WMT
HSH RAI Bldhaagette

PB

‘Boost our Pay a
buck a day’ is
WIU aim in 1950

Under the. slogan, “Boost Our Pay a Buck a Day,” the Wood-
workers Industrial Union of Canada will conduct a spring organizational
drive in the woods and mills aimed at establishing rank-and-file com-

_ mittees on the job in every operation during 1950. This decision’was _

arrived at during a two-day session of the national WIUC council in

Nanaimo last weekend.

At the union’s annual conven-
tion in Vancouver on April 1
and 2, delegates will complete
organizational plans and formu-
late demands to be presented to
operators in negotiations. this
year. ;

Eight lcecals were represented
at the council meeting in Nanai-
mo; weather conditions in the
interior prevented some delegates
from attending.

“We. had down-to-earth discus-
sions on matters affecting: every
worker in the woodworking in-
dustry,” said WIUC president,
Harold Pritchett. “As soon as
the camps open we'll be on the
job, setting up. rank-and-file com-
mittees which will fight to pre-
event the bosses from chiselling
en hard-won conditions gained
over the years.”

Pritchett stated that the WIUC
has received an invitation to af-
filiate to the Woodworking Sec-
tion cf the World Federation of
Trade Unions, with headquarters
in Helsinki, Finland. Council en-
dorsed the offer in principle and
instructed union officers to con-
tinue negotiations,

Grappling with the deepening
economic crisis, which is affect-
ing lumber workers sharply, the
Nanaimo conference raised. the
slogan: “Trade for all means

-jobs for all.” A resolution’ was

unanimously passed calling on

the provincial government to es- °

tablish a trade commission to
leave immediately for China,
where there is a vast potential
market for B.C, lumber. The res-
clution also asked Ottawa to lay
the basis for barter trade with
Britain and all nations inside and
outside the U.S. dollar influence.

Full support to Cranbrook
WIUC local 405 in the imple-
mentation -of the recent majority
award of 2% cents per hour pay
increase and $1 per hour’ mini-
mum basic rate was pledged by
the council,

Other resolutions called for
banning of the atomic bomb;
maintenance of the 40-hour

week; real foods instead of sub-
stitutes in camps; reestablish-
ment of union radio program as
soon as possible; and a campaign
to double circulation of the union
paper and-enable it to publish
bi-monthly in the near future.

Ban on bomb backed
by 200,000 workers

TORONTO

Delegates representing 200,000 organized workers in Ontario last
week went on record squarely against atomic war as the Ban the Bomb
petition drive of the Canadian Peace Congress began to hit peak tempo.

The labor stand was taken at, the convention of the Ontario

of Labor (TLC) after United
Textile Workers of America del-
egate Bill Stewart declared, “This
is the most important question
before this convention.”

“Only a madman could con-
ceive of building up an atomic
bomb pile,” he continued. “Every
worker and trade unionist should
get on his feet and demand:
Ban the Bomb. Let’s tell the gov-
ernment we're not going to have
anything to do with an atomic
war.”

The OFL resolution stated:

“Whereas the development of
atomic power can bring about
immense industrial progress for

Granby Consolidated faces

Federation
the good of humanity if deveiop-
ed for peaceful uses, and

_ “Whereas on ‘the othe hand
this same power could bring
about untold misery, destruction
and endless human suffering if
used for purposes of war and
thereby also preclude proper re-
search for its peaceful uses,

“Be it therefore resolved that
this fourth convention of the On-
tazio Federation of Labor en-
dorse the growing demand for a
world-wide agreement for the
control of atomic weapons in
order to prevent the use of atom-
ic energy for military purposes.” |

prosecution by Mine-Mill

International Union of Mine,
Mill and Smelter Workers, local
649, has been given the green
light to prosecute Granby Con-
solidated Mining, Smelting and
‘Power Co, Ltd., for failure to live
up to bargaining procedure outlin-
ed in the union contract at signed.

Permission to lay the charge

against the company was grant-. to submit to arbitration on the
ed by Labor Relations Board fol-
lowing representatidén by Harvey

Rize. more than- seven...

Murphy, Mine-Mill regional dir-_

ector.

Dispute centers around the

number of statutory holidays to™

be paid each year, The union
the company refuses to recog-

The union asked the company

“question, but the company refus-

ed to appoint an arbitrator, This’:

News-Herald series on

foreign government, Don Cass,

based in Paris. Th
in Moscow, as he found it,

is still more difficult, drab,
dreary and hopeless, The opening
paragraph reveals the purpose:
“It is difficult for a Canadian to
conceive the hardships accepted
as normal for all Soviet peoples.”

