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VIC to fight Socred

Autoplan rate boost

Cont'd from pg. 1
Werlin observed. ‘‘But the fact is
that the money has already been
collected and is still in Victoria.

- “If anbody has acted in bad

faith, it is MceGeer, by not. tran-
_ferring that money to the_ in-

surance corporation,” he said.

--Both Werlin and council
president Syd Thompson stressed
that proposed Autoplan hikes were
only the beginning of a series of
regressive policies that could be
expected from the new govern-
ment.

“There's going to be more where
this came from,’ Thompson
declared. ‘‘And this labor
movement is going to have to dig in
and resist in a way that it hasn’t
done for some time.”

Werlin emphasized the need to
“take a stand right from the
beginning”’ and called on delegates
to consider the possibility of fur-
ther petitions and mass lobbies to

CONTROLS

Cont'd from pg. 1

organized labor will resist this
program and will eventually defeat
it

“We don’t want inflation,’’ he
said. ‘We are the victims of it. But
at the same time labor has told the
government what it thinks should

be done.”

The council president also noted
that “nowhere is there more
visible evidence of the effects of
this program than in B.C.”, citing
the massive increases in auto
insurance rates as well as expected
increases in Hydro rates and ferry
rates.

“Yet the anti-inflation board has
the bloody gall to ask us to attend

seminars so it can help us to

tighten the noose around our
necks,’’ he declared.

The labor council motion also
called on the B.C. Federation of
Labor to convene a conference of

affiliated locals to map out a
~ uniform policy of opposition to the
_controls program and to par-

ticipation in the seminars being

_ organized by the anti-inflation
board.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 9, 1976—Page 12

Victoria demanding that rate in-
creases be dropped.

A petition drive against the in-
creases has already been launched
on Vancouver Island and copies of
the petition have been sent to
several Island centres including
Port Alberni and Campbell River.
Two unions — the United
Fishermen and the Pulp, Paper
and Woodworkers of Canada —

have donated paper and money.

Although launched only Sunday,
over 1,000 signatures had been
collected by Wednesday in
Nanaimo alone.

The petition protests the unjust
ICBC increases and demands
“Immediate withdrawal of these
exorbitant rates which will deprive
many citizens such as those under
25, unemployed and old age pen-
sioners of the right to own and
operate a motor vehicle.”

Mark Holmgren who, along with
Shirley Ogden, launched the
petition campaign, cited his own
case in which he is going to be
paying somewhere in the neigh-
borhood of $500 on a car that is
worth only $400.

Holmgren, 18, is one of thousands
of under-25 drivers who will be

- severely victimized by the new

rate schedule if it is enacted.

Labor can pla

in post election fight

By JACK PHILLIPS
The election of the Socreds on
December 11 was a defeat for the
labor and democratic movement.

The trade unions, which played a
key role in electing a New
Democratic government in 1972,
are deeply concerned over this
reverse.

As one trade union member put

it: “With the Liberals in Ottawa —

and the Socreds in Victoria, we can
expect the old one-two punch!”’

Trade union activists will be
discussing the 1975 election for a
long time to come. One does not
have to be a genius to know that
Dave Barrett called the election at
the wrong time and on the wrong
issues. The trade union movement
bitterly opposed Bill 146 (ordering
60,000 workers to go back to work
or to refrain from striking). Also,
the trade union movement was and
remains in strong opposition to the
Trudeau wage controls.

However, Barrett went to. the
people for an endorsement of his
government’s action in bringing
down Bill 146 and for his support of
Trudeau’s wage control policies.
The NDP election campaign was
mainly centred on the appeal to re-
elect Premier Barrett, the leader
who was not afraid to make “‘tough
decisions.”

The significance of the fact that
the Liberals and Conservatives in
British Columbia had, in the main,
joined forces with the Socreds
provincially, seems to have
escaped the NDP premier.

The trade union membership, in
the main, sensed this deep-going
shift from the two capitalist parties
to the third capitalist party, the
Socreds. They were keenly aware
that big business was going all-out
to defeat the NDP. However, the

WOMEN’S LIBERATION?

UNION CARTOONS

“We have adopted a single-rate
wage plan. His rate is to be re-
duced to yours and you are to be
fired...’

reformist leaders did not offer a
constructive alternative of uniting
all labor.and democratic forces,
including the NDP.

Between 1972 and 1975 there was
a serious division in the trade union
movement over the attitude to be
adopted towards the NDP
government. On the one side were
those who took the position that the
government should be supported
for its positive achievements and
criticised for its retreats under
pressure of big business. The top
officers of the B.C. Federation of
Labor did, in the main, advance
good policies in this period, in

respect to labor legislation, co- ~

ordination of wage struggles and
the threat of wage controls.

But they were largely
stalemated by those labor leaders,
including members of _ the
Executive Council, who took the
position “‘right or wrong, I’m going
down the line with the NDP.”

The right-wing pressure reached
the stage where there was to be an
attempt at the November con-
vention of the Federation to in-
struct the officers not to issue any
public statement criticising the
NDP government without first
clearing that statement with the
full executive council.

