try, and what was more, in-
tended to get it

The strike movement which
followed in this province led all
Canada, with the lumberworkers
of B.C. winning the highest
gains, an annual wage gain in
the lumber industry of six
Million dollars, or an average of
si7710 annually for each ~wood-
worker.

That increase, which broke
the Mitchell-Gordon formula,
Was more than big business or
the government was prepared to
give, and focussed national
attention on the King govern-
ment’s obsolete labor legislation,
emphasizing the need for a new
Jabor policy. The achievements
of the strike movement in BC;
were outstanding, with over
60,000 workers getting an in-
Crease of 15 cents an hour oF
better.

Lessons of the Strikes

| eee strike movement indicat-
ed a number of important

Jessons.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE il

The first lesson was the need
to realize that relations be-
tween employers and employees
have changed with the ending of
the war. The days of labor
management committees are
gone, and the big capitalists aré
eut to drive living standards
down and smash the trade
unions in order to lead Canada
along the road to reaction and

war.

During the early stages of the
lumberworkers” strike, there was
a dangerous illusion of a quick
and easy victory, that the de-
mands would be won by nego-
tiations alone. The result was
that the strike leadership was
considerably weakened and its
organization suffered from a
lack of adequate preparation.

The second great lesson of the
strike movement was the need
for closer coordination of labor’s

wage drive.

One of the big factors in pro-
moting disunity and under-
cutting the wage objectives of
the workers was the policy of
many CCF trade union leaders.

The leadership of GC. HL Millard,
Canadian directer of the United
Steelwerkers of America, weal
ened the wage fight by agreeing
with the King Severnment to
accept a maximum wage in-
crease of 410 cents an hour last
Summer, and by keeping the de
cisive steel union out of the
initial stages of the wage move-
ment until the Membership de
manded and eventually forced
action.

Such reformist policies, aris-
ing from a fear of labor, from
flagrant opportunism, and from
the refusal of social democracy
to see the real political implica-
tions of the strike struggle,
gives us an object lesson in how
leftist phrase-mongering can
mask the most outrageous be-
trayals. The attitude of these
€CF trade union leaders is 4
classical example of the contra-

dictions between words and
deeds that characterize social
democracy.

The third lesson was the need
for new tactics, the need fOr
winning allies among veterans,
farmers and professional and
Small business People who all
Stand to gain from higher liv-
ing standards, full employment
and ‘increased prosperity.

Organized labors relations
with the farmers must be
Strengthened. Both are fight-
ing the same moncpolists and
have & cOmmon interest. Con-
tinued failure of JIabor to
cement closer ties with the
farmers will, only make it
Possible for reactionary forces
to use them against labor.

The fourth important lesson

was the need for independent
political action.

In this connection, the main
decisions of the ‘Trades and
Labor Congress of Canada, as
well as the Canadian Congres
of Labor, provide a program
which, if carried through, can
lead ~ to achievernents of the
people’s coalition in the struggle
for immediate needs and event
vally to election of a majority
te form such a coalition in the
municipalities, the provincial
legislature, and the House of
Commons.

The narrow, partisan CCE
policy which led to the disarm-
ing of the CCL as a political
force is not one that can be
overlooked or evaded, becajise
it has _ obstructed full involve-
ment of the unions in political
struggles and hindered the
achievement of electoral victor-
ies for labor, Specifically the
gaining of government power in
B.C.

The trade movement
must develop a struggle for a
policy that will lead to the
maximum of united labor pol-
itical action, a struggle that will
ereate conditions for a broad
people’s coalition as against the
stultifying policy of social dem-
ceracy which plays into the
hands of the monopolists, blunt-
ng and minimizing labor’s in-
dependent political role.

union

Labor-Farmer Unity

[OCeteeR with the labor
“movement and other forward-
looking sections of the people,
the farm movement *has a tre-
mendous role to play in the bat-
tle against monopoly and for
the maintenance of peace. The
fighting spirit and organizing’
zeal of prairie farmers in their
recent non-delivery strike dem-
onstrated most impressively the
ereat strength that farm men

and women have to Bive to the
Mass struggies of the people.

Floors under farm prices at
levels comparable with the goods
farmers have to buy, improved
marketing facilities, government
assistance to extend irrigation
and revision of existing water
tates, restoration of the milk
subsidy, rural machinery pools,
rural electrification, greater gov-
ernment assistance for land
clearance and veteran farm set-
tlement, reduction of taxation on
Jand, improved education and
health services — these are the

issues around which the farm-—

ers will mobilize. There are the
issues whioh merit the full back-
ing of the labor movement.

