nor to our efforts in winning the young generation.

An extensive recruiting campaign whereby it is expected that

the membership will be increased

commenced. The Communist Party
must be made to build and increase the influence of the Young
Gommunist League as a necessary and vital step toward winning
the young generation for progressive action. We likewise, appeal
to all people that are sympathetie to the cause of youth to rally
behind the membership drive of the Young Communist League.

to 500 by November 15 has
declares that every effort

BC WorkKERS NEWS

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Vancouver, B.C., Friday, September 25, 1936

B.C. Must Aid in Defence of
Spanish Democracy

HE savage fascist butchery in Spain continues apace, but the
people of Spain under the banner of the ‘‘Loyalists’” are
holding their own. Even capitalist papers like the Toronto Staz
are admitting that the horrors perpetrated by the fascists in the
civil war put the Spanish inquisition into the shade.

The fascist murderers would long ago have been wiped out,
were it not for the intervention of Nazi Germany, Fascist Ttaly
and Portugal, whose aeroplanes and weapons of wartare haye been
giving strongest aid to the “rebels,” and were it not for the hypo-
eritical “neutrality” of Britain and other countries, who have
yirtually blockaded Spain, and whose financiers are sending huge
sums of money to the fascist forces. It should be further under-
stood that Portugal is undoubtedly a sphere of British influence
and it is through here that the shipment of armaments to the
“rebels” is taking place. The Canadian financiers, it is rumored,
have now put their oar in by sending ten million dollars to aid their
eolleacue, Gen. Franco! The theatre for the world war is bemg
set in Spain. For this is what intervention means. It means the
fascist bloc is opening its campaign to wipe out democracy in
Europe and to destroy the Soviet Union. It is a situation fraught
with terrific danger to the people of the entire world.

For the people of Canada and B.C. the task is plain. The
widest unity of all demoeratie forces must be forged so that the
pressure upon the MeKenzie Kine government can be such that
QGanada will line up behind the forces of democracy against the
fascists. The newspapers of this country with the exception of the
labor papers are practically united in slandering and carrying on
the most vicious attacks upon the heroic Spanish people, and in
lauding the fascists. This is proof of the relationship between the
forces of reaction in Europe and those im our own country, and
the danger that exists in this to the labor and progressive move
ment.

Fascism is calling a conference
p.m. in the Moose Hall, for the
wavs the heroic strugele of the

The League Against War and
for Friday, September 25th, at 8
purpose of aiding im all possible wa)
Spanish democracy. The Trades and Labor Congress of Canada
mn its last convention gave a lead to all trade unionists by their
avowed support of the struggle for democracy jn Spain, and the
trade unionists should therefore lend their full support to this
gathering, as should also all O.C.F., church and other organiza-
tions. The communist movement in this country and province
will support and actively aid any efforts on behalf of the people of
Spain, and call upon all forces of progress to rally to this conter-
ence, to start a real campaign in this city through powertul demon-
strations, mectings, the picketing of those newspapers that print
lies on Spain, to raise a huge fund on behalf of Spanish democracy.
British Columbia, we are confident, if properly aroused will line
up behind this eampaten, which will not only materially help the
forces of democracy in Europe, but will act as a check upon those
fascist and reactionary elements here who if permitted would
make of this country the same shambles that their counterpart
have made of a number of countries in Europe.

On Guard, Union Men!

FINDER ithe direction of British Columbia’s most powerful
industrialists and financiers, a new menace to organized labor
is being built, z.c. the “Tndustrial Council Incorporated.” The
program is to wage an ageressive policy against any and all trade
unions engaged in the noble work of improying the economic and
social stand ards of their membership and the workers generally.

Under the euise of combatting “Communism,” the “Indus-
trial Council Incorporated” are preparing the machinery of vio-
‘ence to hurl against the trade anions whieh they claim are
disturbing our prosperous industry.

Tn the lexicon of the ‘Industrial Council Incorporated” the
‘American Federation of Labor in its entirety, its general staff and
its membership, are alien to Canada. Tom McInnes, the well-
Imown fascist mouth-piece of the Citizens’ League, has just re-
turned from the U.S. where he went to study the operations of
these agents for the “I.C.1.”