This proposal for a gag rule was
dropped with the announcement on
the second day of the convention
that a provincial election had been
called for December 11. The
resolution’ was discussed behind
closed doors and revised to con-
stitute all-out support for the re-
election of the NDP.

Secretary-Treasurer Len. Guy,
who was to be the main target,
supported the resolution and was
complimented by its sponsors and
supporters. :

Thus, an armistice was declared,
within the Federation and between

the Federation and the NDP

government.

Len Guy, and those he spoke for,
are, in the main, members and
supporters of the NDP. They see no
alternative to big business

. government other than the NDP.

Their quarrel with the government
was over its labor policies and its
failure to honor a number of key
planks in its election program.
Their solution was to make the
NDP a better political party, more
responsive to the policies and
aspirations of the trade union
movement.

That orientation was reflected
again in a statement released by

Len Guy on the day after th
election, in which he said: “Trade
unionists and other concerne¢
British Columbians must begin
immediately to rebuild the basic
support of the New Democrati¢
Party, to ensure that a strongel
party is ready to provide thé
alternative which British
Columbians will be seeking in a
very short time.’’ 7

This statement proves that the
left will have to fight harder for the
concept of labor and democratic
unity based on anti-monopoly
policies in place of the disastro S
policy of a blank cheque for the
NDP. 3
Such unity should have the trade
union movement as its centre, and
advance the class demands of the
workers, along with social policies
that will win allies from other
sections of the people. The NDP.
the Communist Party, senior
citizens, tenants, the farmers, wide.
sections of the women and youth,

Native Indians and the disad>

vantaged people could be i
portant elements of the labor and
democratic alliance.

The election -campaign i

finished and the armistice has)

expired, Now, we are faced with
real threat that our premiums for)
automobile insurance will go up by}
150 percent. The indication is that

it will soon cost more to travel on
government-owned buses and
ferries and that welfare rolls will)
be slashed. Added to all of this is)
the certainty that the labor policy,
of the Socred government will

certainly bring it into collision with)
the labor movement. These
elements, combined with the

resentment that will be caused by
the inevitable concessions to big

business, which contributed — s¢

lavishly to the defeat of the NDP

government, offer wide
possibilities for the development of

converging struggles.

The left in the labor movement!
has a key role to play. They can b
expected to advance policies of
struggle, as opposed to policies of
surrender, and unity in place of
disunity. |

Above all, we can expect them t¢
expose the monopolies and the
reactionaries as the main enemie
of the working class. It is safe to
assume they will spare no effort to
unify the workers and will com@
out sharply against all those,
whether from the left or right, w 10
voice disbelief in the possibility
unity, or who oppose unity.

‘Unite to block S$

A call for united action by all
labor and democratic forces to
compel the new provincial
government to drop the hoist in
auto insurance rates and carry
through the transfer of gas tax and
licence fees to the ICBC as
originally intended was launched
over the weekend by the provincial
executive of the Communist Party.

A wide range of petitions and
demands for various forms of
public action sprung up throughout
the province as the impact of the
minister in charge of ICBC, Pat
McGeer’s announcement that the
$125 million subsidy from gasoline
and licence fees would be with-

drawn, and motorists and families
would be faced with exhorbitant
premium increases.

Lashing out at McGeer’s
arrogant and callous satement, ‘“‘if

you can’t pay insurance, then sell.
_your car,”’ the Communist Party

said in a statement that, ‘“‘common
action on the broadest front
possible is needed immediately if
the government’s proposal of
doubling, and in some cases
trebling of Autoplan premiums is
to be stopped.’’ Releasing the
statement, Nigel Morgan, B.C.

Communist leader pointed out that -

young people are being par-
ticularly victimized, and will have
rates as high as $600 to $700.

“The new administration has

ocred attack’ |

overstepped the mark,’ he said.
“People are not going to accept
these ridiculously exhorbitant
increases. Public pressure can

compel them to back off their -

disastrous course, which would not
only strike a harsh blow at the
public, but would force thousands
of _vehicles, self-owned delivery
vans, taxis and trucks off the road.
Wide popular action of every
possible kind — __ petitions,
resolutions, delegations to the

- cabinet and local MLAs, demon-

strations and other actions are
needed to bring Premier Bennett,
McGeer and the new cabinet back
to their senses,”-Morgan said.
“Auto insurance is only the
beginning of a whole series of
moves the new Socred government

Be eS re

is planning,” Morgan warn ed:
“The Socreds have got a political

' debt to pay to the big monopolies:

It’s but the tip of the iceberg. Thé
Socred administration has set @
deliberate course of drastically
cutting back on services to people

while moving to maximize profits —

for the corporations. 4
“They are planning big cof’
cessions to monopolies in resourt
industries such as mining, lumbef_
natural gas, the telephon
monopoly and others, wh
municipal taxes rise sharply ar
education cutbacks are pressed.
Morgan said powerful united
public pressure is needed to st
and reverse the course of the n

big business government in Vi@ —

toria. va

y key role