Only struggle wil suffice

f

f, The AFL-CIO Executive Council’s statement on President Nixon's
control mechanism” falls dangerously short of what the

' movement—and the masses of people—need and want.

e4,.© Statement bluntly charges that “the wage control mechanism
Ny ished by the President of the United States is being used as
n Vice to destroy the basic American concept of free collective
siBining ”

(e fut from this accurate statement the AFL-CIO Council does not
gi” the necessary conclusion, nor the necessary organizational
@ “ures that must be taken to save collective bargaining.

: S Opens the AFL-CIO Executive Committee to the charge that
Playing with fire instead of fighting to put it out.
a), Statement recommends: that the five labor representatives
: On the Pay Board only as long as “reasonable hope exists of
Thee recognition of the validity of contracts.”
ea, not resistance, let alone a fight-back, but a whining for
ns.
a Tecommendation that AFL-CIO unions ‘take every lawful
iis at their command to ensure that their contracts are honored”
he the guarantee that action will be taken and will be effective—
4, LObilization of the trade union membership and, through them,
; Yommunities in which they live.
Xon knows the power of labor. That is why he went to Bal

ull

atin
aw rank-and-file.

T to address the convention Nov. 19. But he offered no con-
Bes because he also knows the trade union bureaucrats who
i, PoSitions of command. They are as fearful as he of an aroused,

that voice is being increasingly heard. From the day in

et When the Nixon-big business offensive was launched, work-

mS Were

angered, embittered and demanded action. Many trade

Hy Officials also upheld the honor and interests of the labor

Ve

\ Ment by taking a militant stand.

, eee Harbor, the Black Caucus distinguished itself by its firm
Sighted program, including “use of the weapon of the general

fy” if necessary.”

pe Daily World charged from the beginning what the AFL-CIO
de Nally admits, that a drive to destroy collective bargaining is
§,' Way. But the Daily World pin-pointed the source of the

i
Wet as the Nixon-big business offensive and emphasized that

a ma; ae
yy vajor objective.

4 *S of people.

The erogation of labor contracts is involved.

: Issue is, as George Meyers, national labor secretary of the
unist Party USA said, an attempt by the Nixon-big business
* to place ‘“‘a noose around the neck of the working class.”

+ .8sue also is that this economic. offensive contains the seed
Cqescistic economic order,” as Gus Hall, general-secretary of
, Mmunist Party, pointed out, with the regimentation of labor

4 A the AFL-CIO does at Bal Harbor and how the enormous
woe of the trade union movement is moved into fighting back
i. cating this offensive is the concern of every worker and the

(Daily World editorial)

- Quebec unions ponder future

By SAM WALSH

The Congress of the Quebec
Federation of Labor, beginning
on Nov. 30, will take place a
few weeks after the decision of
the NDP federal council con-
firming its opposition to na-
tional self-determination for
Quebec. Even if that same coun-
cil allows the Quebec NDP to
pursue its own policy of self-
determination, the situation is
nevertheless very serious, for
Quebeckers cannot trust the
social-democratic party to take
up the sword for the French-
Canadian nation. This would do
enormous harm to the cause of
working class unity of the two
nations and its enough to make
inadmissable the endorsement
of the NDP as the vehicle for
independent political action of
the Quebec working. class, and,
we believe, most doubtful for
the workers of English Canada
as well.

The Communist Party of
Canada also gives the Com-
munist Party of Quebec com-
plete control of its polices and
structure in Quebec, but in the
case of the CPC, it has for de-
cades spoken for the right of
self-determination up to and

‘including separation. This is an
integral part of its principles of

proletarian internationalism. But
let us be clear: neither the Com-
munist Party of Canada nor the
Communist Party of Quebec
advocates separation as the best
way for French Canadians to
make use of the right of. self-
determination. To the contrary.
We think and we say openly
that we believe that separation
would be harmful to the work-
ers of both nations. But we de-
fend the right of separation.

Having said this, let us go
back to the main thread of our
argument.

iCheap-labor cars from Orient

~ By WILLIAM ALLAN

j pf RBORN — The United
diy Pile Workers Union
7" O00 admits to a loss of
i Jobs because of the

Vy

‘ he export of capital fin-

ty ‘Plants of General Motors,

| ae Chrysler in over 36
ig Outside the U.S. and

AA
fy 8W threat to jobs of U.S.
+ nadian workers arises
| Bots the Ford Motor
Atic aa will seek to assemble
Te, i South Vietnam. Also
fi "ed that American Mo-
iy a Will likewise seek an
ql « assemble jeeps and a
ie,” 2 South Vietnam.
Pic, Ford Il described the
Re co, It’s really a low cost
fuse, pared to anything we
fang _to seeing in this coun-
M,., ‘¢ Will be quite good.”
qi « Ses the vehicle, called
Q ow car, could be con-
ft, © “ither a bus or a truck.
fj, ¢ "© doors on the car,
ft, but' these could be ad-
Nigq Confirmed, price would

Bhan.” the South Vietnam-
Mithe. ct and other parts of

Ras : :
Shitiven Sia are ripe for a

80 type of vehicle of
} Ver Rue racism hangs out
im,

| osses’ Paradise?
Veh learned that parts for
Cle might be made in

0 here i
Parts workers making

‘ an

i, <=

earn $270 a year.

Of multinational corpo-’

Ford has also a guarantee
against strikes, plus a five-year
tax holiday. Ford parts will also
be made in South Korea where
the wage for parts supplier
workers in the electronic indus-
try is $30 a month, with women
workers getting $23 a month
for a 48-hour work week. Ford
has a plant there.

In Taiwan, Ford-Philco has an
operation where Ford made $2.5
million in profits in 1969.