The Vancouver public has been under the impression that the
absence of our local Hex Goebbels denoted a more protracted
drunk than usual. The pub\c has erred in this. McInnes has been
collecting current trade mmidn data from which he will manutac-
ture labor atrocities.

For its operation the I.C.1. has set an annual budget of
$50,000, $25,000 of which is already subseribed by leading B.C.
industrialists, the same people who dictate a policy ot relief euts
to their government in Victoria. The membership fee ot the rer
4s set at $100, and protection from “GAommunist aud alien 1n-
fluences” and operations is assured. ae

“The Black Hundreds,” “Committees of One Thundred,” “Ku
Klux. Klan,” ‘Citizens League,” ete. live again in the newLy
constituted T.C.1. These patriots chate at the restrictions of de-
mocracy and under the pretext of combatting Communism seek
to destroy the demoeratie and constituted Tights of the workers to
form trade unions for mutual protection. In the dialectical pro-
eess of capitalist d evelopment the “defenders” ot the Constitution
become its destroyers—to the end that their rotting decay may
drag out a protracted death and their tenure of class privileges
be extended. Spain is the classical example. Under the skin,

NO RELIEF, HE
WORKED TOO
CHEAPLY

A returned soldier with, a family,
who is a member of the Ex-Service-
men’s League, has been refused
relief, although he had established
domicile according to the regulations
as set out by the provincial govern-—
ment, namely, having worked for
eight months and supported his wife
and five children and proved one
year's residence.

Qn application at the office he
was told that he had not earned
enough during the eight months to
be eligible, the irony of this is, he
has been working on the Post Of-
fice and the new City Hall (Gerry's
new home) as a laborer, so it is plain
to be seen, that our benevolent re-
lief authorities, when it is in their
interests to do so, recognize that 45
cents an hour for a married man
fails to come up to their standard of
supporting a wife and family-

At the same time another case of
a single man, also a returned soldier,
who has supported himself for over
eight months in the province, and
who has lived here close on two
years, was refused relief on the
flimsy ground that he didn’t earn
the money in B.C. (no objections to
his having spent it in B.C)

The Ex-Servicemen’s League 1s
takine both of these cases with the
Minister of Labor in Victoria, any-
one interested can get further de-
tails from B. Liss, Secretary, E-S-L.,
340 Cambie street.

Red Army Trains for Coming War

With Hitler shoutine for war against the U.S.S.R., the Soviet
Union’s Red Army is engaging in new drills designed to protect
the workers’ republic from invasion by Nazi forces. Here are
young Red Army officers, packs on their backs, swimming
across a stream during practice maneuvres. ;

the capitalist brigands who have unleashed a bloody terror upon
the people of Spain and the “ICI.” of B.C. are one and the
same. Their ill-gotten wealth comes from the same source—the
unpaid toil of labor. In both instances it is readily accessible to
purchase the riffratt of the capitalist eutter, be it a Foreign
Legionnaire or a McInnes, to advocate or do violence to the trade
unions and the workers eenerally. In both instances it has the one
objective—to deliver the workers, body and soul, to a system of
cultural darkness and industrial slavery: to Fascism.

Let the “I.C.1.” with its McImneses and McGeers give heed:
The Trade Union movement of B.C. and of Canada have differ-
ences of opinion on the minor issues of the day—ditierences which
by virtue of their existence haye yielded huge profits to the august
personnel of the “I.C.J.” But the trade union movement of
Canada have no differences on the bloody issues of fascist repres-
sion and yiolence. On this they will stand—united.

Our trade mnions are democratic, peace-loving bodies, pursu-
ing our democratic rights within the framework of the Constitu-
tion—to promote the social and economic well-being of the member-
ship and the working people as a whole. These trade unions have
not and will not surrender their rights to the “I.C.I.” and its
fascist hooligans. They will defend these rights with all the
moral force that the machinery of democracy provides. Should
that machinery fail as a result of having been destroyed by its
allesed “defenders” in the “I.C.1.” and their ilk throughout
Canada, then working class democracy and the machinery of
working class democracy will render the final decision.

Messieurs of the “I.C.1.” and your fascist henchmen! The
tvade unions of Wancouver, of British Columbia, of Canada, are
on guard. \When you turn mad dogs loose, elutted with your mer-
cenary gold, to do violence to the labor movement the responsibility
is yours. Combatting “Communistic and alien influences” in this
era of capitalist decline and fascist barbarity will not serve to
cloak your villainy, nor your zealous desire, to erush the trade
unions. The lesson your murderous breed have given to our elass
in Spain is a hard one; in defending our trade unions a@ainst your
attacks we shall “better ihe instruction.”

