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‘LABOR EXPECTED TO TAKE

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FIRM FOREIGN POLICY STAND

| ‘Pages

| TRIBUNE

VYol.i. No. 32.

Five Cents

Vancouver, British Columbia, Friday, September 20, 1945
Formerly PACIFIC ADVOCATE =

Farm strike wins wide

support for

demands

EDMONTON—The farmer’s strike has swept through |
the agricultural districts of this province with force that is
reminiscent of the sweeping labor strike movements of the
years immediately following World War One.

Six days after the strike call was
issued by the Central Strike Com-
mittee of the Alberta Farmers’
Union to its 20,000 membership, it
is now estimated that an over-
whelming majority of the proy-
ince’s farmers are involved. The
prairie trade unions are swinging
into action. Peopie’s organizations
are rallying their support.

In staccato-like- reports from
every corner of the province, a
partial picture of what is taking
place is revealed.

@ The Calgary Trades and Labor
Council, speaking on behalf of Cal-
@arys workers organized in AFL
unions, has pledged their support
to the farmers’ demands.

@ In Edmonton The Brotherhood
ef Locomotive Firemen and En-
BZinemen has demanded that the
King government act immediately
on setting up a fact-finding board
to establish parity prices for farm
produce.

@® The International Woodwork-
ers of America, which 2a few
months ago fought a bitter strike
On the Pacific coast, has wired
Srectines to Alberta farmers on

behalf of its seven thousand
membership.
@ From the Lakehead comes

word that the Fort William Trades
and iabor Council has pledged
their support and has requested
the federal government to act im-
mediately. on’ the farmers’ demands.

From over the international

border, Nebraska farmers have
sent word of their solidarity with
their Canadian brothers and have
informed them that preparations
are under way for a non-delivery
Strike in that state.

Word comes from Saskatchewan
that the Saskatchewan Federation
of Labor (CCL) is backing the
movement.

(Continued on Page 8)
Ses FARM STRIKE

The Congress delegates w

will enjoy the status of an

Longshoremen
win 18¢ boost

Longshoremen in Wancou-
ver, New Westminster and
Port Alberni, members of the
International Longshoremen’s
and Warehousemen’s Union;
will receive increases totalling 18
cents an hour—i15 cents straight
wage increase and three cents
holiday pay—as the result of the
National War Labor Board’s ap-
proval this week of a joint ap-
plication from the union and the
Shipping Federation of B.C.

For dock workers the total in-
crease is 22 cents an hour. Under
the new agreement both ship
and deck workers will receive the
Same basic rate of $1.25 an hour,
eliminating the previous ~ four-
cent differential between the’ two
eategories whereby ship workers
were paid $1.10 and dock workrs
$1.06 an hour.

Other gains won by the long-
Shoremen include an extension of
the list of goods for handling
which a commodity bonus of 10
cents an hour is paid.

Eid. Winnerlowe, TLWU_ inter-
national representative, reported
this week that his union hoped
to obtain a similar wage increase
for warehousemen who are now
negotiating with employers for a
new agreement.

WINDSOR, Ont.—The big issue facing the more than 900 delegates to the
Sixty-first dominion convention of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada
which opened in the Windsor armories on Thursday, is that of the independence
and autonomous rights of the Congress as against the William Green dictatorship. -

ill have to face up to the issue of whether that body

independent Canadian trade union center, enjoying
close fraternal relationships with the United States (AFL),
er whether it is to bow to intimidation, coercion and dictator
ship from a small clique of the most reactionary AFI. union
bosses in the United States.

Six strongly werded resolutions
before the congress convention de-
mand that the Trades and Labor
Congress affirm its independent
status, in no uncertain terms. The
resolutions support the stand of
President Percy Bengough in his
refusal to expel the International
Association of Machinist UWnions
from the congress on the order of
President Green of the AHI. The
issue of the autonomy of the con-

eress will be fought out on this
“dictatorship” order.

Scores of delegates here stress
the fact that the expulsion order
of Green must be emphatically re-
jected and the independent Status
of the congress mads thoroughly.
clear cut at this time, a time when,
they say, no effort must be spared
to accomplish a reapproachment
for greater unity among Canadian
organized workers.

