2 Succ The PEOPLE bia. Subscription Rates: Phone MA 6929 5 Published every Saturday by Pany, Room 104, Shelly Building, 119 West Pender Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Printers Ltd., 151 East 8th Ave., Vancouver British Colum- One year $2.00, six months $1.00. Editor the People Publishing Com- HAL AREEIN and printed at Broadway @ Associate Editor A. C. CAMPBELL “ccc May Day --- 1944 M*Y DAY this year comes as the Red Army thunders at the prison gates of Hitler’s Europe and the great bombing fleets of Britain and the United States rain destruction on the cities that Goering once boasted would never know the horrors the Luftwaffe visited on Bri- tish and Soviet soil. And in the ports of Britain is being massed the great armada that soon will carry the Allied forces to storm the contin- ent. Never have the working people, carrying the proud traditions of the past along the yvoad to the future, celebrated a May Day so pregnant with possibilities, so full of hope. It is therefore all the more surprising to find the CCF News expressing the-view that May Day, “for more than fifty years celebrat- ed all over the world as workers’ day, will this year lack much of its color and vitality.” What does the CCF News mean? The labor move- ment in Canada and other Allied countries in these years of unrelenting war against fascism has drawn to itself a strength and influenec greater than it ever possessed. Measuring its task of uniting the people, it has risen to its responsibilities equally in the dark days when the struggle was for national preservation and in these ‘brighter days when the victories of Allied arms have created the conditions for the utter destruction of Hitlerism. And because of its greater strength, it can now come forward as the decisive force in shaping the new world. This June, in London, the representatives of the great labor organizations of the United Na- tions, will meet to discuss their common prob- lems in war and peace. Does any one suggest that from this conference, the calling .of which in itself reflects the great changes that have taken place in the labor movement, there will not come decisions destined to have a profound effect on the shape of things to come, upon the peace and postwar reconstruction. Where, then, is this lack of vitality of which the CCF News speaks, except in the leadership of the CCF itself which rants against the very unity it urges upon the working people, choos- ing instead to raise divisive issues to obstruct unity and retard the advance that can be made? Labor’s new strength and vitality will be demonstrated this May Day. The question is how it shall be used, whether it shall be divided and weakened by the cynicism of the CCF leadership that dismisses the Teheran Declar- ation as a vague and meaningless document or whether it shall be united in the struggle to realize the promise of this most significant doc- ument of our times. And the answer to that question lies in the extent to which we of the labor movement succeéd in uniting to influence and guide our own affairs on a local, provin- cial and national scale. This is our task. It is a task we share with our men in the armed forces who are fighting side by side with the armed forces of our allies in a common cause. It is the task we share with the peoples of the occupied countries who, isolating from their ranks those who seek to create division and disunity for partisan ends, have found a new strength in unity. The Teheran Declara- tion, itself the product of the greatest struggle of all time, reflects the aspirations for which that struggle is being fought. To those who are fighting that struggle then, on the battlefields and in the darkened streets of occupied cities, we owe it to unite our strength around a common program that it may merge with theirs in accomplishing the building of the better world made possible by the Teheran agreement. A N editorial slip was responsible for the statement in our last issue: “The present clothing allowance of $65 a month is inade- quate and many organizations have voiced the cemand that this be increased to $125 a month and asked that mustering out Srants of one month’s pay and allowances for each six months’ service be paid.” Several readers have drawn it to our attention. It should, of course, have read: “The present clothing allowance of $65 is inadequate . . . increased to GI25 ee 52 declared last week BRITAIN After 25 Years FTER a struggle lasting over 25 years, the Ford Motor Com- pany has. given official recognition +o trade union organization in its British factories. The terms of the agreement, revealed in a joint statement by the Ford Imanage- ment and the wvnions involved, provide for establishment of a la- bor-management negotiating com- mittee which will continue as 2 consultative body. Labor representatives of the committee are Sir Walter Citrine, secretary, Trades Union Cengress; Arthur Deakin, secretary, Trans- port and General Workers Union, H. N. Harrison, national industrial officer, National Union of General and Municipal Workers, and J. R. Scott, member of the executive board of the Amalgamated Engin- eering Union. The agreement will run for a minimum of two years. _@ Ready for Invasion OLUNTEERS from the British Fire Brigades Union are now undergoing commando training in various camps in preparation for action on the western front. The only civilian contingents accompanying the invasion forces, they will be accompanied by their Own Officers. Supreme control, however, will rest with the army fire service command, John Horn- er, FBU secretary, explained this week. “We have advocated this scheme for 18 months,’ he said, adding that thousands of FBU members had already volunteered. Volun- teers retain their civilian status, and those in training haye already instituted their own union com- mittees. Two Points ORKERS in war production factories throughout Britain are holding special meetings to discuss the. new anti-strike legis- lation, decreed by the government in an effort to curb wildcat strikes. Under the new regulations, any- one who advocates or incites strikes or loeckouts which inter- fere with essential services——un- less he does so at an authorized union meeting—is now liable to five years of penal servitude, 500 pounds ($2,000) fine, or both. The wildcat strikes: which reach- ed their peak in March, were largely fomented, according to government spokesmen, by “mem- bers of the Fourth International (Trotskyites) and other outside agitators.” While British workers emphatic- ally uphold the no-strike pledge of the Trades Union Congress, and while the regulations were im- posed after consultation with the TUC as well as the British Em- ployers’ Confederation, uneasiness is being expressed over two points. @ First, it is felt that the regu- lations may prevent free dis- cussion in plant meetings called by shop stewards. These meetings are regularly held in order to dispose of grievances quickly. © Second, it is wondered what the government Proposes to do to deal effectively with pro- vocative Employers. Ken White, secretary of the Engineering and Allied Trades Shop Stewards’ National Council, that on in- numerable occasions shop stew- ards have prevented Strike action through their workshop meetings. “We say the shop stewards “must be recognized as trade union Officials,” White Said, add- ing that the anti-strike legisla- tion should not apply to any meeting of workers called by authorized shop stewards. White criticized the governments re- the fusal to amend Essential Work Order to prevent. ers from violating the | demanded by the TUG: ! The most effective wax vent strikes in war mdust -asserted, is for the gover deal firmly with provocaj agements, grant full tre shep stewards to eall when grievances arise, 2 up negotiations for the s of trade union disputes, LATIN” AMERIC/ ‘Fertilizer’ For Spain Pees by the Spany tien at Montevideo Chilean nitrates, trans} this port to Spanish ship: ing forwarded te Geri been sharply countere; General Union of Worker guay (UGT). - . In its denial, which disclosures by Allied Tal that the nitrate was bein the Nazis by Spain, the declared that the nitrate TORN FROM iTS