A Denver cop maces striking fa rmers, members of the American. Agricultural movement, who are demanding federal support for farm Prices. : _INCO SNUBS UNION PLAN ~ TORONTO — INCO, which has taken millions out of the ground in Sudbury, and from the ’ sweat and toil of workers there, turned thumbs down Jan. 11 to a United Steelworkers proposal de- signed to prevent the anticipated layoff of more than 2,000 workers next March. A union propésal of early re- tirement, accelerated attrition, retry programs and house- keeping and environmental work programs was turned down by INCO vice-president Frank Bur- nett as “too costly to be im- _ plemented.”’ _ CUPE SAYS NO TO HYDRO OFFER WINNIPEG — Manitoba Hyd- ro’s 925 clerical and technical workers, members of the Cana- _ dian Union of Public Employees voted 60% in favor of rejecting the utility’s latest contract offer Jan. 11, and are in a legal strike posi- tion. : CUPE has countered the utili- ty’s 6% wage increase offer with a ‘demand for 10%. Talks broke down Dec. 15, six days before the expiry of the old agreement. PROCTER SILEX BOOTS 46 MORE PICTON — This eastern On- .tario community will lose the in- come of 46 more workers as Proc- ter Silex division of SCM Canada Ltd. announced in Toronto Jan. 12 it was putting the workers on inde- finite layoff. The workers will join ‘45 others who got the boot from _Procter Silex last month. The plant which manufactures small electrical appliances will be left with 87 workers. TEACHERS SEE LONG STRIKE WINDSOR — A strike by 517 Roman Catholic separate school teachers who hit the bricks Jan. 9 protesting a breakdown in con- tract talks, could last three Months, teachers’. negotiators Said last week. __ The teachers want the school board to agree to binding arbitra- tion of their salary dispute. UAW STRIKE FOR NEW PACT STRATFORD — About 600 employees of Canadian Fabricated Products, manufacturers of door trim and bucket seats for the au- tomotive industry, went on strike Jan. 9 after the collapse of talks for" a new contract. : Members of Local 1325 United Auto Workers have been without a contract since Dec. 15. Talks broke down Jan. 3. SHUTDOWN AT COLEMAN COLLIERIES COLEMAN — About 350 members of the United Mine Workers of America struck to shut down Coleman Collieries Ltd., Jan. 6 to protest the firing of aunion member the company said was involved in a fight with a management official. = The strike which ended Jan. 11 when the company agreed to set- tle the issue through the normal grievance procedure had paralyzed the companies south western Alberta operations. LAYOFFS AT |. WHIG-STANDARD KINGSTON — Management at the daily Whig-Standard repaid their composing room staff, whose labors allowed the newspaper to accumulate the necessary capital to install new. labor saving equipment by announcing: Jan. 10 that 25 workers, all members of the Inter- national Typographical Union are to be permanently laid off this fall and in-1979. The $1-million program of technological changes will reduce the composing room staff from 49 to 24. BOYCOTT MUTTART HOMES REGINA — At the request of its sister organization in Sas- katchewan, the 120,000-member Alberta Federation of Labor ag- reed Jan. 5 to extend the boycott of Muttart Homes Ltd., into the province of Alberta. Muttart employees here, have - been locked out by the company since July when the workers re- jected a nothing contract offer from the company. EDITORIAL COMMENT Realities of t Layoffs are spreading like a contage- ous disease and with worse results for many families. Even “official” jobless figures of 882,000 (in reality more than a million) make mass:unemployment the _-worst since the 1930s depression. In De- cember, 8.5% of the workforce was idle. Big business newspapers lament it, and call for cuts in government spend- ing. But what spending? Spending for social needs? They have yet to suggest cutting the exorbitant military budget by 50% as should be done. They ignore the cause of the crisis — the faltering system of state-monopoly capitalism, and simply blame puppets like minister of unemployment, J.S.G. Cullen. His despicable advice for Cana- dians to take their money out of the sock and spend it, is no more insulting than the entire system he is part of.. A lot of workers are ready to look at reality, at facts: Class-conscious workers who refuse to be bought off or steered off from the battle for workers’ rights will earn lasting respect in the labor movement, as the right-wing phonies reap unending revulsion. That’s one re- ality. Another is that the socialist world did away with unemployment long ago and