08) 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF A LABOUR STRUGGLE THAT CHANGED CANADIAN HISTORY
During the "Great Depression" of the 1930s, Canada's ruling circles sought to meet the growing demands for jobs, unemployment insurance and adequate relief by herding the unemployed into "relief" camps. British Columbia's relief camps were typical of those in other provinces. The camps were usually located away from settled areas. Relief camp workers received the insulting sum of two dollars a day minus 85 cents for room and board for performing artificial, often unproductive jobs. In 1933, the camps came under the control of a joint federal-provincial commission which subsequently reduced the wages. Later in the year, the camps were completely taken over by the Department of National Defense, which proceeded to reduce the workers' wages even further, to 20 cents a day and board.
The takeover by the Department of National Defense and the subsequent militarization of camp life earned the relief camps the reputation of being slave compounds. The Relief Camp Worker, newspaper of the Workers' Unity League-affiliated Relief Camp Workers' Union (RCWU), carried numerous reports of deteriorating conditions in the camps and the efforts of the workers to improve their lot. For them, there was only one real solution to the steady erosion of their meagre wages and severely limited rights - to organize into the RCWU. The union campaigned for better conditions, unemployment insurance, social insurance, adequate old age pensions and compensation for disability and sickness. It also organized conferences and conducted a number of strikes in support of these demands.
The Conservative government of R.B. "Iron Heel" Bennett remained adamant in its refusal to meet the just demands of the relief camp workers. Government callousness led to a great deal of frustration. In early 1935, the WUL decided to assign Arthur H. Evans the task of leading the RCWU and organizing its struggles. A Communist with a great deal of experience in the IWW in the United States and the OBU in Canada, Evans had already shown himself to be a highly capable and effective organizer. So effective was he, that his organizing activities had landed him in prison on three separate occasions.
With Arthur Evans now its leader, the RCWU organized a conference of all relief camp workers to take place in Vancouver in April. Thousands converged on Vancouver; the camps were emptied in what amounted to a general strike of British Columbia relief camp workers. Over the next few days, a series of mass public meetings and demonstrations were held, enjoying wide public sympathy and support. On April 19, the RCWU organized a mass meeting attended by more than 10,000 people, two-thirds of whom were Vancouver citizens. Working for the local reactionaries, the police attacked a peaceful demonstration a few days later. On May Day, 15,000 demonstrators marched to Stanley Park, where they were joined by 20,000 sympathizers. For another month, actions of this kind continued despite reactionary attempts to frustrate them.
In late May, Evans proposed the organization of an On to Ottawa Trek as a means of forcing the Bennett government to act seriously on the demands of the relief camp strikers. Elected as leader of the Strike (On to Ottawa) Committee, he believed that although the Tories might be able to ignore a province-wide strike, they could hardly ignore a Canada-wide strike of relief camp workers. In early June, the main body of relief camp workers began their trek to Ottawa.
As the trek progressed eastward and the number of participants swelled, Bennett became increasingly alarmed. He had no desire to give his working class opponents another opportunity to strike a blow at his flagging popularity, but at the same time, he persisted in his refusal to make any concessions to the strikers. Going over the head of the Saskatchewan government, Bennet ordered the RCMP to halt the Trek in Regina. Many interpreted the federal government's move as an attempt to intimidate the trekkers into abandoning their plans. The trekkers, however, remained undaunted as they realized that to turn back, when public opinion was solidly on their side, would mean certain defeat. On June 14, the trekkers arrived in Regina were they were greeted by 6,000 enthusiastic citizens.
The Tory government then appeared to take a conciliatory approach. Two cabinet ministers negotiated an agreement with the Strike Committee whereby a delegation of eight trekkers headed by Arthur Evans would proceed to Ottawa at government expense to take up the demands of the trekkers. The main body of trekkers were to stay in Regina where they would be supplied with meals and shelter by the government.
The eight delegates of the trek met with the cabinet on June 22. But rather than listen to Evans' presentation, the Prime Minister launched into a vicious personal attack on the trek leader.
Meanwhile, the Bennett government continued its preparations for an assault on the trekkers in Regina. The bourgeois press tried to whip up anti-communist hysteria in order to create an atmosphere in which violent police action could be justified. About 600 policemen, many bearing machine guns, were posted in and around the city. Meanwhile, a concentration camp for trekkers was being set up near Lumsden.