Vigorous labor support for
Such a farm program is neces-
Sary to the building of labor-
farmer unity in action. The farm-
ing people haye much to gain
by active supoprt of labors
Struggles for increased _purchas-
ing power.

The wage earners form the
farmers’ main market, and the
monopolists’ headlong rush to-

ward inflation and depression
spell disaster to farmer and
wage earner alike. Répudiating

all efforts to divide them, a yig-
orous struggle must be conduc-
ted to cement the bords of unity
between labor and the farmers,
as the core a of people’s coali-
tion that can beat back the at-
tacks of monopoly and provide
a progressive alternative to the
Coalition government. Tt is’ a)
program to which the Labor-
Progressive Party will give its
greatest attention and  assist—
ance in developing.

Municipalities
Starting Point

Hi municipal electoral field
“presents one of the greatest
opportunities for an immediate
democratic advance and the
forging of a united people’s
movement against reaction.
Next month, over 50 B.C. cities
and municipalities will be elect-
ing representatives to public of-
fice to run their affairs, with
some 450 offices up for election
including. mayoralties, reeve—
Ships, aldermanie school and
parks boards. :

Municipal government is the
One closest to the people. It is
One in which day-to-day com-
munity problems vitally affect-
ing the wellbeing and Happiness
of the people are settled. and
yet ‘in 1941, 21 cities in B-G re
turmed their mayors without
even an election, and in 1944,
ten. cities filled their offices by
acclamation.

¥et in no government field
is there a grievance which
arouses as much Opposition as
in the fight for a new deal
for the municipalities from the
previncial government, par-
ticularly in taxation and edu-
cational matters. And in no
field is popular sentiment for
unity of left-wing forces more
felt than in the civic arena.

The anti-unity policy of the
top CCF leadership here meets
its stiffest opposition, and it is
in the field of municipal work
that the best opportunities exist
for a breakthrough by progres-
Sives intos the governmentai
field.

Reaction Can Be
Defeated

S I have emphasized through-
out this report, the central
neé€d in the struggle for con-
tinued postwar progress in our
province is the bringing togeth-

€r of all progressive forces in »
broad people’s coalition as the
electoral alternative to the Hart-
Anscomb coalition. These forces
are already well organized as
separate units and Tequire only

Political cooperation to make
them a single unified force

Phe unprincipled ‘Marriage’ of
Liberals and Tories is the curse
of this province. “The fight
against it for a program answer-
ing the needs of the people of
this province is an integral part
of the national struggle for
peace and progress.

In this struggle for peace and
Progress there are two dangers
against which labor must be on
Buard.

One is any tendency to under-
estimate the real war danger,
The other is a defeatist belief
that war is again inevitable,

fhe last few months have
seen a sharp worsening of int-
€rnational relations and a drive
ahead by the warmongers on
every front But on the other
hand, it must be recognized that
the forces of democracy and
Peace in Canada, as in the rest
of America, Europe and Asia,
represent a power which can
frustrate the war plans of world
reaction providing they unite
and act. .The Promoters of the
atomic incendiarism are not hay-
ing, things their own way. They
are being rebuffed on all sides by
the millions of simple people
standing guard for the peace.

Similarly on the National and
provincial scene, while big: busi-
ness has received a number of
Severe setbacks, it is not beaten
and will now find new ways of
attack through price manipula-
tion, production Sitdowns on
urgently needed foods, spy
scares, arrests of trade union-
ists and intimidation against la-
bor Senerally.

Here again, the line of the
Mmonopolists is assisted by the
CCE policy of limiting struggle,

- Splitting: ranks, andq@ wundermin-

ing those battles of the people
in a most opportunist way. Such
Policies must be exposed and
routed out of the labor movye-
ment, for only a broad move-
ment comprising the politically
organized workers, farmers and
veterans, together with addition-
al thousands thoroughiy dissatis-

fied with the monopolist pro-
stam, can win satisfaction of
the people’s needs,

United action on a provincial
labor code and the 49-hour
week; for retention of price con-
trols, full public Ownership and
development of hydro-electric re-
sources, adequate housing, health
pension and other social legis—
lation, for a better deal to B.C.
municipalities—this is the sum
and substance of an ‘action’ pro-
Tam for a _  people’s coalition
in our province:

It is in the campaign for such
broad issues that unity can be
achieved and an alternative pro-
vided to continued monopolist
domination of B.C.

The Labor-Progressive Party
pledges itself to intensify its
efforts through the coming year
for the. achievement of such a
progressive coalition in British
Columbia. The LPP will dedi-
cate its efforts this coming year
to the development of anti-fas-
cist united mass struggle against
the monopolist conspiracy, and
to the achievement of peace
and security for the people of
this province and of Canada as
2 whole.

ERIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1945