Friday, July 23, 1948
THE FISHERMAN
Page Three
Must Recognize Co-op Limitations; Harmony With Union Vital To Both
By FRED OJLSEN
•The July 2 issue of The Fisherman carried a couple of letters regarding the cod price and cooperative situation. Some of the statements contained in these letters indicate the need of a realistic hoe-down on the position of the Union and the Cooperative in the fishing industry. The limitations of a union under capitalism are recognized and accepted and require no airing. The limitations of cooperative enterprise under capitalism are not understood, violently rejected, and require considerable airing.
Criticisms of the Union, published in its own paper, are frequent and are accepted as a matter of course. In this letter I will invoke some criticisms of the cooperative.
A certain gentleman, who in some circles is considered somewhat of an authority on these matters, has this to say regarding cooperatives: "However excellent in principle, and however useful in practice, cooperative labor, if kept within the narrow circle of the casual efforts of private workmen, will never be able to arrest the growth in geometrical progression of monopoly, to free the masses, nor even preceptibly to lighten the burden of their miseries ... To save the industrious masses, cooperative labor ought to be developed to national dimensions, and, consequently to be fostered by national means ... To conquer political power has therefore become the great duty of the wprking classes." (Karl Marx, "Inaugural Address.")
This was the situation a hundred years ago in England, and life itself has proved the truth of the statement. The cooperatives there are still "scratching" to achieve 100 percent organization, and the "parasites" are still in the ring with them, fat, "sassy", and more numerous than ever.
Cooperative Structure
It is my belief, not generally viewed with favor, that in a modern capitalistic environment, there is a strong tendency for the co-op, linked as it is with capitalist-controlled banks and confined as it is to capitalist controlled markets and outlets, to be itself essentially capitalistic in nature, structure ond practise, even to the point of de veloping a considerable degree of hostility toward union organization and manifestations of the class struggle.
However, it is also my understanding and belief that under socialism the cooperatives become a basic part of that society and the most important unit of the distributing apparatus.
I started out by having the same views on the question as the writers of the two letters I have referred to. As an organizer for the union I ran smack up against a contradictory and baffling situation: that to invite the average fisherman who markets his fish cooperatively to join the union was
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Express Your Ideas On This Key Question
This article by Fred Olsen expresses one point of view concerning the function and limitations of cooperatives in the fishing industry and their relation to the Union.
We would like to see plenty of discussion of the subject introduced in past letters to the editor and continued here by Fred Olsen. There appears to be some conflict of opinion which will not be resolved unless all ideas are presented and thoroughly discussed.
Objectivity should be maintained by all readers who write on this matter. Articles should be free of personal remarks, and kept to the subject at hand. That is the essential basis of any successful debate.
We intend to devote all space necessary on our regular coop page in subsequent issues, but ask only that correspondents keep their articles to the point, making them as concise as possible.
Feed's article does not express the opinions of The Fisherman nor will any others submitted unless we specifically state that they do when they appear. Make your paper a forum for treating this key issue.
—EDITOR.
tantamount to waving a red flag in the face of a bull.
This puzzled me at first. What was the matter with these men? Here were two organizations, apparently necessary to each other, both avowedly progressive, both with a similar mission—to better the living standards of the workers in the fishing industry. The majority of these—shall we say—rebels, or their predecessors, had been union men at one time. That was how they originally got together, and formed their cooperative. In the majority of cases, once the coop was gotten under way, the union tended to disintegrate.
First Reaction Not Right
I reasoned thus: what was the use of the union starting a cooperative when the latter turned around and destroyed the organization which gave it birth? Substituting capitalistic competition and class peace for the proven need of class struggle! But this was superficial thinking.
I discovered this: there is an inherent enthusiasm, not always well considered, coincident with the sudden opportunity of human beings to work creatively and collectively for their mutual betterment. It is this enthusiasm which, its impetus provided by understanding economic laws, has brought about the significant changes in human
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society; which has swept away dynasties, toppled age-old social systems, which which also has done almost the reverse.