Ford Asia-Pacific operations,
headquartered in Melbourne, 1n-
clude sales and assembly com-
panies in Australia, New Zea-
land, the Philippines, Singapore
and Thailand, with plans for
plants in Taiwan and South
Korea.

Want Cheap Labor

Ford makes no bones about
building cars outside the U.S.
and Canada. Both he and Gen-
eral Motors chairman James M.
Roche charge that labor costs in
North America are four times as

i hey are in Japan, twice
high as they seas

as high as in Germany,
three times as high as in Great
Britain.

Ford, Roche, and Lynn TOWN
shend, president of Chrysler tetl
the North American auto work-
ers that if they want to save
their jobs, then they have to
help the companies to cut
costs.” This was spelled out by
Roche during the 1970 -negotia-
tions—that production must be
increased, less grievances filed,
and any raises must be tied to

productivity.

We can be sure that whatever
wages the Ford Motor Co. pays
in South Vietnam it won’t be
more than they pay in Taiwan,
$270 a year for the 48-hour
work week, bans on strikes, no
unions, and no taxes for at least
five years. The outlook for GM,
Ford, Chrysler and American
Motors is to count more on slave
labor profits abroad like assem-
bling cars in an imperialist-U.S.
satellite like South Vietnam.

Meanwhile in Michigan where
the bulk of U.S. vehicles are
built shows unemployment for
the November-January perspec-
tive to be 7.4% with unemploy-
ment in the auto industry reach-
ing 378,000.

Chrysler has just announced
meanwhile a truck venture with
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. of Ja-
pan, for both of them to build a
truck plant in Mexico, where
wages in some auto setups are
as low as $12 a week.

Profits Roll In

‘Chrysler, according to the
UAW-Chrysler department, will
lay off employees early in De-

cember because the amount of .

all makes of unsold cars will
zoom past the 144 million mark.

For the first nine months of
1971, GM made in profits. after
taxes,  $1,394,405,514; Ford,
$453,000,000; Chrysler, $48.5
million. In 1970, all three com-
panies realized about 20% of
their income from— overseas
operations (not counting profits
from Canadian subsidiaries). |

Clash at La Presse— moment of truth.

Several trade union leaders
have of late been encouraging
the Quebec trade union move-
ment to endorse the Parti Qué-

becois as the vehicle of inde--

pendent political action for the
working class of Quebec. But
splits within that party, espe-
cially since its denunciation of
the great united working class
demonstration in support of the
striking La Presse workers and
of the trade union chiefs who
led it, seem to signal a clear
cut victory for the petit-bour-
geois elements. Our readers
will probably know more in this
regard after the results of the
extraordinary meeting of the
national council of the PQ on
this subject taking place on
Nov. 27.

The illusions according to
which the working class move-
ment and the “left” can capture
the PQ through the process of
working from within are as in-
fantile as the illusion which
René Levesque had that he
could change the Liberal Party,
dominated by large capitalists,
into a party of the French-
Canadian petit bourgeoisie. The
results of that illusion are well-
known.

Of course, there is also the
opinion, somewhat  anarcho-
syndicalist (oddly related to the
deep-rooted ideas of the most
conservative elements in the
trade union movement) that
says that the working class
doesn’t need a mass. political
party independent of the capi-
talist and petit-bourgeois par-
ties. According to them, it is
only through ‘direct action,”
demonstrations, a general strike
(for several of them accom-
panied with terrorism), or else,
by supporting the “friends of

the workers” and by punishing
the enemies within the bour-
geois parties, that workers will
come to power. The anarcho-
syndicalists do not even have an
answer to the problem posed
the very day after coming to
power—how to govern—apart
from various vague conceptions
of autogestion (self-manage-
ment).

Thus the decision now taken
to consolidate working class
unity on the vital political
sphere necessities the formation
of a mass federated political
party.

This seems to be the inevit-
able issue trade union con-
gresses must deal with sooner
or later.

Let it be said in the mean-
time that the working class
movement must certainly make
its own the demand for national
self-determination. The policy
of unilingualism, however, is
the other side of the coin of
discrimination and _ coercion,
and it can only do harm to the
basic principle of the working
class movement—working class
unity, irrespective of national
origin, language, color or sex,
on the basis of equality. (The
fact that the Trotskyites have
made this dangerous nationalist
position one of their demands
is a measure of their opportun-
ism in wanting to make nation-
alists out of working class in-
ternationalists instead of the
contrary).

What is the value of forging
working class unity on the in-
ter-trade union level if simul-
taneously one persists in des-
troying it ‘within each trade
union and in each workplace by
a nationalism entirely alien to
the working class movement?

London railwaymen

form joint council

LONDON—The London Rail-
way Workers Council has been
re - established by four rail
unions. The Council’s secretary,
Al Bernhardt, reports the four

“unions — United Transportation

Union, Canadian Brotherhood
of Railway, Transport and Gen-
eral Workers Union, Brother-
hood of Locomotive Engineers
and Brotherhood of Maintenance
and Way Employees—are invit-
ing the 17 other railway unions
in Canada to participate.

Formed originally in 1959, the
council was disbanded with the
closing about six years ago of
the London car-shop of the CNR.

Considerable support is now
being given the new council, ac-

cording to secretary Bernhardt,
by the running trades which were
not active in the original coun-
cil. Items that are to receive
attention by the council include
technological change, pensions,
safety and curtailment of rail
service.

Noting that there are a num-
ber of rail councils in Canada
but not national body, Bern-
hardt said the council will pro-
bably seek establishment of an

Overall council.

William Compton of the
United Transportation Union
has been elected chairman of
the council, which is to meet on
Dec. 13 in the Labor Temple.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 197] — PAGE 5