Behind the Headlines
"Won't the Vessel Owners be happy that it doesn't have to come out of gross stock."
Yellow Journalism
S the Vancouver Sun demonstrated on Thursday this week, the Prince Rupert Daily News has no monopoly on yellow journalism. The difference is that the sophisticated technique used by the Sun to color the news is more likely to deceive those who don't know the facts of the trawl-longline dispute in the B.C. fishing industry.
There is good reason for Sun readers not to know the facts, even if the Sun were capable of presenting them objectively. Since the trawl strike began on March 17 the Sun has barely mentioned it. It's little wonder that NDP provincial'leader Robert'Strachan was prompted this week to complain about coverage of the dispute in the metropolitan press.
Strachan can hardly have had in mind the kind of coverage the Sun provided on Thursday under the front page headlines "Husbands Home Instead of Making Money — Angry Wives March on Fish Union."
The impression left was that these were the wives of working fishermen. Only those already aware of the facts could have deduced from the statement made by Mrs. Hilda Husoy, wife of Foster Husoy, president of Prince Rupert Fishing Vessel Owners Association, that they were, in the majority, wives of vessel owners.
Typical of the Sun's misstatements was its assertion that "Some of the fishermen are reported to earn up to $25,000 in the five month halibut season" — a misstatement calculated to foster the illusion about fishermen's earnings which annually attracts more men to an overcrowded industry. Vessel owners may make $25,000. Crewmen, at current halibut prices, will do well to make average earnings in the order of $5,000 to $8,000 when they do get out.
The 'angry wives" were in fact an employer organized anti-labor demonstration and it is no coincidence that within hours hot line radio programs in Vancouver and Victoria were burning with demands for similar demonstrations.
One of the more notorious of anti-labor commentators, Ralph Pashley, in Victoria, remarked of the three UFAWU officers now facing contempt charges, "They should be thrown in jail like Paddy Neale was thrown in jail." This, we feel, should interest Tim Cameron, secretary of B.C. Fishing Vessel Owners Association, who has already entered one affidavit in the contempt proceedings. Cameron cited remarks made by Vancouver Labor Council secretary C. P. (Paddy) Neale at the Council's May 2 meeting when delegates unanimously endorsed an executive recommendation "in support of the UFAWU in its fight against injunctions and the use of the courts in labor disputes."
The Vancouver Sun did not carry a word about that resolution, let alone front page headlines.
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US. Policy of Escalation Brings World War Closer
THE FISHERMAN — MAY 19, 1967
By BEN SWANKEY
ARE we now in the initial stages of a third world
war?
Alarm is growing throughout the world that U.S. escalation of the war in Vietnam will inevitably involve China, then the Soviet Union and finally lead to nuclear destruction.
Even Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, who has been consistently "neutral" on the side of the U.S., views the future with gloom. In a speech t o the House of Commons on May 10, he warned that the situation is becoming "more dangerous internationally" and causing more anxiety.
Noting that "the possibility of early negotiations has receded" and that "a quick military victory is not possible nor a military solution," he predicted that the U.S. would become "indefinitely involved."
U Thant, general secretary of the United Nations, reiterated his fears to UN correspondents the following day.
"In my view," he said, "if the present trend continues, I am afraid direct confrontation, first of all between Washington and Peking, is inevitable. I hope I am wrong. I am afraid we are witnessing todav the initial phase of World War Three."
★ * *
THE MOST OUTSPOKEN and courageous statement to come from any Canadian government leader was made by privy council president Walter Gordon in a speech at Toronto on May 13.
"If the present policy ends in disaster," he said, "the extermination of unfortunate Vietnamese or possibly global war, our failure to speak out against what is happening will always remain on our conscience — if by any chance we happen to survive — as it should.
"The U.S. for its part has become enmeshed in a bloody war in Vietnam which cannot be justified on either moral or strategic grounds."
Gordon warned his listeners that the U.S. might resort to nuclear war.
"If the escalation of the war continues," he declared, "as seems probable, and the North Vietnamese do not give up soon, one may wonder if the United States will be driven to use nuclear bombs or to spread germs or exterminating chemicals.
"Finally, there is the gravest danger that if the United States used nuclear weapons, the Russians would retaliate immediately. That is something which no thinking person dares to contemplate."
The urgent need, said Gordon, is to press the U.S. to stop its bombings.
"I hope all Canadians in all walks of life and in all political parties," he said, "including especially Mr. Pearson and Mr. Martin, will continue to do everything in their power to press the Americans to stop the bombing.
"If we fail to do this, we must be prepared to share the responsibility of those whose policies and actions are destroying a poor but determined people."
★ ★ ★
IN THE U.S. ITSELF IN-creasing concern is being expressed.
This week six American senators warned in speeches on the senate floor that further escalation might end all possibilities for a peace settlement and bring China and the Soviet Union into the war.
They included Republicans John S. Cooper, George D. Aikin and Thurston B. Morton, and Democrats Mike Mansfield, Frank Church and Wayne Morse.
There are fears too, that war may again engulf Korea.
