; Ontario, BC students pledge support for Day of LONDON — Provincial stu- dents’ federations in British Col- umbia and Ontario met in conven- tion last weekend and in -both provinces pledged all out student support for the Day of Protest on October 14. Delegates from 21 Ontario uni- versities to the annual conference of the 170,000 member Ontario Federation of Students at the University of Western Ontario in London voted overwhelmingly to back up their executive’s previ- ous decision to join with the On- tario Federation of Labor in a provincial co-ordinating commit- tee for October 14. The confer- ence voted to provide extensive information on the position of the labor movement and to inform students on the links between student issues and wage controls. Local student councils in Ontario have been urged to work in con- junction with local labor councils for the Day of Protest. The British Columbia Student Federation, representing some 100,000 post secondary students in the coast province, wound up their annual conference on Sep- tember 19 voting to throw. their support to the Protest as well. “Essentially the organization recognizes that it is not only im- Time and again the terms ‘Worker Power” or “Industrial Democracy”’ and similar expres- sions keep coming up. Inevitably as the competition between capitalism and socialism becomes sharper, the question of democ- racy for the working people be- comes more and more a concrete question. It is no longer possible to hide the fact that under capitalism, formal, restricted democracy cannot reach beyond political in- stitutions. As for the economic and cultural fields — factories, press organs, cinema, TV and Radio — these are completely in the hands of the capitalist owners, who are in no way controlled by the masses of working people. Consequently, the rights and freedoms, so often dangled before the eyes of working people and loudly hailed in the abstract, do not mean anything until all means are made accessfble to the work- ing people to exercises those rights. To achieve this the work- ing class must win political power and commence to build socialism. To build socialism is not enough to socialize large-scale property. It means changing all social relationships, that is, to re- build the whole of social life from top to bottom. Working class political power repudiates the ‘bureaucratic centralism of the state and political power of. monopoly capitalism. The state machinery of the working people’s power is based on the principle of democratic cen- tralism. For instance, in the USSR the organ which has the right to con- . trol what an entire ministry does DEBRA LEWIS portant to support labor on Oc- tober 14,” commented BCSF spokesman Debra Lewis, “‘but that the participation of students in the Day of Protest is important to students as well, particularly because employment is one of the issues on which the BCSF has been focusing.”’ Lewis said that the BCSF has ‘ta long held position of support- ing labor’s struggles,’’ but that on October 14 it will be offering more than support and “will be trying to build a working relation- ship with the labor movement.”’ Student organizations across the country are also in motion is called the Committee of People’s Control of the USSR.. This is the supreme body of a massive organization that num- bers more than nine million per- sons. In the Soviet Union, people’s controllers are elected at work- ers’ general meetings. They are the most respected and active people who know a good deal ab- out Soviet law and their factory’s regulations. Only people directing the work, a small proportion of those on control committees, are fulltime salaried workers. The millions of people’s controllers give their services voluntarily, without payment. This pattern sprang from the very nature of the new social and political system where social ownership of the means of production makes people vitally interested in having an effective economy. On V.I. Lenin’s initiative, or- gans of people’s control were es- tablished during the first years of Soviet power. The founder of the first socialist state in the world stressed that all-embracing people’s control was essential to socialist reform and national economic management. One of the distinguishing fea- tures of Soviet power, Lenin pointed out, is that it can draw the broadest masses into state man- agement. This is the essence of socialist democracy. To-day there are organs of ‘ people’s control at all Soviet in- dustrial enterprises, institutions, collective farms and construction sites. ; A special Statute on People’s Control Organs has been drawn PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 8, 1976—Page 8 Workers’ control under Socialism Protest mobilizing for their own special day, *‘National Students Day,”’ called by the National Union of Students for November 9. A whole series of events includ- ing rallies, seminars and marches will take place on November 9 to mark National Student Day. Events will be organized by local student councils around the gen- eral student issues laid down by NUS. Four main issues for the stu- dent movement have emerged in the preparations, for National Student Day. Rising tuition fees is listed as a first priority issue after students in eight provinces suf- fered big increases last year. NUS points out that while tuition fees are more and more a barrier pre- venting working class students from attending university, they are less and less a factorin overall post secondary financing, ac- counting now for