She Never Was Afraid
The Biography of Annie Buller, by Louise Watson

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Illegal period

With the implementation of the infamous Section 98 in August 1931, the Party became illegal and eight of its leaders were sentenced to a total of 37 years imprisonment. It was a vicious attempt to smash the growing labour movement, prohibit the organization of workers by denying them the right to speak in public.

Hall owners were intimidated and ordered not to rent their premises to Communists or other militant workers. The Ukrainian Labour Temple in Toronto had its license cancelled because they rented the hall to the CLDL. Even a Finnish restaurant had its license revoked because "Communists ate there." The police were declaring that they would smash up and arrest first, and frame the charge afterward.

Nevertheless, in spite of the terror and violence, in spite of the ban on free speech anywhere, the Party did speak — on street corners and in parks. When the police broke up a meeting in one place, they would move to another and start again. Methods were worked out to try to protect the speaker, and if possible prevent his or her arrest.

Annie, Becky, and others of the Party women did their share of speaking at these gatherings. One such meeting in Queen's Park is described by Comrade Karl Zuker in a letter to Tom McEwen .

Courageous Annie Buller, whom you mention in your book, brought some special memories to my mind. May I tell you about it as it is rather interesting. This was in 1929. I had just come to Canada from fascist Rumania with its Iron Guards, General Antonescu, and the "great" King Carol, who built more and more castles for himself and Madame Lupescu. With such background and experience socialism was in my blood but I only spoke German and didn't know where to locate anybody with similar views.

Most of my free time I spent at Queen's Park reading something or other. On one particular day I was sitting on a bench close to the Band Stand, unaware that I was shortly to become part of a considerable crowd that gathered there, either sitting on the grass or standing in small groups.

Suddenly a man unfurled a good size red flag, a good-looking tall woman took her place in front of the flag and began to speak to the crowd, which by then had formed a semicircle around her. I felt drawn towards this speaker, though waving her arms and speaking in a then foreign language to me. I then joined the crowd probably attracted by the red flag.

But no sooner had she spoken for about three minutes, when some hooligans or police agents started to throw rotten tomatoes at the speaker, shouting "Go back to Russia," and disrupting the gathering. A small group formed around the speaker to protect her, and all started marching out of the Park behind the red flag and singing the Internationale. I too joined in, marched with them and sang with them: Steht auf ihr unterdriickten Massen. It was a familiar tune to me and I had found the movement I was looking for. Soon after I joined the YCL, and years later I met Annie Buller and told her how I had first met her in front of the red flag.

While Annie was a union organizer, she was also a Party functionary, serving on its National Executive almost since its inception. As such she participated in all of the campaigns of the Party, including being a candidate in elections, two of which are noteworthy, since they were so many years apart.

In December of 1932, at the age of 37, a few months after her release from Battleford Jail, and while awaiting her second trial in the Estevan case, she ran as a candidate for Alderman in Toronto's Ward Five, and Ray Watson was the Board of Education candidate. At the same time, Alice Buck was running for Board of Control. They campaigned under the Workers United Front Election Committee, with a program for Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Repeal of Section 98, Cash relief, Against evictions, Against forced labour, Against wage cuts, For Unemployment Insurance (something which today is just taken for granted, few people realizing that it was first proposed by Communists, and eventually won at bitter cost to many working people who fought the battles of those days).

In the Federal Election of 1956, Annie was the standard-bearer of the Labour Progressive Party in Spadina Riding. She was now 61 years of age.

Her election literature carried such slogans as "Suspend the H-Bomb Tests", "Keep Canada Out of War", "People's Needs Before Monopoly Profits", "National Labour Code and Shorter Work Week", "Tax Reform", "Low Rental Homes", "Careers for Young Canadians".

She made a special appeal to the Jewish voters, emphasizing the questions of the revival of the German Wehrmacht headed by Nazi generals, the training of West German flyers in Canada, the increase in anti-Semitism and above all the need to fight for world peace.

She called for united efforts on the part of labour, farmers, and small businesses, co-operatives, democratic cultural and fraternal organizations, to elect scores of genuine representatives of the people.

continued

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