i eT To oT

Impa

their blood, built a new society,”
Communist Party leader, Wil-
liam Kashtan reminded a Hamil-
ton banquet audience on Nov. 9
as they commemorated the 1917
Socialist Revolution. Kashtan
was introduced by Jim Bridge-
wood, of the Hamilton Tribune
Committee, sponsors of the eve-
ning.

From the beginning, he pointed
out, imperialism had never ceas-
ed in its efforts to weaken social-
ism and to try to “restore its
own domination over the world.”

Today, Kashtan stated, ‘‘social-

“ism is working, whereas capital-

ism is showing it cannot work’

in the interests. of humanity.”
Capitalism is proving unable to
solve its crises — “economic, po-
litical and moral,” he said.

Noting the “growing inability
of the capitalist system to oper-
ate,”’ the Communist leader con-
trasted the two systems, capital-
ism, where “working people are
confronted with the need to
struggle to catch up with infla-
tion,” and the socialist system,
free of inflation, where “produc-
tion is planned.”

Referring to the central feature
of Soviet foreign policy — un-
ceasing efforts towards detente,
the making of detente irrevers-
ible, the realization of peaceful

By WILLIAM STEWART
Ontario Leader, Communist Party

The Annual Convention of the
Ontario Federation of Labor, as
was expected, focused on four
major questions. Inflation, rising

prices, poverty and struggle for

higher wages; the need for
major changes in the Ontario
Labor Relations Act in favor of
the working class; the deplor-
able housing situation in the
province; the expected provin-
cial election in 1975, and one
should add a fifth matter, the
conditions of Ontario agricultu-
ral labor.

There were 1,152 delegates re-
presenting 532 local unions, plus
delegates from 34 labor councils
and OFL officers fora total of
1,223 delegates. The Officers’
Report announced that the Onta-
rio Civil Service Union with
more than 72,000 members
would be in the Federation by
the time of the next convention,
plus the 2,500 Liquor Control
Board of Ontario employees.
This could well lead to more
than 1,500 delegates at the, next
convention in Kitchener Ontario,
representing more than 850,000
organized workers.

Community of Problems

The mood of the delegates
was one of militancy, looking to
the OFL for leadership in the
fight against the devastating ef-
fects of inflation on their pay

_ Cheques. There was evident in
‘the debates, as well as in the
160 resolutions submitted by
local unions and labor councils
an understanding that in addi-
tion to the vital bread and but-
ter questions, the unions had to
bfoaden out their sights to in-
Clude issues embracing the wider
community of problems facing
workers and others alike. :

Thus questions of education
policy, firm support for anti-
poverty movements, regional

co-existence of states—he cited
agreements on a state level as
ways of strengthening detente,
even while “the struggle between
socialism and capitalism never
stops.” And “the process of his-
tory is moving toward socialism
on a world scale,” he said,

Fortress of Peace

At the Toronto meeting, high-
lighted by songs by two mem-
bers of the Ukrainian Hahilka
Choir and a Soviet film, William
Kashtan, introduced by the Met-
ro Toronto chairman of the Com-
munist Party, John Bizzell, invit-
ed the audience to look at-the
57 years since the Great October
Socialist Revolution, and at its
effects on events today.

The 57th anniversary of work-
ing-class power is “an important
event,” he said, “not only for
the peoples of the Soviet Union
who have built a mighty social-
ist state, and are on the way
towards building a communist
system of society, but no less
important to all progressive-
minded people throughout the
world, who see in the Soviet

_ Union, a powerful fortress for

peace, for democracy, for inde-
pendence and for national and
social liberation.”

Commenting on the unique
eye-witness report of the October
Revolution, the book, Ten Days
That Shook the World, by Ame-

government, farm labor, in-plant
and community health problems,
U.S. control of our natural’ re-
scurces industry and financial in-
stitutions, the need for public
ownership and control over sec-
tions of our economy, energy
policy, low-rental housing, equal-
ity for women, day care centres,
were all subjects of resolutions
discussed. by the delegates
whose decisions provide the
basis for action on a wide range
of fronts by local unions and
labor councils.

