Auto Pact core of problem
for Canadian auto industry

TORONTO — As the auto crisis worsens and continues to contribute to Canada’s ailing |

economy, unemployment is paralyzing many of Southern Ontario’s towns and Cities, especially

Windsor.

The Communist Party of Canada’s (CP@) Auto Secretary,
recently that the Canada-U.S. Auto Pact is a big part of the problem.

John Maclennan, told the Tribune

“Since 1972, Canada has not benefitted, in fact we’ ve been ina deficit situation since then... a
growing deficit, especially in the parts area.”’
Federal Industry Minister Herb Gray has been in Washington for talks aimed at rewriting the
Auto Pact, but few observers think Gray will stand up for Canada’s long-term interests by

demanding an end to the branch

plant role played by this country’s industrialists.

Ignoring reports that U.S. officials are not prepared to make substantive changes in the Pact,
Gray said last month that he expects cooperation because ‘‘we have a mutual interest in-helping
restore the health of the North American auto industry.”

Maclennan, who was an assembl
Auto Workers (UAW) before goin
forward the idea of a Canadian-owned and Canadian-

Pact in 1965.”’

er at Douglas Aircraft and an active member of the United
g to work for the CPC, says,

“The Communist Party put

designed car as an alternative to the Auto

‘“We see it as a viable alternative because (President) Carter’s auto aid package, which includes

more tax benefits for the manufacturers, the relaxation of emission standards and so on,

mean the continuation of current production rationalization.

“‘Inthiscase, it willmeanmoney
given from the government adds
up to more unemployment. I can’t
see it and my party can’t see it,”’
he asserts. ‘*The aid package just
doesn’t resolve this contradiction
— it will continue to go that way
and workers who are laid-off now
will not be recalled.”

Under the terms of the 15-year
old pact, Canada has recorded a
$11 billion loss in auto trade with
the United States. Last year’s
loss totalled $3.1 billion and the
figures continue to bear out Mac-
lennan’s belief that the agreement
is at the root of the trouble.

As for the Canadian govern-
ment, the Auto Secretary thinks it
may deal with the effects of the
auto shutdown, — through possi-
ble additional benefits to auto

workers — but not the cause. |

“The cause is the economic
domination of our country by the
United States through multi-
national corporations.

“You don't get at that prob-
lem,’ Maclennan maintains, ‘“‘us-
ing the government’s method be-
cause Canadian workers want
jobs, not benefits."

PSAC director
named to OCSW

OTTAWA — Eleanor Ryan,
the Public Service Alliance of
Canada’s national director for
Ontario, has been named to the
Ontario Status of Women Coun-
vil. The appointment is for a
two-year term.

The Council monitors women’s
issues and makes recommenda-
tions to the provincial govern-
ment.

“I think there should be a
movement by workers for that
kind of thing; their own industry
which is run in the interests of

. working people and not in the in-

terests,\of multi-nationals.”’

Another factor in the auto crisis
is the ‘“Big ‘‘Three’’ manufactur-
ers’ concentration on the produc-
tion of large cars and trucks while
consumers have been demanding
fuel-efficient models. This, com-
bined with unbearable gasoline
prices, has led many people to
switch to smaller imports or used
domestic vehicles.

Maclennan thinks the key to
mobilizing auto workers around a
developed program for the indus-
try lies in the UAW. ‘‘We have to
build a good, strong left in the
UAW.” |

“‘For too many years ... a
rather right-wing leadership has
been happy to settle for nickels
and dimes in the collective
agreements ... this only worked
when times were good, but now
that’s out the window.”’

Maclennan says that the CPC is
researching some of the detailed
points of the crisis, including
technological change and re-tool-
ing, but the situation could be al-
leviated substantially by institut-

ing a 32-hour work week (with no.

loss in pay), ‘‘now — because it’s
needed now’’.

Throughout.the CPC's 59-year
history, Communists have
worked for a total overhaul of the
auto and steel industries. Much of

their work has resulted in greater
. trade union democracy and im-

provements to collective agree-
ments that have been standar-
dized throughout North Ameri-
ca’s biggest plants and mills.