The Single Transients

HAT is going to become of the single unemployed transients

this winter? The answer to this question is a pr blem that
Pacific Coast authorities have yet been unable to solve. Already
they are expressing ereat alarm at the annual influx of homeless
young men who have been driven from the prairie provinces, and
at the expectation that from 8,000 to 10,000 extra gang wrorkers
will flock to Vancouver within the next few weeks. Police are on
enard at the Alberta boundary to try and stop these young Ca-
nadians exercising their right of travelling from one part ot the
country to another. They are told to go back to where they came
from. even if they didn’t come from any place in particular.

Tn addition to the transients there is another problem; what
to do with the youths who have been in the Provincial Govern-
ment’s Forestry Camps during the summer. In spite of the fact
that they are still, owing to their youth, under-developed physic
ally. the government hopes many of them will be absorbed in the
locoine industry, an occupation so strenuous that no youth should
be allowed to enter. There is also the angle that the logeinge opera-
tors want to develop a surplus of unorganized loggers and keep
it on hand as a whip over the head of the organized.

There are some hints in the press that after all, the Federal
Govremment might reopen the old relief camps this winter. It is
diseraceful even for them to think about it! Im a country like
Canada it is a howling shame that there should be anything like a
youth problem. The Canadian youths have not had anything
+o do with bringing the country into its present condition. Tens
of thousands of them have never even had the shost of an oppor-
tunity to learn a trade, profession, or useful and interesting occu-
pation, and are they to be isolated on farms at wages of from five
¢o ten dollars a month, or herded back into the odious relief
camps, just because the government refuses to create work at

decent pay and conditions for them in better surroundings 4

Friends
Of Order

BANG he said, ‘‘we haye records
and to spare of all that; and the
essence of them I can give in a few
words. As I told you, the rank and
file of the army was not to be
trusted by the reactionists; but the
officers generally were prepared for
anything, for they were mostly the
very stupidest men in the country-
What ever the 2Zovernment might
do, a great part of the upper and
midg@le classes were determined to
set on foot a counter revolution; for
the Communism which now loomed
ahead seemed quite unendurable
to them.

a7)
Ss;

+O

Bands of young men, like the
marauders in the great strike of
whom I told you just now, armed
themselves and drilled, and began
on any opportunity or pretense to
skirmish with the people in the
Streets. The government neither
helped them nor put them down,
but stood by, hoping that some-
thine might come of it.

These ‘Friends of Order,’ as they
were called, had some successes at
first, and grew bolder; they got
many officers of the regular army
to help them, and by their means
laid hold of munitions of war of all
kinds One part of their tactics con-
sisted in their guarding and even
garrisoning the big factories of the
period; they held at one time, for
instance, the whole of that place
called Manchester which I spoke
ef just now.

A sort of irregular War Was Car-
ried on with varied success all over

-|on the proposals for regional peace

The World
This Week

_By F. B.

Iuast Monday the League of Na-
tions Assembly met again. The
agenda for discussion included:
whether the League organization
should be revised to strengthen its
work for peace; whether it should
continue to maintain its supervision
over Danzig in view of the Nazi
desigris on that city; whether the
League should forbid shipments of
arms to belligerents by sympathetic
nations; and whether it should act

pacts as put forth by France and the
Soviet Union.

The League meets at a time when
its prestige, weakened by its be-
trayal of Ethiopia to Mussolini, has
not been recovered, and at a time
too when there is more need for a
united peace policy than there has
been since 1914. But the League
seems to have degenerated com-
pletely into an international forum
for diplomatic discussion, bereft of
power, and perhaps of desire, to
cope with the dangerous situation
that faces all democratic institu-
tions throughout the world in face
of the plans of Fascist powers to
destroy them. For example, to dis-
cuss whether war materials should
be shipped to belligerents in Spain
after Mussolini and Hitler have
sent 400 bombing planes to be used
against the People’s Front govern-
ment borders on callous cynicism.
Why did not the League Council
call a meeting of the Assembly im-
‘mediately after the uprising cf the
Spanish Fascists? The answer can
only be that, although some of the
Fascist powers are out of the
League, it is still controlled by capi-
talist nations that are so opposed
to any expansion of democracy any-
where, that they can remain qui-
escent while a civil war to main-
tain democracy is being fought in
front of their very eyes.

