‘Ils labor a tiger or
overfed pussycat?’

A Standing ovation greeted
TC. Douglas, leader of the New
-"mocratic Party, when he ar-
rived at the Canadian Labor

gress Convention to speak to
the delegates about the upcom-
ing federal election.
T'm here,” he said, “because
T want People to know what side
I'm on.”

The NDP leader said that we
Must constantly remind oursel-
Ves that we are in a world of
unending change, of revolutions,
fechnological and social “in
Which the Oppressed peoples are
‘sing against imperialism.”

., Yur planet is filled with fos-

Sils of former forms of life,” he

added, “which could not change.

Our history is filled with stories

Of dead empires and civilizations

that could not change. The law

of survival is the law of the
ability to change. Institutions

at no- longer meet human
Needs

Union movement must be adapt-

Ng itself to the world in a pro-
- “*SS of change.”

Specifically he spoke of the

—,.

will pass away. The trade -

need for the structure of unions
to change to deal with the giant
corporations whose tentacles
reach around the world and the
need to play an increasingly
political role. “You cannot afford
to be indifferent about who sits
in the law-making bodies of the
land. Those who have their
hands on the levers of power can
with a stroke of the pen wipe
out all the gains from the bar-
gaining table.”

He spoke of the role of the
bank interest rate, the use of
injunctions, the role of anti-
labor legislation, the question of
the fight against poverty.

“You can’t have a just soci-
ety,” Douglas added, “without a
just system of taxation.” He at-
tacked both the Liberals and
Conservatives for their rejection
of the “orphan” Carter Commis-
sion report, saying that the re-
port would never be adopted un-
til there will be a NDP govern-
ment. The Liberals and Tories,
he said have rejected the report
since the. “installation of the
shiny new leaders. And why? Be-

cause behind the shiny new front
men there is still the same old
gang.”

“Do you realize that the Car-
ter Commission Report shows
that almost $5 billion of income
in 1964 was escaping tax alto-
gether or carrying too low a
share of the burden due to tax
concessions? Is that fair?

“Had the Carter Commission
recommendations been in effect
in 1964 we would have had $605
million in extra revenue that
year from mining, oil, gas and
insurance companies and a tax
on capital gains alone?

“Do you realize that if the
Carter Commission recommen-
dations were in effect that peo-
ple with an income of less than
$5,000 would have their income
taxes reduced by an average of
10 per cent and’ people with an
income of between $5,000 and
$10,000 would have their income
taxes reduced by an average of
7 percent?

“Do you realize that if the
Carter Commission proposals
were implemented, more than 3

million Canadian tax payers
would have their income tax re-
duced by more than 15 percent?

“Do you realize that in this
enlightened nation a wage earn-
er with a wife and three child-
ren would pay approximately
$633 in income tax while a man
with a wife and two children
with an income double that
amount, $13,000, would pay no
income tax at all if his income
came entirely from dividends
paid taxable Canadian coropra-
tions?”

“We are engaged in a great
fight,” he said appealing to the
trade unionists to get into the
political battle, “because we live
in a pluralist competitive soci-
ety where what is important is
who has their hands on the
levers of power. For a hundred
years a small group has called
the tune.”

“Employers and govern-
ments,” he added, “are waiting
to see how serious you are. Are
you a tiger or an overfed pussy-
cat?”

PHOTO—KIM LEVIS

Human survival is
our concern — delegate

By WILLIAM ALLAN

William Allan, Detroit corres-
Dndent for The Worker in the
‘S.A, is covering the Canadian
iabor ‘Congress convention for
Paper. We are reprinting one

of his Stories to his paper.
The voice calling for mass,
Nullitant, united action by trade
1Onists, on peace and against
Vverty, came through the mikes
1628 Canadian Labor Con-
ess delegates, loud and clear.
ts of delegates turned to
yn and stayed with it, as
@ncy McDonald, mother of
three children, from Hamilton
Ontario, addressed the conven-
tion. :
Mrs. McDonald is one of fifty
omen delegates. She is a mem-
T of Local 167, Canadian Uni-
®n of Public Employees. (CUPE)
d is a delegate to the conven-

Teta ts

¢

. vival, of the human race . .
join with all mothers

tion from the Hamilton Labor
Council. She works as a welfare
worker amongst the poor in
Hamilton.

She held up a book at the
mike while she was speaking
and said, “we are on the verge
of a nuclear holocaust; I have
here this book full of pictures
born to mothers who survived
the bombing of Nagasaki, and
are preserved to show what may
happen when the genes are dam-
aged by nuclear radiation.”

