The 12th biennial Convention
of the Canadian Labor Congress,
which concluded 10 days ago in
Quebec City, took place at a time

- when the working class and dem-
- ocratic forces need to supplement
the fightback on the economic
front of struggle with the
strongest and most broadly based
fightback against monopoly capi-
tal on the political front. Labor’s
main enemy in the coming federal
election is monopoly capital rep-
resented in parliament by the par-
ties of monopoly — Liberals and
Tories.

Canadian monopoly is today
becoming more and more depen-
dent upon the USA. On one hand
U.S. branch plants and other op-
erations are being phased out,
while on the other hand U.S.
investments in Canada have in-
Creased. This particular con-
tradiction reflects U.S. im-
Perialism’s efforts to place the
burden of the crisis onto other
countries, while strengthening its
Control over raw materials and

’ Markets, as well as the key sec-
tors of the economy of other
Countries, with particular atten-
tion to Canada.

This present crisis has already
led to aloss of over 100,000jobs in
our Canadian manufacturing sec-
tor and poses a threat of “‘de-
industrialization’”’ of Canada with

its disastrous consequences.
The Trudeau government’s pol-
Icy has changed from one of seek-
Ing a “‘third’’ option to one of in-
Creasing dependence on.the U.S.
Market.

_ On CLC Agenda
Coupled with the struggles on
© economic front, there is a
Ctisis of Confederation, the fight
to preserve and extend democ-
Tacy, and to put an end to racism
and discrimination. In terms of

foreign policy and our role in
‘ternational affairs, there is an
Urgent need to say no to the neut-

nN bomb, and to set the world on

a course towards peace by means
of universal disarmament.

All these questions were on the
agenda at the CLC Convention,
along with the need for indepen-
dent labor political action, and the
need for labor unity and solidarity
on local, national and _ inter-
national levels.

As retiring president Joe Mor-

ris told close to 2,500 CLC Con-

vention delegates April 3; the im-
position of wage controls and the
fight to defeat them has made the
labor movement and all of its in-
stitutions more political than at
any previous time in the CLC’s
short history. But while this is
true, and the 1978 CLC Conven-
tion was yet another milestone in
that process leading towards
political awareness, it is also true
that this process often gets bog-
ged down in social reformist
double-talk and much meaning-
less rhetoric.

At a time when leadership
given to the class struggle is a de-
cisive factor and the impact of
world development is beginning
to be felt in the CLC, the Con-
gress is not yet fully tuned to the
urgent need of ending monopoly
control of parliament by raising
the sights towards unity of all
anti-monopoly forces including
Communists. Until this is done it
is not possible to speak of genuine
independent working class and
democratic political action, which
alone can assure the election of a
progressive _ majority in
parliament. ~ >

More Controls: C-28

But the need for such an ap-
proach is already present. It was
evident in the speech by Morris
when he said that there will be

other kinds of controls in the so-

called post-control period, con-
trols that are more subtle and less
obvious than the Anti-Inflation
Board and _ therefore much

tougher to fight. :
Such controls are evident in

Canadian labor in
the coming election

Hands off rent controls ’Peg
meet tells Lyon’s government

By HAROLD DYCK

WINNIPEG — ‘‘The People
must tell the Conservative
government: ‘Hands off Rent
Controls’,’’ Winnipeg City Coun-
cillor Joe Zuken told a meeting of
250 tenants on March 30. The
meeting was called by the Coali-
tion for Rent Controls, an organi-
zation including over 25 trade
union, tenants, and other groups,
to protest the threatened removal
of rent controls when the federal
Anti-Infiation Board program
ends this fall. Mss:

In his address to the meeting,
Councillor Zuken went..on to
point out that the poor and even
the middle class are victims and
pawns .in the economic “‘re-
straints’ program of the reaction-
ary Conservative government of
Sterling Lyon.

While transit fares, hydro rates,
and taxes are going up, and real
wages and job opportunities are
declining, the government is
planning to remove all restraints
on rents and landlords’ profits.

Bill C-28 which is an effort to
legislate a total compensation
comparability formula that will
make a farce out of collective bar-
gaining in the public sector with
the intent of splitting the trade

union movement along public and |

private sector union lines.

“‘The Congress cannot permit
this to happen’’, said Morris.

Yet, if controls are successfully
applied on one sector they will
quickly be followed by controls
on the other. The private sector
unions must, therefore, support
the public sector unions in their
fight, and the public sector unions
must do likewise with the private
sector unions. -

As Mr. Morris stated it in his
speech, ‘‘the whole thrust of the
federal and provincial govern-
ment’s policies is to hold down
wages. Wage indexing schemes
developed in Europe have
successfully held down workers’
incomes on that continent’’.

United Fightback Needed

The economy will continue to

deteriorate and jobs will continue -

to be lost. With this will come
ever increasing attacks by
monopoly and governments on
wages which they are desperately
holding down and reducing in
order to solve the crisis of the
capitalist system at the expense of
workers, an exercise which is not
without some success for the cor-
porate sector as. the following
figures clearly indicate.

Corporation profits after taxes,
jumped by 27.4% or $2.77-billion
in the final three months of 1977,
Statistics Canada reports. :

The survey covers about 5,000
corporations. Sales were up in the
year by 11.4% or $7-billion to
$68-billion. Assets rose by $17-
billion or 10.4% from a year ear-
lier. ; :

‘ Clearly this points up the need
for a much more militant and un-
ited fightback on both the,
economic and political fronts of

struggle.

This would increase the burden
being placed on the backs of the
people by the pro-business To-
ries, with rents expected to climb
25% and more.

“*The poor,”’ Councillor Zuken
said, ‘‘are always under
economic restraints.’’

New Democratic Party MLA
and housing critic Wilson
Parasiuk joined in the attack on
the Conservative government’s
housing policy, charging it with
trying to destroy all that had been
done in the past to meet the
housing needs of low-income
groups in Manitoba. He reiterated
the demand that rent controls be
retained and strengthened, in-
adequate as they might be, until
the vacancy rate in apartments
climbs to 4-5% from the current
level of less than 2%.

Liberal MLA Lloyd Axworthy
went farther in demanding rent
support for low income groups,
greater government involvement
instead of cutbacks in developing
low-cost housing, and maintain-

ing long-term programs to pre- .

vent excessive profiteering by

landlords.

Government-Sponsored Housing

Unlike Councillor Zuken,
however, neither speaker went so
far as to call for a massive and
comprehensive government-
sponsored program of housing
development to meet the real

needs of all the people of Mani-
toba. .

Laurie Calimente of the Coali-
tion and Jim Burgess of the As-
sociated Tenants’ Action Com-
mittee also criticized the govern-
ment’s housing policy on behalf
of their organizations.

Attending the meeting on be-
half of the government was Con-
servative MLA George Minaker,
who claimed he could not make
any policy statements, but came
only to listen to complaints, of
which he heard plenty. He left lit-
tle hope that the government
would readily respond to the
needs and demands of the people.

The meeting was followed up
by a demonstration the following
evening of 300 people on the steps .
of the Legislature.

Corporate
profits take
big jump

OTTAWA — Corporation

Profits after taxes were up in the

last three months of 1977 by
27.4% over the same period a year
earlier. The total profits for the
1977 final quarter were $2.77-
billion, according to Statistics
Canada. The survey covers about
5,000 corporations in Canada.

NEWS ITEM: |
TRUDEAUS NEW YORK SPEECH ONLY
RAISED QUESTIONS ONOURECONOMY
BUT GAVE NO ANSWERS. ;,
Cc

|

AIR CANADA -

- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—April 22; 1978—Page 5