Remembering Bobby Jackson

By Jack Lappin, 5 July 2000

Dear Andy, Comrade & Friend,

Would you kindly inform all you know that I and the whole working class, socialists, and organized labour, have lost a very dear friend and comrade, Bobby Jackson.

Bobby, a real staunch working-class leader, was in and out of relief camps in the hungry thirties, a Leader of of the unemployed in BC. He took a leading part on the "Onto Ottawa Trek" in 1935 and was in the thick of the Regina Riots.

His great friend and comrade was Arthur H. "Slim" Evans. He organized and led the Trek and negotiated with Prime Minister Bennet, all to no avail. Bennet ordered the RCMP to shoot down the demonstrators in Regina and put the Trekkers in concentration camps.

Bobby Jackson could never be bought. He was not for sale to anyone, regardless of the amount of money offered.

Bobby was a great Canadian and a great fighter for Trade Unionism. In 1948 the IWA expelled Bobby and hundreds of his comrades for demanding that the IWA become a Canadian Union. In 1998 Bobby was reinstated by his old Union, the IWA, and he was honoured by that union and its leader, Dave Haggard, when he made Bobby a delegate to The Powell River Labour Council.

Bobby taught young people all over Canada about the working class struggles of the Hungry Thirties and urged them to get involved in the struggle for organized labour, justice and socialism now.

Bobby, my friend and comrade, will be remembered at a service and reception in his honour, 17th July 2000, 2 PM, at the Sports Complex, Powell River, BC.

If anyone wants me to forward messages of condolence to the Jackson family, I will willingly do so.

Bobby Jackson will be honoured, remembered and respected by all who had the privilege to know him.

Bobby will always be a legend of working class struggle.

At peace at last, Bobby has now rejoined his wonderful wife Aggie, a working class fighter, too, who also passed away not many months ago.

To those of us that are left to carry the Torch for Freedom and Socialism will make every effort to unite all the forces and comrades of the left.

In Solidarity,

Jack Lappin