_ The most sinister plan for re-
vision of the League is the one ad-
vocated in a radio broadcast by the
Honorable C. Lb. M. S. Amery, for-
mer secretary of state for Great
Britain, that the Soviet Union be
put out of it. He suggests that with
the Soviet Union out of the League,
Germany would return to it. What
his proposals really amount to, is
that the League be conyerted into
a solid anti-Soviet bloc, and that
the present pact between the Soviet
Union and France be scrapped. This
view of his is not new; it has been
put forth time and again by both
Mussolini and Hitler, as well as by
some of the British diplomats.

Wowever, there is no basis from
which to expect that Premier Blum
of France would entertain for a mo-
ment serious. consideration of this
plan. Blum took the very danger-—
ous stand of neutrality towards the
Spanish struggle, one opposed by
large numbers of the French peo-
ple; but he must know that the
Franco-Soviet Pact is all that pre-
serves the peace of Hurope today,
and that a rejection of it would be
the signal for a Fascist uprising in
his own country, an uprising that
would be assisted by a greater de-
eree of intervention from Hitler
than the Nazi Government has used
in Spain.

In a recent speech Blum defended
the People’s Front Government of

the country; and at last the govern-
ment, which at first pretended to
ignore the struggle, or treat it as
mere rioting, definitely declared for
‘the Friends of Order, and joined
to their bands whatsoever of the
regular army they eould get to-
eether, and made a desperate at-
fempt to overwhelm ‘the rebels’ as
they were now once more ealled, and
as indeed they called themselves.
“Tt was too late. All ideas of peace
on a basis of compromise had dis-
ared from either side. The end,
at “yV seen clearly, must be either
absolute slavery for all but *the
privileged, or a system of life found-
ed on equality and Communisn. The
sloth, the hopelessness, and if I may

sa so, the cowardice of the last
eentury, given place to the
easer, restless heroism of the de-

clared revolutionary period-

Note: The above quotation was
not written yesterday. It is an ex-
eerpt trom “News from No-
where,” a book written nearly
fifty years ago by William Mor-
ris, one of the early English So-
cialists. ‘“News from Nowhere” is

a romance in which the author
looks ahead and describes the

transition from capitalism te so-
cialism. It is incomparably  su-
perior to Bellamy’s “JT ooking
Baclorvards.” The above quotation
is remarkable in that it forecasts
with striking correctness the de-
velopment of fascist organizations
of today.

which he is the head. He admitted
that there were diversities of poli-
cies within the People’s Front, but
warned Hitler that in spite of them
the whole people would unite in-
stantly on the first threat of ageres-
sion from Germany.

The only thing that has prevented
the League of Nations from degen-
erating into a pure farce has been
the membership in it of France and
the Soviet Union, and in its present
sessions their attitude will be the
one that represents the true inter-
ests of world peace.

Hitler has recently received sup-
port from two different sources.
Lloyd George, returned to London
after visiting him, praised him to
the skies and termed him the
“George Washington of Germany.”
Apparently Lileyd George has be-
come a convert to Fascism, al-
though such a conversion must
have come very easily to one of his
anti-Labor record.
j Then following closely upon Hit
ler’'s Nuremberg speech when he
raged against Communism, his holi-
ness the Pope in a speech gave his
blessing to all forces fighting
against “the mad forces of commu-
nism.’ The holy father also .con-
demned the People’s Front in Spain.
As the Catholics in Germany have
been bitterly persecuted by the

those fighting Fascism in Spain jare
Catholics, it is clear that when ‘the

Nazis, and as a large number of

Pope speaks the voice of interna

ccs
By
OL’ BILL
The membership of the = The Pope has
Professional just been com—

Anti-Communist. Se that

Gatholic
press is persistently suspected and
increasingly hampered. If this is
true it is n0 more than the Roman
Gatholic hierarchy should expect
in those places where civilization is
making any progress.

