Women on GM picket line

Women support their men on the picket line outside General Motors’ plant at Oshawa where
10,000 workers, members of the United Auto Workers, have been on strike for more than a month,

fighting for equal pay and conditions with other auto workers.

Quebec labor leaders
bolt CCF party ranks

Romeo Mathieu, secretary of the Quebec Federation of Industrial Unions (CIG-CCL),
and Gerard Labelle, chairman of ‘the political action committee of Montreal Labor Council,

By HARRY BINDER

have announced their resignation from the ‘CCF.

The resignations came as an aftermath of the recent Canadian Congress of Labor
Top CCL officers railroaded rejection of the resolution from Montreal urging

convention.
that French Canadians be given
an opportunity to attend inter-
national conferences as _ repre-
sentatives of the labor movement.
They later manoeuvred to defeat
Mathieu in his bid for re-election
to the CCL executive board.

These matters were the sub-
ject of lively debate at the last
meeting of Montreal Labor
Council. R. J. Lamoureux, of the
United Steelworkers of America,
was accused of organizing a
clique to defeat Mathieu. He was
also charged by Andre Thibodeau,
CCL official, with saying that
“our provincial labor laws are
the best as far as labor is con-
cerned.” These views, observers
felt, showed ‘the obvious attempt
by Lamoureux to curry favor

MONTREAL

with Premier Maurice Duplessis.

Mathieu, addressing the coun-
cil, said that there existed a
“similarity of mind between the
CCF and CCL” in matters per-
taining to the rights of the
French Canadian people.

He Said that while he con-
tinued to ‘agree with much that
was in the CCF program, he
could no longer go along with
the party. He accused his
opponents of underhanded deal-
ings and of changing their political
allegiance whenever it suited
their purpose.

Jacques V. Morin, former na-
tional president of the CCF
youth movement, supported
Mathieu’s views. He gave details
of the events leading to the cau-

cus of the Quebec delegates at
the CCL convention at Toronto,
and charged the Lamoureux group
with packing the hall to assure
Mathieu’s defeat. . Even after
this, Lamoureux only won by a
vote of 57 to 55 at the Quebec
caucus.

Observers regard the latest
resignations as further signs
of the disintegration of the
CCF in the province, which
has not’ been halted by the re-
cent convention decision to
change its name to Social
Democratic party. Failure to
recognize the French Canadian
people as a nation lies at the
root of its present difficulties

in Quebec, many observers
’ feel. ‘ :

LPP parley asks establishment
ye e. 5) me en |
of Columbia River authority
Establishment of a Columbia River Au thority under joint provincial-federal _ con-
trol for development of the river's vast hydro resources on an east-west grid was called

for in a resolution adopted by the delegates attending the 11th B.C.Yukon convention
of the Labor-Progressive party in Clinton Hall here over the weekend.

The resolution, addressed to
Prime Minister Louis St. Lau-
rent, Premier W. A. C. Bennett
and General A. G. L. MacNaugh-
ton reads:

“Whereas development of the
Columbia River hydro resourtes

on -an_ east-west ' grid within
Canada for Canadian needs, is
decisive for the future of south-
ern British Columbia and Alberta,
in that it would compel great new
manufacturing industries to locate

Massey-Harris president
on tour of Soviet Union

; TORONTO
James S. Duncan, chairman
and president of Massey-Harris-
Ferguson Ltd., makers, of farm
implements, arrived in Moscow
on October 22 for a tour of
the Soviet Union.
A company announcement said
Duncan would be the guest of

Vladimir Matskevich, newly-
appointed Soviet minister of
agriculture. Matskevich headed

the recent Soviet farm delega-

tion that toured Canada and the
UESs

Duncan’s itinerary includes
visits to implement and tractor
factories, collective and _ state-
operated farms, universities, hos-
pitals, markets, large stores,
residential areas. He will tour
Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov and
Kiev. ‘

Soviet technical experts and
agricultural officials have visited
Massey-Harris-Ferguson plants
within the past year in Britain
and Canada.

in that area, establishing a great
in the Koote-
nays, and creating thousands of

industrial base

new jobs.

“And whereas powerful U.S.

interests, represented by such

arrogant spokesmen as as Sena-!

tor Richard Neuberger. are

scheming to frustrate this Cana-
dian development by utilizing
these waters for increasing the
production of power in the U.S.
plants to expand the industriali-
zation . of. they. .Ur >.) Pacific
Northwest.

