As
Labor

Sees
It

By C. A. Saunders

A Merry Christmas to all my
readers, and when I say
Merry Christmas I mean Merry
Christmas, even in the midst of
a war torn world, even in a Can-
ada where cliques in privileged
positions are trying to render
abortive all the workers, in uni-
form and out, have sacrificed and
struggled for through four long,
weary years.

This can be a Merry Christmas
in spite of the war, in spite of
30,000,000 soldiers and civilians
dead in Russia, in spite of
thousands of our own country-
men who have died in the moun-
tains of Sicily and Italy.

Tt can be a happy Christmas,
beeause victory is in sight.

But what of Christmas next
year and in the years to
come. Will it be equally joyous?
That depends on our attitude as
a people towards the war and
eur war objectives on this Christ-
mas 1943. It depends on whether
our aim is to defeat Germany
and Japan in a military sense
only, or whether our sincere and
consecrated purpose is to destroy
Germany, Japan and their sat-
telites as fascist powers, because
they represent fascism every-
where and in defeating them we
Wipe fascism from the face of
the earth.
With fascism destroyed and a
vigilant people prepared to up-
root its new growth wherever it

appears, future Christmases can

bring the best -gifts the world
has ever had. Not gifts of the
Magi, emanating from mysterious
Sources, without substance and
Satisfaction, but gifts that are the
product of the hands and brains
ef the workers and soldiers;
Solid, satisfying gifts, durable as
the new world we hope to build.
There will be no more need of
soliciting alms for indigents and
peor, No more packing hampers
for unemployed. No more that
hollow sham of offering one
happy day in exchange for three
hundred and sixty-four of misery.

Qur shipyards and war indus-
tries will not be closed to throw

- hundreds of thousands upon the

streets, back to the relief rolls
and an existence of semi-starva-
tion. We will not have the
shame of seeing returned men
begging on the streets, selling
bootlaces.

Tee sacrifices of the past four
years are bearing fruit. The
arch enemies of all humanity are
going down to defeat, and with
them must go all the reactionary
and defeatest forces, all who
would drag the world back
through the stench of the rotting
and decaying past.

The hope for the future lies in
the strength of the people, nour-
ished through years of toil and
struggle, fertilized with their
sweat and blood, a strength, that
with sure aim and purpose, must
Stand an insurmountable barrier
in the path of reactionary forces.

Next year must be a year of
struggle, of endeavor to unite our
forces, to bury all differences
which stand in the way. If we are
successful, then Christmas 1944
will indeed be a Merry Christ-
mas.

Continued

——_—

Burnaby

ficial (CE endorsation when
he first denied and then ac-
knowledged having applied
for ©CE membership during
the election campaign after

the CCF had withdrawn its ~

nomination from Hatherly.

“There is no doubt that the
CCF leadership’s opposition
to united action, even to the
extent of repudiating two of
its own candidates, forcing
them to break with the CCF,
and transferring a candidate
from Ward 4 to Ward 7 in an
effort to defeat me, had an
effect on the campaign,”
Councillor-elect Harry Ball
told The People this week.

“The CCF leadership was
only partly successful in its
efforts to disrupt the unity
already achieved because
CCF supporters ensured my
election in Ward 7 and to a
lesser extent gave their votes
to Wilson in Ward 4. On the
other hand, the CCF elected
only one of its three council
candidates and one of its two
eandidates for school board
when, by officially entering
into the unity campaign, CCF,
LPP and Independent and
Labor candidates could have
won every municipal office.”

Harry Ball, a locomotive
fireman on the CNR, is a
member of the Brotherhood
of Locomotive Firemen and
Engineers: He formerly re-
sided at Smithers, B.C., and
Jasper, Alberta.

Vote Won
By MMSW

SUDBURY, Ont. — Mem-
bers of the Mine, Mill and
Smelter Workers Union,
Local 598, here, have scored
two victories within the last
few days. Late last week an
Ontario labor court vote
among approximately 10,000
employees of International Nich-
ol to determine whether the un-
ion should represent them in col-
lective bargaining gaye a clear
majority to Local 598. Early this
week in a second labor court
vote workers in the nearby Fal-
conbridge. Nickel Company vot-
ed 765 for the union to 191 for
the Falconbridge Workers Coun-
cil.

At Inco the MM&SW polled
6913 votes, 78.4 percent of the
8814 votes-cast. The United Cop-

per, Nickel Workers, the com-
pany “independent” organization
received 1187 votes. A total of

675 votes were cast for neither
union and there were 30 spoiled
ballots.

When the registrar has report-
ed the result of the vote to the
labor court it will be considered
as part of the evidence in the
Smelter Workers application for
certification.

Robert Carlin, MPP, in a state-
ment, said the union “looks for-
ward to the day when their ne-
gotiating committee will be call-
ed in... to sign their first real
union contract.”