gave jobs to all, at decent wages. So it can, be done. But under capitalism that calls for a hard, united fight and the stamina - to struggle both against the ruling class and for labor unity. — “Slow and steady wins the race,” Cul- len says. Slow and steady what? Malnut- Promoters of A widespread campaign is‘in progress to break down public rejection of nuclear war. Millions can see that such a war, however “beautified” by propaganda, will solve nothing for mankind and in- flict incurable ills — perhaps human oblivion. o Now that we have seen the long-with- held confessions about “news” planted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, fake “terrorist” messages composed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the vomiting up of diaries of a demented prime minister whose dog advised him on matters of state, is it surprising to discover that hidden in the “news” that’s piped into our homes or left on our doorstep each day, there lies a multi- million dollar campaign to sell nuclear war? The mind-managers of the system want us to believe nuclear war is like a TV show — we'll just watch while the bad guys get seared and have deformed children. It’s a lie. But imperialism’s campaign to wipe out our revulsion at memories of the living dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — victims of U.S. atom bomb- ing — has been crowned with new “evi- dence.” A U.S. government report (Mili- ‘tary Standing and Force Posture Review) publicizes its opinion which the big busi- ness media heads: Russia could not win atom war, U.S. says. Such propaganda is not aimed at the Soviet Union; it is intended to lull us, here, into a state of acceptance of the he job crisis rition? Living in doorways? Wrapping our feet in rags? Is that the big “just society” we heard about when the corpo- ration bosses chose Pierre Trudeau as the boy who could fix the working people? There are plently of steps that can be taken. The government can stop corpo- rations (including multi-nationals) from mass firing of workers. If the govern- ment won't do it, a government respon- sible to workers will have to. They can cut taxes on low and middle incomes. Raise purchasing power. Cut the scandalous arms budget. Cut profits. Boot out the union-busting “Anti-Inflation Board” whose job is to destroy union bargaining power. Stop the theft of monies, created by Canadian labor, being shipped out by corporations to set up shop in slave labor areas like Chile and South Africa. In the longer view: We need secon- dary industries to process our plentiful raw materials — increase jobs and the country’s income. We need public own- ership to ensure industry’s benefits to all Canadians. We need joint ventures with socialist countries whose economies are booming. For this the government should ‘be backing détente, not under- - mining it with a vast military build up. To do battle for these measures re- quires a united struggle throughout the trade union movement, involving Com- munists and New Democrats, and seek- ing mutual programs with farmers.and all who are carrying the dead weight of the monopoly system. nuclear war Pentagon and NATO generals’ hopes of mutilating the world in favor of im- | rialism. Back in 1947, says Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s diary, the USA was ready to launch an atomic war against the USSR, but as one big capitalist daily complained nervously the other day, neither King, nor the British govern- ment, nor the USA breathed a word of it to the people, although King saw the war as only three weeks off. The U.S. gener- als and war-millionaires have been play- ing with the idea ever since. The Trudeau government's current saber rattling is part of that, but is out of keeping with the needs of .Canadians. President Carter's promise of more troops for NATO is an affront not only to Europeans but to the vast majority of the world’s people whose only advantage lies in extending détente, finding ways to peaceful co-existence of different social systems. Masses of people the world over are Scinabelbor the prohibition of the neut- ron bomb and an end to nuclear testing. They are demonstrating and speaking out for disarmament as demonstrated by millions who have signed and endorsed the Stockholm Appeal. This prestigious Appeal which. ur- gently needs many more Canadian sig- natures on it, is one of the best ways of telling an arrogant government at Ot- tawa that Canadians will not be led to the nuclear auction block in attempts to cover up the sores of imperialism. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 20, 1978—Page 3