The story continues in this

vein, “... A bar of soap is a
luxury ... Dainty lingerie, ny-
lons, laces and feminine fripper-
ies were missing from store
counters ... Today there are no
furs for sale in the Soviet
Union.”

Ignoring the obvious question
about the dubious advantages of
a “private enterprise’ system
which fills the stores with goods
that more and more people can-
not afford to buy, the fact is
that Cass’ series of articles is an
outright fabrication—a pack of

elies in everyday language. The

proof? No less a pillar of “free
enterprise” than the New York
Timeg (see photoStats), to whose
service the Vancouver News-

“Her@ld has exclusive rights “in!

Vancouver. But for’ propaganda
purposes the lies of the U.S. state
department’s Don Cass are much
better than the more truthful

, report of the New York Times’

Harrison Salisbury. |

Mostorg is the Centralny. !Uni-
vermag or Central Department
Store, “commonly known as the
‘Tsum’ or even more commonly
as the Bolshoi Mostorg.’’ As Har-
rison ‘Salisbury ~ reports; “It is

was a4 direct violation -of- Clause
8 of the union agreement;. under

“claims tere are~10~such ~days;---the-IGA.--Act,.-the—company’s. .re-.

fusal was contrary to Sections

SEN Mi KBE E YE ES ¥ ¢ !

“This is the first time the con-

_Stitutionality of the ICA Act ‘t-

‘Self;has,been questioned by a

“ company,” Murphy... observed... ..

els a former diplomatic courier for the
convince readers that, no matter how difficult life may be on unemplo:

ter

iy

8 great-c

Moscow’s largest department
store and by that token the larg-

est department store in the “So-~

viet Union.”

Salisbury continues:

“The Mostorg is by no means
the only department store in the
Soviet capital. There are several
other ‘univermags’, as they are
called in Moscow, in the central
section of the city and others’
located in various district shop-
ping centers. But none of the
others is quite as large as Mos-
torg and it draws the largest.
number of customers in spite of
the fact that some Moscow
housewives prefer to shop in less
centrally located stores. :

‘In any event, the Mostorg
handles an enormous volume of
goods. Its turnover is now estim-

gated at 4,500,000 rubles daily and

is rising sharply as more and
more consumers’ goods come on-
to the market, For example,
the store this year (1949) stock-
ed aout 40,000,000 rubles in spe-
cial seasonal summer and spring
goods—almost twice the volume
handled last year.”

No furs? The Mostorg sells
furs. No “feminine fripperies”?
The Mostorg sells women’s negli-
gees. No perfumes? The Mostorg
sells perfumes. None of this jibes
with the picture of “austerity”
depicted by ‘Cass.

But then, Cass is striving. only
to obscure the fact that while,
in the Western countries, more
and more goods are coming onto
the market which fewer
fewer people have the money to
buy, in the Soviet Union more
and more people are getting the
things they want as industry ex-
pands, more and more goods
come onto the market and pur-
chasing power increases,

and - :

_ Sh 8 PRlamas, wo)

~ Russia exposed as fake

In Bnitish Columbia 50,000, perhaps 60,000 people are unemployed «
because official figures, like the daily newspapers,
thousands who will lose their jobs unless the St. Lauren
“cold war’’ policies, the government has decreed a new
faced with mass privation in the midst of plenty. And t
world, big business realizes the greater danger to “
livelihood start looking with approval to the Soviet Union and the
is unknown and living standards are going up—not down.

That’s why the Vancouver ‘News-Herald, in the
ran the headline in bold type: ‘Russia Land of Auster

no one can say ‘exactly

conceal the truth. For them, and for the additional
t regime-can be forced to change its trade-destroying
austerity. Once again, the Canadian people are being
his time, with socialism on the march throughout the
private eiiterprise” if people deprived of their right to a
New Democracies where unemployment

first of a series of articles starting on Monday this week,
ity,” The series, written by a propaganda agent for a
U.S. state department, is designed to
yment insurance, life in the Soviet Union

Mostorg offer for sale?
Tt boasts that you can buy
anything from a “needle to a
motorcycle or from a doo!
Jock toa piano,” and the clah
isjustifiel = =.
Here is just a partial list

, silver platters and

Pianos, typewriters, all types
of musical instruments, knitted _

goods, babies’ layettes, girdles _

and brassieres, towels and lin-
ens, baby carriages, hobby
horses, children’s table sete,

_ Fayon and nylon stockings,

(furs, oriental rugs, luggage,
— ie