J. 3B. Salsberg,
wired Carlin: “The overwhelm-
ing majority for local 598 con-
stitutes one of the outstanding
events in the life of Canadian
labor.”

LPP, MPP,

Corporatist
Rule In
Montreal!

MONTREAL. — Stating
that it is “becoming increas-
ingly evident that the King
administration has no inten-
tion of giving the workers
anything, and that the Ot-
tawa administration has been
seized by vested financial in-

terests,” Jean Pare, business
agent of Lodge 712, International
Association of Machinists, urged
delegates to the Montreal Trades
and Labor Council’s meeting last
week “to establish a Committee
For Political Action in’ accor-
dance with the recommendations
and resolutions passed at the last
convention of the Trades and
Labor Congress of Canada.”

Pare told delegates, “We are
facing a calamity unless definite
plans are made, and we must rea-
lize that management is no lon-
ger thinking in terms of war pro-
duction, but in terms of profit-
able post-war business adven-
tures and low wages.”

“I am not urging the estab-
lishment of another political par-
ty,” he insisted, but rather a
Trade Union committee for in-
dependent political action which
will draw up a program design-
ed to suit labor's immediate
needs; and labor should extract
a pledge to such a program
from any political aspirant be-
fore according that aspirant any
support in the forthcoming elec-
tions.”

The motion was enthusiastic-
ally accepted and referred to
the executive for study.

Repercussions of the police and
firemen’s strike, together with
the housing erisis and the par-
alysis of Montreal’s civic admini-
tration were heard in the council
discussion. Paul Fournier, presi-
dent, stated that “the interna-
tional (AFL) unions are 100 per-
cent behind the action of the
civic workers. These men were
absolutely fed up.”

He said:

“They were forced into tak-
ing the only action left them
after months of delay, contempt,
and inaction on the part of civic
and provincial authorities who
refused to accept the majority
report of a provincial board of
arbitration which recommended
recognition of the CCL associa-
tions. It is time that the govern-
ment stopped playing with the
needs of our people and got down
to a constructive understanding
of their problems.”

Robert Haddow revealed that
both he and Councillor Michael
Buhay had attempted to bring
in a motion at the City Council
urging recognition of the muni-
cipal unions, but had been un-
able to get the floor because
“it is not a democratic city coun-
cil but a corporatist set-up de-
signed to stifle any expression
of the dissatisfaction felt by citi-
zens with the manner in which
their affairs are being admin-
istered.”

Season s

Continued

freeze inequalities in pay with
enly vague promises to “review,”
and to establish a six-man War
Labor Board with but one labor
representative.

The Prime Minister’s order
further announces stiff fines and
jail sentences for workers forced
to strike by unscrupulous em-
ployers, :

The Trades Congress state-
ment castigates the clause in the
order which permits employers
to pay starvation wages on the
excuse that they could not pay.
decent wages without
prices. The statement declares:

“It is the serewiest line of
reasoning as to why justice and
equality should be forgotten that
we have heard of. There are a
number of other reasons why
Wages might be increased even
in wartime, such as workers par-
ticipating in the benefits derived
from lower production costs, but
no provision is made or allowed
for any increase in wages out-
side of where they are grossly
unjust, or grossly unequal, and
these can only be adjusted if it
doesn’t cost anything.”

“There is no question that the
new wartime wages control, 1943,
is a far greater infringement on
the liberties of the people than
any of its predecessors,” the Con-
gress declares. “In fact it is a
Straitjacket for labor” and “an
absolute disregard of the basic
principle of British law that one
is innocent until proved guilty.”

“There is no question that we
do not desire and will do every-
thing possible to avcid strikes in
wartime. We have to maintain
production and deliver the sup-
plies to those fighting on our be-
half for freedom and democarcy,
otherwise they cannot win and
then we all lose.

“However, to say the least, it
is hard to harmonize what we
are waging a war to protect with
what is being imposed upon us.”

Continued

Shipyard.

Each local is being asked to
send five delegates to the con-
ference, where they. will discuss
preliminary plans and report
back to their various member-
ships. Following their report
a referendum yote will be taken
in each local on affiliation to
the federation. Calls to the con-
ference, to be held in the Holden
Building here, have been sent to
union locals, including three
Boilermaker locals in Vancouver,
Victoria and Prince Rupert, two
Dock and Shipyard Workers Un-
ion locals in Vancouver and Vic-
toria, two Machinist locals in
Victoria and Prince Rupert and
locals of the National Union of
Operating Engineers and Black-=
smiths Union in Vancouver.

(7
John Stanton
Barrister, Solicitor, Notary

503 Holden Bldg.
16 E. Hastings St. MAr. 5746
4)

Greetings

from the

Finnish V Club

DEMOCRATIC LEAGUE

FINNISH-CANADIAN

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