[mobglob-discuss] Left Film Night - Jan. 30

[Kimball Cariou]

Please circulate....

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LEFT FILM NIGHT

Sunday, Jan. 30, 7 pm, Dogwood Centre, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver 
(corner of Clark & E. Georgia)

Betrayed: The Story of Canadian Merchant Seamen

(Canada, 2004, 56 minutes, discussion with director to follow)

 
This new documentary from Elaine Briere, director of Bitter Paradise: 
The Sell-Out of East Timor (1996), tells a little-known labour story 
with major international implications. Betrayed: The Story of Canadian 
Merchant Seamen charts the turbulent history of the Canadian SeamenÆs 
Union, which organized to improve the lot of merchant seamen who served 
the allied cause so heroically during World War II. These young men were 
killed in larger numbers than were sailors in our Navy, but they had to 
fight yet another battle to get the government to provide recognition 
and pensions for their service. In 1949, the Liberal government of Louis 
St. Laurent decided to privatize CanadaÆs merchant fleet, then the 
fourth-largest in the world - and, to overcome CSU opposition, raised 
the spectre of communism to replace it with a U.S. union run by the 
gangster Hal Banks. The CSU's strike in response was backed by workers 
in 26 countries, tying up 60% of global shipping, the largest 
international strike of the 20th century. Today, not a single deep-sea 
ship flies the Canadian flag. Canada Steamship Lines, owned by the 
family of Prime Minister Paul Martin, flies foreign flags to avoid 
Canadian taxes and labour laws. Director Elaine Briere will be on hand 
to discuss the film.

Left Film Nights are sponsored by Young Communist League (YCL), Centre 
for Socialist Education, Vancouver East Club (Communist Party of 
Canada). Donations welcome, refreshments will be available, call 
255-2041 for information.

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