LABOR SCENE

BY BRUCE MAGNUSON

Today, when it has become
ee for North American
de union leaders to express
ncern for united action on a
forldwide scale against giant
rporations of international
Bos capital, operating
*om bases in North America,
Western Europe and Japan, it
flay be of interest to know
hat the President of the Trade
ions of the USSR has said on
lis issue.
“The general advance of the
rking class and trade union
vement is influenced by new
gevelopments arising from the
iving of present-day imperial-
mi to adapt to the conditions
* the struggle between the two
stems, to make the capitalist
stem capable of surviving the
nfrontation with socialism,
ile at the same time shifting
the difficulties onto the
oulders of the working peo-
. The coalescence of the
onopolies and the capitalist
ate has assumed a_ global
aracter. The policy of im-
rialist integration, encourage-
lent of monopoly concentra-
On of production and capital,
w forms of the export of cap-
government financing of
dustrial development and re-
arch programs, and _ other

of state-monopoly ©

Enemy of Monopoty Power
i‘... Capital, defending its
sitions, is conducting a.drive
the social and political rights
d freedoms of the trade
Weions and the working people.
he number of unemployed rose
10 million in the principal
pitalist countries—and this is
cording to official, minimized
ta. Speed-up, the cost of liv-
i@ and the tax burden are
/Ounting.”
| “The working class is the
p incipal the strongest and
Lost frre€oncilable enemy of
Me power of the monopolies and
le centre attracting all the
iti-monopoly forces. It is swift-
growing in numbers. While at
le beginning of this century
ebie proletariat numbered about
0M million, today it exceeds 570
ffillion . . .”
1,
Pp’ |

‘For the Unity of the World

Trade Union Movement’*

«“.. The working class of
capitalist countries has launch-
ed new gigantic battles. Between
1965 and 1970 alone the num-
ber of strikers in developed
capitalist countries amounted
to about 312 million. During
these years, a high pitch of class
battles was characteristic of the
United States, Britain, France,
Japan, Italy, Spain and a num-
ber of other countries. The in-
teraction of the working class
with the general democratic
movement is on the increase,
assuming a wider front and mas-
sive scale...”

Proletarian Internationalism

. The role of the entire
world trade union movement as
an important social force in the
anti-imperialist struggle, above
all the role of its progressive
wing, is swiftly growing and be-
coming ever more substantial
...A decisive part in this
respect has been played by the
unswerving loyalty of progres-
sive trade unions to the prin-
ciple of proletarian internation-
alism and class solidarity, their
application of the line of deve-
loping co-operation with all
trade unions irrespective of
their orientation.”

“The political and ideological
maturity of the world trade
union movement is rising, and
the influence of the world com-
munist movement in its ranks is
on the increase. An ever greater
number of trade unions is put-
ting forward the struggle for the
socialist way of development as
a programmatic goal.”

“The revolutionary tendencies
inherent in the trade unions as
the largest class organizations
of the workers are developing
ever faster in present-day con-
ditions. Life itself has indicat-
ed the way to the trade unions
to hundreds of millions of peo-
ple working for hire, faced with
the relentless drive by the capi-
talists on their rights and inter-
ests. The ranks of the world
trade union movement are ex-
panding and-now their member-
ship exceeds 260 million .. .”

... The progressive wing
. united in the World Fed-
eration of Trade Unions is on
the upgrade ...In the last

‘a At the Benin of this century the proletariat numbered about
: million. eroday it exceeds 570 million. . .

EAU HD &
a

four years it was joined by 26
trade union centres of 15 coun-
tries and, in addition, 21 trade
union centres of 16 countries
established contact with it.”

United Action Vital

“A directly opposite picture
is observed in the reformist
trade union movement. Pheno-
mena of disarray and loss of
perspective have grown strong-
er in it. Its policy of anti-
communist isolationism, ‘social
partnership’ and keeping trade
unions out of politics has failed.
The influence of the American
Federation of Labor — Congress
of Industrial Organizations (AFL-
CIO) has sharply dropped. The
anti-communist position of the
leadership of the International
Confederation of Free Trade
Unions (ICFTU) has seriously
undermined its prestige. Many
member organizations .of the
Christian World Confederation
of Labor are taking positions of
class struggle, are establishing
contacts with the WFTU and
trade union centres affiliated
with it. New possibilities have
arisen for rapproachment and
co-operation among different
detachments of the trade union
movement in achieving united
action to defend the vital iner-
ests of the working people.”

Left petty-bourgeois __revi-
sionism has inflicted great harm
on the trade union movement.
This is tragically demonstrated
by the fate of China’s trade
unions, After the failure of cal-
culations by the Maoist leader-

ship to split the world progres-

sive trade_union movement and
capture in it positions of hege-
mony, the Maoists compelled
the trade unions of the People’s
Republic of China to isolate
themselves, and later on they
were disbanded. We are con-
vinced, however, that the work-
ing class and the other work-
ing people of China will revive
their trade unions and the lat-
ter will take a worthy place in
the fraternal family of the trade
unions of socialist countries and
the world trade union move-
ment.”

