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Headed by retiring B.C. Federation of Labor president E. T. Staley, more than 500 delegates marched on

WITHD

Unemployment Insurance offices on Robson St. last Thursday to demand action on jobs. More photos on

pages 2 and 12.

—Dave Wer'lin photos -

Tribune

Vol. 31, No. 46 ons

$

10¢

Public Order Act
should be opposed

Public opposition to the Trudeau government’s
Public Order Act continued to grow this week as it
became increasingly evident that the new act violates
civil rights and perpetuates the sweeping undemocratic
powers given the government and police under the War

Measures Act.

In a public statement issued
last Thursday the Central
Executive of the Communist
Party warned that ‘‘the Public
Order Temporary Measures Act
now being debated in Parlia-
ment is as repressive and
arbitrary as the War Measures
Act,’’ and. called for its -with
drawal.

It said that the act ‘‘contains
all the same regulations and
while modified in some minor
aspects, gives the same wide
‘powers to the police to search,
seize and arrest without warrant
persons who ‘they have reason to
suspect’ are members of an

Act now on jobs, demands labor

By DELEGATE

More than 500 British
Columbia trade unionists
gathered in Vancouver
November 2 to 6 to attend the
15th annual convention of the
B.C. Federation of Labor.

Delegates demonstrated their
concern over unemployment by
Staging a march on the
Unemployment Insurance Com-
mission offices on Robson
Street. Joined by many
unemployed trade unionists who

Were not delegates, they carried

placards condemning the
Trudeau government’s
deliberate policy of unemploy-
ment, calling for low-cost
housing, school construction and
for extended unemployment
benefits.

The delegates adopted a state-
ment expressing concern over
the War Measures Act which
Said ‘‘It is essential that the
Sweeping powers be curtailed’.

Many delegates were critical of

the statement on the ground it
did not go far enough.

The report from the Standing
Committee on Manpower was
referred back for strengthening.
The report condemned the
federal government’s deliberate
policy of unemployment, urged
the re-establishment of a winter
works program and pledged
support to establish unemployed
committees in all affiliated
unions. IWA delegate George
McKnight of Port Alberni
pointed out the report failed to

-draw attention to the need for

industrial development based on
our abundant natural resources
to provide jobs, and for future
generations of workers.

An amended report, filed later
in the convention, declared that
“Canada will continue to face
serious unemployment crisis as
long as our economy is a branch -
plant economy based almost
exclusively on exploitation and
export of raw materials.

Resource exploitation
economies are invariably
unstable, leading to periods of
high unemployment, while the
branch - plant structure of our
economy places our economic
development at the mercy of
private American corpora
tions.”

To overcome this problem and
to provide long range stability,
the report said, ‘We must plan
Canadian industrial develop-
ment, under Canadian control,
where necessary publicly owned.
Use of our mineral resources
and our power resources to
develop manufacturing
industries, on an overall planned
basis, is the key to providing a
stable, high wage economy
which will ensure full employ-
ment in Canada.”’

The document also called for
an immediate crash program .of
public works by provincial and

See LABOR, pg. 12

JACK PHILLIPS, CUPE leader,
whose strong appeal for labor
unity at B.C. Fed parley won
strong support among dele-
gates. The convention took a
strong stand for admission of th

UFAWU inthe CLC: = = eee

unlawful association, and who
have committed or are about to
cornmit an unlawful act, makes
the alleged crime retroactive. It
legitimizes wire tapping and the
use of conversations as
evidence.”

The statement charges that
the act is so written as to include
any group of persons or
associations throughout Canada,
who, in the opinion of the
autorities, advocate the ‘‘use of
force’’ to accomplish govern-
mental change. Pointing out that
in reality it is a new Section 98, it
says the new act abolishes the
right to free speech, assembly
and association.

The Communist Party state-
ment says:

“The real purpose of the new
legislation is not primarily the
curbing of acts of terrorism; its
main purpose is to crush the
political opponents of the
Trudeau government in French
Canada and — throughout the
country.

“Trudeau’s One Canada, One
Nation policy is in crisis. So is its
anti-inflation program which
helped bring on a recession and
mass unemployment.

“These factors, not an
‘apprehended insurrection’ or
the maintenance of ‘public
order’, are the real reasons for
the new repressive legislation.
Democratic Canadians should
have no illusions about the
repressive and arbitrary
character of this legislation or
its political purposes.

“The government has taken a

- page from Nixon’s strategem of

‘law and order’ and may well
decide to call an election next
year on this phoney issue in
order to cover up its bankrupt
policies. —

See REPRESSIVE, pg: 2

=

RAW NEW
EPRESSIVE LAW —