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

CHAPTER TEN
Prison life

North Battleford prison, to which Annie was consigned after the Estevan trials, was considered to be one of the worst in the country, old, poorly ventilated, and cold in winter.

What then, must her inner feelings have been as those doors closed behind her and she realized that in this place she must spend a whole year shut away from her husband and small son Jimmy? Would he grieve for her when she was not there to comfort him? How much would he grow in the year? Would he know her when the time had passed?

If any such thoughts disturbed her she gave no sign. She walked proudly through the doors and awaited whatever assignments would be given. She knew she had been helpful to the miners of Bienfait, and that the authorities who had sentenced her to this prison did so to remove her from their struggle, and hopefully to break her spirit. How little did they estimate the strength and courage of their prisoner, and the steadfastness of her faith in the cause of the working class!

She was put to work in the laundry, and quickly adjusted to the rigorous routine of prison life. She did her work cheerfully and well, and earned a growing respect from the matron and other officials of the prison.

Anna Pashka remembers one occasion when she and A.E. Smith went to see her as representatives of the CLDL. They were received courteously by the officials, and waited for them to bring Annie in. Suddenly there she was, and so happy to see them and talk with them. She was wearing the blue prison garb, and the colour seemed to complement her complexion and red hair. They thought how nice she looked, in spite of the bleak, drab surroundings!

They were not permitted to bring her any gifts of food or books, but Anna said they found her well and her spirits were good. She told them she was getting along nicely with the matron, and was not ill treated.

She was trying to avail herself of whatever reading material there was in the prison library, and relate items of interest to the other women prisoners whenever she had an opportunity. Her sentence having been solitary confinement, the periods when she was permitted to mingle with the others were not often. However years later she told of a woman prisoner there who was convicted of murdering her husband. She was able to bring some measure of comfort and encouragement to this poor woman who had been driven to such an extreme act by the cruelty of a vicious husband.

Comrades and friends all over the country sent letters and post cards to her regularly. Christmas and New Year came and went while she was there, likewise her birthday. She kept all her cards and made up a scrap book by pasting them onto the pages of an old magazine, then covering it with a piece of cloth taken from a worn-out and discarded garment.

So the year passed, and there was great jubilation in the Party ranks when she was released. After a brief rest and reunion with her family, she took up the organizational and political work she had been doing before, now with more determination than ever.

She gave a great deal of assistance in organizing the unemployed, and helped with the "On To Ottawa" trek of Canada's jobless in the summer of 1935.

From every major centre they came — from B.C., across the Prairie Provinces, and into Ontario. Many were the battles with police along the way, and many were the arrests. Nevertheless a sizeable number reached Ottawa, and presented their demands for cash relief, jobs at decent pay, unemployment insurance, etc.

By 1936 it became evident that the fascists of Europe were intent on smashing the duly elected democratic government of Spain, and Annie helped Becky and A.E. Smith set up the Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy, and to raise money to send the 1,200 or so young men of Canada who volunteered to go there to fight on the side of the Loyalists; also to help finance Dr. Bethune's blood transfusion unit, the first ever to bring blood to the wounded in the front lines of battle.

Later on she was asked to take over the job of managing the Mid-West Clarion, which was the Party paper published in Winnipeg. This position she held until the paper was suppressed when the government invoked the War Measures Act under the Defence of Canada Regulations, because the paper had printed the Manifesto of the Communist International on the war which at that stage meant "Keep Canada out of the war."

It was in 1940 that Annie, Louis Guberman, and Jock McNeil were arrested at a meeting. Bertha Guberman remembers that the judge set the bail at $20,000 each. As Bertha says ... "It was not easy to get bail for them at a time when none of our comrades had property. I was lucky to have a lot of friends and family, that helped me to get bail for them."

Annie once again conducted her own defence, giving a sterling demonstration of how to face the class enemy. However she was sentenced to two years in the Women's Jail at Portage La Prairie, about 60 miles out of Winnipeg. Margaret Mills and Ella Gehl were there too, so here at least she had the company of others whose political thinking and affiliation were the same as her own, and they had access to various newspapers and periodicals, as well as books.

Bertha went to visit Annie often. She says, "It was not an easy task. Visiting was only allowed for half an hour. The matron thought the world of Annie, and had so much respect for her, that she allowed us to be alone, and I was there for two hours each time. Her spirit was terrific, despite the fact that she left her dear husband and young son. Not many people could take it that way."

Once again making up scrapbooks was one of the few diversions in the monotony of prison life. These indicate that many articles were clipped from papers and periodicals dealing with political happenings in Canada, the conduct of the war, and Canada's position in relation to it.

B. K. Sandwell's articles in Saturday Night furnished quite a few of the clippings. Two scrapbooks and notebooks were filled with these clippings, others with the cards and greetings sent to her, and one with pictures cut from periodicals, many in colour. In this one there is a notation,

"We both decided to utilize this old, partially used, scribbler for a picture book to satisfy a craving for colour and scenery. We found, as time went on, that we wanted to copy poems and prose that we cherish. We did not plan to create anything original, as it was only a means to keep our collection together. Now that it is all filled up we feel that we should share this collection with a dear friend."

(Signed) Annie S. Buller
Margaret E. Mills

Prominently displayed in one book is a certificate from Central Technical School in Toronto listing the names of the graduates of the Class of 1941-1942, Second Year Printers, one of the names being Jimmy's. (He went on to complete the Fourth Year.)

Annie kept a detailed list of books and their authors which she read from June 1st, 1941 until her release in December 1942. The list numbers over 60, as well as some shorter works of poetry and history.

One of the things she busied herself at, and which is an indication of her organized way of thinking and doing, was to compile, from her reading, a chronological list of events leading up to and during World War II, from January 1931 right up to May of 1942 after the results of the "Vote Yes" campaign which showed such a tremendous affirmative vote.

Specific details of that campaign and plebiscite have been written up in historical publications of the Party. However it might be mentioned here that its overwhelming success was a determining factor in effecting the release of so many of the Party leaders and functionaries who were interned in various parts of the country, enabling them to take their place in the war against the Fascist Axis. Annie made repeated appeals to be allowed to make her contribution to the war effort, but it was not until December 1942 that release finally came.

Harry had been released from the internment camp during the summer, and was in Toronto, as was Jimmy. It was while attending a birthday banquet for A.E. Smith that word came of her release. Tim Buck was speaking when the telegram was delivered, and when he read it out the people literally went wild with joy at the news. Immediately hundreds of telegrams and messages of congratulation were sent to her in Winnipeg. All these greetings are in the scrapbook too. (These books should be treasured, as Annie herself treasured them. They represent a page out of the life-span of a most valiant fighter for socialism, and represent, too, a piece of the Communist Party's history.)

The long term of prison confinement was over, and once more she took up her political work, this time it was to organize the Communist-Labour Total War Committee in Manitoba, where she worked right up until the First National Convention of the Labour Progressive Party. She was elected, at this Convention, to the National Committee. After the Convention was over, she, Harry and Jimmy took up residence in Toronto. They were a family again.

continued

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