“Therefore be’ it resolved that
we call for the establishment of
a Columbia River Authority un-
der joint provincial-federal con-
trol for the all-sid&é development
and utilization of the Columbia
River resources in the interests

|MORGAN TELLS LPP:

|jgrab of our resources is not a+

Power

shapes —

B.C. future ©
“The fight to stop the U.S. grab of our resources is.
the issue which will dominate the whole period of political
struggle up to the formation of a people’s coalition gover™

ment,” predicted Nigel Morgan, LPP provincial leader, 19 }
his main report to the 11th annual convention of the B.C.

eine

Yukon section of the Labor-|
Progressive party held .in Clin-
ton Hall kere last weekend.

Guest speaker Tim Buck, LPP
national leader, expressed the
same thought when he told the
convention: ‘The question of
power resources and whether
they are to be developed within
our own country or exported to
the U.S. may be decisive for our
future as an industrial power.”

Behind the speakers’ rost-
rum hung a large banner em-
phasizing the importance of
the resources issue: “Develop
B.C. through public power —
Stop the U.S. grab.”

“Of prime importance to B.C.,
the future security of its people
and the independence of our
country is stopping the drain-
off of our natural resources,”
Nigel Morgan said in his report.
He reminded delegates that the
1954 LPP convention singled out
the resources question for a con-
centrated campaign, and within
a few months it became the cen-
tral issue of B.C. politics.

Morgan reviewed the campaign
waged on the development of
B.C.’s newly discovered natural
gas reserve, and the role of. the
B.C. Electric in the natural gas
sellout to the U.S.

Castigating the Social Credit
government for “returning to
the B.C. Electric its former mon-
opoly position®in those areas that
have enjoyed the advantage of
the government-owned B.C.
Power Commission,’ the LPP
leader continued:

“There is no. provincial politi-
cal issue on which there is such
a common, united position as on
the question of power—the need
to extend the authority and org-
anization of the government’s
B.C. Power Commission. ~

“We propose to launch from
this convention a campaign to
win wide public support to |
have the government extend
the authority of the B.C. Power
Commission to take over the
hydro and gas division of the
B.C. Electric; to make provi-
sion to assist municipalities or
‘power districts’ where such
are deemed advisable, to take
over and operate their own
electric and gas distribution
and transit systems.

“The. fight to stop the U.S.

temporary, passing issue. On the
contrary it is the issue that will
dominate the whole period of
struggle up to the formation of
a people’s coalition. It will be
one of the central questions on
which such a government will
come to power.

“It is the issue of the B.C.
political arena which most clear-
ly expresses. the fight for Cana-
dian independence. To the ex-
tent that the U.S. succeeds in
grabbing our resources, the fight
for return of control of them*be-
comes unavoidable.

“Just as full development of

{of British Columbia and Canada.”

the fabulously rich resources of

‘more clearly that this

NIGEL MORGAN

the-northwesticorner fi am ‘
the benefit of the people of inte
province is impossible witho
regaining control over the Alife

kan Panhandle which shuts if : ee:

off from an ocean outlet, S° wit

our present day resources of ag
oil, hydro, aluminum, asbestos:
copper, “forest and elem
Whether B.C. and Canad@ cae ‘s
take advantage of the vast new
possibilities for trade across =~
Pacific now. opening up, will de
pend on whether we control oUF

resources, and above— all, ° aS
power resources — hydro, °”
and oil.” A

Analyzing the role playeé ee
the Social Credit governme®”
Morgan continued:

“Less and less is heard; iat ‘
ticularly in the legislature, @ ‘he
championing the cause © pee ye
‘little man’ against the mon
lies. The Socreds’ _unsee® ”
haste to give away B.
sources to big business,
ally: the ‘U.S. trusts, SOGWe ss has

gover A }
ment is helping the monopon™,
to bankrupt the very Jittle - en!
it was supposed to represePh™

pp acl

“The LPP is leading the BE"
against the Socred policy of © ee
ing away B.C.’s_ resources |
Kaiser Aluminum, El Pas°
Columbia Cellulose, E. P-
lor and H. R. MacMillan.

“We fought with all our eneiey .
against their reactionaty tak
policy of raising the sales
from three to five percenY the
will fight their betrayal of |)
B.C. Power Commission; ‘ons
granting of special concess? aoe aM
to the big monopalies like ~
can and the ‘B.C. Blectric, te
their proposals to re-intr 4

Tae

PT te
the antiquated feudal system. cen

bridge and road ‘tolls.

“We are opposed to.
ing forest management licenses ai
- to private companies. We ie at
for a policy of public OWN’,
ship and control of our 10%
lands through public wor ne
circles; a position we will fig. ae

half of the LPP.”

grant: i f t

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 4, 1955 — PAGE 2

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