Defend Workers’ Interests

“In view of the offensive of
the monopolies, the working
class has been increasingly
striving for united action in re-
cent = years, t1-u

“From the rostrum of our
Congress, in the name of the
members of the Soviet trade
unions, many millions strong,
we issue a fervent call to all
trade unions of the most diverse
trends, to all who prize the
cause and interests of the work-
ing people—to display good
will for rapproachment so as to
achieve united action.” (Em-
phasis added.)

vr

% The caption on this article
and its contents comprise sel-
ected quotations from a section
of the Report of the All-Union
Central Council of Trade
Unions to the 15th Congress of
Trade Unions of the USSR. The
Congress was held nine months
ago. The above quoted report
was delivered at its opening
session, March 20, 1972.

We shall continue in_ this
column next week to discuss
the current perspectives for
trade union unity on an inter-
national scale, by examining
some of the more recent con-
crete developments.

terete

“leading members.

Se memories,” the appeal says.

ketal says the c

WORLD PROTEST ASKED"
Political prisoners lives
endangered in the Sudan

>
' KHARTOUM — The Communist Party of Sudan has issued ‘*
“an urgent appeal for help in saving the lives of three of its. s

On October 19 the forces of the “bloody counter-revolu
tionary regime of Sudan” arrested Al Guzuli Said and Khidi
Nasr, Central Committee members, and El Sir Gaafer, a
~member of the party's Khartoum Provincial committee.

“The anti-democratic nature of the regime that is imposed
on our people, its barbaric actions against all revolutione
and progressive fighters . . . Its assasination of our immorta
comrades Abdel Khalig Mahgoub, El Safia Ahmed Et Sheikh,
__ Joseph Garang and their ‘comrades is still vividly in our

. “Hundreds. of our comrades, cai ‘patriots and progres
__ sives are still languishing in. stag facing such wretches

“On the adc oe the prevailing candigads iret
|, “we are alerted ei mt

“appeal to you

* comrades ey demanding - their immedi :
with oll the other political’ detainees ond en ni
ed that demands be

for !

Huge profits made from
foreign labor in West

The UN General Assembly has
appealed to several countries in
Europe and elsewhere to end
discrimination against foreign
workers on their territory. The
Assembly has recommended that
the UN human rights commis-
sion tackle illegal immigration
at the next session, and the In-
ternational Labor Organization
has been invited to continue in-
vestigating the exploitation of
foreign workers.

“Over the last decade,” wrote
Igor Melnikov in a recent edi-
tion in Pravda, “interstate labor
migration in Europe has assum-
ed a mass scale.” His article
continued: Hundreds of thous-
ands of people in the prime of
life daily leave Turkey, southern
Italy, Greece, Spain and some
other countries. Industrially ad-
vanced capitalist states in Wes-
ern Europe now have more than
10,000,000 foreign workers. In
France the number of immigrant
workers is 3,500,000; in Federal
Germany, 2,300,000; in Switzer-
land, 1,000,000; and in Britain,
upwards of 1,500,000.

Lost Labor Power

Monopoly propoganda state-
ments that labor - importing
countries act as benefactors of
developing nations and help
them cope with unemployment
are not worth a farthing. Rather
the reverse is true: emigration
is a direct loss of a sizeable per-
centage of labor power which
could be used in the interest of
national development.

Consideration in the UN of
the labor migration problem was
preceded by a serious of scan-
dalous incidents. Thus in August
last year, customs officials dis-
covered contraband . . . 59 Afri-
cans, in lorries on the frontier
between Italy and France.

Each of the Western capitalist
monopolies uses foreign labor

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 12,.1973—PAGE 5 ..

power in its own way. But there
is one thing they do in a similar
manner: exploitation of -cheap
labor power from the less de-
veloped nations is being done on
an increasing scale, bringing
huge profit to the money-bags.

Ever more often immigrant
workers are joining the ranks of
fighters for social justice. Along
with the working class in West
Germany, Britain, France, Bel-
gium and other West European
countries, they are waging a de-
termined struggle for their
rights, against monopoly capital
dominance.

TLC demands an
end to bombings

In the first membership meet-
ing since the massive resump-
tion of the bombing in Vietnam,
the Toronto Labor Council una-
nimously endorsed an emer-
gency resolution condemning the
U.S. bombings.

The resolution said “The La-
bor Council of Metro Toronto
is appalled by the wanton con-
tinuation of the war in Vietnam.
The needless killing of innocent
people by indiscriminate bomb-
ing of non-military targets must
be halted.

We call on the Canadian La-
bor Congress to urge the federal
government of Canada to de-
mand that President Nixon order
his representatives to immedia-
tely resume meaningful negotia-
tions and stop the war.”

It is the first anti-war resolu-
tion to come out of the Toronto
Labor Council that has placed
the blame for the continuation
of the war on the U.S. alone.