Page Six
THE FISHERMAN
November 21, 1944
BUILDING L THE Ul(l\
By GUS COGSWELL
The sudden ending of the 1944 salmon* season should give us plenty of meat for discussion this winter in our locals. Looking over the pack figures to date and reports of department officials on spawning conditions does not read well for the future livelihood of B.C. fishermen, unless, of course, fishermen do more than simply read about these things.
Fishermen, the time for action is at hand. The United Fishermen's Federal Union is building one union in the industry and every worker in the industry must become a member of the organization.
Our obligation this year is a 100 percent increase in the membership on which to date we have shown some success. Several sections have reached 100 percent organization such as seiners in salmon, herring, and pilchards, with tendermen and collectors running close behind. There has been a fair increase in the gillnet and troller section.
All workers in the British Columbia fishing industry can only help solve the many problems facing the entire industry by direct participation in the affairs of the Union. If you are not a member, join immediately. If you are, do your best to meet our year's objective by bringing in at least one new member.
Local Elects Convention Committee
The Vancouver Local of the United Fishermen's Federal Union, meeting last Friday, voted to immediately set up a conventions committee which includes Bill Purvis, Marion Ruljanovich, Bob Hannah, and Angus Neish.
It was also decided to set up an active committee to assist the Women's Auxiliary in its social functions. Those elected were Dal Secco, and both Elgin and Angus Neish. John Long, Marion Ruljanovich and Elgin Neish were endorsed as an auditing committee.
Temporary delegates to the Fraser River Council will be appointed by the local executive if a meeting of the council is held prior to the next local meeting.
Following some discussion on the operation of the Sick Benefit Fund, members agreed to elect a committee to investigate all claims. Bill Purvis, Edward Kor-bal and Ted Ingram comprise the committee.
A vote of thanks was tendered Nick Kopatic for his work at the Trades Congress Convention.
Political Action Pointers
Continued from Page 1
By ALEX GORDON
General Secretary, Fish Cannery, Reduction Plant and Allied Workers' Union
"TF we, who represent the largest group of organized workers in Canada, are to perform effectively the task which must be undertaken for the good of the country as a whole, then we must enter collectively into the political life of Canada." Statements of this nature were made by almost all delegates who rose to speak on the resolution calling for the establishment of a National Political Action Committee at the recent Trades and Labor Congress Convention. No delegate challenged this idea, an indication that conditions which have developed during the past four years forced labor as a group to put aside the general attitude prevailing prior to the war, that trade unions should refrain from either actively or passively participating in political struggle. The greater part of the discussion was devoted, therefore, not to the principle of trade union political action, but rather to the manner in which such action should be taken.
It was made clear early in the discussion that the overwhelming
majority of the delegates were not in favor of labor attaching itself to any one political party. The few speakers who advocated this course of action were very coolly received. On the other hand, speakers who went on record favoring an approach to the problem which would be absolutely non-partisan, were warmly applauded. After the resolution had been put to a vote, President Percy Bengough voiced the sentiment of the Convention when he stated "the Trades and Labor Congress will not become the dog running behind the cart of any political party."
M
ANY of those who spoke dealt
of how labor can take non-partisan political action. Briefly, the ideas presented to the Congress were as follows:
• During elections organized labor should campaign for these candidates whose record toward labor has been good, and who also support labor's postwar program. This support should be given regardless of the particular political party to which the candidate belongs. Conversely, we must campaign   against   those candidates
Eastern Labor Leader On B.C. Speaking Tour
Sponsored by the Workers' Educational Association, a series of meetings featuring the well known eastern labor leader Robert Haddow, have been arranged for British Columbia trade unionists at several points in the province:
Haddow, grand lodge representative of the International Association of Machinists in the Montreal area is the man who won the respect and admiration of Canadian unionists when he organized the large aircraft plants in Vickers, Noorduyn and Fair-child at a time when organizing in Quebec was most difficult.
His views on postwar perspectives for aircraft have been compiled in booklet form and provide the basis for policies accepted and now being fought for by the trade unions in the aircraft industry.
Claude Donald of the WEA announces that Haddow will give the keynote address at a rehabilitation and reconstruction conference on Sunday, December 10 in the Vancouver Hotel and will also speak at an open meeting in the city on December 13. A tentative itinerary has been arranged to cover the following places at which Haddow will speak: Michelle, December 4; Kimberley, December 5; Trail, December 6; Hedley, December 8; Copper Mountain, December 9; New Westminster and Vancouver on December 10. He will speak at several Vancouver Island points on December 11 and 12, returning for a meeting in Vancouver next day. Haddow will be in Victoria on December 14 and at Brittania on December 15. Arrangements have also been made for a trip to Seattle.
ROBERT HADDOW
Fishermen! Cooperatively
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Stuart Island Local Dance Brings $258
A total of 258 dollars was realized by the Stuart Island local at a dance held in aid of Mrs. Nellie Veler, badly burned as the result of a fire on September 9 in Murray Taylor's home on Stuart Island Landing.
Mrs. Veler has just returned home from the Rock Bay Hospital. Still unable to walk, she is yet far from recovery.
The Stuart Island local has communicated with the Royal Humane Society in Ottawa with a view to obtaining an award for Mrs. Veler.
