EDITORIAL
‘Identity Unkown’?

hile the strike of the International Union of Operating

Engineers at the Royal Columbia Hospital in New
Westminster is all but settled with the signing of a contract
agreement between Union and management last week, some
basic problems still face organized labor, especially in the
“public” sector of the economy,

The settlement at Royal Columbia will apply to the wage
seales of operating engineers at five other major B,C, hospitals
at which the Union had also voted strike action if a satisfactory
settlement was not reached,

In this, as in other union struggles for decent wages, the
problem is a perennial one; the reality or threat of the ‘re-
straining’ injunction — then the perennial hue-and-cry for
‘compulsory arbitration’; the ‘outlawing’ of strikes — in
reality the elimination of free collective bargaining for all
workers in the civil or ‘public’ service, Socalled labor minis-
ters, managerial heads and sundry other socalled ‘statesmen’
never tire of expounding the ‘virtues’ of this compulsory arbi-
tration short-cut to the ultimate in wage slavery for ‘blue’
collar, ‘white’ collar or ‘no collar’ wage or salary earners;

In this objective the kept press also manages to do ‘its bit’
via the old gag about some ‘top labor leader’ or other strongly
disapproving of the strike (any strike), but. “who does not.
want his identity disclosed”, (see Van. Sun, Aug, 11 under
heading “Unionists Split. . .”.

Anti-union injunctions, real or threatened; the permanent
threat of compulsory arbitration, and the presshack-invented
‘top labor leader’ — all are standard equipment in today’s
affluent society for putting a crimp in the struggle for the
‘full dinner pail’ — a lesson Labor can never affort to neglect;

‘Lest We Forget. . .’

n' August 22nd, 1967, just 40-years ago “a good shoe-

maker”, Nicolo Sacco and “a poor fish pedlar”, Bar-
tolomeo Vanzetti, were burned to death in the electric chair in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Victims of one of the foulest and most dastardly frame-ups
in the history of American Labor, Sacco and Vanzetti were
charged with the murcer of two men in a payroll stickup in
South Braintree, Mass. in April of 1920. Ina perjury-laden
court these two immigrant Italian workers were convicted and
sentenced to death,

For seven long years they sat in prison while millions of
workers in every country in the world declared their inno-
cence and demanded their freedom — and the labor-hating
elete of Massachusetts sought their blood.

But those who murdered Sacco and Vanzetti, try as they
might, could not hide their identity, nor wash the blood of two
innocent working men from their hands, Governors Alvin
Fuller of Massachusetts who had refused a last appeal for
mercy, could find no ‘sanctuary’ anywhere from the scorn of
decent people,

Tom
McEWEN

ack in mid-July the US,
Navy Department commis-

crew, in a lengthy spiel well lard-
ed with balderdash,

sioned a new war ship. Nothing
particularly startling: about that.
They’re doing it almost daily in
one form or another with the
production of mass murder wea-
pons, so why not a ship?

This ship, a 20,200-ton Des-
troyer Tender built in the Puget
Sound Naval shipyard, would have
probably gone quite un-noticed
had it not been the event of her
‘christening’, That gave the show
awaye

This ‘christening’ is of more
than passing interest to organized
Labor, since the Pentagon war
hawks apparently decided to
“Honor” Labor by naming her
the ‘USS Samuel Gompers’,

AFL-CIO secretary-treasur-
er William F, Schnitzler did the
‘honors on behalf of organized
labor (the bulk of whom probably
knew nothing about the event,

ahd eared less) by bringing greet- °

he USS Gompers and her,

15:3

‘This ship’ quothSchnitzler, as
quoted in the AFL-CIO News
(July 8) ‘typifies the ideal of
Samuel Gompers ... that peace
can only be secured by the
strength of the United States,
It would mock Samuel Gompers
to look upon this ship as a sym-
bol of brute power rather than an
instrument of peace... the USS
Gompers represents the armor
of security, etc, and so forth,
Schnitzler added that the USS
Gompers “will sail the seas of
the world as a symbol of freedom
and hope...”