That a fight can be expected can
‘be seen from the fact that on the
scene here is a small clique of hire-
lings of Green and his close associ-
ates, and it is being openly stated
that they have spent several days
planning; convention disruptions
with the full support of Green.

Besides those resolutions on the
autonomy issue the delegates will
vote on resolutions ranging from
atomic energy to the World Feder-
ation of Trade Unions.

Several resolutions demand ac-
tion by the Trades and Labor
Congress to line up “with the
scientists who urge that the
atomic bomb be placed in the con-
trol of the UN Security Council,
and that atomic energy be utilized
for the benefit of the people and
peace.”

A strongly critical resolution on
the espionage commission demands
that the federal government estab-

(Continued on Page 8)
See CONGRESS

WILLIAM GREEN

Churchill to become war base

OTTAWA.— Despite Prime Minister King’s assertion that his government’s various military undertak-

ings in the Arctic have no

mental station is to be established at Churchill stil
form the North into.a base for offensive operation

-As with ‘Operation Muskox’
and “Operation North,’ officials
of the department of nation-
al defense claim that this new
undertaking is “aimed at no one,”
but in face of the government’s
anti-Soviet attitude and the con-\
tinued trend of its foreign policy
it is quite clear against whom it
is aimed.

ob
la
Ss.

“sinister significance,”

servers here see in the disclosure that a large experi-
nother part of the Canadian-American plan to trans-

the Japanese threat to Alaska in
1942, successive Canadian govern-
ments displayed little interest in
their Arctic territories. Routine
patrols were undertaken and
RCMPolice posts established to as-
sert Canada’s sovereignty, but all
proposals for development were
ignored or dismissed as the dream
of visionaries.

For 25 years after the Soviet
government came to power, until

Senator Claude Pepper and Secretary of Commerce
Henry A. Wallace, whose New York speeches last week

Precipitated a crisis in the

WS. foreign policy. (See editorial on page 4.)

Truman administration on

Although the Soviet Union, in
‘those same years, was engaged in
the systematic development of its
Aretic regions the King govern-
ment saw no “threat” to Canada in
that development and no ‘“‘defense”
measures were taken.

Now, suddenly, the Arctic must
be defended. Experimental stations
are being established, air fields
constructed, expeditions sent into
the field to test military equipment
under cold-weather conditions, all
in feverish haste. It is no coinci-
dence that this new—and sinister
—interest in the Arctic stems from
the discovery of the atom bomb,
the development of rocket projec-
tiles, which have at once removed
the Arctic wastes as a barrier and
opened upia new avenue of attack
upon the Soviet Union to replace
avenues lost elsewhere.

The people of Manitoba and Sas-
katchewan fought for years for de—
velopment of Churchill as their
own inland port—the short route to
Europe. And for political reasons
governments spent large sums on
the port and then failed to make
anything like full use of the ex-
pensive facilities created. Power-
(Continued on Page 8)

= RUA Mec Te

IWA adopts policy statement

Highlight of the International Woodworkers of America
convention in Portland, Ore., last week was adoption by roll
call vote of a statement of policy, described by Harold Pritchett,
president of the IWA’s B.C. district and one of 54 B.C. delegates
attending the convention as “an important labor document
which can well serve as a guide to all trade unionists.”

x

Following is the text of the statement: -

WHEREAS: The enemies of 2 democratic and just peace
throughout the world, the kind of a peace that would guarantee
freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of expression
and all the things that go to make a peaceful and better
world in which to live, have initiated a campaign of hatred,
red baiting, jew baiting and every means to divide the common
people in their struggle for freedom, and

WHEREAS: It is the policy of the national CIO to or
fanize all workers into unions, irrespective of race, color,
creed, national origin, or their personal beliefs. The enemies of

labor are Laas, striving to divide labor within itself,
diverting thé attention of the membership away from the ac-

tivities of the monopoly employer groups. It is to the best im-
terest of our membership that we remove all issues that will
give comfort to, justify or make possible for anyone to carry

on a Campaign of disruption or destruction of our union
through the use of any kind of labor baiting:

THEREFORE: This tenth annual convention of the TWA
adopts this as a statement of policy to guide our membership
“Ours is a democratic organization. It is rm by its members
and for its members. We ask no man his national origin, his
color, his religion or his political beliefs. It is enough for us
that he is a woodworker and that he believes in trade unionism.”

See CHURCHILL

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