_ Daily Press Keeps Silent On
_ Shipowners’ Attack On Citizens

By AL PARKIN

*

Searhces OEY

. machine hammer,

Qne of the biggest news stosies in-vecent weeks has
The event occurred last Saturday, and despite the
vital part in the reported near-setflement of the Great

the news services or local dailies carried more than a dist

SOurces.

The authentic behind-the-head-
junes story is as follows:

* When Great Lakes seamen
struck for the eight-hour day, al-
most everyone in the St Law
ence river port town of Cornwall
was in sympathy. So strong was
strike sentiment that restaurant
owners turned their eating places
into strike canteens, while hotel
men gave free accommodation.

This situation was definitely
mot pleasing to the big shipping
companies. Anyhow, through cer-
tain agencies and by the usual
methods, a gang of some ‘7Q
thugs, scourings of the Montreal
underworld, were loaded into four
trucks and sent rolling out of
Montreal on the evening of June
i-bound for Cornwall. Each thug
was armed with an iron bar or
and each was
armed also with instructions to
get into Cornwall and provoke a
fight with strikers. And it was
understood that if—in the ensu-
ing melee—any restaurants and
stores helping the strikers were to
be smashed, then that was all to
the good. ¢ :

But Cornwall police had already
been tipped off) They in turn
sought the assistance of the Ca-
nadian Seamen’s Union, which re-
cruited a force of about 100 strik-
ers, most of them ex-servicemen.
And when the truckloads of thugs
entered the city limits, they were
stopped, and in the ensuing
struggle, which raged for two
hours, three strikebreakers were
eritically injured, several more
hospitalized, four were arrested
and the remainder chased out of
town. No strikers or police were
hurt.

But here’s the payoff. When it
was all over, Cornwall’s Police
Chief Hawkshaw told the press
he kad obtained Signed state-
ments from some of the hood-
lums declaring they had been
hired in Montreal by a well
known detective agency, paid ten
dollars, and told te proceed to
Cornwall to wreck business prem-
ises and dwellings accommodating
strikers. ‘

“if it hadn’t been for the as-
sistance rendered our police force
by the Canadian Seamen’s Union,”
the Chief Constable declared, “we

could not have been able to
avoid serious injuries to many
citizens, possible fatalities, and

certain destruction of thousands

of dollars. worth of public prop- |:

erty.”

Meanwhile, Cornwall city auth-
erities placed the matter before
Sovernment legal authorities, and
the resultant public indignation
that swept that part of Ontario

just reached me through labor

fact that it is now playing a

Lakes Seamen’s strike, none of
orted hint of what happened.

a

LL

:
|
:
2

Ship Workers Gear
Up For Wage Drive

ITT

Garry Culhane, secretary of the B.C. Shipyards Federa-
tion, and Tony Beck, chief shop steward at the North Van-
couver Ship Repair, have just returned from a coast-to-coast

So embarrased both the ship-
Owners and the federal govern-

men,t that it forced them to de-
remaining
Shipping and stop further strike

cide to tie up ail

breaking,

Well, that’s the story. And the
a

question now is — when is
news story not a news story so
far as the commercial press is
concerned? From a labor point
of view, the probable answer is
Ze news is good for public
distribution when it exposes too

Sharply this or that section of

Big Business. And perhaps those

Subscribers of strike-bound daily.

newspapers sre not missing very
Mauch in the way of authentic
news at that.

Since the above events a war-

the
‘Cap-
Corn-
on the grounds
against

Tant has been
arrest of the
tain’ McMaster,
wall authorities,
of organizing violence
Cornwall citizens.

=H ADL

issued for
§oon-squad
by the

Crack Down
On Racism

It has been reported that the
Management of a number of ho-
tels in Vancouver have been dis-
playing a contemptible form of
racial discrimination in the pub-
lic relations. These hotels, of
which a good deal of evidence is
available, are not thé posh class,
but comprise some of those
who boast of catering to union
and working men.

A few days ago the manager
of one of these houses would not
permit a young negro worker to
Wait in the rotunda to keep an
important appointment with one
of the hotel guests. Both men
suffered unnecessary embarrass-
ment at the stupid action of the
ignorant manager In another ho-
tel two Canadians,
lish origin and the other Past
Indian, went into the parlor to
have a glass of beer. The flunkey
told them it was not the policy
of the house to serve “colored”
people. They had to leave to
avoid creating a scene in the beer
parlor,

if some of these hotels insist
on practicing this race discrimin-
ation in Vancouver they may wake
up one morning to find a picket
line which will give them the
brand of publicity they so richly

Geserve.

The workers of the Anaconda American Co. at New Tor-

Tonto strike for wage increases,

the 40-hour week and

union security, under the leadership of Local 811 of the
international Union, Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE THREE

one of Eng-—

week and union security.

Instead of rolling logs, several thousand B.C.
Sawmill workers will “roll” to the provincial capital this
week in one of the greatest treks in B.C. labor history,
to back up negotiations for wage increases, the 40-hour

While in Halifax they attended

tour of Canada’s shipbuilding industry.

loggers and

LPP Convention Charts
New Struggle For Peace

By MAURICE RUSH

The Second National Convention of the Labor-Progres-

sive Party, meeting in Toronto June 1 to 5, was an historic
gathering for Canadian labor. From every corner of our
far-Hung country delegates came to take part in five days

of intensive deliberations to

perspectives for the labor and

The most important achieye—
ment of the convention was that
it marked the complete turn from

djabor’s wartime policies to new
postwar policies which will en-
able the working class and its

allies to meet the new conditions
ereated by the end of the war.

in a masterful keynote address,
the national leader of the LPP,
Tim Buck, outlined the job that
lies ahead. The main resolution
and keynote address placed heavy
emphasis on the serious interna-
tional situation. The imperialist
drive for a third world war is
gaining ground and the convyen-

tion warned the. Canadian people

that ‘Canada is once again in
danger!” The LPP dedicated it-
self at this convention to redouble
its efforts to halt the warmong-
ers by nationwide action to unite
the people for a sane peace pol-
icy as against the present suicidal
policy being pursued by the King
government.