“Wanting peace is simply not
enough,” she told the delegates
during the hot debate on inter-
national affairs, which saw the
Executive Council resolution
sent back for “more teeth, be-
cause it’s too mamby-pamby.”

“As trade unionists, we have
to be concerned with the on

REE A ee ENS Ye

lament with them when they are
forced to sacrifice their children
to the glutton of war,” Mrs Mc-
Donald declared.

“We Canadians, we trade
unionists, workers all, have the
moral responsibility to demand
from the government, end the
arms sale to the USA, end all
complicity with this war in
Vietnam, fulfil our responsibili-
ties on the International Control
Commission in carrying out the
decisions of the Geneva agree-
ment, guarantee that the Viet-
mnamese people win the right of
self-determination,” she said.

The day before delegate Mc-
Donald made an eloquent plea,
at the same microphone, for la-
bor unity in Canada to meet the
rising attacks of Canadian mon-
opoly which is provoking strikes,
seeking to pass union busting
legislation, railroad trade union-
ists to jails.

We asked this militant young
woman worker what she does
back in Hamilton, Ontario?

“I am a welfare worker, as
you would say in the States. I
work amongst the poorest of the
poor. Each day I am with a for-
gotten section of the working
class, the poverty people, the
real have-nots. They are totally
unorganized, at the mercy of
unfeeling city officials, complete-
ly overlooked by the government
and even organized labor thinks
they should be taken care of by
Children’s Aid.

“But I think different. I have
seen babies die of malnutrition;
I remember the Clancy baby. I
see these wooden houses built
by the Hamilton Housing Autho-
rity, for munition workers
back over 20 years ago. Now the
paint covers the rotting wood,
the falling down timbers. I see
these people and my job is to
try to set them up to live on a
budget of $250 a month for a
man, wife, two kids. Out of this
must come at least $100 a month

', 1: for rent. How would you like.

to ‘try and

month, or $3 a day? They live on
bread, no fruits, no vegetables.

“Now in Hamilton,” ‘she said,
“a growing economic crisis is
developing, especially amongst
the construction workers, hard-
est hit being electricians, labor-
ers, and others. Next winter the
predictions are it will be worse.

“I want to rise up in the Ham-
ilton Labor Council and Propose
we work along with other or-
ganizations to set up a Poor
People’s March on Ottawa, along
similar lines as is being done so
dramatically now in the U.S. to
Washington, D.C.

“This is the only way that
the problem of the poor people
of Canada are going to get into
the limelight, are going to have
a confrontation with these cold
blooded politicians in Parliament
and in city administrations. We
have the issue of the poor with
us in Canada, it’s a heartbreak-
ing one. I live with it. They’re
my people. I want this labor
movement to do something be-
sides just pass resolutions. Like
the fight for peace, the fight to
end poverty is the twin sister of
that struggle; I dedicate myself
to it; I think it’s a noble task.”

The following are the
amendments to the policy
. Statement on International
_ Affairs which were adopted
in the last session of the
_ Canadian Labor - Congress
‘convention. The statement,
earlier in the convention,
had been referred back as
“namby-pamby” and “‘in-
adequate.” Se
- “We have no right to
‘profit on this wretched war
by the shipment of arms to
the United States, and we
_ call for the immediate ces-

Nor are we concerned on
this issue only with our-
_ Selyes. We call upon the
_ United Nations to employ
its prestige and authority to.
ban international traffic in
the weapons of war, and we
call upon trade unions
throughout the world to
exert maximum pressure on

East or West, to the end
that all such traffic shall
~ cease.” -
: : e
“Whether or not it served
such purpose in the. past,

_ INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

sation of all such shipments.

all governments, _ whether -

‘ACETU jin: July of this year.” |.

Yepresents millions of dol-

any possible usefulness as
an instrument of North .
ncan defense, It now

lars of useless expense and
the Congress therefore calls
for Canada’s immediate
withdrawal from the
NORAD agreements.

“We call upon the gov-
ernment to take a clear and
independent position on
matters of international pol-
icy in the interests of Can-
ada’s defense, and freedom
and peace throughout the
world.”

; e ae
_ "We believe that the time
has arrived when cultural
exchanges at all levels of
activities between various —
nations are desirable in
order that maximum under-
standing may be achieved
between peoples and their :
respective prejudice and ig-
norance may be reduced.
The Committee draws atten-
tion of the Convention te
the fact thet this subject is
on the agenda for discus-
sion at the next meeting of
the Executive Board of the

survive. on $150 We

_ NORAD: has now: outlived

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 17, 1968—Page7 -