In my estimation, it was a similar enthusiasm which launched many of our cooperators along a course which did not take into consideration the limitations of cooperative enterprise under capitalism. They felt that they had travelled far and beyond the need of a basic organization which could encompass and bind all the fishermen together; that the cooperative could set and maintain fish prices for the whole industry; that it was possible, instead of turning over a large portion of their product to him, to cut out the middle man completely; that it was possible, within the framework of our present society, to organize 100 percent and drive free enterprise out of the fishing industry. That nothing less than the stratosphere was the limit.
Naturally, feeling this way, firmly believing this, why would they need a union? I would feel the
same.
Fishina Companies Have Hold
A little reflection should reveal that it is a comparatively simple matter for the fishing companies to keep a substantial portion of the fishing population perennially "in the hole," thus making 100 percent organization impossible, and assuring the permanency of their positions. This does not mean that this element is composed of a bunch of scabs or half-wits who should be conked on the heads to drive in some sense, as I have so often heard enthusiasts proclaim. They are just workers striving to earn a living for their families. Some day they will hear the call and become good cooperators. That is where many good cooperators came from in the first place.
Even in the event of the cooperative becoming a real menace, big business can, as has been emphatically demonstrated, enact repressive legislation, with little fear of reprisal at the moment. Let's be honest with ourselves. This condition will persist so long as big capital rules the roost.
A fearless appraisal and realization of this angle should not confuse, dismay nor disillusion the enthusiastic cooperator. He should take it in his stride along with the thousand other obstacles he has to overcome, and it should only serve to increase his determination to improve his political environment.
Monopoly capitalism does not fear nor fight the cooperative movement to the same degree that it fears and fights against unions, for therein lies the most potent menace to its profits. Standing alone, the weapons with which the cooperative defends itself are comparatively feeble at the present time. To demonstrate: our avowedly capitalistic government trains and pays experts to organize co-See CO-OP LIMITATIONS __—Page 4
West Coast News Notes
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By ELGIN "SCOTTY" NEISH
Highest catch of tuna by any Canadian vessel so far this season for any one day is the catch of Bill Earnshaw of the fisheries boat "Kitimat" when he got close to one hundred tuna on July 9 between Estevan and Cape Flattery about 80 miles offshore.
The results of this catch, of course, sent quite a few Canadian boats out to the blue water but without any big results. The "Val-jim" took off and ran south from Cape Scott on a course which took her in the vicinity of the "shallow spot" off Cape Cook where they picked up 15 tuna on the afternoon of July 11. The next day the following catches were made in the vicinity of 80 miles SW of Estevan Point. "Fisher Boy 2", 81; "Arbutus 1", 59; "Rosarah", 35; "Paragon 1", 40; "Foamcrest", 20; "Storm 3", 34; Viking 2", 6; "Valjim", 24.
About the same time some of the salmon trollers were finishing up some good trips. "Solander Isle", 4,500 pounds; "Monabelle", 5,500; "Carluke", 8,000; "Miss Judy 1", 3,500; "Loch Monar", 5,000 pounds, which was delivered to the Kyu-quot co-op in Victoria.
Cohoe fishing on Goose Island was still holding up fairly well with catches standing at around one hundred cohoe a day per boat.
Tuna Looks Good
Tuna fishing as a whole looks good, that is, taking it from the point that they are showing early and there are small schools scattered all the way from the Columbia River to Cape Cook but there is no body to them. Catches in the Canadian fleet are ranging from nine or ten to fifty or sixty a day. There was some good fishing southwest of Grace Harbor but it was only for a day or so and by the time a few Canadian boats got down there it had played out and all they got was a long buck back into a northwester. The first few days the weather was perfect but the northwesters have started and every other day is pretty miserable.