The AFL-CIO euology of the
USS Samuel Gompers has its
namesake down as “the founding
father of the modern American
labor movement”, That is some-
thing less than the truth, The
American labor movement was
founded a few decades before
Gompers appeared on the scene,
When he did, hé didn’t ‘found’ it—
but merely climbed onto it — and

Victoria ducks Housing
issue; load up taxpayél

By Ald. Harry Rankin

Vancouver City Council has
discussed a proposal that the
provincial government establish
a provincial housing authority

and go into the public housing.

business as Ontario has done
so successfully. That province
now has 10,794 public housing
units, more than all the rest

x of Canada put together, with as

many more under construction
or in the planning stage.

Victoria rejected our proposal,
Municipal Affairs Minister, Dan
Campbell insists that instead we
set up a regional housing dis-
trict for the Lower Mainland to
take charge of public housing
construction, Presumably it
would undertake to build low
cost housing in these areas where
more and cheaper land is avail-
able.

Campbell also made it clear
that he wants low cost housing
limited to “welfare, very low
income and handicapped groups.”

This limitation is completely
unsatisfactory because the hous-
ing crisis today affects at least
a third of our population includ-
ing many who are gainfully em-
ployed and receiving moderate
incomes,

I am rather suspicious of
Campbell’s proposal for a re-
gional housing district.

Suppose we established it and
went ahead and built several
thousand public housing units in
low land cost areas.

Will Ottawa and Victoria pay
the costs of construction (75-
25) as provided by Section 35A

. ct
of the National Housing *°

si
Even if they do, there
remains the larger ae vit

.the cost of the schools, ©

tion, fire and police prove”
tery

recreation, sewer, W#
other services for thes?
ects? Will Ottawa and i
pay these costs? OF wil ib
be saddled on homeowne’s
form of increased taxes*

Campbell and the prot
government are silent nF
question, That is why 1 a
that his proposal for #7
housing district may P6®
for the provincial govern i
escape its financial res i
for solving the housing ¢ pal eS
instead compel the mune i
and taxpayers to shoul
burden.

stayed there to dominate it for
well over half-a-century,

True, Sam Gompers was a
man of ‘peace’, if and when such
‘peace’ stemmed from class-
collaboration between AFL craft
union tzars and the National Man-
ufacturers Association and
Chambers of Commerce.

Gompers ‘deplored’ violence,
but when it came to expulsions of
AFL Union Locals, Central
Labour Councils or whole State
Federations of Labor which re-
fused to kowtow to his all-too-
often reactionary diktats, Gomp-
ers never lost any sleep on how
or by what means these countless
thousands of Union men and wom-
en got the old eviction heave-ho
from the ‘House of Labor’; And
much of it was anything but
‘peaceful’;

It would be one of those
ironies of history where some
of the fine young one thousand
crew members manning the USS
Gompers — the sons of an older
generation of Union men who
themselves saw their union locals
and federations torpedoed by an
AFL president named Sam
Gompers — just because they
refused to knuckle under to his
class-collaborationist policies;
good Union men who in those

‘days. were branded. as: “anarch-. .

ists’, Wobblies, ‘Syndaclists’ or

me;

other fancy labels. (‘Communi-
sm’ hadn’t then the popularity in
State Department and union brass
offices it has today as an excuse
for union wrecking and worse.)

Anyway we wish the crew of
the USS Gompers well despite the
handicap of the name she bears,
and if she “sails the world in
quest of peace” it will be because
that is the will of her crew —
and the American people, andnot

radio an
follow: — F
«at the outset of the 0
broadcast newS™™ of
dispatched i ;
mand posts « ©
suet staffed Ke

will undoubtedly We

because she has been christened
with “a Union Name, and/or a

Union Lable.” with obvious law

ticipants in
There are some things organ-

ized Labor is just not proud of;
* * *

Quote; If you have a feeling
that radio andtelevision coverage
of ‘civil disorders’ is slanted,
you may be right. Here’s some
instructions given Californian

ripe

* ‘West Coast edition,

ed

ConadiO"

gust
3 U 9!
Editor—TOM McEWEN _— Associate Editor-M4 94 é
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