only about 10% of the cost of education. A second major issue is student unemployment. Student organi- zations are especially critical of federal government for eliminat- ing some 30,000 student jobs last summer in the face of a severe unemployment crisis that saw more than 400,000 students jobless. up and endorsed by the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers. The USSR People’s Control Committee, the Statute says, can submit propos- als of country-wide importance to the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers. It reports on the situation in the in- dividual sectors of the national economy and on work in the ministries. On the Committee are representatives of government, trade union and other public or- ganizations, factory workers, of- fice employees, collective-farm members, journalists and people in science and culture. But what if a manager decides to disregard the opinion of the people’s controllers? They have many channels open to them. They can take the matter to a gen- eral meeting of workers, pursue it through the trade union local, or apply to higher bodies of people’s control. Openness plays a great role in the work of people’s control or- gans. The press, radio and televi- sion give broad coverage to what people’s controllers are doing. Newspapers carry working people’s criticisms and sugges- tions which give people’s control- lers a cue. Reports on the control- ler’s work are published regular- ly. The Union Republics have their own People’s Control Committees, organized on the same principle. But the founda- tion of the entire system is the people’s control groups at enter- prises, offices, collective and state farms and at construction sites. ‘LABOR QUEBEC PILOTS WIN LANGUAGE FIGHT MONTREAL — The Quebec Court of Appeal refused Sept. 22 to suspend an injunction obtained against Air Canada by 41 French- language pilots, ordering the air- line to cease violating the federal Official Languages Act. The Superior Court order, in addition to requiring Air Canada to provide complete French translations of flight manuals for pilots within two years, de- manded that the company stop preventing pilots from using French as their working language. B.C. CONSTRUCTION LOCKOUT ENDS - VANCOUVER — Construction work started again Sept. 27 as a three-week lockout in the provin- cial general construction industry was lifted at 10 a.m. The lockout by the 850-member construction Labor Relations Association affected 15 unions with 40,000 members. A tentative agreement was worked out and the employees ratified it Sept. 23. Details of the final settlement still have not been released, but it is based on the in- dustrial inquiry report by mediator Jim Kinnaird, which offered $1.29 in a one-year con- tract. The return-to-work began as the construction unions reopened their hiring halls and began send- ing men back to the jobs they had left when the lockout started Sept. 3. HYDRO STRIKE POSSIBLE IN QUE. MONTREAL — Hydro-Que- bec’s 9,600 technicians, trades- men and office workers may launch an industry-wide walkout if the Quebec government does not force the utility to comply with a settlement formula ad- vanced in July, union leaders warned Sept. 27. The Hydro workers have been without a contract since Jan. 1, and have conducted a campaign of rotating strikes in protest of the lagging talks. The union is demanding parity with Ontario Hydro — a 59% in- crease over two years — while the company has offered 26% over three years. #4 3 TOBACCO WORKERS WILDCAT GUELPH — Talks failed to re- solve a flareup that caused more than 730 workers at the Imperial Tobacco Products Ltd. plant to walk out in a wildcat strike Sept. 23. The workers, members of local 323, United Tobacco Workers International, walked out after their acting union president was suspended by company officials. “I was suspended fer conduct- ing union business (in the. plant) when I was told I wasn’t supposed to ... It’s always a right we’ve had,”’ the acting president said. CEQ MAY BACK PROTESTANT TEACHERS MONTREAL — Quebec’s largest teachers’ union, the Cen- - trale de I’Enseignement du Que- bec (CEQ) said Sept. 27 it 1s studying a solidarity campaign | with the Provincial Association of Protestant Teachers, planning @ strike Oct. 1. It also may not sign its own new contract with the Quebec government _ until Protestant demands on teaching workload are settled. In a recent statement the CEQ’s negotiation committee said the union will consult with all its members before taking such action — action that also might | involve financial support of the | English-language Protestant teachers. LONGSHOREMEN’S BATTLE io CONTINUES HALIFAX — The dispute at the Port of Halifax continued Sept. 30 as members of Local 269, inter- national Longshoremen’s Associa- — tion, voted by a 20% margin to _ reject a revised contract proposal submitted by their bargaining commitee and the Maritime Em- _ ployers’ Association. _ The port has been closed since Aug. 8 when the MEA locked out the stevedores after an earlier re- | jection of a proposed. agreement. The men are strongly opposed to changes the MEA wants in long: established work dispatch rules. ST. JOHN, N.B. — Over 250 angry workers gathered outside a la hotel here Sept. 23 to protest the Trudeau government’s wage-cutting) — “Anti-Inflation Program”. The demonstration was one ofa number which followed the P.M. as he toured the Maritime provinces trying to both lift the sagging fortunes of the Liberal Party and push his monopoly-backed wage controls.