‘Politique sociale’

au lieu d'une

| By NELSON CLARKE
NGLISH Canadians, reading
their newspapers, must get
the idea sometimes that
"ch Canadians are concern-
i about nothing except their
‘tions with the rest of the
Intry, about whether they
pd separate from or stay in
Mada,

jane fact is that French Cana-
ae are battling on many
we of economic and social
ti gle, and that a great many
ens of Quebec see a very
‘. relationship between these
joules and the movement for

“r national rights.

his is brought home as one
i> ® new pamphlet publish-
the French language over
fog erature of Samuel Walsh,
4 een of the Quebec com-
n° Of the Communist Party
“Canada.

The Pamphlet takes its title

i the slogan raised by the

ty students of French
da in their historic march

4, Cuebec City a few months
% ,, One politique sociale au
uy une politique bourgeoise”
a is, “A Social Policy In-

of a Bourgeois Policy.”

q begins with the charge that
a Lesage’s invitation to
i “n Elizabeth to visit Quebec
hy, St October demonstrated
At far he has separated him-
ths Tom the national aspira-
og the people of French
‘hg a. Yet this was only the
4, Utamatic expression of his
hy Unation to oppose the de-
ti, of national self-determi-
Mion of the French Canadian

a this policy he serves the
bisine of the monpolist bour-
4 © (capitalists) — English
Ik Tench Canadian — not
hag Of the people of French
“Ada,

bist Service to monopoly
vt 1s also revealed in the
thy he Lesage government is
‘bp the state to favor the de-
hy “ent of monopoly capital-
y nd to attack the economic
Yep Social conditions of all
. Sections of the people.”

ha Pamphlet goes on to re-
its readers of the strug-

he the people.

bon, Quebec labor movement

| a Unity and its. express-

*y Ulingness to go out in a

e
oy Strike has forced pro-
ty°f major revisions in the

a © labor code.
ers, marching on Quebec

How Quebec's Berthio, in Le
Travail, sees sales taxes.

City, thousands strong, -won
some tax relief, but much re-
mains to be done to block the
drive of the Lesage govern-
ment to “squeeze the poor
farmer off the land.”

Students have also taken part
in huge demonstrations in Que-
bec for the reform of “an anti-
quated system, completely un-
suited to the development of
modern industry”—an. industry
which “tends to discriminate
against French-Canadian youth.”

Small businessmen are also

Quebec ferment

fighting against the plans of the
Lesage government to put them
out of business by encouraging
“the development of monopoly,
amalgamating, merging and sub-
merging small French Canadian
companies with the largest and
most efficient in the field, using
public funds through the Gene-
ral Investment Corporation.”

Finally, the pamphlet calls
attention to the presence of
three U.S. nuclear bases on
Quebec soil, which has so deep-

-ly_ disturbed French-Canadian

public opinion, and _ against
which a struggle of the peace
forces of Quebec continues to
be waged.

Declaring that “‘at bottom, the
policy of the Lesage govern-
ment is the policy that most
suits big business in French
Canada,” and warning of the
danger of a Union Nationale
comeback, the pamphlet con-
cludes by projecting the alter-
native:

“The industrial working class
in French Canada is not only
the largest single class today,
but constitutes the absolute
majority of the adult popula-
tion.

“Tf the workers would decide
to unite their forces to present
a politcal alternative to the
bourgeois parties, they could
build up great electoral support
from farmers, the students, the
teachers, many small and middle
capitalists, many nationalists

Quebec’s new mood was seen in this statue of St. Jean
Baptiste which replaced. the traditional curly-headed boy in
Montreal’s annual parade last July.

who also want social justice.”

For this to be accomplished,
however, it is necessary, the
pamphlet stresses, to heal the
present split in the working
class between the Quebec Fede-
ration of Labor and the Con-
federation of National Trade
Unions, which is expressed to-
day in cannibalism. and raiding.

“If the unions in the Quebec
Federation of Labor and the
Canadian Labor Congress would
give full recognition in the struc-
ture. and constitution of their
unions to the fact that the

1) An end to all national
inequality now embedded in
the BNA Act. The unquali-
fied right to self-determina-
tion of the French and Eng-
lish Canadian nations. Guar-
anteed democratic’ rights of
language and culture for all
ethnic groups.

2) Curbing of monopoly
control of industry and agri-
culture. Public democratic
control of automation. Con-
trol of export of electric

A minimum program

Many people in Quebec are discussing a minimum program
for French Canada proposed by the Communist Party. “We earn-
estly hope you will make your own proposals and submit them for
common discussion,” says the public appeal of the party. The
program is:.

power to place the needs of
Quebec and Canada first. Na-
tionalize the key U.S.-con-
trolled industries that ex-
ploit our national resources
— such as pulp and paper,
iron and asbestos mining, as
well as public utilities like
Bell Telephone. Much higher
royalties from foreign com-
panies permitted to exploit
our natural resources. Fully-
developed trade with social-
ist and newly independent
countries and Latin America.

All in all, a new economic
policy.

3) Make French Canada
again a strong voice for
peace and total world dis-
armament by demanding the
removal of all nuclear bases
from Quebec soil and the
coversion of Canada into a
non-nuclear zone. An_ inde-
pendent foreign policy of
peace and particularly of
peaceful coexistence with so-
cialist countries.

workers of Canada must have
complete autonomy in the in-
ternational unions and that the
Canadian working class belongs
to two equal nations, this would
remove the sorest sources of
friction among the workers of
French Canada and lay the base
for cooperation and even even-
tual merging of the two trade
union centres.”

The pamphlet points out that
the socialist groups in Quebec
(including the Communist
Party) “could be decisive in
counteracting right-wing influ-
ences in order to redirect the
organized working class on to
the solid ground of solidarity
and united political and econo-
mic action=... .

“The thing to do is to over-
come our reluctance to work
together enthusiastically because
of ideological, religious or other
differences, rigidity, just plain
anti-Communist intimidation,
past mistakes made on all sides,
and, it must be admitted, on the
part of some adherents of Com-
munism a narrow-minded pre-
judice about working with other
socialists and clinging to out-
worn and dogmatic practices
that hurt the cause of socialist
unity.”

In this spirit the pamphlet
concludes by putting forward
suggestions for a minimum pro-
gram “for a genuinely broad,
popular, democratic and na-
tional inequality, for the curb-
ing of monopoly control of in-
dustry and agriculture, and for
an independent foreign policy
of peace.

December 24, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5