THE LUMBERWORKER - 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION/ FROM SEPT. 1937 to SEPT. 1987

what CIO is all about.

workers.

proceedings for the delegates

plete, gives some indication of the amount of debate that went on. ‘The Proceedings

THE TIMBER WORKER had ex- pected to print the full proceedings of the convention, without deletion. More space than is available in one entire edition of the paper would be required to do this. Therefore, we give you the high-lights in a run- ning account and we hope that noth- ing is over-looked, or anybody of- fended. ‘This report is as complete as we can make it and if we leave something out that should have been in, please tell us, so that we can make the correction, or take care of the omission in our paper next week,

Convention Opens

‘The convention was called to order ‘Thursday morning at 10:15 by Presi- dent Harold Pritchett, with about 500 regular delegates and nearly 1,000 fraternal delegates and observ- ers present. After calling the con- vention to order, President Pritchett introduced Homer L. Haney, presi- dent of the Tacoma District Council, which is host to the convention, and who made the speech of welcome to the delegates.

Haney Welcomes Delegates “Brother president, fellow dele- gates and visitors: It gives me a gréat’ deal of pleasure having the opportunity to be the one to welcome

this large body of fellow workers to this Convention in the City of Ta- coma.

“It seems but @ short time since the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union came into being, but many things have transpired since that

GREETINGS EXTENDED

Harold Pritchett extends greet{ngs to Harry Bridges, dynamic longshoreman who was recently appointed by John Lewis as Pacific coast director of CIQ Bridges made a splendid talk to the Tacoma convention on

The Woodworker Looks At Politics

By SLIM

There are people in the labor moyement who will blithely tell us that organized labor has no concern with politics. They will tell

Tacoma Convention Is

Biggest, Most Vital In Woodworkers’ History

Delegates Expect Many More Days Work In Setting Up New International And Adopting Constitution And By-Laws; Partial Report Of Proceedings Given Here; Remainder To Be Printed Next Week

In session one full week today, the Tacoma Convention is proving to be not only the largest and best attended, but the longest and most interesting in the history of the Wood- Affiliation with the CIO was voted only after four days and nights of debate and the fact that 80,000 sheets of legal-size paper was required to print the first four day’s

and these not entirely com-

time. We have had our strikes and our agreements and our organizing campaigns, and I believe every ob- stacle in the past has been overcome, Not by the pulling of strings, but by the fighting courage of the men in our ranks, These men have been patient and courageous and have stood behind the leaders in this great movement from the beginning. In our strikes they have watched their families go hungry end without proper clothing, and have not com- plained. When they were on the job they have been liberal in help- ing their brothers who were not so fortunate, but they have been watch- ing with a jealous eye every move- ment of encroachment on their rights and membership, and have gradually built this organization in- to the best organization the mill workers and loggers have ever en- Joyed.”

a

Editor's Note:

Harold Pritchett, (above right), a Canadian, was First President of the 1936 “Federation of Wood- workers” (set up when there was still some hope of healing the rift between the A.RofL. and the C.I.0.) and of the I.W.A. (1937). Harold had started as a single saw- yer at Fraser Mills, and was a lead- er of the three month strike at that mill in 1931.

He continued as International President for several years, despite difficulty in getting permits to stay in the U.S.

When those problems became insurmountable, he returned to Canada as District One (B.C.) President. In 1937, was elected President of the B.C. Federation of Labour, and was defeated in 1949, as a part of the so-called “Revolu- tion” of that year.

He died at his home in Coquit- lam in 1981.

us that politics is the concern of

ganized labor has all it can do to unionize the workers. What’s wrong with that argument?

To begin with, every time a group of union men goes on the picket line, they bump up against politics; they become engaged in political action whether they real- ize it or not. A judge may issue an injunction against the union. A mayor, or a police chief, may send the cops down to break up the picket line. A governor may order out the National Guard against the strikers. That judge, that mayor or police chief or sher- iff, or that governor, are part and parcel of a political machine, work- ing for the employers, against the unions.

For organized labor to continue to allow politics, and political pos- itions to be used against the unions, would mean eventual destruction of the unions.

That’s why organized labor, and the C. I. 0., first and foremost, was so vitally concerned with the passage of the President Roose- velt’s Supreme Court reforms, with the wages and hours legislation, and other important political meas- ures which would protect organ- ized labor. Organized labor wants to see political offices used for labor’s benefit.

In the Northwest, the political machines in power have been get- ting away with actions which should be of serious concern to the timber workers.

Should This Be Allowed To Continue?

Governors like Martin of Ore- gon and Martin of Washington have fought organized labor every inch of the way. They not only have been hostile to the New Deal legislation of benefit to organized labor, but have dealt with the

crooked politicians only; that or-

scabbiest way. Martin of Oregon spoke of dealing with the mari- time strike last winter in a fashion if that Hitler himself couldn’t beat. Martin of Washington has allied ; himself with the black fascist

forces of the Republican Party and the Liberty League, who with Hearst and Wall Street, backed Alfred M. Landon for president. -

Mayor Dore of Seattle has turned out to be a political gangster of the worst sort, a puppet, along with Governor Martin, of the Dave Beck machine which would like to wreck our International.

The Martin-Dore machine, putty in the hands of Dave Beck, has in Washington given Beck every sup- port, against the lumber workers in Tacoma, against the C. I. 0. furriers and’ the Seattle Star strik- ers of the Newspaper Guild.

Wouldn’t it be suicide for organ- ized labor to allow these things to continue? Of course it would.

That’s why the call of the con- vention of the Washington Com- monwealth Federation, to be held in Seattle September 4-5, is of vital interest to the woodworkers.

We print here a section of the convention call, so that timber | workers may see for themselves:

“Tn our state Governor Martin, although parading as a friend of | the New Deal, in the last session of the legislature led the Anti- New Deal Democrats and Republi- cans in attempting to put across a program of anti-Roosevelt legis- lation. Leading Washington Re- publicans, such as King County Chairman George Flood and Rep- resentative Roy Kinnear are open- ly urging Republican support for anti-New Dea! Democrats now in

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