LO ree — ener

Gioves double standard criticized \yW.\:

The following letter by Wil-
liam Kashtan, general secretary
of the Communist Party of Can-
ada was sent to the Globe and
Mail. The portions of the letter
appearing in boldface are the
parts that the Globe editors de-
leted when the letter appeared in
the Monday, February 25 edi-
tion.

* S25 *

I read with interest your two
editorials of Feb. 13, one entit-
led: “Arrest in Moscow,” the
other entitled, “Shameful”, and
was struck with the double

UAW cables

DETROIT — The United Auto
Workers’ Union has cabled the
the National Union of Minework-
ers in London, with a copy to
the TUC, expressing its “strong-
est sentiments of solidarity with
you in your courageous struggle
for justice and‘equality.”

The message from the U.S.
union, which has 1,750,000 mem-
bers, goes on:

“You had no responsibility in
creating the inflation from which
you seek relief, for it is a world-
wide event spurred by complex
causes totally foreign to you as

As Wilfred List, Toronto Globe

- and Mail reporter has made

amply clear in his dispatches
from the AFL-CIO executive
council meeting in Bal Harbour,
Florida, there will be no protec-
tion for Canadian members of
AFL-CIO unions if that organ-
ization succeeds in pushing re-
strictive trade measures through
the U.S. Congress. George
Meany, AFL-CIO president, and
his aides have torn to shreds any
illusion that international unions
can do anything effective to pro-
tect Canadian members from ad-
verse effects of any general re-
strictive trade measures adopted
by the U.S. Congress, such as
the Burke-Hartke bill which the
AFL-CIO is pushing for.

Mr. List reports on an inter-
view February 21 with Kenneth
Brown, president of the’ Graphic
Arts International Union that his
organization had. made direct
representations to the legislative
department of the AFL-CIO on
the matter of the Burke-Hartke
bill and similar representations
to Mr. Meany. Many other inter-
national unions have passed re-
solutions on the subject of ex-
emptions for Canada. Various
representations on the -matter
have been made by the top of-
ficers of the unions in Canada.
CLC research director Russell
Bell, has discussed the matter
with Nat Goldfinger, the AFL-
CIO’s top economist, but says
they have been poles apart on
the trade issue.

Heard Nothing

Floyd Smith, president of the
International Association of Ma-
chinists, also stated his union’s
constitutional convention in Sep-
tember, 1972, had adopted a re-
solution to exempt Canada from
the adverse effects of ‘the Burke-
Hartke bill. Last October, Jean
Beaudry, executive vice-presi-
dent of the Canadian Labor Con-
gress and fraternal delegate to
the AFL-CIO convention made a
blistering attack on the Burke-
Hartke bill. x

In spite of all this, Mr. Meany
told a press conference on Feb-
ruary 22, last, he had not heard

BY BRUCE MAGNUSON

standard which typifies the edi-
torial policy of the Globe and
Mail.

In essence your position in
these two editorials is that soci-
alist law should be ignored and
opposed, but capitalist laws
should be upheld and obeyed,
come what may. In a recent edi-
torial you virtually supported
measures to overthrow the Hun-
garian government while in the
editorial entitled ‘Shameful’,
you lectured Toronto alderman
Dan Heap because he publicly
said what everyone knows: that

Mineworkers

miners — or us as auto work-
ers — for that matter.

“To men of property, workers
are always a convenient scape-
goat or potential objects to teach
us a lesson to.

“We thus stand with you in
your refusal to become victims
and to have your fair demands
for economic and social justice
met.”

The cable was signed by UAW
president Leonard Woodcock and
addressed to NUM president Joe
Gormley.

your financial status and connec-
tions, or to use your term,
“what pull you have,” deter-
mines how the law may treat
you.

Perceptive Canadians cannot
but note your two-faced ap-
proach here, which, by the way,
is not restricted to the above
two editorials. Some time ago
a similar schitzophrenic ap-
proach was indicated in two
other editorials which appeared
on the same day, one upholding
Solzhenitsyn’s right to advoc-
ate the virtual overthrow of so-
cialism, the other demanding

sthat the three trade union lead-

ers in Quebec be jailed because,
in your opinion, they flaunted
the law.

What is apparent from the
above is that there is one law
for the rich and one law for the
poor, socialist law, and capitalist
law, and that you uphold the
law of the rich.

What also seems apparent is
that you write with tongue in
cheek when you seem to declare
your adherence to the concepts
of peaceful co-existence of dif-
ferent social systems while sup-
porting a course which moves in
an opposite direction.

LABOR SCENE Independence and sovereignty
the road ahead for labor

anything from affiliates on the
subject, and that no discussion
had been held on the question
with any affiliate. Mr. Meany’s
chief aide in the legislative field
said exemption for Canada from
any general legislation would be
impossible.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa, CLC
president Donald MacDonald said
he had never been under any
illusion that the international
unions could do anything effec-
tive to protect Canada’s trade in-
terests by proposing exemptions
for Canada. He said, the CLC had
never made any representations
to Mr. Meany or the AFL-CIO or
its executive council, apart from
Mr. Beaudry’s speech.

a oo *

The Burke-Hartke bill deals, not
only with import quotas and
other trade matters, as such, but
covers export of technology and
capital, tax laws, incentives and
subsidies that encourage U.S.
corporations to. expand their
operations abroad. In current cir-
cumstances, with -so much of
Canadian. industry under U.S.
control, it could mean the loss
of jobs for hundreds of thous-
ands of Canadians.