QUATHIASKI W.A. SENDS CIGARETTES OVERSEAS
Following a three month break in meetings, the Quathiaski Women's Auxiliary again got underway last month, deciding to undertake sending 300 cigarettes to each of the local boys overseas as a Christmas present.
At the November meeting, Mrs. Jessie Lagos was elected treasurer and two new members attended.
Regular meetings are held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month.
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who have taken a consistently anti-labor stand. To quote one of the speakers: "What good is it for labor to fight and struggle for years to obtain proper wages and conditions if on election day we troop to the polls and vote for some reactionary individual who never has and never will support labor.and who will, in all likelihood, do all in his power to take away, the very conditions we have fought so hard to obtain."
The Political Action Committee, whether national, provincial or in the local itself, must see that all candidates' views and particularly their actions are carefully analyzed. They should then bring their recommendation before the membership for discussion, and if it is acceptable to the majority, machinery should be immediately set up to assure adequate support to the candidate chosen.
• Political action should not be confined to elections alone. Whenever legislation which has significance to labor is under discussion, maximum pressure should be exerted by means of delegations, public statements and other methods to see that the views of labor are given proper recognition. An example of the effectiveness of this method is provided in the successful way in which amendments to P.C. 9384 Wartime Wages Control Order were secured by labor. Such pressure should not be applied to Federal and Provincial Governments alone, but should also be applied on Civic and Municipal governing bodies.
TT must be apparent to all men " and women engaged in the B.C. fishing industry that there are many questions which can only be solved when we are able to place our demands directly before the government, backed by a union membership which is willing and ready to use its numerical power in a political way. Such problems as conservation, minimum fish prices, better treatment of Natives, fishermen representatives on boards set up to deal with fishery questions, can best be handled in a political manner.
TT is for this reason that the political action resolution passed at the Trades Congress convention is of major importance to fish workers. Political Action Committees which have already been set up should immediately begin to pay close attention to the political situation in the Dominion and the Province.
In the forthcoming elections we can properly support those candidates who pay attention to fishing industry problems and are willing to fight for the necessary changes in existing legislation, which along with new legislation, is necessary if the industry is to be maintained on a stable basis in the postwar period.
Native Brotherhood
Fishermen!
What does good water mean to you?   The recent government laboratory test indicates that the water from our  artesian well which supplies the Sointula oil station is entirely free from all impurities. Drop in at Sointula and fill your tank with water that is REALLY PURE. And don't forget that your dollars go further when you make your purchases at a "Co-op."
SOINTULA CO-OPERATIVE STORE ASSOCIATION
Sointula, B.C. General Imperial Oil
Merchandise Agents
Echo Sounders
Husun Admiralty Pattern
Records depth, also fish masses between surface and bottom.
R. F. BOVEY LTD.
530   BURRARD STREET
Vancouver, B.C.
education, both academic and vocational.
6. Rights of citizenship should be extended to the Indian people, but in view of • the many issues involved, careful consideration should be given to conditions on which this could be granted.
(Indians may now attain full citizenship but only by sacrificing their aboriginal rights. Actually they become outcasts from their reserves. Indians believe they should be accorded full citizenship rights while retaining their native rights.)
7. Need for more extensive medical care and health measures.
8. A special grant of $100,000 a year was made by parliament in 1927 to the Indians of B.C. As this grant was made "in lieu of annuities" the Indian people look upon it as their money, expect a detailed accounting of this expenditure.
9. The lack of constructive Indian policy by the Indian department has given rise to grave misgiving and this must be corrected.
(The point here is that progressive measures which are introduced are often either forgotten or are allowed to deteriorate. The Indians demand a more consistent progressivism.)
10. The need of a royal commission on which the Native Brotherhood would have representation to examine the whole question of Indian rights and government
This program comes at a time when the government has already announced a revision of the Indian Act is to be undertaken.
In replying to this program, Minister of Mines and Resources T. A. Crerar assured the convention by letter that all those interested in the welfare of the natives would have a voice in revision of the act.
More pressing problems of war, he  said,  had  prevented earlier
consideration of the Indian question.
A  resolution  embodying the 10-point program was wired to Prime Minister King late in the convention sessions. That educational opportunities and medical care provided for the Indians are, to put it mildly, inadequate, was indicated at every turn.
There wasn't an Indian speaker among the dozens addressing the convention who did not pound on these two points.
One speaker charged that the government simply did not want the natives to become educated and had gone back on its promise to provide higher education for the Indians.
Stories of hopelessly inadequate medical care were told by William Beynon, Russ Johnson, Frank Assu, Guy Williams and other Indian leaders.
On the brighter side were the stories of the Indian cooperatives, mainly in the fishing industry. These reports, brought to the convention by President Alfred Adams and August Murphy, of Nootka, among others, .served to refute the impression popular in some quarters that the Indians are incapable of helping themselves.
Trade union support was also brought to the convention by Nigel Morgan, of the IWA, and Austin Smith, of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union.
Morgan stressed the point that only through organization could the Indians achieve their objectives. He said that there were more than 300 Indians in the ranks of the IWA and that these were members the union was proud of, as it was proud of the record of other races, notably the Chinese and East Indians, in IWA activity.
Fishermen ! . . .'
When in Northern B.C. waters call at Your Own Store!
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"Everything for the Fisherman" Phone 264 — Box 264 PRINCE RUPERT, B.C.
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Let him that stole steal: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
''*■'' ' j Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
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