Wilfred Burchett, probably the best informed correspondent on Asia, writing from Pyongyang, capital of North Korea on
May 15, said the North Koreans see sinister motives behind current U.S.-Japanese naval exercises in the Sea of Japan, the scheduled J a p a n e s e-S o u t h Korean military maneuvers aimed at North Korea, and the visit last October of President Lyndon Johnson to the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
North Koreans, he said, are preparing to counter "a surprise attack at any moment," and North Korean "armed forces and people are being prepared physically and psychologically for a new shooting war at any time in Korea."
How is the U.S. reacting to this world alarm at its actions?
Arthur Goldberg, U.S. representative at the UN, gave his government's viewpoint in a reply to U Thant.
"We do not share," he said, "his current assessment of the situation in Vietnam."
But in the U.S. itself, a powerful campaign is under way to persuade a divided people that the U.S. must use all its military power, regardless of cost or consequence, to crush Vietnamese resistance. This is the suicidal course advocated by those who are incapable of learning from history. To them it is inconceivable that a small people armed only with the conviction that their cause is just should be able to withstand the military might of the world's greatest imperialist power, motivated only by the same "anti-communism" it retrieved from the rubble of the Third Reich.
WHAT OF THE CANADIAN
government?
Prime Minister Pearson said in the House of Commons last week that Canada's position "does not prevent our speaking out when there is an obvious and inescapable duty to do so . . ." But he continues to remain silent.
From Conservative leader John Diefenbaker came only criticism of Gordon's speech and support for U.S. actions in Vietnam.
Calling Gordon's speech "outrageous", he said it "gives greatest encouragement to the Communist world," contending that it would cause deterioration in Canadian-U.S. relations.
A more positive note was sounded by NDP leader T. C. Douglas who welcomed Gordon's speech as one that "sets forth with great clarity the situation which now prevails in Southeast Asia."
This country should tell the U.S., he said, "that if it continues to escalate the Vietnam war and precipitate a world war, it should not expect support from Canada."
But must we sit back and wait for the war to spread when a firm statement from Canada now might act as a restraint on the war hawks in Washington?
Have we not the right to expect, or better yet to demand, that our government act for peace, even if it displeases the U.S.?
It's our lives that are at stake, too.
Rupert Fisherman Gives Northern View
• This statement, read to the UFAWU general executive board at its May 14 meeting by Robert Mitchell, Prince Rupert trawl fisherman, has been passed along to The Fisherman for publication.
By ROBERT MITCHELL
AS I see it, misinformation and misunderstanding have been a big factor in the dispute now tying up important sections of our fishing industry.
It was to be expected that the press and radio in Prince Rupert, with their anti-labor bias, would distort the facts and spread misinformation among people genuinely concerned over the effect the dispute would have on their livelihood.
We should also recognize that the wisdom of some of our own decisions has been questioned by members who are influenced by their feeling that opinions held in the north do not always receive the consideration they should at deliberations held in the south.
In Vancouver you frequently hear the complaint in this and that organization that their national headquarters in Ottawa and Toronto ignore their representations.
In Prince Rupert you hear the complaint that headquarters in Vancouver pays too little attention to those who are in the best position to know northern problems because they live in the north.
A great deal of misunderstanding and loss of confidence arises from this impression and, in this present situation, it is being exploited to the utmost by those who want to destroy this Union.
★ ★ ★ AS I, A YOUNG OLD TIMER from Prince Rupert, know from the personal experience of sitting in on your discussions, many of the members in Vancouver are really concerned with the welfare of their fellow members in the north — not only members of the general executive board and the various committees, but the majority of those now on the beach in their fight for a union principle and a fair agreement. We are in a battle, one of
the hardest we have ever fought, and the first requirement in battle is to unite and maintain ranks. We may be sure that if our opponents can divide us to prevent us from winning our demands now, tomorrow they will be playing north against south to strip us of everything we have already won.
* ★ ★ IN PRINCE RUPERT I know men who say they abide by union principles but who have turned to the toaster which gives them the best toasted piece of bread. Unfortunately, they don't know how fresh or stale that bread may have been before toasting.
I know for a fact that a lot of good men in Prince Rupert would like to be with us in the UFAWU. But if you were worried about your livelihood and you could not get a job as a fisherman on a particular boat unless you conformed to the rules (as laid down by the vessel owners), would you not be hesitant in taking a stand in a dispute like this?
I feel that local autonomy is an important question, for people in the north are proud. Unfortunately, few northern members can get down to Vancouver to take part in these discussions as I have done these past three weeks in daily meetings with various committees, and so understand the sincere concern of Vancouver members with northern problems and their readiness to cooperate in solving them.
I know of the discussions that have been held with the Deep Sea Fishermen's Union and the problems that have to be overcome, but my personal feeling is that amalgamation will come in time. All of us in the UFAWU know what we have accomplished through unity and most of the old timers know the price that was paid for disunity in the years before the war.
My concluding thoughts are, that we must win a fair trawl agreement; that we must win recognition of our Union as an organization not politically governed in any way whatsoever; and that unity between all fishermen on this coast is necessary to preserve what we already have won and to win what we must have to give us a decent livelihood.