Time and again we have seen
examples of U.S. laws being
applied to subsidiary firms of
American corporations in Can-

ada. Presently a Montreal sub-~

sidiary of Studebaker-Worthing-

ton Inc. of Harrison, New Jersey,

may be prevented from filling an

$18-million deal to build 25 loco-

motives for Cuba, because of

U.S. law. *
% oo %

What all this boils down to is
the simple fact that as long as
Canada remain an economic vas-
sal of U.S. monopolies, some of
the most vital decisions concern-
ing Canada’s economic life and
matters of trade will be made in
the USA and governed by U.S.
rather than Canadian laws. Like-
wise; as long as Canadian mem-
bers of U.S.-based unions main-
tain organic ties that bind them
to the AFL-CIO hierarchy, they
will be subject to bureaucratic

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH.8, 1974—PAGE 4

decisions made by this official-
dom in the USA.

It is precisely this situation
that must be changed. The mat-~
ter is now at a stage where it is
more than a matter of guidelines
for more or less autonomous
Canadian sections of these inter-.
national unions while major is-
sues .of concern to Canadian
members are either decided in
the USA or subject to vetoes
from abroad.

It is in this context that the
decision of the presidents of 184
Canadian locals-of the United
Paper Workers’ International
Union to hold a national mem-
bership referendum on a plan to
establish an independent Cana-
dian union of 52,000 Canadian
pulp and paper workers is set-
ting an example for all other
Canadian members of so-called
international unions to follow.

Framework of Unity

Presently Canadian members |
of the paper workers’ union pay |
something in the neighborhood |
of $2.2-million dollars in dues |
‘annually to their New York |

_ headquarters. A special commit-

tee of four Canadians and four
Americans with the International
president as chairman, has been
set up to divide assets ‘between
the Canadian and U.S. units in
the event the separation referen-
dum is carried. The next step
projected is a Canadian founding
convention to set up an indepen-
dent Canadian union in June.
This form of voluntary and
democratic method of separation
is the way to achieve an inde-
pendent and: sovereign Canadian
union within a framework of
unity and fraternal cooperation
among Canadian and U.S. mem:

bers, which, when carried out —
will establish true equality on

the international level.

Undoubtedly this, and other |

developments in a similar direc

tion will lend a new dimension |

to the debate on independence
and sovereignty at the forthcom-
ing bi-annual convention of the
Canadian Labor Congress when
it meets in Vancouver on May
13.

COMMON FRONT
STOPS GRAPE SALES

MONTREAL—Quebec’s “Com-
mon Front” of unions has asked
three major food chains to stop
selling California grapes. Spokes-
men for the Quebec Federation
of Labor, the Quebec Teachers
Federation and the CNTU said
at a press conference recently
that Dominion Stores has re-

fused to cooperate in the boy-

cott and their stores would be
picketed. Five United Farm
Workers’ organizers are at work
in the Province of Quebec.

NEW MINIMUM WAGE
FOR MANITOBA?.

WINNIPEG — Premier Ed
Schreyer of Manitoba said his
.government will increase the
provincial minimum wage of
$1.90 an hour.

Manitoba’s last minimum
wage increase went into effect
in September, raising the hour-
ly rate to $1.90 from $1.70,

Effective April 1, 1974, the
federal minimum wage is ex-
pected to be increased to $2.20
from $1.90.

ITALIAN WORKERS.
STAGE MASSIVE STRIKES

ROME.. —.. Thirteen. million
Italians staged a series of strikes
February 27; to support their
demands for a wide range of so-

. cial and labor reforms.

Workers marched through the
streets in support of the claims,
‘backed by the country’s three
.main trade unions. :
The strike affected industry,
transport and education.

In Rome, the stoppages were
to last 24 hours. There was traf-
fic chaos as people tried to get
to work without public trans-
port facilities.

In the rest of the country,
workers put down tools for be-
tween one and four hours dur-

ing the morning. Most schools —

were closed for the day.

WINDSOR, ONT.

the 1,025 laid-off so far. On the week-end of March 2nd and
Ford announced that another 399 were scheduled for lay-offs.

Oa erk S 3 ,

Coy “aera ett? The ete

, — The lay-offs continue at the Ford plant “
Windsor and several of the workers shown in the photo are oma

Factories throughout _ Italy
were hit by a series of stoppag’
es as each new shift reporting
for duty downed tools for oné
or two hours.

STEEL WORKERS WIN
AT STANLEY STEEL

HAMILTON — The production
employees of the Stanley Steel
in Hamilton have chosen to tre
tain the United Steelworkers
America as their bargaining
agent over the Canadian Uniol
of Industrial Steelworkers.

A vote, counted last week by
the Ontario Labor - Relations
Board, showed 82 workers favor
ing representation by the Steel:
workers and 59: favoring thé
CUIS, an affiliate of the Quebe®
based Confederation of Nationé
Trade Unions.

Q@FL WARNS OF
LABOR REVOLTS~

MONTREAL—Louis Laberg®
president of the Quebec Federé
tion of Labor, said last wW
that an order-in-council
Feb. 13 by the provincial go”
ernment could provoke
scale labor revolts on. buildiné
sites throughout Quebec.

The order revokes: legislatio"
requiring skilled constructio#
workers to carry special W
permits allowing them to
construction work.

The work permits were it
tended to keep the constructio#
work force in the province at #
level of about 60,000 and to pre
vent parti-time construct!
workers from taking jobs away
from full-time industry
ployees.

He said Labor Minister Jem
Cournoyer has agreed to ne
him to discuss the situation b?
a spokesman for the labor de
partment said the the work ma
mits were abused to allow gre#
er mobility of skilled man
and because it was difficult ”
enforce the legislation.

Py bo

ry

cr jase