A very important resolution

"was -adopted which threw the

support of the OFL behind the
important Canadian Assembly
for a New Foreign Policy being
held Dec. 7 and 8 in the Univer-
sity of Ottawa.

No Cold War

There was no expression of
the cold war in the convention,
either in the Officers’ Report,
special resolutions from the local
unions or in the debates on the
floor.

The only way anti-Commun-
ism found expression was in a
plug for the recent book writ-
ten by Morden Lazarus, “Years
of Hard Labor,” which was tout-
ed as a great contribution to
lahor that should be circulated
in all libraries and schools in
Ontario.

George _ Harris, secretary
Treasurer of the United Electri-
cal Workers, and a member of
the Central Executive of the
Communist Party, spent seven
minutes at the mike defending
the role of the Communist Party
in the trade unions and -con-
demning the attempt of Lazarus
to “legitimize” the gross distor-

- tions of labor history that have

been a by-product of the cold
war.

Harris’s contribution was the
first time in the history of: the
OFL that a polemic on the mat-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15,1974—Page 6

rican writer John Reed, the Com-
munist leader asserted that the
Revolution not only shook the
world — “it changed it!”

And those changes ignited in

1917, he said, are evident now.
“Colonialism has virtually been
eliminated,” most recent exam-
ples being Mozambique and
Guinea-Bissau. The “collapse of
military, fascist dictatorships. . .”
in the Second World War and
“more recently,” in Portugal and
Greece, are additional evidence
of the change, Kashtan said; as
“is the recognition of the Pales-
tinian Liberation Organization
by thé United Nations.”

Canada’s Role

Canada has an important role
to play to help to make detente
irreversible, Kashtan said. He
quoted Prime Minister Trudeau’s
statement that Canada does not
want to depend only on the Unit-
ed States for our trade, our tech-
nology, our finances and invest-
ments . . . our foreign policy.
It is indicative of changes in the
thinking of sections of monopo-
ly, Kashtan said, “who fear be-
ing pressed by American im-
perialism . . . and are looking
for another path.”

The Communist leader said
that “if Prime Minister Trudeau
means what he says . . | it is fair
to put to him the demand that
the Canadian Government take

ter of the historic role of Com-
munists in building and defend-
ing the interests of Ontario, has
taken place before the delegates
to a convention.

No Defence

It was therefore rather inter-
esting that Harris’s remarks
drew substantial applause from
the delegates and were not re-
plied to by any leader of the
OFL. No one rose to defend the
Lazarus book, including the
leadership, even after another
delegate proposed that it should
not, under any circumstances, be
circulated in schools and libraries
because it would only add to
the cold war nonsense that they

_were already subjected to by the

monopoly media.

Harris held up a copy of Tom
McEwen’s book, The Forge
Glows Red, and Suggested to the
delegates that a more accurate
account of at least part of the
labor history of the country
could be gained by reading that
book. Close to 150 delegates
took him at his word and one
out of every eight bought a
copy. :

Again on the debate on labor
political action Harris argued
with the delegates to the con-
vention, mostly Supporters of
the New Democratic Party, that
labor political action cannot and
must not-be reduced to support
of the NDP at election times, im-
portant as that might be. What
was involved, he said, was politi-
cal action which struck at the
root of the problem, the capital-
ist system itself. This the NDP
does not do; it restricts itself to
attempts to reform the system

and make it work better for

working people, and in no way
tackles the root cause of the
real problems facing working
people. Labor political action,
Harris said, had to be more and
more aimed at the heart of the

steps to withdraw Canada from
NATO... from NORAD ... to
cut arms expenditures in Canada
by 50%, that now goes at over
two billion dollars a year .. .
and this would be in line with
the battle to make detente an
irreversible process and enable
Canada, as a consequence of
this, to strengthen its indepen-
dence.”