The trekkers' delegation returned to Regina on June 26. On the following day, the trekkers were denied food relief. The city was then cordoned off by the police and anyone who attempted to leave was subject to arrest. On June 29, the RCWU was declared an unlawful association under Section 98. On July 1, Canada's 68th anniversary, the government celebrated the occasion by ordering the police to break up a mass meeting of 3,000 people, of whom no more than four or five hundred were trekkers, which was being held at Market Square. RCMP officers and the city police charged into the peaceful crowd, clubbing unarmed men, women and children. A four-hour battle in the streets of Regina ensued in which about 100 people were hurt, a number of them shot by police. Over a hundred, including Arthur Evans, were arrested. One plainclothes city detective was beaten to death by his own fellow police officers.
A wave of popular indignation and protest against the government's actions swept the country. Thousands joined in mass meetings and demonstrations.
In Winnipeg, unemployed who were to have joined the main trek set off for Ottawa on buses. Stopped at the Ontario border, the Winnipeg trekkers continued on foot to Kenora, where the presence of hundreds of RCMP officers signalled a potential violent confrontation. Not wanting a repeat of the Regina events, the trekkers negotiated with the Ontario government to ensure their peaceful return to Winnipeg. Some days later, 300 unemployed left Toronto for the capital. After walking the entire 250 miles to Ottawa, trekkers were finally able to present their demands to the Bennett government. The response was as usual negative.
In Ottawa, the parliamentary opposition vigorously condemned the Bennett government for its part in provoking the violence. Former Prime Minister King criticized the government for its excesses in its handling of the situation. J.S. Woodsworth, leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), accused the police of precipitating the riot. In Regina, a Citizens' Defense Committee was set up to counter the efforts of the government and the bourgeois press to slander the trekkers and blame them for the riot. Many prominent personalities, including Saskatchewan CCF leader M.J. Coldwell and two Saskatchewan MLAs, participated in this committee's efforts to have Arthur Evans and other political prisoners freed from detention. Within days after the Regina police riot, charges against half of those accused were dropped due to widespread public indignation. Trekkers were allowed to receive food relief and return home. The mass campaign in Regina laid the groundwork for the election later in the year of a pro-labour city council.
However, the Bennett government intended to pursue charges against Evans and some others with a vengeance. Of the 117 who were arrested, 30 were committed for trial on a variety of charges ranging from vagrancy and assaulting police to membership in an unlawful association. Evans and six others were charged with being members of the RCWU.
This action sparked a campaign to have all charges dropped and imprisoned trekkers released. Mass public unity soon brought about Arthur Evans' release on bail. In the fall, he conducted an exhausting tour across the country with the aim of exposing the Bennett government and obtaining the release of those still in jail.
The Hunger Marches of the early '30s, the On to Ottawa Trek, the activities of the WUL, the Farmers' Unity League and the Canadian Labour Defense League, were vivid expressions of popular rejection of Bennett's program of economic stagnation, sharply reduced living standards, and political repression. Such rejection assumed massive proportions as workers, unemployed and farmers sought alternative policies based on work and wages and guaranteed farm income. This sentiment helped bring about the resounding defeat of the Bennett government in the 1935 general election. The Liberals under W.L.M. King gained 132 more seats than the Conservatives.
During the campaign, King had been forced to respond to the massive working class pressure by promising to repeal Section 98 and abolish the relief camps. In June 1936, almost a year later, the relief camps were closed and Section 98 repealed. With this victory the RCWU was dissolved.
The seemingly all-powerful "Iron Heel" Bennett was finally removed from the political scene. The militant policies and work of the WUL, the FUL and the Communist Party had shown that working people were capable of not only defending but also advancing their vital interests. Provided the working class was united in its struggle against exploitation and oppression, it could make real gains even under the harshest conditions.
The Communist Party, meanwhile, emerged from this period firmly established in the minds of Canadian workers as an unshakable champion of the rights and interests of the working class, the farmers and the unemployed.
(From Chapter 5 of "Canada's Party of Socialism," Progress Books, 1976)
(The above article is from the June 16-30, 2015, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)