The church that attempts to keep
the mind of the race wrapped in
mummy cloths; that places a ban
on every book, every piece of writ-
ing, that does not conform to its
narrow bigoted attitude to life in
general and its class pronounce-
ments in particular; that in the
past has tortured and burned and
hung, while it had the power, every
individual who tried to improve the ©
lot of the people; this Church,
through its Pope, is not a very
heroic figure now, squawking be-
cause it is not allowed a monopoly,
as in the past, that will enable it te
mould the masses to its own ends,

We have more reas—
on to complain—but
Ywe don’t. We expect
Our press to be sub=
jected to every form of attack by
the boss class; in their papers,
Liberal, Tory and Fascist, in their
pulpits, Catholic, Protestant and
10-gallon Baptist, in the movies—
everywhere. But we don’t squawk,
we fight. We maintain our press in
the face of all these obstacles. That
is why we have a press drive on for
the next six weeks.

Im the last drive I threatened to
quit if I didn’t get $100. This time
the Business Mer. tells me I'll be
fired if I don’t. That would be
too bad; Tom McInnis would miss
OV Bill at his best when he’s
doing his worst.

We Don’t:
Squawk...

Now here’s what I pro-
pose: All unattached
workers get behind this
column. Sell a few subs
or get anything in the way of do-
nations. Ill send you the equip-
ment. To the contributer who
makes the best showing I will award
a 14x7 photo of Karl Marx, made
from the best known painting of the
founder of the revolutionary SO-
cialist movement. Along with that,
to everyone who raises $1.00 or
more I will give an autographed
copy of the Jubilee Booklet, “BO
Years’ Labor Struggle in Vancouver
and B.C.” by Ol’ Bill. On top of this
every 50e will get a five weeks
sub. to the “B.C. Workers’ News’
and “Clarion Weekly’ So much
for so little has never been offered,
so do your part now!

Prizes!
Prizes!

The Pope in his at-
The Church tack on Communism
in Polities. 14st week, displayed
his big-heartedness
by ‘“pardoning Spaniards who in
their bloody civil warfare killed
bishops and priests.” We would do
much better to pardon his priestly
followers in Canada who are respon=
sible for the demand of the Con=
gress of Catholic Workers, at Stes
Hyacinthe, Que., for the expulsion
of the U.S.S.R. from the League of
Nations and the abrogation of all
trade relations with that country.
And when the priest of St. Jo-
seph’s Roman Catholic Church, in
Halifax, NS., calls Willie Gallacher
“3 professional propagandist for
Communism,” we ask him not to
fly off the handle if he hears the
Pope described as “a professional
propagandist for anti-communism
and reaction.”

- The Spanish govern~
Fascist ment forces will un-
Vandalism! doubtedly be accused
of vandalism ior
blowing up the Alcazar at Toledo,
Wo thought of the cause that made
that war measure necessary will be
allowed to interfere with the slan-
ders of the Rothermeres and the
Hearsts. The treatment of women
and children of the working class
py the skulking brutes in the Alca-
zar who thought to save their owm
worthless hides is a foretaste of
what we may expect in Canada
from Tom McInnis and his Nazi
gang if we are foolish enough to let
them get the power in their hands.
The loyal Spanish people need not
worry about the destruction of the
Alcazar, for all the Moorish ruins
in Spain are not worth the life of
one supporter of the Spanish gov-
ernment.

Ti is a delightful
From 4 change from the
New World! daily stery here, of

unemployment and
starvation, of families picked up on
the street by the police for begging,
of 15,000 jobless marching on Van-
couver,—to read a letter from Tom
Barnard in the U.S.S.R. telling of
how many jobs he has been offered
because “there is such 2 terrible
shortage of all kinds of labor’!
Tom asserts that things in the Sov-
jet Union, where he is on a tour of
investigation, are even better than
he thought they were, and Tom's
contributions to the Nanaimo “Her-
ald” show that he had a high esti-
mate before he left. This gives the
lie to the fascist, strike-breaking;
anti-soviet wind-bag, McInnis.

The Summer Theatre
Good recognizing the talent
Work! of Guy Gtover, mean to

give that talent oppor-
tunity to bourgeon, so they are
making an effort to send that prom-
ising young artist to a New York
school. At the Little Theatre to-
night and tomorrow night, the
comedy “Springtime for Henry?’
will be presented as a benefit for
Guy Glover. From 55c up. Fill the

tional capital is heard.

house!

iacake