November 10, 2004Contact:
Dave Stephen UCFV hosts Valley premiere of union-busting documentaryA man named Fraser with a Valley connection led to UCFV history professor Eric Davis being involved in a film project documenting the history of the Canadian Seamen's Union. That film, Betrayal: The Story of the Canadian Merchant Seamen, has now been completed, and will have its second showing ever at the University College of the Fraser Valley on Monday, Nov. 22 at 8 pm. The showing will be followed by a panel discussion with the director, Elaine Briere, George Fraser (an Abbotsford resident and former seaman), and Dr. Eric Davis. Approximately an hour in length, Betrayal will be shown in the Abbotsford campus lecture theatre (B101), with an admission charge of $5. The film runs for 56 minutes George Fraser grew up in Mission, but by his teens he was sailing all over the world as one of Canada's merchant marines and a member of the Canadian Seamen’s Union.
Eric Davis met Fraser when he accompanied his father, Harry Davis, to a reunion of the CSU in Vancouver. The senior Davis had been head of the CSU in the 1940s. "George Fraser eventually called me up and said he'd always been very passionate and angry about what the Canadian government did to his union and asked me if I'd help him get a film made," recalls Davis. "We put together a working group to help raise funds and UCFV agreed to be a sponsor by collecting and administering the funds." Written, produced, and directed by noted photographer and filmmaker Elaine Briere, Betrayal uses archival footage, present-day interviews, and wartime newsreels to tell the story of the union and its fight for survival in the late 1940s. The story of the union is one of heroism, drama, and intrigue. Shortly after the second world war, Canada had the third largest merchant fleet in the world and its seamen were celebrated as heroes of the Battle of the Atlantic. "There were more lives lost, more than a thousand, in the merchant marines than in the Canadian navy," says Davis. "They were touted as heroes but after the war, they were forgotten." The CSU had a reputation for fighting for decent living standards for its members on board ships. It was young, radical, and politically conscious. "In talking to the members more than 50 years later, it strikes me how intense the affection is that the men still have for their union. It was very rank and file, democratic organization, and the culture of being at sea for long periods makes for very close relationships." In 1949, the CSU went on a strike that stretched across the world as they fought raids from a U.S.-based union headed by a gangster and felon, and resisted intervention by the Canadian, British, and American governments in support of the ship owners, who no longer wanted their ships to be registered in Canada. "Geographically, there hasn't been a union action so immense before or since," says Davis. "There were sympathy strikes by dockworkers around the world." The union was eventually defeated, the Canadian merchant fleet dispersed. A "flag of convenience" system that survives to this day took its place. Davis thinks this is a story worth telling. "It was a pivotal moment in the evolution of Canadian-American relations, McCarthyism, the Cold War, and the Canadian trade union movement, as well as a vital chapter in the history of Canadian nationalism," says Davis. It also has relevance as a story in today’s global economy. “We still have ships
flying flags of convenience, including those owned by Prime Minister Paul
Martin,” says Davis. “There are issues of safety, pay, and working conditions
that owners can avoid by registering with cooperative countries. Canada is
surrounded on three shores by ocean and has no merchant fleet, yet much of our
trade depends on ocean-going vessels. It all ties into issues of privatization
and globalization and moving the work to where labour is cheapest and conditions
are least stringent.” “I felt a personal obligation to help get this film made not just as a testament to my own father, who died during the production, but for all the members of the union, many of whom were blacklisted and unable to find decent work after the union dissolved.” UCFV coordinated the fundraising for the film production. More than $75,000 was raised. “There were some sizeable donations from unions, but the bulk of the funding came from small donations from people on pensions,” says Davis. “This film was an example of a real partnership between UCFV and its communities. For more information contact Davis at eric.davis@ucfv.ca To find out more about Betrayal’s director, Elaine Briere, go to: http://www.redeagle.com/briere/ -30 - Back to November 2004 news releases
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