The King government’s domes-
tie policies came under sharp fire
from the delegates. Canadian big
business circles are being’ aided
by King to develop an inflation-
ary period in order to amass
large profits while allowing prices
to rise and keep wages frozen
te their present low levels. The
lifting of price controls was sharp-
ly condemned by the convention
as being part of the drive of big
business against the living stan-
dards of the people and the dele
gates pledged themselves to rally
the support of the Canadian peo-
ple for the maintenance of price
controls. King’s labor policies
Came under sharp fire. The fail-
ure to introduce labor legislation
to meet present-day needs was
roundly criticized. The convention

viewed with serious alarm the
growing trend towards reaction
in Canada. This was brought
home sharply by the arrest of

the United States Communist

work out the program and
progressive movement,
x

leader, William 2%. Foster on the
morning he as to address the
convention. This action was Symp-—
tomatic of the growing reaction-
ary policies of the federal gov-
ernment and fits into the pat=

tern of de-
velopments of

recent months,
the spy scare,
Secret orders-
™-council,

the Canadian

people to

Maurice Rush Stand on
Buard for

their civil liberties and rights:
in his keynote address Buck

Stated that the position of the
King government on the major
issues of foreign and domestic
policy was identical te that of
the tories. It must now become

clear to progressive Canadians
that a new people’s movement
must come into being ‘which
could unite and rally the ma-
jority of people in the struggle
for peace and security. Only a

people’s coalition based on labor-
farmer unity can win the peace
for Canada and present an alter-
native to the old-line capitalist
parties.

The convention viewed the
Strike struggles now going on as
the spearhead of the people’s
fight against monopoly capital,
and pledged full support to the
lumberworkers, seamen and tex-
tile workers’ strikes after hear-
ing reports by delegates direct
from the picket lines on these
industries. The convention ap-
pealed to the entire membership
of the LPP to leave no stone
unturned to help labor win the

fight for higher wages, shorter

the Maritime Labor Institute at
Dalhousie University, where they
met with delegates and trade
union leaders of the CCl and
AFL in the maritimes. Assisted
by AFI. unions the B.C. shipyard
leaders were able to address 2000
workers of the Halifax yards.
In Lauson and Montreal, Que-
bec, they met with scores of ship-
yard workers and local leaders
who evinced a keen interest in
‘the work of the B.C. Federation,
and the problems of national fed-
eration. Similarly in Toronto and
at the head of the lakes, Culhane
and Beck met with union of-
ficials and members and discus-
sed problems of mutual interest
toe all shipyard workers, :
Culhane spent scSne time with
the striking seamen of the Great
Lakes and expressd enthusiastic
admiration for the splendid
struggle the seamen are conduct-
ing to establish the 8hour day on
Canadian ships.
“Wherever you go, right
across the country,” said the
Shipyard Federation leader,
“Canadian workers are gearing
up to lead the struggle for de-
cent living standards: In Nova

Scotia—coal, steel, and ship-
building; in Quebec — lumber,
textile, steel and shipbuilding:

in Ontario, steel, auto, electri-
cal, and lumber, all are movy-
ing: into action in the national
wage drive.’

Culhane and Beck are both con-
fident that the perspective for
the building of a national ship-
yard federation of all workers in
Canadian shipyards is one that
holds great promise. Workers in
the Maritimes, Quebec and On-
tario are intensly interested in
the progress made in B.C.

SSL TATA T=

: Island M P
Slanders IWA

J. Gibson, MP. for Comox-Al-
berni, rose in the recent House
of Commons discussion on the
IWA strike to defend the inter-
ests of the boss loggers. He ar-
Sued that wages in the lumber
industry had increased 57 per-
cent during the war and ws a re-
sult the cost of producing 1000
feet of lumber had increased by
107 percent.

He joined with his tory col--
leagues in launching a tirade
against the leadership of the TWA,
paroting the CMA charges, that
if there was a democratic vote
in the union the loggers would
have accepted the first Sloan re—
commendations. He accused the
IWA leadership of strong-arm
tactics against such a vote.

Gibson cited a wage rate of
$18 per day in the Queen Char-
lotte Islands as being the cur-
rent rate of pay for loggers?
He warned against the govern-
ment taking over the box fac-
tories, as it might be “a trap”
prepared by the union leadership
to create dissension between the
government and the workers?
Tory M.P. Gibson’s tirade was in
keeping with the full program
of the CMA and the boss los
gers—to foment attacks against
the leadership of the TWA. Dur-
ing his election campaign in CGo-
mox-Alberni, Gibson posed as
“a friend of labor.” His “friend_
ship” is now being seen at its
real face value.

hours and union security. At the
Same time the convention called
upon all citizens to recognize in
these struggles the fight for their
Own security and to unite their
ranks behind the strikers.

One of the most important
tasks set by the convention was
that of bringing 10,000 new mem-
bers into the ranks of the LPP.
In his opening speech Tim Buck
called upon thousands of work-
to join our ranks and help the
LPP in its fight for peace and
security.

FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1946