FERRY WORKERS WIN STRIKE
ST. JOHN'S — Members of the Brotherhood of Railway workers
(BRAC) have won a five-day strike against the Newfoundland Trans-
portation Company, which operates a ferry service between St. John’s
and nearby Bell Island. The 35 workers were fighting a company that
gets over $1 million a year in federal subsidies to run the service.

willjust CP auto secretary, John Maclennan ... a Canadian-owned and
signed car is an aiternative to the increasing deficit of the Auto

an

Upstream shuts down its press

OTTAWA — After four years of:
publishing, Upstream — a na-

tional women's newspaper — has

closed-up shop. -

The paper was devoted to
carrying news and features on the
Canadian women’s movement
and was produced by a collective
made up of full-time workers and -
volunteers. It was funded through
donations, subscriptions and oc-
casional government grants.

In this month's final issue col-
lective members. suggest a
number of reasons for Up-
stream’s demise.

Pat Daley, a journalist who
worked with the paper from its
early days, wrote, ‘“‘We have to
change our approach ... (to re-
spond to changing conditions).
We cannot be isolationist because
we will not win other women ...
that way.

“I feel that the movement ex-
pects in some way that women
will come to it as soon as they’

realize what it is saying,’’ Daley
continues. ‘‘But that is not the
case; we have to go out and get
them and we have to have a future
to offer. We have to take credit
for the steps forward that have
been taken and show how they
don’t go far enough. We have to
be positive, dynamic and
convincing. .:.”’

The writers, artists and photo-
graphers who worked on Up-
stream covered everything from
daycare cutbacks to issues like

rape and abortion. When the
paper’s staff organized int
discussions throughout its pub
lishing life, much of the focus was
on the relationship between th
women’s movement and broadef
political demands put forward by
unions and parties.

Although Upstream’s collapsé
is regrettable, former _ staffers
have made it clear they intend t0
continue their commitment to the
women’s movement throug!
other forms. —

No mail for Western Guard _

TORONTO — Although the
Post. Office bureaucracy seldom
does anything right, it should be
applauded when it breaks the pat-
term —for example, the news that
it’s no longer delivering mail to
the leader of the white suprema-
cist Western Guard group.

Fascist John Ross Taylor's
mail is now being intercepted by
the Post Office and returmed to its

sender as a continuation of a pro"
hibitory order issued in 1965
against Taylor for distributing
hate literature.

:

Taylor is a self-proclaimed 1
cist and anti-semite who was fine?
recently for contempt of court be
cause he refused to obey an ordet
of the Canadian Human Rights

Bice }
Commission.

RCMP tails Toronto labor head

TORONTO — The Executive
Secretary of the Metro Toronto
Labor Council has joined the
growing list of activists who
realize they are under RCMP sur-
veillance because of. their com-
mitment to the labor movement.

Mike Lyons announced last
week that while working for the
Public Service Alliance of Canada
in 1973, a co-worker of his: man-
aged to obtain a secret document
— allegedly prepared by the
RCMP Security Service — that
detailed Lyons’ political activity
dating from the mid-sixties.

’ Lyons told the Tribune that the
file contained notes, newspaper
clippings and photos relating to

demonstrations he had par-
ticipated in, visits to socialist
countries, and his work as a union
organizer in different locations.
He added that the RCMP had
mistakenly identified him as a
member of the now-defunct

Waffle group, ‘‘which they should

have realized, since they already
noted in another part of the file
that I was out of the country dur-
ing that period”’.

Lyons supports the view that
the RCMP is continuing its activ-
ity against trade unionists despite
the recent publicity surrounding
the McDonald Commission’s so-
called investigation of RCMP
wrongdoing.

“That's something that is ul
likely to change under the current
government ... whether it's thé
Tories or the Liberals,”’ he at
ded. ;

es

Previous revelations of RCMP
activity against political targets
on the left have already indicated
that Canada’s federal police force
is spending hundreds of
thousands of tax dollars to keep
tabs on the Communist Party of
Canada, members of the New

}
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Democratic Party (including Ed
Broadbent), leaders and sup
porter of many labor unions,
and a wide variety of citizens a+
tive in mass movements. = |

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 25, 1980—Page 4

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