The concept of peaceful co-
existence first advanced by the
Soviet Union 57 years ago, and
“which today finds expression in
the struggle for detente,” Kash-
tan said, “is an essential part of

_ the pathway to socialism every-

where,
“This is truly the century of

- the working class — that class

which is destined to become the
leader in our country as it is the
leading force in the Soviet Union

system; it had to address itself
to policies which lead to the eli-
mination of the capitalist system
and the establishment of social-

‘ism. Heavy applause followed

his remarks.
Lift Sights

C. S. Jackson, president of the
UE captured the attention—of
the convention when he led off
the debate on inflation with a
plea to the OFL to lift its sights
beyond proposals to simply fight
back against the effects of mon-
opoly on their lives, important
as that is, and- come to grips
with a wide ranging set of pro-
posals which would democratize
the economic, social and politi-
cal life of the province and
break the power of the giant cor-
porations. Jackson drew heavily
on the experience of the trade
unions in Europe and_ other
countries when he called on the

convention to move into the cen- |

tre of a broad struggle for a
new direction in the economic
and political life of Ontario and
Canada as a whole. . .

Other left delegates spoke
cogently on resolutions on the
Labor Relations Act, education,
equality for women, and the
plight of farm workers, as did
many not yet directly connected
with the left. :

It was a united convention.
The general policies adopted
were agreed to by the over-
whelming majority and offer a
sound basis to extend the strug-
gles in the year ahead against
mcnopoly, at the bargaining
table and in the shops and com-
munities and on the election
front, both municipal and pro-
vincial.

While it was a united conven-
tion, two trends contended for
delegates’ support. One, support-
ed by the main leadership which
is reformist, played down the
roll of the working class and

‘legates, coming second !

‘at this convention will be

he

° ”
and other socialist countries:
said. -- : i

It is necessary, he em ist

“to strengthen the Commas
Party of Canada as the ff BA
thentic voice of socia is onl
.Canada, because it is te ali
party that advances a rectiol
perspective, a socialist dif
to the working class 9 Cott
country. The stronger the activ
munist Party, the more em
are the forces of peace, ada.
racy and socialism in pe pelt
“The efforts of the Sor nge
ple opened up a new Cit’ wit
for mankind 57 years a80 cot
liam Kashtan said, when he tot
cluded his remarks in bei up
“In the period now opel Fite
the working class will sh oO
self to be the gravedige®)
monopoly capitalism in 2)
ing number of countries.

we sco eae we gseoe Se ewe

SS

=
—

oss

a
masses in action. The ota :
class policy, sees the baie! g |
simply as collective bare dient i
agencies, but as a key ing’ kine
in the struggle of the W joité”
class to end capitalist eXP

tion.

Large Votes

el
While it would not do % he |

estimate the strength 0 ie 14
class-conscious left or mi ist a
the still dominant [eo

int

trend in the OFL, it is of Peg, |
est to note that Gordon ive! ty
a known Communist, Te 4,
496 votes from 1,054 voting ti
wh?
lyn Armstrong of the U slate :
picked up 576 votes on @ ele” | a
in opposition to the offici@! .
tions, A the | a

More than 1,000 copies ist
Canadian Tribune were by the
buted and well received iptions i
delegates; 16 new subsere yr?
to the Tribune were $* ffo
with a relatively modest for x
Progress Books set up § of | al
a half day in the lobby i mite? N

a

convention, where itS- 7 jay r
display (it had a fuller aired) ly
in one of the rooms of the |,

created great interest. agg | §,
The Canadian Peace Coney
had an official booth in th en
by, along with the grape | gf? | th
ers, anti-poverty movemeé nil? bi
a number of ‘other worth! —
organizations. ; rad? qt
The many Communist. , W
union delegates, whose nu g the
grow each year, estimatiN> on | th

fruitfulness of the cont pl h

for Ontario working F aif | Mh
noted that the convention * orl? D
lesson is to redouble the “an? ‘
of the Party to build itS ~ jhe

S;
in. the shops and office 90 |
mines and mills of ontar the | th
that the many fine voices neat? th
left and Communist Party j ine!

next year with as many ™°