[mobglob-discuss] Honour the On-to-Ottawa Trek

[Kimball Cariou]

Please circulate widely...

13th Annual People's Voice Banquet - June 11

Celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the On-to-Ottawa Trek!

In the spring of 1935, thousands of unemployed workers, members of the 
communist-led Relief Camp Workers Union, headed to Vancouver to demand 
"Work and Wages." After several weeks of militant and colourful 
demonstrations, the workers decided to take their demands right to the 
top, to challenge the right-wing Tory federal  government of R.B "Iron 
Heel" Bennett in Ottawa. On June 3, hundreds of unemployed "Trekkers" 
left the Vancouver rail yards on freight trains heading over the 
Rockies. Along the way, the Trekkers were met with increasing support, 
sending political shock waves across the country. When the Trekkers 
reached Regina, they sent a delegation to meet with Prime Minister 
Bennett, only to have their demands turned down flat. Meanwhile, the 
government was moving to smash the Trek. During a support rally at 
Regina's Market Square on July 1, truckloads of police pulled in and 
attacked the crowd, sending dozens of wounded Trekkers and local 
citizens to hospital. The Trek was halted, but the political impact of 
this event swept away the Tories in a federal election later that year. 
The infamous "20 cents a day" work camps for the unemployed were soon 
closed, and within a few years, the working class movement was making 
major gains towards unemployment insurance, union organizing rights, and 
much more. The On-to-Ottawa Trek was the struggle that broke ruling 
class resistance against badly-needed reforms to meet the immediate 
needs of millions of poor and unemployed working people.

This year's People's Voice Banquet will mark the 70th anniversary of 
this historic event, by honouring the Trekkers and their struggle. Our 
guest speakers will be Dr. David Lethbridge, founder of the Bethune 
Institute for Anti-Fascist Studies, and Elspeth Gardner, a radical 
lawyer and activist who first became involved in the struggle for social 
change in Vancouver during the Great Depression of the 1930s. There will 
also be a historical display on the Trek, and labour songs by Tom Hawken.

When: Sat., June 11, 6 pm
Where: Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Ave., Vancouver
Tickets: $18 (or $9 low-income), available at the door, or make 
reservations by calling People's Voice Editor Kimball Cariou, at 
604-255-2041
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