The trouble this year on the tuna is that there is no sign of feed or birds so that there is nothing to show the boats where the tuna are with the result that when you do pick up a few there is nothing" there to show where the school is and no body of feed to hold the school in one spot.
The fish southwest of Grace Harbor were feeding on shrimp, so in all likelihood there was a .large body of shrimp there and the tuna were schooled on them. There is every likelihood that if the feed shows up off the coast the tuna will school upon the feed and there will be some good trips made.
The whaling plant at Coal Harbor can only handle three whales a day, so the three whalers at the plant are on a limit of one whale a day each.
July 18 Tuna Catches
The tuna picked up July 18 with the following catches: "Paragon 1", 81; "North Pacific", 74; "Manhattan 1", 16; "Rosarah", 15; "B.C. Troller", 40; "Princeton 1", 65; "Cluny", 68; "Capella", 72.; "Good Hope 1", 47; "Louvel 2", 45; "Zor-ina", 75; "Valjim", 26. The "Early Bird 2", "Alta", "Kego 1" and the "Shaula" were all proceeding out to the tuna grounds.
They had a good day on the big bank today in the vicinity of the Shallow Spot with catches ranging
This is the 28 x 7 "Crimson Tide", tiny gillnetter owned by Walter Rumba 11, old-time gill-nett member of the TJFAWTJ. Walter is fishing out of Boswell camp at Smith's Inlet. His little boat is powered with a 6 h.p. Easthope engine. The photo was taken at Sunnyside cannery on the Skeena River earlier this summer.
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up to 2,000 pounds of salmon. The "Nesco" had 100 springs and 50 cohoe, making close to 2,000 pounds for the day and 8,000 pounds for the trip with another two days to go. "Nipentuck" had around 1,000 pounds, "Miss Judy 1", 1,200. Some of the boats arrived on the grounds late but still had fair catches. The Ucluelet day boats all had a good day landing 1,000 pounds or better. The fish struck in at Tofino at the same time .with the,boats in that area averaging 500 pounds and some landing well over a thousand. Joe McLeod of the "Muns" had over 1,000 pounds out of Tofino. Norman Dickson of the "Ten Grand" had a good day off Esper-anza landing around 700 pounds for the day. In all these areas the greatest part of the catch was made up of mild cure.
Heavy Northwester
JULY 19: The tuna is still showing up fairly good,«considering that there is a fairly heavy northwest wind in the blue water. Several of the boats had from 15 to 20 tuna by 10 a.m. "Zorina" had 36 in the boat, and "Good Hope 2" had over twenty so it sounds fairly good. 'Rosalie 3" is west by south of
Grace Harbor and reports that it looks favorable in that area, landing around 20 first thing in the friorning. The spring salmon in the' vicinity of the Big Bank and Tofino have slacked off today although the general opinion is the fish are still there but are laying down or have moved offshore.
Grace Harbor Price $600
Operators in Grace Harbor are reported to be paying as high as $600 a ton with the larger operators holding off and refusing to buy at this price. The fisheries vessel "Laurier" has been on the grounds a few days relieving the "Kitimat". The "Laurier" had good fishing the first day on the grounds 120 miles S.W. by S. of Cape Flattery, landing 20 with only three lures In the water. He tried his long line gear during the day when he landed in a school of tuna. They were baited with fresh squid, but had no tuna on when hauled back though they had some blue sharks on. They had good reports also when they were in the vicinity of the shallow spot off Cape Cook the next day, landing around 20 tuna in the morning and then picking up a few off Estevan Point   in the afternoon.
This morning he is off Cape Flattery again but it was too rough to put the gear in the water. These vessels are doing good work and you can tell that it is being appreciated by the remarks of the trollers to the skippers of the vessels on their radiotelephones.
The "Valjim" ended up with 213 tuna which sold at $450 down payment at Kildonan with the balance being paid at the rate of $20 less than the Seattle price.
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ST. JOHN 2: 14, 15, 16, 17:
And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
And said unto them that sold doves, Take these thmgs hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
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