EBITORIAL

No jobs plan without battle

There is no federal plan to halt mass
unemployment, no plan for job creation that
would even dent the real figure of two million
jobless. There is nothing but a cruel lie and a
hoax perpetrated by the well-paid agents of
monopoly capitalism who hold ministerial
posts.

One need not be disillusioned by such cal-
lousness. It is to be expected that Trudeau,
Lalonde and other corporals of the corporate
elite will smirk behind workers’ backs at the
clever tricks they can pull. They are con-
tinuing to prove themselves the enemies of
the working people. That part is not surpris-
ing. .

Dakine: the minister of unemployment,

exists on trickery which appears to make jobs

but makes nothing but misery for workers’
families and a veil for political chicanery.

What should be surprising to all is the
casual certainty with which the monopolies
and their government henchmen proceed to
crush workers more and more harshly to the
wall. They have created mass unemployment
for their system’s own ends. They have slap-
ped an oppressive 6 and 5% wage ceiling on
public service workers. They threaten to ex-
tend that to the west coast dock workers.
They are preparing to introduce a means test
for family allowances — and can it be long
before the same retrogression is applied to
pensions?

Having done all this and been imitated by
Tory provincial regimes, and the Levesque
PQ brass, the federal government grows ever

~ replacement, the Clark reactionaries.

Only labor, united organized dabor, its al-
lies, and the unemployed can form the kind of
force to compel changes. No rest should be
allowed either to the ruling class in the board
rooms and government offices, or to labor
leaders who should be battling these efforts to
behead labor altogether.

_ more arrogant, helped along by its would-be

As for the so-called jobs program, it is an
expensive fake, the government does nothing
but wait for the magic of monopoly capitalism
to unfold in its own way. That’s the way it
unfolded in 1929 and the 30s.

In those days, the Communist Party of-
fered workers a fighting program to tear
from the system some of what was rightfully
theirs, and they did so. Then as now it spoke
of the goal of socialism to free workers from
capitalist crises. Today, at the same time, the
Communist Party has an immediate program
of fighting back to gain for working people all
that can still be gained from capitalism.

The government's lies to the unemployed
and those threatened, lead to nothing but
grief. Calling on the trade unions and labor
bodies to show a lead; workers can break out
of capitalism’s crisis when they take the plan-
ning of their lives, their future, and their
country into their own hands.

Anti-NATO signs in votes

While the dust is still clearing from the U.S.
mid-term elections, the setback for Reagan is
yet another hole in the hull of battleship
NATO. It remains to be seen how much Rea-
gan’s mad military squandering may be
leashed, and the sanity of a nuclear freeze
take shape; but the U.S. results come on the
heels of some other events disquieting for the
brass of the aggressive NATO bloc.

No one pretends that social democracy’s

.rule in.Spain equals socialism, or that the .
Socialists will rush to put NATO membership

to the referendum. But they did have to get
elected in part on that promise.

In Greece, hundreds of municipal elec-
tions resulted in phenomenal gains for
Communists and Socialists in co-operation. In
Greece too, NATO membership is a touchy

Vote ‘yes’ in referendum!

The encouraging “nuclear freeze” vote in
the USA, and the “yes”-vote for nuclear dis-
armament in centres which have already had
their referendums, indicate a swell of public
opimon against nuclear madness, and for a
ban on these weapons capable of wiping out
humanity and all its works.

In this climate, those who have a referen-
dum still to come should be encouraged to

Flashbacks

‘LIMITED WAR’ TALK

Grave concern is being felt in international circles
over the idea of a “limited war” with tactical atomic
weapons now current among militarists.

' The recent bureau meeting of the World Peace
~ Council in Stockholm issued a statement which points
out: “Despite growing public disapproval, the policy of
force is still being pursued throughout the world. It
gives rise to deep disquiet, through refusals to suspend
continual testing of ever more destructive weapons. It

is responsible for the existence of military blocs and .

deepens the division of the world.

The idea of limited war, the WPC points out, reflects
the basic unwillingness of war-minded forces to accept
disarmament and is proof of their plans for creating
trouble, especially in Central Europe. The WPC urges
disarmament as an “imperative necessity” of our time.

Tribune,
November 11, 1957
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 12, 1982—Page 4

vote “yes” for nuclear disarmament and help
roll up a powerful message to the Canadian
government. It need hardly be said that one
doesn’t have to choose sides before rejecting
nuclear obliteration as a solution. As pro-
ponents point out in full honesty, nothing
unilateral is being discussed — what is
needed is a big, public “yes” to point govern-
ments into negotiations and new policies..

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

This is the time of year most municipal elections are
held. In Hamilton, Edmonton and Winnipeg candi-
dates of the workers are already in the field.

These elections offer workers a splendid means of
creating mass interest in various demands of the left
such as winter relief, non-contributory unemployment
insurance, hours and wages, relief grievances, free
speech and taxation.

While Federal and Provincial elections take up more
general questions, it is the peculiar nature of munici-
pal contests that their issues come closer to workers’
lives simply because the sphere of municipal govern-
ment embraces the immediate questions on acity scale.
It is precisely for these reasons that the entrance of the
militant labor movement into municipal elections is of
great importance. It is here that the class issues must
well be brought forward.

The Worker,
November 8, 1932

’ ternal sabotage, foreign invasion and famine. wuld
hov”

subject, and this show of strength for for®
opposed to it, must cause anxious contempl#}
tion in NATO headquarters.

While not dismissing the many other fa
tors involved in such widely different ele
tions, the cost of NATO in money, in soc
regression, in loss of sovereignty, and in tl
potential of being annihilated, has witho!
doubt had a significant part in the results

As an example of corporate profits for making the rie! ;
richer and the workers poorer, look at Texaco Canada!
In the nine months ended Sept. 30 Texaco’s after-tax tal :
was $208,966,000. How is it governments so conce!™
about restraints don’t restrain outrageous profits?

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON

Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR _

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NOVEMBER SEVENTH

When the workers of Russia seized power,
November 7, 1917 their enemies prophesied the’
downfall in three weeks. ae

But in spite of all there will be celebrated throug
out the world five years of the dictatorship of the
proletariat in Russia, five years of “All Power t0 (0
Soviets”, which has enabled the Russian worke!$

5 . 3 pn”
overcome counter-revolution, international and *

The experience of the Russian Revolution sh¢ 6
give proof to workers everywhere that the exploit! a
classes will never give up their positions withoU™
fierce struggle. It shows the working class must unl
secure the complete destruction of the capitalist $ 0
tem, to end the exploitation of man by man a? ap
bring about socialism under which class divisions #
state coersions arising from them will be ended.
ao The Wo:
November 1,